Title: Haroon Rashid Aswat
Description: Featuring Babar Ahmad
Description: Featuring Babar Ahmad
Kier - February 8, 2006 12:51 PM (GMT)
On July 29th, John Loftus, a terrorism expert and former federal prosecutor, appeared on Fox News and revealed that Haroon Rashid Aswat, the suspect wanted by British Police for 'masterminding' the July 7th London bombings and July 21st attempted bombings is in fact an asset of MI6, the British Secret Service. According to Loftus, Aswat has been under the protection of MI6 for many years.
| QUOTE |
| MIKE JERRICK [FOX NEWS]: John Loftus is a terrorism expert and a former prosecutor for the Justice Department. John, good to see you again. So real quickly here, have you heard anything about this Osman Hussain who was just picked up in Rome? You know that name at all? JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, all these guys should be going back to an organization called Al-Muhajiroun, which means The Emigrants. It was the recruiting arm of Al-Qaeda in London; they specialized in recruiting kids whose families had emigrated to Britain but who had British passports. And they would use them for terrorist work. JERRICK: So a couple of them now have Somali connections? LOFTUS: Yeah, it was not unusual. Somalia, Eritrea, the first group of course were primarily Pakistani. But what they had in common was they were all emigrant groups in Britain, recruited by this Al-Muhajiroun group. They were headed by the, Captain Hook, the imam in London the Finsbury Mosque, without the arm. He was the head of that organization. Now his assistant was a guy named Aswat, Haroon Rashid Aswat. JERRICK: Aswat, who they picked up. LOFTUS: Right, Aswat is believed to be the mastermind of all the bombings in London. JERRICK: On 7/7 and 7/21, this is the guy we think. LOFTUS: This is the guy, and what's really embarrassing is that the entire British police are out chasing him, and one wing of the British government, MI6 or the British Secret Service, has been hiding him. And this has been a real source of contention between the CIA, the Justice Department, and Britain. JERRICK: MI6 has been hiding him. Are you saying that he has been working for them? LOFTUS: Oh I'm not saying it. This is what the Muslim sheik said in an interview in a British newspaper back in 2001. JERRICK: So he's a double agent, or was? LOFTUS: He's a double agent. JERRICK: So he's working for the Brits to try to give them information about Al-Qaeda, but in reality he's still an Al-Qaeda operative. LOFTUS: Yeah. The CIA and the Israelis all accused MI 6 of letting all these terrorists live in London not because they're getting Al-Qaeda information, but for appeasement. It was one of those you leave us alone, we leave you alone kind of things. JERRICK: Well we left him alone too long then. LOFTUS: Absolutely. Now we knew about this guy Aswat. Back in 1999 he came to America. The Justice Department wanted to indict him in Seattle because him and his buddy were trying to set up a terrorist training school in Oregon. JERRICK: So they indicted his buddy, right? But why didn't they indict him? LOFTUS: Well it comes out, we've just learned that the headquarters of the US Justice Department ordered the Seattle prosecutors not to touch Aswat. JERRICK: Hello? Now hold on, why? LOFTUS: Well, apparently Aswat was working for British intelligence. Now Aswat's boss, the one-armed Captain Hook, he gets indicted two years later. So the guy above him and below him get indicted, but not Aswat. Now there's a split of opinion within US intelligence. Some people say that the British intelligence fibbed to us. They told us that Aswat was dead, and that's why the New York group dropped the case. That's not what most of the Justice Department thinks. They think that it was just again covering up for this very publicly affiliated guy with Al-Muhajiroun. He was a British intelligence plant. So all of a sudden he disappears. He's in South Africa. We think he's dead; we don't know he's down there. Last month the South African Secret Service come across the guy. He's alive. JERRICK: Yeah, now the CIA says, oh he's alive. Our CIA says OK let's arrest him. But the Brits say no again? LOTFUS: The Brits say no. Now at this point, two weeks ago, the Brits know that the CIA wants to get a hold of Haroon. So what happens? He takes off again, goes right to London. He isn't arrested when he lands, he isn't arrested when he leaves. JERRICK: Even though he's on a watch list. LOFTUS: He's on the watch list.The only reason he could get away with that was if he was working for British intelligence. He was a wanted man. JERRICK: And then takes off the day before the bombings, I understand it-- LOFTUS: And goes to Pakistan. JERRICK: And Pakistan, they jail him. LOFTUS: The Pakistanis arrest him. They jail him. He's released within 24 hours. Back to Southern Africa, goes to Zimbabwe and is arrested in Zambia. Now the US-- JERRICK: Trying to get across the-- LOFTUS: --we're trying to get our hands on this guy. JERRICK: John, hang around. I have so many questions now. LOFTUS: Oh, this is a bad one.... [commercial break] JERRICK: On the phone with us, Mansoor Ijaz; Mansoor you know very well here at Fox News Channel and Dayside. Mansoor, real quickly here, you spent so much time in London, you're probably not that as impressed as I am about how fast Scotland Yard has worked on this case. So impressive, so successful. Why? MANSOOR IJAZ: Well there are two things that a lot of domestic intelligence agencies don't around the world. One is an extraordinarily detailed database of information, and that database is buttressed by the fact that they have these photos, the graphic images of the faces of the people that they were looking for. So it saved them a lot of time when they got the forensic evidence, like fingerprints or other things that indicated where they could actually go find these people. Because remember, there was a lot of data left on the stuff these guys left behind from the failed bombing attack, and that's what helped to really unravel the cell. Now-- JERRICK: I guess--go ahead, Mansoor. IJAZ: Now I think there's one very important thing that I think everybody needs to know. And that is that the cellular structure that this new breed of Al-Qaeda people have is such that there is not a clear indication that they all knew each other as much as it is that they had some sort of central control still sitting outside of the framework. Whether that's in a foreign country or a place that is removed from Britain and other place in Europe, that's what we're still looking for. But it's very clear now that these cellular structures were operating independent of each other, but with knowledge that something else was in fact planned in the pipeline. JERRICK: Real quick, Mansoor. In that regard, maybe a ringleader could be this Haroon Aswat. What do you know about him? IJAZ: Well, he's a pretty bad guy, and I think your previous guest gave the best assessment of who he is. He's the right hand man of the Al-Muhajiroun leader in London, and has been organizing and planning for some time. And I don't want to minimize the effect of the arrest in Rome, because what that indicates is that the cellular structure is elsewhere and we all know that Italy is a big target on their list. JERRICK: OK, speaking of him, back to the comments by our John Loftus a little while ago. A question from the audience for you, John. Go ahead. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi Mr Loftus. I recently read a book by Morris Dees called The Gathering Storm , and it talks about extremist militia groups in the United States and how they might be manipulated by some people's rhetoric, very similar to Aswat in London. What do you think the US is doing to prevent terrorist attacks on our own soil that happen-- JERRICK: You're worried about it here? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, sir. LOFTUS: The US government's doing a great job. We arrested the New York branch of Al-Muhajiroun two years ago. We found the subway bombers with the plans to blow up two different subway stations in New York City. The rest of the group is under surveillance. But the US was used by Al-Muhajiroun for training of people to send to Kosovo. What ties all these cells together was, back in the late 1990s, the leaders all worked for British intelligence in Kosovo. Believe it or not, British intelligence actually hired some Al-Qaeda guys to help defend the Muslim rights in Albania and in Kosovo. That's when Al-Muhajiroun got started. IJAZ: Which is by the way why we know so much about them right now. LOFTUS: Yes, I'm afraid so. The CIA was funding the operation to defend the Muslims, British intelligence was doing the hiring and recruiting. Now we have a lot of detail on this because Captain Hook, the head of Al-Muhajiroun, he sidekick was Bakri Mohammed, another cleric. And back on October 16, 2001, he gave a detailed interview with al-Sharq al-Aswat, an Arabic newspaper in London, describing the relationship between British intelligence and the operations in Kosovo and Al-Muhajiroun. So that's how we get all these guys connected. It started in Kosovo, Haroon was 31 years old, he came on about 1995. |
Double Agent for MI6?
Loftus story confirmed
MI6 recruited Al-Muhajiroun terrorists
What Loftus says also seems to be backed up by these contradictory reports that Aswat was arrested in Pakistan - even describing what he was wearing.
The Guardian
Except he wasn't arrested at all. And nor was anyone else.
Aswat was later arrested in Zambia and brought to London - although he allegedly led them a little dance first.
He's now allegedly cooling his heels in Belmarsh (Source), fighting extradition (Source).
More on Aswat here, here and here.
Kier - February 10, 2006 11:02 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| US eager to start extradition process Edward Fitzgerald, QC, Abu Hamza’s lawyer, said that his client would contest efforts to extradite him. Mr Fitzgerald said that he would not receive a fair trial in the US and feared that he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay. Haroon Rashid Aswat, one of Abu Hamza’s most trusted lieutenants, is also fighting extradition on the same indictment. Mr Aswat, from Dewsbury, North Yorkshire, was arrested in Zambia a month after the July 7 bombings and deported to London. His name had been circulated around the world in connection with the bombings because it was believed that he knew Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the July 7 gang, who was also from Dewsbury. But Mr Aswat has not been charged in connection with the July attacks. The Times |
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| Hamza 'brainwashed our boy' claim family Al-Qaida suspect Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, who grew up in Dewsbury, has also been linked by security sources to Abu Hamza. Aswat, arrested in Zambia and brought to the UK, is accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in the US and two days ago lost the first round of his battle against extradition to the US. Leeds Today |
The Antagonist - March 1, 2006 01:14 AM (GMT)
OK, I think this is where it gets interesting as this article hints at a number of interesting international links to the man that was alleged to have masterminded the whole operation:
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| The Sunday Times July 31, 2005 Tangled web that still leaves worrying loose ends The arrest of Haroon Rashid Aswat sets numerous questions, say Richard Woods, David Leppard and Mick Smith Three weeks after the first London bombings, British and American security sources are giving markedly different versions of how much was known about the bombers before the attacks and who masterminded them. According to US intelligence sources, a man now being held in Zambia is Haroon Rashid Aswat, a Briton of Indian origin who has links to a convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist. They believe he assisted or masterminded the London attacks. But British investigators, examining whether telephone calls were made between the London bombers and Aswat before the attacks of 7/7, caution that the calls may have been made to a phone linked to Aswat, rather than the man himself. Some of the mobile phones used by the 7/7 bombers have been recovered from the scenes of the explosions. Even though they are badly damaged, forensic telecommunications experts have had some success in recovering vital data relating to outgoing calls, text messages and voice mail. Those details are allowing investigators to draw up a network of “concentric circles” around the four dead men, an exercise that has already led them to identify some of those who may have helped the bombers. This weekend it appears that several calls from Aswat’s mobile telephone were made to the bombers in the days before the attacks. It is likely that the American National Security Agency — which has a powerful eavesdropping network — was monitoring the calls. If contacts between the bombers and Aswat are proved, it could be a painful blow for British security officials. In the weeks before the attacks Aswat, according to American officials, was under surveillance in South Africa and US authorities wanted to arrest him for questioning. The South Africans are believed to have relayed the request to British authorities who were reluctant to agree to him being seized because of his status as a British citizen. The US, it is claimed, wanted to take control of Aswat using a process known as “extraordinary rendition”, which would bypass the normal extradition process and may have resulted in him being flown to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or a country that allows torture. However, questions are also being asked about whether the British did not wish to have Aswat arrested because he was seen as a useful source of information. To some, British intelligence is too willing to let terrorist suspects run in the hope of gathering useful leads and other information. In the weeks before the London attacks a man said to be Aswat may have entered the UK, though British security officials think this may be a case of mistaken identity. What seems clearer is that he either slipped his surveillance or was allowed to move on from South Africa. He was seized in Zambia on July 21, according to the Foreign Office, the day the second wave of would-be suicide bombers struck. On Friday, British officials had yet to be granted access to him. As a potential mastermind of the London attacks, Aswat has connections and a past that are almost too neat a fit. Now 31, he was brought up in Dewsbury, near Leeds, where Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the London bombers, lived. He left the area 10 years ago and is believed to have travelled to training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is said to have told investigators in Zambia that he was once a bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden. When Aswat returned to Britain he attended the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, which was a hotbed of radicalism in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Reda Hassaine, an Algerian journalist who worked as an informant for the British and French security services, witnessed Aswat recruiting young men at the mosque to the cause of Al-Qaeda. “Inside the mosque he would sit with the new recruits telling them about life after death and the obligation of every Muslim to do the jihad against the unbelievers,” said Hassaine last week. “All the talk was about killing in order to go to paradise and get the 72 virgins.” Aswat also showed potential recruits videotapes of the mujaheddin in action in Bosnia and Chechnya. “He used to tell them look at your brothers, the mujaheddin. All of them are now in paradise living next to the prophet,” said Hassaine. “He was always wearing Afghan or combat clothes. In the evening he offered some tea to the people who would sit with him to listen to the heroic action of the mujaheddin before joining the cleric for the finishing touch of brainwashing. “The British didn’t seem to understand how dangerous these people were.” Among the extremists who attended the mosque were Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber”, and Asif Hanif, a British suicide bomber who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv bar in 2003 killing three others and injuring 60. While Aswat was closely connected with the Finsbury Park mosque, he was sent to America to meet a known Al-Qaeda activist. US investigators accuse him of being one of the “co-conspirators” of Earnest James Ujaama, who co-operated with US authorities after being charged in 2002 for planning to recruit and train jihadists in the US. Aswat is said by US investigators to have travelled from London to Oregon in November 1999 to meet Ujaama and scout out a potential jihad training “ranch”. In the end the conspirators did not proceed with it. There are other concerns. If Aswat knew the London bomber Khan, it would also link him to a group uncovered last year who allegedly were planning a large bomb attack. Under Operation Crevice, police arrested eight men after finding a large quantity of explosive material in a garage in west London. During that investigation, Khan’s name surfaced on the periphery, but he was deemed no threat and not pursued. Some US investigators now claim another name also surfaced during Operation Crevice: that of Germaine Maurice Lindsay. He became another of the 7/7 bombers — and US authorities claim he was also on a watch list of suspected terrorists when he caused carnage at King’s Cross. However, British security sources deny Lindsay’s name cropped up in Operation Crevice. And investigators say there is no hard evidence of what role, if any, Aswat played in the London attacks. Scotland Yard sources say he is not considered a priority in their criminal investigation into the July 7 and July 21 attacks. But senior Whitehall officials do not rule out the possibility there my be links to one or more of the bombers. “I don’t think the evidence is conclusive either way,” one official was reported as saying in the US. Senior Whitehall officials also deny “any knowledge” that he might be an agent for either MI5 or MI6. The differences between the US and British agencies are symptomatic of a simmering distrust. Leaving aside the differences over Aswat, some aspects of the attacks increasingly point to an organising mind beyond the immediate bombers. For five days after the first attacks, enough bomb-making material to kill scores of people sat in a car at Luton station before police discovered it. There was at least one completed explosive device and about 15 other items. That finding remains a worrying loose end in the investigation. Why would the four bombers, intent on killing themselves, leave behind so much material in a car for which they had bought a seven-day parking ticket? A number of hypotheses are possible. The bombers may have bought the parking ticket in order not to arouse suspicion, and they may have chosen not to carry all the explosives they had prepared. Another possibility is that the bombers were duped and had intended to return to their car. Were they told to plant their bombs in the belief they were timed to explode later than they did? Alternatively, was there a fifth bomber who dropped out at the last moment and abandoned his explosives and the car? Or was explosive material left behind deliberately for other terrorists to collect? Late last week, Scotland Yard was still refusing to say exactly what type of explosive was used in the 7/7 and 21/7 attacks on the grounds that doing so might prejudice its investigations. But experts believe both sets of bombers used home-made explosives concocted from readily available household products. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, warned that the 21/7 attackers were not “the B team”, despite the failure to detonate their bombs fully. “They made one mistake. We are very, very lucky.” Source: The Sunday Times |
The South African link is particularly interesting for anyone with even a cursory notion of what has gone on there in the past. For an even more curious SA link with 7/7, try the logo for the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging which popped back into the present courtesy of Nick Broomfields excellent documentary, His Big White Self, shown Feb 27th.
Kier - April 16, 2006 08:36 PM (GMT)
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| The Times July 21, 2005 Top al-Qaeda Briton called Tube bombers before attack By Zahid Hussain in Islamabad, Daniel McGrory and Sean O’Neill THE British al-Qaeda leader linked to the London terrorist attacks was being questioned by police in Pakistan last night after the discovery of mobile phone records detailing his calls with the suicide bombers. Haroon Rashid Aswat has emerged as the figure that Scotland Yard have been hunting since he flew out of Britain just hours before the attacks which killed 56 people. Aswat, 30, who is believed to come from the same West Yorkshire town as one of the bombers, arrived in Britain a fortnight before the attacks to orchestrate final planning for the atrocity. He spoke to the suicide team on his mobile phone a few hours before the four men blew themselves up and killed fifty-two other people. Intelligence sources told The Times that during his stay Aswat visited the home towns of all four bombers as well as selecting targets in London. Aswat has been known to Western intelligence services for more than three years after the FBI accused him of trying to set up al-Qaeda training camps in the US. When he was arrested in a madrassa (religious school), Aswat is understood to have been posing as a businessmen and using a false name. He was picked up in a raid at a madrassa at Sargodha, 90 miles from Islamabad, by Pakistani intelligence officials and flown to a jail in the capital. Security sources there told The Times that he was armed with a number of guns, wearing an explosive belt and carrying around £17,000 in cash. He had a British passport and was about to flee across the border to Afghanistan. Aswat, who is thought to have stayed in the madrassa with two of the British suicide bombers, is being questioned over claims that one — Mohammad Sidique Khan — telephoned him on the morning of the July 7 attack. Intelligence sources claim that there were up to twenty calls between Aswat and two of the bombers in the days leading up to the bombing of three Tube trains and a double-decker bus. A senior Pakistani security source said: “We believe this man had a crucial part to play in what happened in London.” Tony Blair has telephoned President Musharraf about the crackdown on militants which has led to more than 200 arrests in Pakistan since the weekend. Officials in Islamabad say that eight men are directly linked to the London investigation, and were in telephone contact with Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Khan, 30, a former primary school assistant. Aswat is believed to have had a ten-year association with militant groups and met Osama bin Laden while attending an al-Qaeda training camp at Khalden in Afghanistan. FBI documents obtained by The Times reveal details of how a London-based cleric sent Aswat to America in 1999 to set up camps in Oregon for US-born recruits. The papers indicate that Aswat spent three months in America and engaged in firearms and poisons training but decided against using a remote ranch in Bly as an al-Qaeda camp. The CIA is keeping in close touch with Aswat’s interrogation and British detectives are seeking permission to speak to him. The FBI is to question a number of figures held in the US, including James Ujaama, an American convert to Islam who met Aswat, and a second al-Qaeda emissary in Seattle. Ujaama has pleaded guilty to assisting the Taleban and is now a “co-operating witness” who has given details of Aswat’s activities in the US. Aswat flew into New York on November 26, 1999, on an Air India flight with Oussama Abdullah Kassir, who has Swedish nationality. Kassir, 38, described himself as “a hitman for Osama bin Laden” and claimed to have fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Ujaama drove the pair to the ranch but they complained that it did not have the facilities — especially barracks for otential recruits — that they had been led to believe existed. During November and December 1999, Aswat and Kassir met potential candidates for jihad training. The FBI document details how they secured the Bly property with guard patrols and passwords and they and others received training in firearms and “improvised poisons”. Aswat and Kassir were still in the United States in February 2000. They were living in Seattle where they “expounded the writings and teachings” of their London-based mentor in lectures to young Muslims at a city mosque. Kassir also provided what the FBI described as “urban tactical training”. In 2002, an associate of Kassir was arrested in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, attempting to board a flight to London carrying a revolver. Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, was jailed for ten months in November 2003 for possessing illegal weapons at his home in Stockholm. Charges that he was planning a terrorist attack were dropped. Source |
The Antagonist - September 29, 2006 02:00 PM (GMT)
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| The Times January 06, 2006 Al-Qaeda suspect fears torture after extradition order By Daniel McGrory A BRITISH al-Qaeda suspect told a judge who ordered his extradition to the United States on terror charges yesterday that he fears he will be sent to Guantanamo Bay and tortured. Lawyers for Haroon Rashid Aswat, who was brought up in Yorkshire, said that they would appeal against the ruling, which could delay any decision on his removal for many months. The FBI claims that the former street-market trader tried to set up a terrorist training camp in the backwoods of Oregon for US and British recruits before the attacks on September 11, 2001. When he was arrested in Zambia last July he reportedly told his captors that he was once a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. He claimed to have met the al-Qaeda leader during his time at a camp in the mountains of Afghanistan where he became an expert in combat training. US officials told earlier hearings in London that on his trip to Oregon in 1999 Mr Aswat brought CD-Roms with him containing instructions for using explosives and poisons. The plan was to set up the camp in the town of Bly, which has a population of only 500, but Mr Aswat reportedly found the 160-acre Dog Cry Ranch too dilapidated for his needs. He allegedly collaborated on the plan with a US computer expert, James Ujaama, who confessed his role in exchange for a reduction in his jail sentence to two years. Yesterday Mr Aswat was dressed all in black for his brief appearance in the dock at Bow Street. He was flanked by four prison officers as District Judge Timothy Workman read out his judgment. Mr Aswat’s barrister, Paul Bowen, said his client had asked him to say a few words emphasising that he has no links with terrorism. “He wants to say he is an innocent man, that he has nothing to hide and nothing to fear from a trial itself,” Mr Bowen said. He added: “What he fears is the process he faces in the United States.” Outside the court his solicitor, Gareth Peirce, described the ruling as outrageous and the charges against him as nonsense. She said: “The only witness against him in the United States was threatened that if he didn’t plead guilty and co-operate he would be put under military detention. “It shows the extent to which the United States is manipulating evidence and pressuring witnesses. All that is said about Haroon Aswat is that in 1999 he travelled to a farm in the US which was considering setting up a Muslim community and, after a few days, left. That’s it — that’s the evidence.” The judge said it was up to the US court to decide whether the evidence was admissible. Mr Workman added that he had received a diplomatic note from the US Embassy in London last month assuring the British Government that Mr Aswat would not be prosecuted as an enemy combatant. The note added that Mr Aswat will face a federal court and not a military commission which the US is threatening to use to try some of those held in Guantanamo Bay. Mr Workman said: “Whilst the note does not provide any personal protection to this defendant I am satisfied that it does bind the Government of the United States of America which in these terms includes the President.” Mr Aswat’s lawyers claimed the assurance was worthless. Ms Peirce described Mr Aswat as “a law-abiding man who has committed no crimes anywhere in the world and has a good family in Yorkshire”. His parents, who originally come from India but who haved lived in Batley for many years, say they lost touch with their son more than ten years ago after he became more extremist in his views and began to criticise their way of life. An appeal to the High Court by Mr Aswat’s lawyers will delay Charles Clarke’s decision on whether to extradite him. US authorities have criticised the time it takes for Britain to deal with such requests. Ministers have pledged to speed up the process but, since the September 11 attacks, the UK has extradited only one suspect on terror charges. Rachid Ramda was sent for trial in France after a ten-year legal battle." Source: The Times |
Bridget - September 29, 2006 02:22 PM (GMT)
See this story which claims Aswat's extradition hearing was at the same time as Babar Ahmad's.
Yet the counsel for both men is named in the BBC report as Edward Fitzgerald QC, who doesn't appear to be representing Aswat:
Yet the counsel for both men is named in the BBC report as Edward Fitzgerald QC, who doesn't appear to be representing Aswat:
| QUOTE |
| Recently, Edward Fitzgerald represented Babar Ahmed against a request for extradition by the United States for alleged terrorist activities (US v Babar Ahmed, unreported). This case raised significant questions about US extradition policies, the defence was predominantly based on the possibility of Mr Ahmed facing the Military Commission and being sentenced to the death penalty or incarceration in Guantanamo Bay if extradited to the US. |
freedomfiles - September 29, 2006 09:13 PM (GMT)
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| "The U.S. and UK trade in terrorism like it is some kind of off-the-shelf commodity." http://www.newcriminologist.co.uk/news.asp?id=-1677497717 http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/...e-commodity.txt (copy) Haroon Aswat…FBI agent threatens former USDA federal agent, now staff reporter for The New Criminologist. Published on 25 September 2005 | Author BERRY-DEE, Christopher. Haroon Aswat – the man British Police believe was behind the London bombings – was working for MI6, it has been confirmed by leading U.S. and French intelligence asset/agents. Now an FBI agent in Seattle – name removed for security reasons, but can be published at the drop of a hat – has demanded that former USDA federal agent, Dr Janette Parker, stop talking to the British media about how the FBI obstructed their own top terrorism investigator, John O’Neill in his enquiries. Dr Parker, who worked alongside O’Neill, although not in an official capacity’ is fearful of her life. “Janet is a highly-professional and honest person. She is very brave,” says Christopher Berry-Dee, publisher of TNC. “But, now the cat is out of the bag, and we have ensured that she will be protected by circulating her information to leading British newspapers and the media.” London Bombing ringleader, Haroon Rashid Aswat – double agent for MI6? |
The Antagonist - September 29, 2006 10:47 PM (GMT)
Seeing as this has 'expired' from the New Criminologist web site, here's a copy:
| QUOTE |
| London Bombing ringleader, Haroon Rashid Aswat – double agent for MI6? Christopher Berry-Dee – New Criminologist first published August 23, 2005 In a lengthy statement that will send shockwaves around the world, John Loftus, a terrorism expert and a former prosecutor for the US Justice Department, has publically revealed that the so called mastermind of the 7/7 London Bombings, Haroon Rashid Aswat, is a British ‘Intelligence Asset’. A TNC US-based source has sent us extraordinary fully verifiable information, along with a filmed interview during which Loftus makes his accusations. We are double-checking with our contact – a former long-time colleague of former FBI Counter Terrorism Special Agent and Al-Qaeda hunter, John O’Neill, who died in the 9/11 Twin Towers disaster. Former Justice Dept. prosecutor and terror expert, John Loftus, revealed that the so-called Al-Muhajiroun group, based in London had formed during the Kosovo crisis, during which Fundamentalist Muslim Leaders (Or what is now referred to as Al Qaeda) were recruited by MI6 to fight in Kosovo. Loftus stated that "...back in the late 1990s, the leaders all worked for British intelligence in Kosovo. Believe it or not, British intelligence actually hired some Al-Qaeda guys to help defend the Muslim rights in Albania and in Kosovo. That's when Al-Muhajiroun got started." In a blistering attack on MI6 John Loftus went on to spell out that British Intelligence and the US Dept of Justice had protected Haroon Rashid Aswat: "Back in 1999 he came to America. The Justice Department wanted to indict him in Seattle because him and his buddy were trying to set up a terrorist training school in Oregon... we've just learned that the headquarters of the US Justice Department ordered the Seattle prosecutors not to touch Aswat... apparently Aswat was working for British intelligence." This story has been around for some weeks, the TNC reports, but it has always been ‘dressed up’ as a slight ‘difference of opinion’ between the FBI and MI6, with the Home Office claiming that they have been reluctant to hand Aswat over to the US authorities because he is a British national. But, senior US intelligence officials are said to be fuming, claiming that everytime they got close to detaining Aswat, wherever he is in the world, he slips through the net. Loftus claims in an unprecedented attack on MI6 that this is startling and again highlights how Al Qaeda exists as an organized body only where the intelligence services have created, funded and employed it. Loftus points out that several weeks before the London Bombings, Aswat was again located by the South African Intel agency but was again allowed to slip away, this time to London: "He was a British intelligence plant. So all of a sudden he disappears. He's in South Africa. We think he's dead; we don't know he's down there. Last month the South African Secret Service come across the guy. He's alive...the Brits know that the CIA wants to get a hold of Haroon. So what happens? He takes off again, goes right to London. He isn't arrested when he lands, he isn't arrested when he leaves... He's on the watch list. The only reason he could get away with that was if he was working for British intelligence. He was a wanted man." Loftus' information is also backed up by the New York Times and CNN who reported on this incident, however, the internet link to the London Independent’s article has mysteriously disappeared. If proven, the ramifications of John Loftus’s claims – and he is supported by many FBI agents – could be that the London bombings could have been prevented if Haroon Aswat had been taken into custody long ago. TNC’s US source writes: “It is now believed that British born Haroon Rashid Aswat was the brains behind the London attacks on July 7th in which 56 died and 700 were wounded. During the investigation of the London attacks the British police and American intelligence sources were able to determine that Aswat had received on his portable telephone a score of calls from the four suspects in the July 7th London attacks. The Times asserts that Aswat stated that he had been a bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden. This would have made him the 2nd highest- ranking Al Qaeda member in Britain. Haroon Rashid Aswat was an aide to the cleric, Abu Hamza Al-Masri. Abu Hamza was listed by USA intelligence sources as a suspected terrorist financier because of links to the Islamic Army of Aden, an Al Qaeda-associated group and the 2000 attack on the U.S. warship the USS Cole in Yemen. For 10 years Aswat had associated with militant Muslim groups and had been to Khalden, the Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Haroon Rashid Aswat is also known to have ties to South Africa and Johannesburg and suspected of involvement in planning the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. “Aswat had long been the object of US and British intelligence surveillance. Haroon Aswat had entered to Zambia on July 6, 2005. He was arrested on July 20, 2005 in Lusaka for "terrorist activities" and "infringements with the rules of immigration". Loftus added: “This is the guy [Aswat], and what's really embarrassing is that the entire British police are out chasing him, and one wing of the British government, MI6 or the British Secret Service, has been hiding him. And this has been a real source of contention between the CIA, the Justice Department, and Britain…he is a double agent. The CIA and the Israelis all accused MI6 of letting all these terrorists live in London not because they're getting Al-Qaeda information, but for appeasement. It was one of those you leave us alone, we leave you alone kind of things.” www.newcriminologist.co.uk/news.asp?id=1124824797 |
The Antagonist - September 29, 2006 10:54 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Bridget @ Sep 29 2006, 03:22 PM) | ||
| See this story which claims Aswat's extradition hearing was at the same time as Babar Ahmad's. Yet the counsel for both men is named in the BBC report as Edward Fitzgerald QC, who doesn't appear to be representing Aswat:
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Maybe it was McNabb associates who underyook the defence:
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| McNabb Associates is a global criminal defense law firm. It is considered by its peers as an experienced, top-tier firm, and is annually recognized as an AV-rated firm by Martindale-Hubbell. The firm's niche is best described by its slogan: "When the FBI Seeks Extradition…®" Its practice is limited to contentious criminal defense and international extradition cases where the FBI or other U.S. federal law enforcement agencies are seeking to arrest, extradite, or kidnap and imprison any person, located anywhere in the world, based on allegations that a U.S. federal criminal statute has been violated. Unlike most firms in the field, the firm does not handle cases within the civil arena, nor does it take court-appointed cases. While the firm's clients are fee-based, it believes that elite law firms have a social responsibility to provide high-quality pro bono services. When justice calls for top-tier representation in unique cases, members of the firm proudly offer pro bono representation. However, the firm is selective as to the clients it agrees to defend. This is true whether the client is fee-based or pro bono. Unlike most criminal defense attorneys, no member of McNabb Associates has ever prosecuted or investigated anyone on behalf of a governmental entity. Many of the firm's defense attorney colleagues are proud of their accomplishments as prosecutors who worked to put people in prison. Defense work requires a distinctive mindset. The firm is, has been, and shall forever remain 100% defense-oriented, placing checks on the power of the prosecution, and prying investigators; it is simply a matter of attitude. With over 40 years of experience, the firm has handled major cases in more than 85 cities across the globe and over 45 states in the U.S., appearing pro hac vice in no less than 50 jurisdictions. The firm's global practice has included cases in London, Kuwait, Athens, Warsaw, Amsterdam, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles. A member of the firm has recently testified in a London courtroom as an expert witness on international extradition and U.S. federal criminal law. Some of the firm's more prominent cases have included: defending the President of a major financial institution against financial fraud charges; representing a person accused of selling "super computers" used in nuclear weapons facilities to China; defending a person accused of stealing and attempting to sell a national treasure; representing a person implicated in a money laundering case involving more the US$100 million; defending a person accused of selling oil field equipment to Libya; and representing a high-interest national security asset in the post-9/11 environment. Within the last few years, members of the firm have been quoted in, or have appeared on, over 160 global print and broadcast media outlets as experts in transnational criminal defense, international extradition, and U.S. federal criminal law. A few of these include the BBC, The Sunday Times of London, Financial Times, the Toronto Star, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News- National. http://www.internationalextraditionblog.com/ |
numeral - November 30, 2006 01:05 PM (GMT)
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| UK pair lose US extradition fight Two UK men held on Afghanistan-related terror charges have lost their legal fight to avoid extradition to the US. Babar Ahmad, 32, from Tooting, south-west London is accused of running websites inciting murder, urging holy war and raising money for the Taleban. Haroon Aswat, from Yorkshire, is accused of plotting to set up a terror camp to train fighters for Afghanistan. The men said they risked mistreatment by the US, but High Court judges said these claims were not proven. 'Spirit of the letter' Lord Justice Laws, sitting in London with Mr Justice Walker, said the men's legal team had not proved to a required standard their allegations that the US might violate undertakings given to the UK that the men would be fairly treated. He said the court was "acting on the faith that the United States will be true to the spirit and the letter" of diplomatic exchanges with the UK government and obligations under the 1972 UK - USA Extradition Treaty. Lawyers for the two men say they hope to appeal to the House of Lords to argue over two points of law surrounding the extradition decision. They argued against the use of diplomatic letters as a basis for guaranteeing human rights, and to raise concern over US military detention and "rendition" of suspects to third countries for questioning. "This is extreme public importance, not just in this country," said human rights solicitor Gareth Peirce. The judges said they would take time to consider whether both men should be allowed to take their case to the House of Lords. 'Flexible tool' Edward Fitzgerald, QC, representing both men, earlier asked the judges to stop the extradition process. He said there was a danger the suspects' human rights would be abused, despite the assurances from US authorities. Mr Fitzgerald said the two were in danger of being kept indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, taken to a third country for questioning, or tried and sentenced by a military tribunal as enemy combatants. However, lawyers for the US said the assertions made by Mr Fitzgerald were "speculative". They said the assurances they had been given, that the men would be fairly treated, were "an intrinsic, accepted and flexible tool in the extradition process". 'Very disappointed' Mr Aswat, of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was arrested in Zambia and deported to the UK in August 2005. He has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New York City, accused of conspiring with radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to set up a "jihad training camp" in Oregon in the United States. Mr Ahmad, 32, is a computer expert from Tooting, South London. He was arrested under anti-terror laws in August 2004 and charged with terror crimes by a US court two months later. After the extradition appeal hearing, his father Ashfaq Ahmed, said: "We are very disappointed at the High Court decision. "We are hopeful that the High Court will certify that there is a point of law of public importance on military detention and rendition, and allow this matter to go to the House of Lords." |
Bridget - November 30, 2006 02:22 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
Terrorist suspects lose extradition battle Sean O’Neill Two British Muslims should be extradited to the United States to stand trial on terrorist charges, the High Court ruled this morning. The judgment is the most significant ruling yet in a terror case since the implementation of a new Anglo-American extradition treaty which speeded up the process of surrendering suspects. Babar Ahmad and Haroon Rashid Aswat had argued that they ran the risk of being ill-treated or sent to the US internment camp at Guantanamo Bay if they were extradited. But Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice Walker, said the allegation that the US might violate undertakings about their treatment given to the British government "would require proof of a quality entirely lacking here". The ruling, which could still be challenged in the House of Lords, also has implications for the case of Abu Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque, who lost his appeal against conviction this week and is also facing extradition to the US. Ahmad, 31, a computer expert from Tooting, south London, is accused of running jihadi websites which raised funds for terrorist organisations and incited people to wage holy war. He is a cousin of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan a Pakistani al-Qaeda operative whose arrest in 2004 led to the discovery of a plan to carry out car bomb attacks and detonate a "dirty bomb" in London. Dhiren Barot, a British al-Qaeda member, was jailed for life for organising that conspiracy last month. Aswat, 32, from Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, was radicalised by Abu Hamza and was one of the extremist clerics closest aides for a number of years. He has been charged in the US on the same indictment as Abu Hamza over his alleged role in trying to set up a jihad training camp on a remote ranch in Bly, Oregon. In 1999 Abu Hamza sent Aswat and another man to America to visit the ranch and report back to him on its suitability. The two men are alleged to have carried out firearms training and preached radical doctrines to a group of American Muslims. Aswat was arrested in July 2005 in Zambia following a worldwide search for him in the aftermath of the 7/7 suicide bombings in London. But he was not charged with any offences here and the US sought his extradition. The judges said they would take time to consider whether both men should be given permission to take their case to the House of Lords for a final ruling. Edward Fitzgerald, QC, representing both men, argued that the case raised human rights issues of public importance which should go before the Law Lords. Ashfaq Ahmad, the father of Babar Ahmad, said: "We are very disappointed with the High Court verdict today." |
| QUOTE |
| UK terror suspects lose extradition battle Thursday November 30, 2006 Guardian Unlimited  Ashfaq Ahmad, the father of Babar Ahmad Ashfaq Ahmad, the father of Babar Ahmad, protesting outside court during his son's extradition hearing. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images Two terrorist suspects today lost their high court battle to avoid extradition to the United States. Lawyers for Haroon Rashid Aswat and Babar Ahmad argued that, despite US assurances to the contrary, there was "a real risk" that the men would be mistreated, or tried and sentenced as enemy combatants if sent to America. Dismissing their appeal, Lord Justice Laws, sitting in London with Mr Justice Walker, said the allegation that the US might violate undertakings given to the UK "would require proof of a quality entirely lacking here". Mr Ahmad, a computer expert from Tooting, south London, is accused of running websites inciting murder and urging Muslims to fight a holy war. The sites allegedly also aimed to raise money for the Taliban and Chechen rebels. Mr Aswat, who grew up in West Yorkshire and was arrested in Africa, faces trial on charges of plotting to set up a "jihad training camp" in Bly, Oregon, to train fighters for war in Afghanistan. He has been fighting extradition to the US since being arrested in Zambia and held in the UK. The judges said they would take time to consider whether both men should be given permission to take their case to the House of Lords, the highest court in the UK, for a final ruling. They will announce their decision at a later date. Mr Fitzgerald argued that the case raised human rights issues of public importance which should go before the law lords. Afterwards, Ashfaq Ahmad, the father of 32-year-old Babar, said: "We are very disappointed with the high court verdict today. "We are hopeful that the high court will certify that a point of law of public importance on military detention and rendition has been raised and recommend this matter should go to the House of Lords." At a hearing in July, Edward Fitzgerald QC, appearing for both men, asked two senior judges to halt extradition, arguing there was a danger that their human rights would be abused, despite assurances from the US government. Mr Fitzgerald said the men were in danger of being indefinitely detained at Guantánamo Bay under a military order applying to foreign citizens, or tried and sentenced by a military commission as enemy combatants in what would amount to "a flagrant denial of justice" and European human rights laws. He said they also faced the risk of extraordinary rendition - the process of removing terrorist suspects to third countries for interrogation - and being held in solitary confinement. Washington has promised that the two British men will not be sent to Guantánamo Bay or turned over to a third country. But Mr Fitzgerald told the judges they should not rely on American assurances that the men would be treated fairly. Mr Ahmad is a cousin of Mohammed Noor Khan, described by the pressure group Human Rights Watch as a "ghost detainee". He is believed to be in joint US-Pakistan custody, with no access to legal counsel. Mr Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2004 and accused of sending messages for Osama bin Laden. Mr Khan "has simply disappeared", according to the two men's lawyers. Mr Ahmad argues that support for Chechen separatists between 1997 and 2000 and for the Taliban does not constitute supporting terrorism. According to his campaign website, he was "deeply affected and saddened" by the September 11 2001 attacks, in which a female relative of his died in the World Trade Centre. The case against Mr Aswat is based on the evidence of James Ujaama, an American jailed for assisting the Taliban in Afghanistan, whose sentence was reduced in return for his cooperation as a witness. |
Bridget - November 30, 2006 02:30 PM (GMT)
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| British court rules 2 terrorist suspects can be extradited to the U.S. The Associated Press Published: November 30, 2006 LONDON: Two British men charged with terrorism offenses may be extradited to the United States, a court ruled Thursday. Lawyers for Haroon Rashid Aswat and Babar Ahmad argued that, despite U.S. assurances, there was a risk that the men would be mistreated, or tried and sentenced as enemy combatants. Dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice John Laws said that argument "would require proof of a quality entirely lacking here." The court did not immediately rule on whether the two men could appeal the decision to the House of Lords, Britain's highest tribunal. Ahmad faces charges of supporting terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and running a Web site used to fund terrorists. Aswat is accused of plotting to set up a camp in Bly, Oregon, to train fighters for war in Afghanistan. Ahmad was indicted in Connecticut in October 2004, accused of running several Web sites including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit members for the al-Qaida network, Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and Chechen rebels. In both cases, a lower court judge allowed extradition after receiving assurances from U.S. authorities that they would not seek the death penalty, put the men before military tribunals or declare them "enemy combatants," a category applied to detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Aswat was arrested in Zambia shortly after the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings and deported to Britain, where he was detained under a U.S. warrant. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York City, accused of conspiring with radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri — now serving seven years in a British jail for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims — to set up a "jihad training camp" in Oregon. Oregon authorities have said the camp never materialized beyond a dozen people taking target practice. |
| QUOTE |
| UK terrorism suspects lose U.S. extradition case Reuters Thursday, November 30, 2006; 6:23 AM LONDON (Reuters) - Two Britons wanted by the United States to face terrorism charges failed in a legal challenge on Thursday to stop their extradition because of fears they would be mistreated. Babar Ahmad and Haroon Rashid Aswat had argued at London's High Court that they did not trust assurances from the U.S. authorities that they would be given a fair trial and not treated as "enemy combatants." However the challenge to their extradition orders, which were approved by Britain's former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, was dismissed by two senior judges considering the case, although the men can still appeal against the decision. "This court acts on the faith that the United States will be true to the spirit and the letter of the diplomatic notes and the obligations of the 1972 (UK/US extradition) treaty," said Lord Justice John Laws. "The terms of this judgment express the legal expectations and understanding of the United Kingdom court. I apprehend that these will be well fulfilled and honored when the appellants are extradited." Aswat, who was arrested in Zambia last year, denies charges that he was trying to set up a militant training camp at Bly, Oregon, in 1999 and 2000 to train fighters for war in Afghanistan. The charges are similar to those leveled by the U.S. against jailed cleric Abu Hamza Al-Masri, imprisoned by Britain on charges of inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder, who is also facing possible extradition. Computer expert Ahmad, 31, is accused of running Web sites supporting terrorism and raising funds for Muslim militants in Chechnya and Afghanistan, along with urging Muslims to fight a holy war. The men's lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the court they faced the risk of being treated as "enemy combatants" by the U.S. authorities if sent there. Fitzgerald argued that a U.S. assurance they would not be designated as such had wrongly influenced the judge who had agreed to their extradition. He said the men did not want to rely on those assurances and that it could always be open to U.S. officials to decide later that the position had changed and to then designate them as enemy combatants. Under legislation introduced in 2003, the United States can seek extradition without having to present evidence to a British court. Fitzgerald also argued there was a real risk of the men being subjected to "special administrative measures" which could involve solitary confinement for indefinite periods and could breach their right to a fair trial. The men were given 14 days to consider launching an appeal against Thursday's verdict at Britain's highest court, the House of Lords. |
Bridget - November 30, 2006 05:01 PM (GMT)
Aswat is mentioned in this article on Dhiren Barot:
http://z13.invisionfree.com/julyseventh/in...post&p=11564942
http://z13.invisionfree.com/julyseventh/in...post&p=11564942
Bridget - November 30, 2006 05:20 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Johnson: Is this the way to fight a war on terror? Bill Johnson November 3, 2006 When it was all over, the short, stocky, heavily bearded man in the dingy white skullcap and olive-green jumpsuit rose from his chair, looked left and stared longingly at his wife and four children seated in the first row of the courtroom. Instinctively, the man put his hands behind his back, never taking his eyes off his family, as a U.S. marshal approached. The handcuffs never came out, the marshal gently tapping him to start walking. Mouthing "goodbye," the man was led to a nearby open door, his unshackled hands still outstretched behind him. In a different time, the outcome in the downtown Denver courtroom could have been a cause of relief, happiness and vindication for Haroon Rashid. The government on Thursday told U.S. District Court Judge Lewis T. Babcock it was dropping all charges against the 35-year-old van driver and sometime car mechanic from Lakewood. It was a remarkable reversal in that this was the very same Haroon Rashid that former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft had crowed about in a speech three years ago, labeling him the leader of a Denver terrorist cell whose apprehension in the weeks following the Sept. 11 attacks was proof that the country was winning the war on terror. On Thursday, though, Haroon Rashid would not walk from the courthouse a free man. The U.S. Marshal's Service immediately handed him over to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have for three years sought to deport the man, long a permanent legal resident, to his native Pakistan. Is Haroon Rashid really a terrorist, as notations on his thick case file indicate, or - as his family and attorney insist - simply a victim of mistaken identity, confused by federal investigators with the similarly named Haroon Rashid Aswat, who was arrested earlier this year in Africa for complicity in the 2005 London terror bombings? "This has never been a case of mistaken identity," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid, the lead prosecutor in the case, firmly informed me as he rushed to a news conference on the courthouse steps. Eid criticized me for printing the assertions of the family and the man's attorney in an earlier column. OK, I replied, if this Haroon Rashid is, indeed, the terrorist he's been made out to be, why had every charge against him just been dropped? Troy Eid, after a long pause, replied that evidence had been uncovered that the man had traveled to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border battlefields, stayed there nine months and had sought to purchase weapons with which he'd vowed to engage U.S. forces. So rather than prosecute him here on terror charges, you would rather have the government fly him back to the battlefields? "We believe it is best if he is no longer in this country," Jeff Dorschner, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman, interjected. Jeffrey S. Pagliuca, Haroon Rashid's attorney, stormed from the courtroom after the hearing. "My client is a loving father and husband, a very nice man who has never done anything wrong," he fumed. "They fingered the wrong man and they just won't admit it." "The government was impotent in the wake of 9/11. So it rushed out and picked up the most available Pakistani they could find and put him in jail. This today is the government covering its ass, and you can put THAT in quotes." Haroon Rashid has now served more time in jail, Judge Babcock noted, than he would have had he been sentenced upon conviction. On Wednesday. Haroon Rashid filed a writ with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the deportation order. The man's wife, Saima, 35, a U.S. citizen since 1995, stood outside the courthouse with her brother, Irfan Kamran, 36, watching her four children, ages 11 to 2, being interviewed by the gathered media. The middle child, Talha, 9, was pleading to the cameras for Gov. Bill Owens to pardon his father of the misdemeanor assault conviction that later, through a series of hurried and last-minute court rulings and orders, was elevated to a felony and formed the basis of the deportation order. "Did (Haroon) ever go to Afghanistan?" Irfan Kamran repeated. "No." He, Saima and their father, also fingered as terrorists in John Ashcroft's speech, remain charged with conspiracy and making false statements. Prosecutors told the judge that dismissal of charges against Haroon Rashid would help the prosecution of others charged in the case. A Nov. 9 hearing has been scheduled. Irfan Kamran shrugs it all off. "We know that maybe this is the government policy, post-9/11. We have been here for 12 years. We love Denver more than our own hometown. This is our country and we love it as much as anyone," he said. His brother-in-law, he said, has given his fate over to God. "He knows more than any of us that he was a Muslim in a post-9/11 country. If Allah wills he remain here, he will." Saima Rashid is standing in a corner, trying her best to avoid the cameras. America is her children's country, the only place they have known, she said. "We have to be patient now and pray the situation gets better for everyone," she said, "so we can live without fear of being targeted and harassed. "We have faith in God. And until God decides, my husband will be here. That is our faith, our hope." Bill Johnson's column appears Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Call him at 303-954-2763 or e-mail him at johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Bridget - November 30, 2006 05:28 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| There isn't enough room in this newspaper to tell Haroon Rashid's story. His case file is now more than a half-foot tall. But what seems increasingly clear is that its genesis was rooted in a mixture of post-9/11 fear, government misidentification and, later, the covering of bureaucratic backside. Cars with tinted windows began following the Muslim couple in the weeks after 9/11, -Saima said. Neighbors spotted the cars first. And the family telephone began to ring. Yet all that could be heard from the other end were indistinguishable whispers, she said. Finally, after weeks of it, the phone rang again, and the couple's second-oldest, Talha, now almost 9, answered. The voice threatened to kill him. The family called the police. Instead of local officers, however, FBI agents arrived at their door, according to -Saima, 35. "We tried to tell them of our fear, but all they wanted to know was of Haroon." The agents would stop by at least twice a week for six months, she said. They contacted her father, her brother, her mother. "They would never ask about who was following us. Only of Haroon." In late 2002, she and Haroon were on their way to a job interview. They were stopped by an Arapahoe County sheriff's deputy. They didn't have proof of insurance and were told to wait. Two FBI agents came to their car window. Saima said they were told they wouldn't be ticketed if Haroon would go with the agents. Haroon did not return that night until almost 11 p.m. He had been questioned again and given a polygraph test. And still the agents came. |
numeral - December 23, 2006 09:03 PM (GMT)
Can anybody make sense of this tale?
| QUOTE |
| Fugitive who aided Taliban is arrested in Belize By Mike Carter The Seattle Times Posted on Wed, Dec. 20, 2006 SEATTLE - James Ujaama, a Seattle man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid the Taliban, was arrested as a fugitive in Belize early Monday, after fleeing the U.S. and violating his parole. Ujaama, 41, fought with officers when they arrested him outside a Belize mosque shortly after midnight, police spokesman G. Michael Reid said. One officer suffered minor injuries, Reid said. Ujaama was traveling under the name "Ramirez Ramirez" on a Mexican passport and had arrived in Belize "about 10 days ago," Reid said. Ujaama faces up to eight years in prison. Officers staked out the mosque Friday after receiving information from Interpol, the international criminal police organization based in Lyon, France, that Ujaama was in the area, he said. "We do not believe that Belize was his final destination," Reid said. "We have reason to believe he was attempting to travel into Central America. From there, we do not know what his plans were." Peter Offenbecher, one of Ujaama's Seattle defense attorneys, said only that he was "investigating the facts" surrounding Ujaama's arrest. Ujaama's plea agreement bans him from having a passport or leaving the country without permission from the U.S. Department of Justice. Ujaama appeared Tuesday before a U.S. magistrate in Miami, agreeing to return to Seattle to answer charges that he had violated his supervised release, said Alicia Valle, the special counsel to the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida. Ujaama was sentenced to two years of what could have been a maximum 10-year prison term after pleading guilty in Seattle to charges that he provided computers, cash and fighters to the illegal Taliban government in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Ujaama's grandmother, Noemi Nelson, said Tuesday that she thought he left Seattle "some time ago." She said Ujaama had gone to visit his brother in Denver and "then just didn't come back." She said she was not aware that Ujaama had been arrested Monday. Ujaama lived with Nelson after his release from federal prison in 2004. When U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein sentenced Ujaama in February 2004, she said she was giving him an "unusually light" prison term in exchange for his cooperation. Ujaama's testimony is considered key in prosecuting several alleged terrorists, including Abu Hamza al-Masri, a London cleric who lost his hands and an eye allegedly fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. Abu Hamza was indicted in 2004 in New York for conspiring with Ujaama and others to set up a terrorist training camp near Bly, Ore., in 1999. The charges also claim Abu Hamza was involved in a kidnapping in Yemen in 1998 that left four foreign hostages dead. Ujaama is a key witness in the prosecution of two other men: Haroon Aswat, of London, and Oussama Kassir, of Sweden. Both were indicted on charges alleging they came from London to Seattle to meet Ujaama and then traveled to Oregon to scout the Bly property. Earlier this month, Aswat lost an appeal in Britain and faces extradition to the U.S. Aswat was questioned about telephone calls he made that may be connected to the July 7, 2005, London train bombings that left 52 people dead. Ujaama was a confidant of Abu Hamza and designed and ran the Web site for a Finsbury Park mosque in London where Abu Hamza was imam. The mosque was a major al-Qaida recruitment center and had been attended by Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up an American Airlines jet with a shoe bomb on Dec. 22, 2001, and by Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man convicted in connection with the 9-11 attacks. |
Sinclair - December 30, 2006 12:23 AM (GMT)
An article on James Ujaama , detailing connections between Ujaama & Abu Hamza/Finsbury Park Mosque, London.
source: cached article from The Los Angeles Times September 24, 2002
a taster...
source: cached article from The Los Angeles Times September 24, 2002
a taster...
| QUOTE |
Nonetheless, Ujaama told his Pakistani associates that he went to Afghanistan to set up a computer training institute there. According to one federal source, Ujaama carried a handwritten letter of recommendation from Abu Hamza addressed to the interior minister of the Taliban government in Kandahar. A confidential FBI memorandum states that Ujaama also is suspected of "taking computers to the Taliban" on behalf of Abu Hamza before the U.S. attack after Sept. 11. In a brief impromptu interview in the mosque's red-carpeted basement, Abu Hamza conceded that Ujaama served as a Web master for a while but scoffed at suggestions of a father-son type relationship. "Why do I need to give him a letter?" Abu Hamza asked, as a young follower, his face hidden behind a colorful Palestinian-style head scarf, abruptly reached out to switch off a journalist's tape recorder. "In Afghanistan, they don't read. They just shoot first," Abu Hamza said, laughing and generating chuckles from his entourage. The cleric's London attorney denied that Ujaama and Abu Hamza were as close as U.S. prosecutors allege. "Abu Hamza is not the type of person to get close to many people," said Muddassar Arani, the solicitor. "That's basically because he knows anyone who tries to get close to him is probably working for the government." While living in London, Ujaama made regular trips home to Seattle. Often he brought along some of the tape-recorded speeches of Abu Hamza that are sold at the Finsbury Park mosque. Back in Seattle, Ujaama's younger brother Mustafa had helped establish a storefront mosque in the central city. Ujaama introduced Abu Hamza's teachings to the Seattle congregation. "He brought us all the books and knowledge that you couldn't get here in America," said Ali Shahid Abdul-Raheem, 30, formerly known as Patrick Fitzsimmons. An ex-cabby from Seattle, Raheem said he converted to Islam while doing prison time for robbery. |
The Antagonist - January 27, 2007 02:37 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| UK: British Muslim is Al-Qaeda banker Ghabra admits to being an active member of the Muslim Prisoner Support Group. This is an organization which campaigns for the rights of Muslims who are imprisoned as suspected terrorists. Monday, January 08, 2007 Adrian Morgan The US Treasury on December 19, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, designated a British citizen as a supporter of terrorism. Adam Szubin, director of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, stated: "Mohammed Al Ghabra has backed al Qaida and other violent jihadist groups, facilitating travel for recruits seeking to meet with al Qaida leaders and take part in terrorist training. We must act against those who fund and facilitate al Qaida's agenda of violence against innocents." The Sunday Times reports that Britain has agreed with the US and the assets of Mohammed Al Ghabra are now frozen by the UK Treasury, the Bank of England. Mohammed Al Ghabra lives in Forest Gate, east London. He is a supporter of George Galloway's "Respect" party. He has spoken to the Sunday Times at his home, and denies the claims. He said: "If I am the moneymaker and this is why they have decided to put the sanctions against me, how could I have so many financial problems myself?" Ghabra admits to being an active member of the Muslim Prisoner Support Group. This is an organization which campaigns for the rights of Muslims who are imprisoned as suspected terrorists. Ghabra, born in Syria, is a known associate of Haroon Rashid Aswat. This individual, from Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, met Ghabra in a religious school in Lahore, Pakistan. Aswat is wanted on an extradition order by the United States, for his involvement with Abu Hamza and James Ujaama to set up an Al Qaeda training camp at Dog Cry Ranch in Bly, Oregon. Aswat was arrested in Zambia shortly after the 7/7 bombings, originally suspected of involvement in the London Transport attacks as an organizer. Aswat is in custody, and he was a member of Al-Muhajiroun. 26-year old Ghabra claims he was "shocked" to see Aswat's picture on TV after he was arrested. According to the US Treasury designation press release, Ghabra has organized travel for individuals going to Pakistan to meet AL Qaeda members to become involved in jihad training. The report sates: "Additionally, Al Ghabra has provided material support and facilitated the travel of UK-based individuals to Iraq to support the insurgents fight against coalition forces. In addition, Al Ghabra has also provided material and logistical support to other terrorist organizations based in Pakistan, such as Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI)." HUJI is a Kashmiri separatist group and terrorist organization. Ghabra is said by the US to be an associate of Faraj Al-Libi, a Libyan citizen who was arrested in May 2005 near Peshawar in Pakistan by Pakistan's intelligence and security agency ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). Al-Libi is a suspect in two attempts upon the life of Pakistan's President Musharraf. The group Al-Muhajiroun (to which Aswat belonged) is also implicated in these plots. Libi was an associate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man who is said to have planned 9/11. Following Mohammed's arrest on March 1, 2003, Faraj al-Libi is believed to have been elevated to Al-Qaeda's "number three in command". 39-year old Libi has lived in the UK, in Manchester. He is also linked to the two embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998. According to the US Treasury, Mohammed al-Ghabra stayed at Al-Libi's home in Pakistan. Ghabra was also associated with Harakat Ul-Mujahideen, the group which is said to have provided jihadist training to two of the 7/7 bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohamed Sidique Khan. Apparently Al Ghabra wanted to become a jihadist in Kashmir, but was advised against this by Harakat ul-Mujahideen as they needed people based in the UK to raise funds for them. In December, Al Ghabra's home, a two storey maisonette which Ghabra shares with his mother and sister, was raided by agents of Scotland Yard's counterrorism unit. The search warrant stated that the detectives were seeking "explosives, precursor chemicals, weapons, component parts of weapons or improvised explosive devices." He also received a letter last month stating: "The Treasury has reasonable grounds for suspecting that you are, or may be, a person who facilitates the commission of acts of terrorism." |
Sinclair - January 27, 2007 06:09 PM (GMT)
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Written answers Wednesday, 18 January 2006 Home Department - Haroon Rashid Aswat Michael Meacher (Oldham West & Royton, Labour) To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to reach a decision on whether to extradite Haroon Rashid Aswat to the US; what the considerations are on which his decision will be based; and whether Mr. Aswat has been questioned regarding any information he might have about the London bombings of 7 and 21 July 2005. Andy Burnham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office) Under the terms of the Extradition Act 2003 ("The 2003 Act"), this case was sent by a District Judge to the Secretary of State, on 5 January 2006, for the latter's decision as to whether Mr. Aswat is to be extradited. Under section 93 of the 2003 Act, Mr. Aswat has six weeks, starting with 5 January 2006, within which to make representations against his extradition. The Secretary of State will make his decision as soon as possible after that time has passed. The exact date is likely to depend upon the time needed for due consideration of any representations that may be received. While the case remains before the Secretary of State for decision, I cannot comment upon it. In all cases heard under part two of the 2003 Act the law requires the Secretary of State to decide whether he is prohibited from ordering a person's extradition under any of the following sections of the 2003 Act: (a) section 94 (death penalty); (b) section 95 (speciality); or © s.96 (earlier extradition to the UK from another territory). The full text of the 2003 Act may be obtained from HMSO (Her Majesty's Stationary Office) or found at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2003/20030041.htm As to whether Mr. Aswat has been questioned, regarding any information he might have about the London bombings of 7 July 2005 and the failed bombings of 21 July 2005, it is not appropriate to comment on ongoing investigations. source |
suspecta - January 27, 2007 10:56 PM (GMT)
There is some conjecture that this Al-Liby is James McLintock, the 'Tartan Taleban'. They're certainly the same age, and their movements add up.
Suspecta
Suspecta
numeral - January 30, 2007 05:24 PM (GMT)
2007 Calendar
January: 21/7 trial starts
February: Crevice trial ends this month or next.
March:
April : Eliza Manningham-Buller quits.
Financial Buildings trial starts (7 co-defendants of Barot)
May:
June: Inquests start
July: Second Anniversary
August: ?Blair quits
September:
October:
November:
December:
Come May, Aswat could be on the point of being extradited to the US. That would be the time to pull the Abu Hamza trick. He was charged just before he was to be extradited. If the charge against Aswat is a J7 one then the inquests will be postponed since the criminal trial takes precedence.
January: 21/7 trial starts
February: Crevice trial ends this month or next.
March:
April : Eliza Manningham-Buller quits.
Financial Buildings trial starts (7 co-defendants of Barot)
May:
June: Inquests start
July: Second Anniversary
August: ?Blair quits
September:
October:
November:
December:
Come May, Aswat could be on the point of being extradited to the US. That would be the time to pull the Abu Hamza trick. He was charged just before he was to be extradited. If the charge against Aswat is a J7 one then the inquests will be postponed since the criminal trial takes precedence.
freedomfiles - July 6, 2007 10:56 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
 Fox News – Interview with John Loftus Former US Justice Dept Prosecutor John Loftus, reveals that a London 7/7 terror suspect Haroon Rashit Aswat appears to be linked with British Intelligence stream/download http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...1&articleId=783 |
Bridget - July 15, 2007 11:28 PM (GMT)
Haroon Rashid Aswat linked to Mohammed al-Ghabra who is linked to Ibrahim of the 21/7 'plot'.
amirrortotheenemy - July 16, 2007 07:19 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Decisions of the House of Lords on petitions to appeal - 2007 In the cases outlined below, the House of Lords has decided whether to give leave to appeal. Date of 2007 Decision; Case Name; Decision 6/6/07 R v Khanani (CA(Crim Div): 24/1/07) Refused Ahmad v Government of the United States of America ([2006] EWHC 2927 (Admin)) Refused Aswat v Government of the United States of America ([2006] EWHC 2927 (Admin)) Refused Norris v Government of the United States of America ([2007] EWHC 71 (Admin)) Given R v F ([2007] EWCA Crim 243) Refused Source |
England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions; 30th November 2006, Aswat v USA:
http://www.thegovernmentsays.com/cache/44381.html
copy: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2006/2927.html
amirrortotheenemy - July 16, 2007 07:32 PM (GMT)
European Court of Human Rights
| QUOTE |
| Application no. 24027/07 by Babar AHMED and Haroon Rashid ASWAT against the United Kingdom lodged on 10 June 2007 |
| QUOTE |
| STATEMENT OF FACTS THE FACTS The applicants, Mr Babar Ahmed and Mr Haroon Rashid Aswat, are British nationals. Their dates of birth have not been provided. Mr Ahmed is currently in detention at HM Prison Woodhall, Milton Keynes; Mr Aswat at HM Prison Strangeways, Manchester. They are represented before the Court by Ms G Peirce, a lawyer practising in London with Birnberg Pierce and Partners, Solicitors. 2. Extradition proceedings against Mr Aswat On 7 August 2005 the second applicant was arrested in the United Kingdom, also on the basis of an arrest warrant issued under section 73 of the Extradition Act 2003, following a request for his provisional arrest by the United States. He is wanted to stand trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on the basis of a federal grand jury indictment concerning a conspiracy to establish a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon. It appears from the file that a principal prosecution witness is a Mr Ujaama, a United States National. Mr Ujaama was charged but entered into a plea agreement. It is alleged by the second applicant that Mr Ujaama was coerced into providing evidence against Mr Aswat by the threat of being sent to the United States' detention facility at North Carolina brig. In addition, it appears that subject to the plea agreement, the United States Government agreed to lift the special administrative measures to which Mr Ujaama had been subjected. It further appears that in the plea agreement, the United States agrees to forego any right it has to detain him as an enemy combatant. On 20 December 2005, in the course of the second applicant's extradition hearing, the United States Embassy issued Diplomatic Note No. 114 which provides as follows: “The Government of the United States assures the Government of the United Kingdom that upon extradition to the United States, Haroon Rashid Aswat will be prosecuted before a Federal Court in accordance with the full panoply of rights and protections that would otherwise be provided to a defendant facing similar charges. Pursuant to his extradition, Haroon Rashid Aswat will not be prosecuted before a military commission, as specified in the President's Military Order of November, 13, 2001; nor will he be criminally prosecuted in any tribunal or court other than a United States Federal Court; nor will he be treated as an enemy combatant.” In a decision given on 5 January 2006, the Senior District Judge, ruled that the extradition could proceed and that, inter alia, the second applicants extradition would not be incompatible with his rights under the Convention. Referring to his findings in the case of the first applicant, he similarly found that the risk of an order being made under Military Order No. 1 was removed by the Diplomatic Note. He also found that despite the risk of special administrative measures, the second applicant's trial could be properly and fairly conducted without a breach of his Article 6 rights. As to the second applicant's submission that the use of evidence from Mr Ujaama would breach his right to a fair trial, the District Judge concluded: “In the absence of evidence from Mr Ujaama himself as to his state of mind when he entered this plea agreement it is impossible to say whether his continuing cooperation was obtained by threat of either Special Administrative Measures or indefinite detention as an enemy combatant. There is, however, clearly an issue which would have to be resolved at any trial in the United States as to whether the evidence was admissible or whether it should be excluded on the basis of duress. That must be the responsibility of the trial court. It may be that this evidence would not be admitted but the evidence which goes before a jury in the United States must be an issue for the trial court and not for this court. I am satisfied that the evidence of Mr Ujaama would not in itself violate Mr Aswat's rights under Article 6 of the European Convention.” Having concluded that none of the bars to extradition applied, the District Judge sent the case to the Secretary of State for his decision as to whether the second applicant should be extradited. On 1 March 2006, the Secretary of State ordered his extradition. The applicant appealed to the High Court. |
freedomfiles - August 14, 2007 05:43 PM (GMT)
On the discussion page of the WikiPedia article on Haroon Rashid Aswat, there's an interesting analysis regarding the role of Aswat in the 7/7 bombing and his background with British intelligence:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Haroon_Rashid_Aswat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Haroon_Rashid_Aswat
Bridget - September 25, 2007 04:23 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Swedish terror suspect extradited from Czech Republic to the US The Associated Press Published: September 25, 2007 PRAGUE, Czech Republic: A Swedish citizen wanted in the U.S. on suspicion of plotting to set up a terrorist camp there was extradited Tuesday from the Czech Republic, officials said. Czech Justice minister Jiri Pospisil ruled on Sept 18 there was no reason to refuse a U.S. extradition request for Oussama Kassir, spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncova said. Kassir left the country by plane on Tuesday bound for the United States, said Kuncova. Kassir was arrested on Dec. 11, 2005, at Prague's Ruzyne international airport while flying from Stockholm, Sweden, to Beirut, Lebanon. He has been held in a Czech prison ever since. The United States requested his extradition in February 2006. In April this year, the municipal court in Prague ruled he could be extradited to the U.S. but Kassir appealed the verdict. The appeal was rejected July. Kassir has been charged in the United States with taking part in a plot to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Kassir allegedly wanted to teach military-style methods to Muslims seeking to travel to Afghanistan to fight or receive further training there. A U.S. court issued an international warrant for his arrest. Kassir was born in Lebanon and moved to Sweden in 1984. He became a citizen five years later. He spent several months in prison in 1998 for assaulting a police officer and drug possession. A Swedish court jailed Kassir for 10 months two years ago for illegal weapons possession. |
Bridget - September 26, 2007 08:14 AM (GMT)
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| Terror Suspect in Oregon Plot Extradited By PAT MILTON – 7 hours ago NEW YORK (AP) — A European terrorism suspect accused of planning to teach followers how to make bombs, poison people and slit throats yelled at a judge while proclaiming his innocence during an arraignment Tuesday in federal court. "This is all unjust and unfair," railed Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede. In announcing the suspect's extradition to New York from the Czech Republic, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said Kassir also offered bomb and poison-making tips on several Web sites. One of the Web sites was located on an Internet server in suburban White Plains, the prosecutor said. Kassir pleaded not guilty Tuesday to counts that include conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and injure people in a foreign country; providing material support to terrorists; and distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. When asked during the arraignment through an interpreter to raise his right hand, Kassir replied in English, "Why would I swear? I swear by God that everything is true. I told you I swear by Allah. Why should I raise my hand?" The court accepted Kassir's refusal to raise his right hand. Kassir also was asked whether he understood the charges against him. With his hands cuffed in front of him, he responded, "I don't care to see it because I am innocent. I don't care about it. I didn't do anything. I have done nothing." He said he was traveling to visit his mother when he was "kidnapped" and brought to America. "They want to force charges of terrorism against me," he continued. "I have nothing to do with al-Qaida. I have no relationship with al-Qaida. This is all unjust and unfair." Prosecutors say Kassir and others wanted to set up the camp in Bly, Ore., to teach military-style methods so a community of Muslims could move to Afghanistan to fight or receive further training there. The camp was never realized. Kassir also discussed hijacking trucks and killing the drivers to raise money to support the camp, Garcia said. "The purpose of the camp was to identify and further radicalize individuals that would be willing to carry out attacks against the United States at home or abroad," said Richard Falkenrath, deputy commissioner for counterterrorism at the New York Police Department. Kassir is accused of operating at least three Web sites that sought to recruit terrorists from December 2001 until his arrest Dec. 11, 2005, at Prague's Ruzyne international airport while flying from Stockholm, Sweden, to Beirut, Lebanon. Authorities said the sites included such titles as "The Mujahideen Explosives Handbook" and "The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook." An indictment says Kassir told witnesses that he supported Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and that he had personally undertaken jihad training in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Lebanon. In November 1999, prosecutors said, Kassir and Haroon Rashid Aswat were sent by Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to establish the training camp. After two months they left the U.S., with Kassir complaining that there were too few men and he was not going to waste his time. Authorities in Oregon have said the camp never materialized beyond a dozen people taking target practice and was abandoned for unknown reasons. Bly is an unincorporated town of a few hundred residents, 230 miles southeast of Portland. Al-Masri was indicted in 2004 on charges of trying to establish the training camp and providing aid to al-Qaida. He was arrested in England on a U.S. extradition warrant but has since been sentenced to seven years in jail there for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims. Also charged in the terror-camp case is Haroon Rashid Aswat, who is awaiting extradition in England. James Ujaama, a Muslim convert from Seattle, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in the case last month. In 2003 he had pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, but he later fled the country. Kassir was born in Lebanon and moved to Sweden in 1984. He became a citizen five years later. He spent several months in prison in 1998 for assaulting a police officer and drug possession. A Swedish court jailed him for 10 months two years ago for illegal weapons possession. article |
The Antagonist - November 1, 2007 04:51 PM (GMT)
This is quite sweet. 'Sir' Richard Dearlove, taken to task over a bunch of things, including 9/11, the MI6 plot to assassinate Britain's new best friend, Colonel Gadaffi, fixing Iraqi 'intelligence' to the policy, Bilderberg attendance, and whether Haroon Rashid Aswat is an MI6 agent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gk9sABtJxM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gk9sABtJxM
numeral - November 20, 2007 09:03 PM (GMT)
John Loftus came up in the WeAreChange interview with Aaro:
nineeleven
Poking around:
AIPAC Shill John Loftus Calls Lieberman "The Consensus"
nineeleven
Poking around:
AIPAC Shill John Loftus Calls Lieberman "The Consensus"
| QUOTE |
| For some reason Nova M Radio has hired a Neo-con "intelligence expert" for a new show. Here Loftus calls Joe Lieberman's postion on The Iraq War the consensus of the American People. For reality check out http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm |
Bridget - November 28, 2007 06:44 PM (GMT)
Aswat is not included in this latest judgement against Babar Ahmad :
| QUOTE |
| British man fails to block extradition to US in terror case LONDON - A court on Wednesday rejected a British man's attempt to block his extradition to the United States to face charges of running Web sites supporting terrorism. Lawyers for Babar Ahmad, 32, had sought to prevent his extradition so that he could pursue a civil case accusing London's Metropolitan Police of assault at the time of his arrest. Extradition, they said, would breach his right to testify in the civil case. Lord Justice Roger Thomas and Justice Peter Gross ruled that Ahmad did not have an arguable case. Ahmad was indicted in the U.S. state of Connecticut in 2004, accused of running several Web sites including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit members for the al-Qaida network, Chechen rebels and the Taliban in Afghanistan. article |
numeral - December 6, 2007 06:34 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| naqniq.wordpress.com This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service. You can create your own free blog on WordPress.com. |
| QUOTE |
| My guess would be that it was John Loftus who had it closed down, because I reproduced the parts of this that discuss him: http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/...?oid=oid%3A1547 Rowan Berkeley |
via xymphora
TimB1 - December 11, 2007 03:14 PM (GMT)
Wow, interesting to see that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, and shipped them out to Syria just before the 2003 invasion.
Bridget - December 11, 2007 04:41 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (TimB1 @ Dec 11 2007, 03:14 PM) |
| Wow, interesting to see that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, and shipped them out to Syria just before the 2003 invasion. |
Hello & welcome to the J7 forum TimB1. Are you making the point that John Loftus is highly suspect as an 'intelligence expert'?
WestHill - December 12, 2007 01:22 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Terror charge man loses bid to delay US extradition A Tooting computer expert has lost a bid to get the High Court to suspend his extradition to the United States on terror charges. Babar Ahmad, 32, had applied to the court to challenge the Home Secretary's refusal to delay his extradition to allow time for civil proceedings against the Met Police over assault. But the court ruled he had no case against the Home Secretary. Mr Ahmad is accused of running websites raising funds for the Taleban, inciting murder, and encouraging holy war. In a separate case at the High Court last year, his lawyers argued Mr Ahmad risked being mistreated by the US authorities, including the risk of being kept indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay. But the judges said the claims were not proven, saying they were "acting on the faith that the United States will be true to the spirit and the letter" of diplomatic agreements exchanges with the British Government and their obligations under the two countries' extradition treaty. Mr Ahmad was arrested under anti-terror laws in August 2004. He was charged with terror crimes by a US court two months later. 8:24am Thursday 29th November 2007 http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/search/...extradition.php |
Kier - December 24, 2007 06:56 PM (GMT)
From July 2005.
| QUOTE |
| Effort here to charge London suspect was blocked Sunday, July 24, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM By Hal Bernton and David Heath Seattle Times staff reporters The Justice Department blocked efforts by its prosecutors in Seattle in 2002 to bring criminal charges against Haroon Aswat, according to federal law-enforcement officials who were involved in the case. British authorities suspect Aswat of taking part in the July 7 London bombings, which killed 56 and prompted an intense worldwide manhunt for him. But long before he surfaced as a suspect there, federal prosecutors in Seattle wanted to seek a grand-jury indictment for his involvement in a failed attempt to set up a terrorist-training camp in Bly, Ore., in late 1999. In early 2000, Aswat lived for a couple of months in central Seattle at the Dar-us-Salaam mosque. A federal indictment of Aswat in 2002 would have resulted in an arrest warrant and his possible detention in Britain for extradition to the United States. "It was really frustrating," said a former Justice Department official involved in the case. "Guys like that, you just want to sweep them up off the street." British intelligence officials now think that in the days and hours before the July 7 bombings, Aswat was in cellphone contact with at least two of the four suicide bombers, according to The Times of London. Aswat was a highly public aide to Abu Hamza al Masri, the militant cleric whose North London mosque was a hotbed of radical Islamist preaching. In 1999, Aswat came to the attention of the FBI and federal prosecutors here as part of the investigation into the Bly camp and its founder, former Seattle entrepreneur James Ujaama. As law-enforcement officials in Seattle prepared to take that case to a federal grand jury here, they had hoped to indict Aswat, Ujaama, Abu Hamza and another associate, according to former and current law-enforcement officials with knowledge of the case. But that plan was rejected by higher-level officials at Justice Department headquarters, who wanted most of the case to be handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York City, according to sources involved with the case. Ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Justice Department had funneled terrorism cases to its New York office, which had a lot of experience in that area. This frustrated law-enforcement officials in Seattle, who thought they also had a track record for handling terrorism prosecutions — such as that of Ahmed Ressam, trained by al-Qaida and arrested Dec. 14, 1999, in Port Angeles with the makings of a powerful bomb hidden in his rental car. Justice Department supervisors in Washington, D.C., gave the Seattle office the go-ahead to seek an indictment against Ujaama only. Ujaama was indicted by a Seattle grand jury in August 2002, charged with trying to set up the Bly camp and with aiding the Taliban. He pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban and agreed to testify against Abu Hamza and others. Aswat was not charged but was referred to in the indictment as "co-conspirator #2." In May 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced an 11-count indictment by a federal grand jury in New York against Abu Hamza, who allegedly sent Aswat to Oregon to scout out the proposed training camp. A department news release said "the indictment alleges that Abu Hamza was a terrorist facilitator with global reach — from aiding hostage takers in Yemen, to attempting to set up a jihad training camp in Oregon." At the time, however, federal prosecutors chose not to indict Aswat for reasons that are not clear. Asked why Aswat wasn't indicted, a federal official in Seattle replied, "That's a great question." There had been some confusion about whether Aswat was alive. But three years after the Ujaama indictment, the Justice Department has yet to follow through with the indictment of Aswat sought by its Seattle office. Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, said he could not comment on the discussions leading up to the August 2002 indictment that named Ujaama but not any of his co-conspirators. Sierra said that co-conspirators, though not named in an indictment, may still be the subject of continuing investigations. Mark Bartlett, an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle involved with the Ujaama prosecution, also declined to comment on department discussions before the indictment. Bartlett said the Bly investigation was very thorough: "They turned over every stone. This is not one where you say that, in hindsight, you could have taken extra steps." This past week, there have been conflicting reports about Aswat's whereabouts. Pakistani officials denied reports that they had taken him into custody. Other sources, including a U.S. law-enforcement official with knowledge of the case, say Aswat has been taken into custody. Citing a federal source, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer two days ago cast doubt on whether the Aswat suspected in the London bombing is the same person who was involved in the Bly camp. But a U.S. law-enforcement official involved in the London investigation told The Seattle Times on Friday that it is the same person. Ujaama, released from U.S. prison last spring, has been questioned recently about Aswat, The Associated Press reported, citing confidential sources. Source: Seattle Times |
Kier - December 24, 2007 07:30 PM (GMT)
This report suggests that the 'terror camp' was in fact hardly any such thing:
| QUOTE |
| Al Qaeda and the Sniper By Greg Buete TechCentralStation.com | Friday, October 25, 2002 Late Wednesday night authorities began searching for two "people of interest" in relation to the Beltway Sniper. What's interesting is that one of the two "persons of interest" was identified as a Tacoma, Washington man connected with Fort Lewis. Stuck in the middle of this story is something even more interesting. The FBI is also searching a militia training camp in Marion, Alabama, in possible connection to the sniper case. Step back for a moment. What's the common link between Tacoma, Washington and Marion, Alabama? It could be James Ujaama, Zain-ul-abidin, and Abu Hamza. James Ujaama is currently being held without bond as a material witness and has been indicted for attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon. Once a model citizen and entrepreneur, Ujaama crossed over into the dark world of Abu Hamza, a man that Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hamilton recently called "perhaps the best known terrorist in the world." Hamza is associated with the Islamic Army of Aden, a Yemeni terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the USS Cole bombing in October of 2000. The FBI believes that Hamza is an al-Qaeda recruiter, whose London mosque was even visited by Zacarias Moussaoui. The US government believes that after moving to London in the late 1990s Ujaama became a disciple of Hamza, who personally wrote a letter of recommendation that Ujaama used to enter an Afghanistan training camp. For the past five years Ujaama has studied from one of the best terrorists around. In return Ujaama offered his computer expertise to help Hamza maintain militant anti-American web sites. This is nothing new to Ujaama, creator of StopAmerica.org, a Web site that is highly critical of US foreign policy. It wasn't always so; Washington state lawmakers named June 10, 1994, James Ujaama Day, in recognition for his community service. That day he also received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. My, how times have changed. Enter Semi Osman. Back home, Ujaama was a frequent patron of a mosque in Seattle, whose imam was a vocal Lebanese man named Semi Osman. Searching for an Islamic commune, Osman discovered some property outside of Bly through a friend of his wife. What Osman saw as a commune, Ujaama saw as an opportunity for business with his old master Abu Hamza. Authorities believe that Ujaama faxed Hamza a proposal to use the property in Bly as a safehouse and terrorist training camp, remarking how the Bly terrain was very similar to that of Afghanistan. An intrigued Hamza sent a pair of operatives to evaluate the Bly property. They were Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese Sweed who claimed to be a hitman of Osama bin Laden, and Haroon Aswat, a British Indian. Looking back, Hamza must have been thrilled at the prospect of a new terror camp in the US. Indeed, he once told ABC News that America's laws make these camps easy to run, "like a picnic." But, alas, the training camp never blossomed as he hoped. In the two weeks that Hamza's trainers occupied Bly not a single recruit showed. The Seattle operators spent their time horseback riding, while Hamza's associates fumed. Oussama Kassir was so frustrated and angry with Ujaama that he threatened to shoot him. Ujaama eventually returned to London. That could have been the end of the story. However, on September 11, 2001, 19 Middle Eastern hijackers executed the worst terrorist event in history. It was only then that the Bly cell began to unravel. Part of their bad fortune included a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Feroz Abbasi, who was able to finger Ujaama to al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. This path led to other members of the Bly cell, including Osman, who was traced to Bly by investigators through a late 1999 routine traffic stop. The word was out. Immigration authorities arrested Osman when he appeared for a citizenship interview in Seattle. He was charged with possessing a handgun with removed serial number, and fraudulently trying to become a US citizen. The FBI obtained a search warrant for Osman's apartment and found weapons, military maps, instructions on poisoning water supplies, propaganda of Abu Hamza, and other materials related to Islamic extremism. The apartment was located in Tacoma, Washington. Osman, a Navy reservist, cooperated with authorities. When Ujaama returned to the US, the Feds were watching his every step. Shift to Alabama. Over the summer, Scotland Yard charged Sulayman Balal Zain-ul-abidin, an alleged member of the al-Qaeda network, under Britain's Prevention of Terrorism Act for inviting individuals to undergo terrorist training. Zain-ul-abidin, aka Frank Etim, operated Sakina Security Services, an obvious front for Islamic militancy that included advertising on its Web site a combat course titled "Ultimate Jihad Challenge." The "Ultimate Jihad Challenge" was a two-week course on a 1,00 |