The guys around the scuba school laughingly called them the “Al Qaeda Diving Team.” But for law enforcement officials, it was no joke. Late last year, Dutch counter-terrorism agents investigating a possible Al Qaeda recruitment cell grew interested in the school because a man suspected of recruiting terrorists had become a certified diver and studied to be an instructor there. Iraqi-born Kasim Ali was one of between 50 and 150 Muslim men who had taken classes in recent years with the same Tunisian instructor at the school in the city of Eindhoven, about 70 miles southeast of Amsterdam. The student roster in Eindhoven heightened fears among investigators. In the past, captured Al Qaeda operatives have talked about plans to use scuba divers in attacks. As a result, the FBI did a canvass of dive shops and schools in the United States last year. Investigators worry that Al Qaeda-trained divers could plant explosives on the hulls of ships, act as seagoing suicide bombers or sneak aboard vessels and commandeer them for attacks. Full Story
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