Given the huge amount of paperwork in the prosecution case at the ongoing November 13th 2015 terror attacks trial in Paris - 542 volumes and a million pages – you would imagine that just about everything was already known about who carried out these atrocities, both those in the dock and those who escaped justice. But evidence given at the Paris trial on Tuesday 9th and Thursday 18th November last November changed that.
At the time investigators from France's domestic security agency, the DGSI, were giving evidence at the special criminal court about Islamic State, the cell within that organisation that planned the attacks from its base in Raqqa in Syria, and the background to some of the people involved.
Some of the relatives of victims of the attacks started to get lost in the blizzard of war pseudonyms and different names of fighting units as the anonymous agents gave their evidence by video link, hidden behind a screen. This mass of information was certainly hard to digest, even though it already all featured in the case. Then, suddenly, during the DGSI evidence it was stated that the main ringleader behind the November 2015 attacks had been present a year earlier when the American hostage James Foley had been executed. And we discovered that 'Jihadi John', Islamic State's notorious British executioner, had been involved in a plan to attack France in 2014. This was new information that had not emerged before.
Was this information the result of intelligence work whose sources would never be known? Or did the information come from some of the war evidence gathered by the American army that France's anti-terrorist prosecutors produce at every terror-related trial? It turned out to be neither. Instead, it soon emerged that 'The Beatles' had been speaking.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
'The Beatles' is the name that was given to a group of British jihadists because of their distinctive London accents, four men who are accused of carrying out some of the worst atrocities of a self-styled caliphate that was built on blood. The most notorious of them, the aforementioned 'Jihadi John' – real name Mohammed Emwazi – is dead, while another, Aine Davis, is languishing in a Turkish prison. It is the two remaining ones, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who are about to face trial at a court in Virginia in the United States, who have proved very talkative in custody.
Today, after two months of investigations, Mediapart can reveal the contents of their interrogations by American intelligence agents and also of the plea-bargain agreement that Kotey signed in September 2021 with the US Department of Justice admitting his involvement in the deaths of hostages, as well as the evidence given by Aine Davis at a court in Silivri in Turkey.
Though much of their grim saga is already known – Kotey and Elsheikh have given several interviews to English-language media since they were captured by the Kurds – some information had still not been made public. In particular 'The Beatles' have now identified the leaders who orchestrated the capture then liberation – in return for ransoms – of Western hostages in 2014, including the four French journalists Édouard Elias, Didier François, Nicolas Hénin and Pierre Torres. Those leaders turned out to be the same IS bosses who planned the November 13th Paris attacks in 2015.
These revelations highlight what has been suspected for several years: that the criminal minds who sent fighters to terrorise the streets of Paris on November 13th 2015 had previously held France to ransom.
Enlargement : Illustration 2
At the start of January 2014 a coalition of rebel groups, incensed at Islamic State's barbarity, had chased their former allies out of Aleppo and the west of Syria. In a rushed retreat the IS jihadists fell back on its stronghold in Raqqa. But they did not take their hostages with them. On January 25th IS's 30 or so Western hostages were taken five kilometres further to an upmarket home situated between a swimming pool and a cemetery on the banks of the River Euphrates. This location explained the name that the hostages gave to their new prison: 'Riverside'.
Once they had arrived the hostages were visited by a man of Middle Eastern appearance with a round face who wore a huge gold watch and sported more rings than he had fingers. Some of them had already come across this man and had nicknamed him 'Number One' or 'Abu Golden Watch'. He was 'The Beatles'' superior, the man who had planned the hostage-taking campaign. Accompanying him was a man called Abu Ahmed al-Iraqi, who operated as translator when Number One wanted to speak with the French hostages.
'The Beatles', who had followed their leaders across Syria, were present too. Jihadi John was in charge of organising proof of life to show that the hostages were still alive. With his friends Kotey and Elsheikh he asked the hostages for email addresses so he could contact their families. It was clear that the negotiation process needed to be restarted. This was doubtless because Islamic State had a pressing need for funds before they set off to reconquer their lost lands.
The state doesn't pay ransoms!
These negotiations were to prove productive. Between March and June 2014 fifteen Western hostages were freed for an average price of two million euros each, according to the evidence of former hostages and their families gathered by The New York Times. Citing sources “close” to NATO in Brussels, the German weekly publication Focus stated that France had paid 18 million dollars – around 13 million euros – to Islamic State.
On Friday April 18th 2014 Alexanda Kotey took four handcuffed and blindfolded French hostages in the backs of two vehicles and drove to the Turkish border. Two days later the liberated journalists were welcomed on the tarmac of Villacoublay military airport, south-west of Paris, by French president François Hollande who declared: “The state doesn't pay ransoms!” This was a line that had been used before by his predecessors at the Élysée, in order not to encourage terrorists to kidnap French nationals.
However, it was a line that was contradicted by the facts: in the end Islamic State kept hold of and then executed only those hostages from countries who refused to pay ransoms, mainly the Americans and the British. Moreover, just before their liberation the French hostages had heard complaints from 'The Beatles' that 4,000 banknotes from the ransom were damaged. One former hostage said this led to an anti-Semitic outburst from Jihadi John who declared: “We're not going to be like Jews, we're going to stick to the deal!”
Former president François Hollande did not respond to Mediapart's questions about the release of the French hostages. Meanwhile a former senior official in French intelligence declined to comment about whether the Islamic State leaders who took the French hostages and demanded ransoms were the same as those who ordered the Paris attacks, citing official secrecy.
When interrogated by American intelligence, El Shafee Elsheikh confirmed that for the terrorists “the negotiations were carried out at the highest level”, according to a report of his interrogation seen by Mediapart. Elsheikh went further and detailed the chain of command involved in the handling of the hostages. When he was questioned on this issue Alexanda Koyet gave the same names and ascribed them the same responsibilities.
According to both men it was Abu Lôqman, the all-powerful head of AMNI, Islamic State's own secret service, who was in charge of the hostages; he was the man whom the hostages had dubbed 'Number One' or 'Abu Golden Watch'. Elsheikh and Kotey reported to Jihadi John who himself reported to “The Beatles' emir” Abu Ahmed al-Iraqi. Abu Ahmed al-Iraqi was deputy to Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, Islamic State's spokesperson. It was Al-Adnani who determined the policy regarding the hostages. According to Elsheikh the main aim of the kidnappings was to negotiate for ransoms in order to fund the terrorist organisation. But after June 2014 and the capture of Mosul in Iraq, which led to IS acquiring major stocks of weapons and funds, al-Adnani apparently took the decision to execute the Anglophone hostages “for propaganda purposes”.
Finally, the head of IS's media operations, Abu Muhammad al-Furqan, also had access to the hostages. Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, Abu Lôqman and Abu Muhammad al-Furqan were three of the five members of the Lajna Al Moufawada, a kind of ministerial council within Islamic State. Most importantly, Elsheikh and Kotey both formally identified Abu Lôqman and Abu Ahmed al-Iraqi by their real rather than their war names.
Enlargement : Illustration 3
Abu Lôqman, the man who sported a large gold watch on his wrist and whom 'The Beatles' respectfully called 'Sheikh' and whom the hostages dubbed 'Number One', loved sweets, assault rifles and torture. The kidnappings, it seems, were his idea; once he had gathered his collection of hostages he hoped to make a hundred million euros in ransom. A graduate from the military academy in Homs in Syria, Ali Musa al-Shawakh - Abu Lôqman's real name – was a former law lecturer and lawyer whose role in the heart of Islamic State was highlighted by Mediapart in March 2016. He was a lieutenant in Syrian military intelligence before being radicalised and becoming close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , the founder of the Al Qaeda branch in Iraq. As the French daily Libération revealed, it was Abu Lôqman who took part in a meeting in December 2014 with local businessmen seeking to secure around ten million dollars of revenue for IS from a Lafarge cement factory in Syria that had been seized by the terrorist organisation.
As for Abu Ahmed al-Iraqi, whom the hostages said wore glasses – a different pair every day – and hid from them the fact that he spoke French, Elsheikh and Kotey both recognised him from a photo. Elsheikh also confirmed his real identity was Oussama Atar (see Mediapart's article on him in 2016 here).
Atar is a Belgian national and veteran of jihad in Iraq. Back in February 2005 he had been arrested for having photographed an American air base, sentenced to ten years in prison by an Iraqi court, and then incarcerated at Abu Ghraib prison and Camp Bucca. Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was imprisoned there at the same time. According to Elsheikh and Kotey, it was because of this shared experience that al-Adnani had put Oussama Atar in charge of 'The Beatles' when the Britons were looking after the hostages.
At the 2015 Paris attack trial, which began last September, Oussama Atar is being tried in his absence – he is presumed dead. The charges against him include “heading a terrorist organisation” and he would face a sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. In 2015 his old friend al-Adnani is said to have placed Atar at the head of the external operations unit from which he oversaw the attacks in Paris and Brussels.
El Shafee Elsheikh, who describes Atar as “someone extremely discreet, who doesn't like to be seen and known”, confirmed the latter's involvement in preparing attacks outside the caliphate. Alexanda Kotey said he had deduced Atar's involvement in the Brussels attacks in 2016 from the close attention with which he followed them.
Enlargement : Illustration 4
While the Syrian Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was never placed under investigation in relation to the November 2015 attacks, there is no doubt about his involvement in them. It was he who, in a message broadcast on September 22nd 2014, launched the campaign of attacks against the West with the words: “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be. …” This obsession with France was confirmed in the following months, in particular on March 12th 2015 when he announced that France was a priority objective among the Western countries.
As for Abu Lôqman, several jihadists said he was in charge of plans for attacks aimed at French-speaking and English-speaking countries between 2014 and 2016. Lôqman had also housed several members of the future November 2015 cell and their families in an upmarket area of Mosul just before they left for Europe. When investigators from the DGSI had the opportunity to question the widow of one of Lôqman's underlings, they asked her: “Do you think or do you know if Abu Lôqman could have been the instigator of the attacks in Paris?”
The woman, who in fact was the widow of not one but two members of the jihadist secret service, AMNI, that Abu Lôqman ran, replied: “I don't know but I strongly believe that [AMNI] played a role.”
A declassified report dated November 19th 2015 from France's overseas intelligence agency, the DGSE, shows that they regarded Mohammed Emwaz – alias Jihadi John – as the “operational manager” of the terrorists' overseas operations unit, along with Paris attacks leader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, in charge of training future terrorists and monitoring them once they were on the ground.
In February 2018, on the same day as it was writing a report about the arrest of Elsheikh and Kotey, the domestic intelligence agency the DGSI was producing another note relating to intelligence that came as a result of “international cooperation”. This report explained that Jihadi John was an intermediary “between the suicide volunteers and those instigating the attacks”. It was later learnt that Jihadi John had reportedly recruited the Swede Osama Krayem - one of the accused at the current trial in Paris - to be part of the unit that would carry out the attacks in Paris and Brussels. Before being sent to Europe Krayem is said to have met Al-Adnani, Atar and Jihadi John. These were the very same people who managed the hostages, in addition to Abu Lôqman.
These senior IS figures would go on to suffer similar fates though at different times. On November 12th 2015 Jihadi John was the victim of a drone strike as he left his home in Raqqa. The following year, on August 30th 2016 Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was killed by an air strike near al-Bab in Syria where he had come to bolster the morale of his troops after they had suffered several defeats. On April 17th 2018 Abu Lôqman is also reported to have been the victim of American bombing while taking part in a meeting of several IS leaders near a Syrian village.
A few months earlier, on November 17th 2017, almost two years to the day after the bloody attacks in Paris, Oussama Atar, who had been made emir of the more remote IS provinces, and then deputy of the Diwan al-Jund or soldiers department, had himself been “neutralised” by a drone strike. El Shafee Elsheikh claimed to his American interrogators that he had “seen a photo of his remains”.
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- This is the first of two articles on what 'The Beatles' have revealed while in custody in the United States; the second is here. The original in French can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter