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Qaeda's plan to ATTACK Europe found inside porn movie!

Last updated on: May 2, 2012 08:21 IST
A woman offers prayers at a wreath laid in memory of the victims of the November 26, 2008 attacks in Mumbai

Al Qaeda was plotting to carry out audacious terror attacks in Europe similar to the 26/11 Mumbai strikes, a "treasure trove" of documents embedded inside a porn movie seized from a terrorist returning from Pakistan has revealed.

The Al Qaeda plots were found encoded inside a movie stored in a digital disk, after police arrested 22-year-old Austrian Maqsood Lodin in Berlin last year.

He had returned from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then travelled overland to Germany, CNN reported.

The interrogators found the digital storage device and memory cards hidden in his underpants.

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A treasure trove of intelligence

Last updated on: May 2, 2012 08:21 IST
A student with a painted face participates in a peace rally in Mumbai

Inside them was a pornographic video called Kick Ass and a file marked Sexy Tanja, the TV channel reported.

After several weeks of laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence -- more than 100 Al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group's most audacious plots and a road map for future operations.

Claiming that the documents uncovered are "pure gold", US intelligence sources told CNN that they are the most important haul of Al Qaeda material in the last year, besides those found when US Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a year ago and killed the Al Qaeda leader.

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Documents from Al Qaeda's inner core

Last updated on: May 2, 2012 08:21 IST
German policemen patrol with bulletproof vests and weapons at Berlin's Tegel airport

The future plots included the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai in November 2008.

In the fall of 2010, a year after the document was written, European intelligence agencies were scrambling to investigate a Mumbai-style plot involving German and other European militants, which sparked an unprecedented US State Department travel warning for Americans in Europe.

One of the documents, called 'Future Works', US intelligence officials believe, came from Al Qaeda's inner core. It may have been the work of Younis al Mauretani, a senior Al Qaeda operative until his capture by the Pakistani police in 2011.

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Qaeda's plan to ATTACK Europe found inside porn movie!

Last updated on: May 2, 2012 08:21 IST
A carnival float carries a large papier-mache figure of Osama bin Laden during the traditional Rose Monday carnival parade in Duesseldorf

The document appears to have been the product of discussions to find new targets and methods of attack. German investigators believe it was written in 2009 -- and that it remains the template for Al Qaeda's plans.

While 'Future Works' does not include dates or places, it appears to be a brainstorming exercise to seize the initiative and reinstate Al Qaeda on front pages around the world, the report said.

Lodin and a man called Yusuf Ocak, who allegedly travelled back to Europe with him, are now on trial in Berlin where they are pleading not guilty. Ocak was detained in Vienna two weeks after Lodin's arrest.

Prosecutors believe that Lodin and Ocak met at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan's tribal areas and were sent back to Europe to recruit a network of suicide bombers.

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