Switzerland: Terrorist plot to shoot down Israeli plane

This story seems to have it all: A plot to blow up a plane by two immigrants from Algeria and Libya, a secret service agent turning on his handlers. And of course - no arrests. Apparently the Swiss agree with the Dutch and will only arrest terrorists once they're fully ready to commit a terror attack (though I wonder why after a week the coast was clear again..)

A plot to blow up an El Al plane at Geneva's international airport has been thwarted. Swiss intelligence agencies uncovered a terrorist cell last December that plotted to strike an Israeli plane while it was taking off through an RPG rocket attack in December 2005.

The plot to shoot the plane was uncovered by Claude Kuvasi, a Swiss secret service member who worked under the codename Babylon. Swiss newspaper Blick reported that Kuvasi was planted as an undercover agent in an Islamic center in Geneva to find out if a terror cell was operating in it. In order to encourage the trust of the head of the Islamic center, Hani Ramadan, Kuvasi converted to Islam.

According to reports, one of the operatives of the centers told the agent, who was dining with him, that he was a member of a cell planning to blow up an El Al plane. Phone taps carried out by the Swiss agent found that the terrorist cell was made up of an Algerian immigrant, 40, named Assam, and a Libyan immigrant, 34, named Adar.

Although the two lived in the Zurich area they planned on blowing up the Israeli plane in Geneva, due to the fact that the airport and its takeoff pad can be viewed with ease from surrounding mountains.

Kuvasi gave a warning about the terrorist attack to his handlers on December 12, 2005.

Following the intelligence, local security forces carried out a check around the airport to see how tangible the threat was. The warning was also given to the Swiss police, but as far as is known, no suspects in the organization were arrested. The Swiss reached the conclusion that the plan was not ripe enough for a real organized operation.

According to reports from Europe, El Al, which runs three flights a week on the Tel Aviv – Geneva route, did not take any chances, and moved to the Zurich airport for a week. El Al did not respond to the episode and said it does not discuss security matters with the media.

The episode was kept secret for six months, until the Swiss agent exposed it on his own. Kuvasi, who became closer to the head of the Islamic center in Geneva, Hani Ramadan, feared that his new friend will face complications due to the fact that some of his students planned a terror attack. Kuvasi wrote a letter to Ramdadan saying his conscience guided him and he was therefore obligated to reveal how Swiss intelligence spied on him.

Source: Ynet (English)