At trial of attacks of 13-November, garbagers, computer and plan of terror

In a computer used by terrorists, the investigators found the detailed plan of attacks. But also some curiosities: Sacha Guitry movies and a video capture of “Cyrano de Bergerac”.

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March 22, 2016 In the early morning, a pickup truck passes in front of Max-Roos Street in Brussels. Before removing a trash bag, the schemers undertake to explore the content. Inside, they find a computer, they decide to save the bucket. A few kilometers away, shortly before 8 hours, two terrorists are exploded at Zaven’s Brussels airport. The attack is sixteen dead.

When the Brussels Clean Truck returns to the neighborhood at the end of the morning, Max Roos Street is curly. A taxi driver has indicated the police the address of the kamikazes and searches are in progress. The garbagers are made of a doubt and inspect the computer. The wallpaper is displayed: a photo of seven cottage men posing in front of the flag of the Islamic State organization. They immediately give the machine to a Belgian policeman.

It is thus that one of the most spectacular discoveries of the survey on the attacks of 13-November and those of Brussels escaped the destruction.

Inside this computer, among hundreds of erased files, the investigators managed to reconstruct the tree of a file entitled “13 November”, detailing by the menu the attacks plan. The circumstances of this discovery, which are not included in the French instructional file, had remained confidential until a Belgian investigator unveils them before the Special Assize Court of Paris, Wednesday, March 23rd.

The Bataclan, the first target of terrorists?

The trial of 13-November has just opened one of its last chapters devoted to the development of these attacks, that of the preparations between the 7th and 13th of November 2015. The file discovered in the trash of Max. -Roos is one of the vault keys: it allows to date the finalization of the project and to understand the initial plans.

This file tree had been removed from the computer, which was also equipped with TrueCrypt encryption software. It has been reconstituted “from the consultation history”, explains the investigator. Only file names are accessible, not their contents. This technical data will not be seen, is not without effect on the interpretation of other files a priori less sensitive found on the hard drive: a video capture of Cyrano de Bergerac, the part of Edmond Rostand, and three classics French cinema.

First teaching of the attack tree: The project was finalized very late. The file “13 November” was created on November 7, 2015, only six days before the attacks. It consists of five subfolders created three days later: “Omar” group, which corresponds to the commando of the terraces, led by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, aka abou Omar; “French group”, which contains a “bataclan.jpg” image file; “Iraqi group”, which refers to the commando of the Stade de France; “Schiphol Group”, which seems to describe a bombing project at Schiphol Airport of Amsterdam; And, finally, “metro group”.

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/Media reports.