Title: The Investigation: Operation Crevice
The Antagonist - February 20, 2006 03:32 PM (GMT)
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| London Intel: Into the 'Crevice' Newsweek Feb. 13, 2006 issue - British authorities had at least two of the terrorists who bombed London last July 7 under surveillance in 2004. In an official document examined by NEWSWEEK, a British judge reports that U.K. investigators had pictures and voice recordings of Mohammed Siddique Khan—believed to have been the plot leader—and another suicide bomber, Shahzad Tanweer, meeting several times in February and March 2004 with suspects in an earlier, separate terror plot that U.K. authorities investigated under the code name Operation Crevice. The evidence includes recordings of Khan in a car driven by one Crevice suspect, and evidence showing Khan and Tanweer getting out of a Crevice suspect's car. British media have made only limited references to the evidence because a trial of Crevice suspects is pending, and pretrial publicity is restricted under U.K. law. After July 7, investigators claimed the four suspected suicide bombers were previously unknown to British intel. But as the investigation evolved, authorities quietly made it known that antiterror investigators, presumably working for the secret counterintelligence agency M.I.5, had run across Khan and Tanweer; British authorities decided at the time that they weren't dangerous enough for continuing surveillance. U.S. law-enforcement officials, who asked not to be named because the investigation continues, told NEWSWEEK the name of a third bomber, Germaine Lindsay, also came up tangentially in Crevice. British authorities initially denied they had heard of him before July 7 but now concede they may have. A U.K. official said Tony Blair's government wouldn't comment for legal reasons. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11179717/site/newsweek/ |
numeral - December 16, 2006 06:33 AM (GMT)
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| MI5 head resigns before July 7 bombing report is published By DAVID WILLIAMS and BENEDICT BROGAN Last updated at 22:00pm on 15th December 2006  The head of MI5 has resigned weeks before full details of the role of her agents in a surveillance operation involving two of the July 7 bombers are due to be revealed. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, whose organisation has been at the forefront of the war on terror, is leaving after more than four years as director general. Dame Eliza, 58, said the date of her departure after 33 years with the security service had been agreed with the former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who was sacked in May. She has maintained an unprecedentedly high profile in the fight against terrorism, revealing last month that the security services knew of 30 plots by Islamic extremists. But it is for the failure to prevent last year’s attacks in London that, some believe, her tenure as MI5 chief will be remembered. Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, the leaders of the July 7 suicide bombers, were picked up by MI5 surveillance on five occasions but were not investigated further. The two British-born bombers did not merely pass through the ‘periphery’ of an intelligence operation monitoring other suspects but were photographed and recorded on several occasions. More details of the operation are likely to emerge in the New Year. But intelligence sources say the men were first seen in early 2004, nearly 18 months before the suicide attacks in London, which left 52 people dead on three Underground lines and a bus. On one occasion, Khan was monitored driving his car with suspects in it and on another was recorded talking to them about training for jihad. They also talked about carrying out financial frauds, which helped persuade MI5 that they were not interested in attacks in the UK. Last night security sources rejected suggestions that Dame Eliza jumped before she was pushed. They stressed that she agreed her departure date – April 2007 – with Mr Clarke in 2005, before the July bombings. They claim there will be ‘no surprises’ that might have called her position into question when further details of the surveillance operations enter the public domain. ‘Everything there is to know about how MI5 handled the 7/7 bombings, and what happened before, has been presented to the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee,’ a source said. ‘There are no surprises in store that will alter the view of how the Security Service worked. Her departure is a routine event, long-arranged. The Home Secretary has full confidence in her.’ Dame Eliza, who is paid £150,000 a year, took over counter-terrorism operations a year after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and has overseen a transformation in MI5 as its budget and staff have increased to focus on the threat of Islamic extremists. She has made the agency far more open, recruiting agents through newspaper advertisements and by setting-up a website. Terror risk assessments have been published for the first time. Dame Eliza said recently that the security services had identified 1,600 people plotting actively, or facilitating, terrorist acts in Britain and abroad. The daughter of a former Tory Lord Chancellor, she is described as a ‘feisty lady, full of character and intellectual drive’. She was chosen to run a unit set up to tackle Irish terrorism after MI5 was granted lead responsibility in the area ten years ago Tony Blair led tributes to Dame Eliza, highlighting her ‘outstanding leadership’ following July 7 and saying the country owed her a debt of honour. In a statement, the Prime Minister said: ‘Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller has dedicated herself to the protection of this country, our people, and our way of life. ‘She has led the Security Service through a time of significant change and growth, as it responded to the challenge of international terrorism.’ Home Secretary John Reid, who will announce her replacement in the New Year, said: ‘Her contribution to the security of our nation has been invaluable.’ In a statement, Dame Eliza, the second woman to head MI5 after Stella Rimington, said: ‘By April 2007, I shall have been an officer of the Security Service for 33 years, the last ten as either deputy director general or director general. ‘I decided in early 2005 that it would be time by then to stand down. I have been privileged to lead the service when it is facing the two challenges of a very serious threat and the consequent need to grow and change at a dramatic rate to tackle that threat.’ ‘I’m confident that the service will continue to serve the UK to the best of its ability.’ |
numeral - December 18, 2006 12:05 PM (GMT)
numeral - December 18, 2006 12:36 PM (GMT)
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| Security services 'failed to arrest bomber last year' JAMES KIRKUP Friday 15 July 2006 INTELLIGENCE officials are urgently investigating the possibility that one of the London suicide bombers could have slipped through the net of a major counter-terrorism operation last year. Mohammed Sadique Khan [sic], a 30-year-old teaching assistant who died in the Edgware Road blast last Thursday, was yesterday named as one of the targets who escaped an anti-terrorist swoop mounted last March in southern England and North America. The worrying suggestion that Khan could have been stopped before the attacks that killed 53 people came as police warned that it could be "months" before they find the terrorists who co-ordinated, supplied and inspired Britain's first suicide bomb attacks. Led by the Queen at Buckingham Palace, people across Britain and around Europe yesterday observed a two-minute silence in memory of those who died on three London Underground trains and a No 30 bus. But, as the focus of the investigation shifted further towards the search for the masterminds of the London blasts, the last of the four suicide bombers was identified as Lindsey Germaine. Germaine is believed to be a Jamaican-born Muslim convert from Buckinghamshire. The other three bombers were British-born Muslims of Pakistani descent who lived in West Yorkshire. Ministers and intelligence chiefs have admitted that last week's attacks came as complete surprise to the security services, suggesting that the four bombers had been "lilywhites" or "clean skins" - people who were previously completely unknown to anti-terrorism officials. However, that has been called into question by French security sources. Yesterday, the French daily Libération reported that Khan, the oldest of the London bombers, had been one of the targets of last year's operation, but had "escaped". The paper quoted a senior French police official as saying that Khan had subsequently been on a Scotland Yard "target list" for 15 months, but under the name "Mohammed Kayoun Khan" with a different date of birth. The report follows statements on Wednesday from Nicholas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, that "a part of the team" behind the London blasts had been the subject of a counter-terrorism operation last spring. That remark appears to refer to Operation Crevice, a string of raids last 31 March that led to several men being arrested and charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. British officials yesterday publicly refused to confirm or deny the French report, but privately some admit that there is evidence that Khan had been in contact with one of the men arrested last year. The circumstances of that contact are uncertain, and all the details surrounding Operation Crevice now are understood to be under review by MI5 and Anti-Terrorism Branch detectives. Raising further questions about whether Khan had a history of links with extremism, it emerged last night that one of his acquaintances contacted police following the London attacks to raise fears that Khan was a trained terrorist. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the acquaintance last night told BBC Radio 4: "From what I've heard, he used to travel extensively overseas, especially to Asia - Pakistan, Afghanistan. "He used to regularly be out of the country, going to Afghanistan and carrying out training, every year or so. "It would be regarding being trained up, being a fighter, being skilled in the use of army-type training, the use of weapons, explosives and simply military discipline as to how action should be carried out in the field." While there was no way to confirm the Libération report, the paper's police source was clearly very well-informed about the London investigation. Alone among European media outlets, Libération identified Germaine as the fourth bomber yesterday morning. At that time, most British newspapers and even many police officers believed the fourth bomber to have been another Leeds man of Asian origin. Germaine's identity was only established yesterday afternoon after forensic experts matched DNA samples from a house in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, to shreds of tissue retrieved from the Piccadilly Line train that exploded near Russell Square. It was also reported last night that British officials had been warned several months ago by their counterparts in the United States about a possible attack on transport networks. Persistent reports in the US have suggested that Faraj al-Libby, a senior al-Qaeda figure captured in Pakistan in May, had been providing information about planned attacks, though the intelligence is believed to be extremely vague and there is no confirmation that it was ever passed on by US agents. However, if it should emerge that any vital clues about the suicide plot or the bombers had been missed, there would be severe embarrassment for the British intelligence agencies and for the government. Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has staunchly defended the security services and refused calls for a public inquiry into the events before the attacks. However, Mr Blair has carefully avoided stating categorically that the agencies had no intelligence about the suicide plotters before last Thursday. In the House of Commons earlier this week, the Prime Minister said only: "I know of no intelligence specific enough to have allowed them to prevent last Thursday's attacks." Now that the identity of the four suicide bombers has been established, other suspects are emerging. All four suicide attackers were caught on CCTV at King's Cross station minutes before last week's blasts, along with a fifth man, a "mastermind" who may since have fled Britain. A sixth man, believed to be Magdi El-Nashar, a 33-year-old PhD biology student, is also being sought. He rented a flat in the Leeds suburb of Burley, where police on Tuesday found a bathtub full of the same explosives used in the London blasts. While the identification of the bombers was a significant breakthrough, the investigation is far from over and Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Terrorism Branch, yesterday warned the next stages could be far slower. "There are a number of things we need to establish," he said. "Who actually committed the attacks? Who supported them? Who financed them? Who trained them? Who encouraged them? "This will take many months of intensive, detailed investigation," Mr Clarke said. |
numeral - December 18, 2006 01:15 PM (GMT)
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| July 7 Bombers Tied To Al Qaeda Source Tells FBI He Took London Suspect To Terror Camps In Pakistan LONDON, Aug. 18, 2005  Mohammed Junaid Babar in a Nov. 2001 interview with Canadian television. (CBS) Quote "Yes, I am willing to kill the American soldiers if they enter into Afghanistan with their ground troops." Mohammed Junaid Babar Nov. 2001 interview (CBS) The July 7 London bombers may have been homegrown, but investigators are now certain they had direct ties to al Qaeda. Mohammed Siddique Khan, the 30-year-old suspected ringleader of the London bombings, had key connections that could have led to his earlier arrest, CBS News Correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports from London. A source familiar with the investigation has told CBS News that an American al Qaeda operative, now in U.S. custody, told the FBI that he escorted Siddique Khan to a terrorist training camp in northern Pakistan and that Khan was in Pakistan at the same time as another group of alleged British terrorists. The operative-turned-source is Mohammed Junaid Babar. After 9/11, he went to Pakistan and signed up for jihad. He made his commitment clear in a Canadian television interview. "Yes, I am willing to kill the American soldiers if they enter into Afghanistan with their ground troops," Babar said during a Nov. 2001 interview from Islamabad. Last year, after Babar's return to the United States, he admitted supplying money and materials to high-ranking al Qaeda leaders on the run as well as organizing a terrorist training camp. He also gave investigators information which led to Operation Crevice, the unraveling of another U.K. plot to bomb restaurants and train stations. "That plot was thwarted and it appears that the attack on July 7 was a follow-on attack rather than the first one and it appears also that the terrorists intended to hit Great Britain a number of times," said M.J. Gohel, a terrorism and security analyst. It was during Operation Crevice that London bomber Siddique Khan's name first surfaced. Investigators never pursued his contacts with extremists, including those they had arrested, or his travels to Pakistan, where investigators now know he was meeting with al Qaeda operatives. For days after the bombing, British officials insisted the cell had been flying below their radar. It now appears at least one of the bombers crossed their sights, but they failed to understand what they were looking at. And a source close to the investigation tells CBS News it is becoming clear there are more men like Siddique Khan and the July 7 bombers here, in this country. |
numeral - December 18, 2006 01:23 PM (GMT)
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| 7 July bomber 'filmed last year' London bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan featured in a surveillance operation by intelligence services last year, a BBC investigation suggests. Khan was secretly filmed and recorded speaking to a UK-based terror suspect, according to a well-placed source. A Radio 4 File on 4 and BBC Two Newsnight investigation also suggests he was in contact with al-Qaeda activists for the last five years. The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the investigation. 'Intelligence failure' The programme makers stress there is no independent corroboration that Khan was secretly filmed by intelligence services talking to the terror suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons. But they say that, if correct, it would amount to "a serious failure of intelligence" in the run up to the 7 July bombings. If true, the new information "would show the intelligence services had him well in their sights but allowed him to slip away", BBC correspondent Richard Watson said. Until now it had been thought that the plans of Khan, 30, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, had remained secret because he and the other bombers had no track record in terrorism and no traces by the intelligence services. But the BBC investigation suggests that is not the case. Al-Qaeda confession A terror suspect held in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings has alleged that Khan travelled to Malaysia and the Philippines in 2001 to meet leaders of extremist Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which is closely linked with al-Qaeda. The BBC has interviewed academic researcher Dr Rohan Gunaratna who spoke to the Bali suspect after the London bombing. The suspect said that, after Khan was hosted by notorious JI leader Hambali in Malaysia, he was taken to the Philippines to meet and train with other leaders of the group, suspected of carrying out a number of terror attacks including the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005. And in 2003, Khan met with an Islamic extremist in Pakistan who has since confessed to supplying military equipment to al-Qaeda, the BBC has learned. The extremist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a US citizen from a Pakistani family from New York who travelled to Pakistan a week after the 11 September attacks. Khan and the man also saw each other together in Leeds in 2003, the BBC understands. "Mohammed Sidique Khan was running a strong cover with his work as a caring teaching assistant in Leeds," BBC correspondent Richard Watson said. "But a careful study of his background and contacts reveal a number of clues to his extremism which the British intelligence apparently missed." Recruitment issue Viewers and listeners to Tuesday night's programmes will also hear criticism from experts and academics about how radical clerics have "recruited openly" in Britain. Academic researcher Dr Gunaratna said: "The radical clerics have radicalised young British and European Muslims and have done al-Qaeda's work for them." And Sir Paul Lever, the former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, which advises the prime minister on intelligence threats, said there had been a "failure to understand the significance of allowing these clerics to recruit openly". File on 4 was first broadcast on Radio 4 at 2000 BST on Tuesday 25 October. |
I suspect that Khan was not picked up at all during Operation Crevice.
amirrortotheenemy - December 18, 2006 01:38 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (numeral @ Dec 18 2006, 01:23 PM) |
| The extremist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a US citizen from a Pakistani family from New York who travelled to Pakistan a week after the 11 September attacks. Khan and the man also saw each other together in Leeds in 2003, the BBC understands. |
Junaid Babar most likely.
Dave52 - December 18, 2006 02:14 PM (GMT)
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| Dave Ware said... 7/7 was either allowed to happen or planned from the inside, that's why they weren't apprehended. Patsies are always required. And as for the "over-stretched" security services, how come we can afford to free up personnel to waste their time in Russia looking for Polonium 210, when the Russians have already said that they weren't going to co-operate? Questions, questions, always questions... December 18, 2006 12:32 PM Rachel said... Oh God,. not the conspiracy theories again. I don't think it was a LIHOP or a MIHOP at all. I am sure it was 4 murderous bombers - Khan, Tanweer, Lindsey, Hussein - with a murderous political/religious agenda, and I find talk of 'patsies' quite offensive. Any more conspiracy theory stuff will not be published. Cock up, yes,quite possibly, conspiracy no. Please go elsewhere if you want to discuss that sort of thing |
I think I just upset her....
cmain - December 18, 2006 09:58 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Dave52 @ Dec 18 2006, 02:14 PM) | ||
I think I just upset her.... |
You made a fair point, given that she has endorsed Daniel of the4thbomb who says that Hussein was not even on the bus, yet now she has gone back to "I'm sure Hussein was a murderer".
Something funny is going on.
If the threatened embarrassing revelations about MI5 surveillance of Khan do materialise, perhaps we should ask Dame Eliza to add her signature to the Release the Evidence petition to challenge whether Khan was involved in 7/7 at all!
The Antagonist - December 18, 2006 10:09 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Dave52 @ Dec 18 2006, 02:14 PM) | ||
I think I just upset her.... |
Blairwatch, who have swallowed the charade hook, line and sinker (a wee shift from the old days, are they under new management?) are upset too:
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| Message For 9/11 and 7/7 Conspiracy theorists By quarsan on not politics Listen guys, you've posted the same thing time after time on Blairwatch. We do not believe the theories based on the evidence you present. We're also concerned that you also appear to get a lot of your 'evidence' from neo-nazi sites. You are welcome to post here on other subjects, but we're bored of the same old story you're spamming us with. Therefore we will delete any further posts by yourselves on 9/11 and 7/7. |
The above notification was wedged in between a post about how the airline terror plot was a load of old nonsense so the charges against Rashid Rauf had to be dropped, Iran plumping for trade in Euros (a sure way to guarantee an invasion by the Americans) and this.
Dave52 - December 18, 2006 10:33 PM (GMT)
Yeah, I noticed that on Blairwatch too. You're right, it is a bit of a shift. Also notice this part of the statement...
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| you also appear to get a lot of your 'evidence' from neo-nazi sites |
That's right, it's the good old anti-semetic card..!
numeral - December 19, 2006 01:24 AM (GMT)
I have a mental picture, correct or not, of when Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Lindsay Germaine were last seen alive by people who knew them. I don't have this picture for Khan. When was the last report of him alive from someone who knew him?
amirrortotheenemy - December 19, 2006 01:50 AM (GMT)
14th July 2005
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| Mrs Khan looked bewildered as she was helped into a police car, her one-year-old daughter Maryam held tight in her arms. It is understood that she reported her husband missing a week ago. |
Regarding Tika Khan:
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| Neighbours said Mr Khan senior spent long periods in Pakistan and only returned from his most recent visit last week. |
numeral - December 19, 2006 08:57 AM (GMT)
Thanks amirrortotheenemy. I'll post the whole article. There is not much, is there?
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| The family man Last updated at 08:51am on 14th July 2005 Mohammad Sadiq Khan: Teacher and father who led a double life To pupils at the primary school where he worked, he was a much-loved mentor. To his family, he was a devoted husband and father. Mohammad Sadique Khan, 30, seemed to have everything to live for - his wife is even said to be expecting their second child. Yet last Thursday, this apparently gentle family man blew himself to bits on a train at Edgware Road. Detectives are trying to unravel the secret double life that ended in his murderous mission in London. Plain-clothes officers spent several hours quizzing his shocked parents - described by neighbours as "traditional Muslims" - at their home in Nottingham. His wife, Hasina Khan, 27, was led from the couple's home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on Tuesday. Mrs Khan looked bewildered as she was helped into a police car, her one-year-old daughter Maryam held tight in her arms. It is understood that she reported her husband missing a week ago. As more details of Khan's life emerged yesterday, they proved to be a shocking contrast to the devastating violence of his actions last Thursday. Khan dedicated his working life to caring for children with special needs, working for five years as a "learning mentor" to pupils at a Leeds school. Parents at Hillside Primary School in the Beeston area of Leeds were last night stunned by his involvement, saying he was a popular figure. "The children loved him and looked up to him," said one mother. "He showed a lot of enthusiasm in the classroom and knew how to get the best out of children. "I could not believe it when I heard he was involved in this. He must have been living a double life." More than 30 per cent of the pupils at Hillside have special needs and Khan's job was to look after them. He told a reporter who visited the school in 2002: "A lot of pupils have said this is the best school they have been to." Born in Leeds, he attended a local school before going on to Dewsbury College, where he is thought to have taken Child Studies. There he met Hasina Patel, who also went on to work in schools. They married a couple of years ago and their daughter Maryam was born at Dewsbury District Hospital on May 19 last year. His wife's family initially disapproved because he was not as traditional a Muslim as they would have wished. An in-law told the Daily Mail: "It was not an arranged marriage, so we did not know very much about him. He does not believe in having a beard or wearing a hat. He has been to Pakistan a few times, but not for long periods." Hasina's mother, Farida Patel - whose house was raided by police on Tuesday - has been to a garden party at Buckingham Palace as a reward for her work in schools. She is now "off sick" from her job as a council liaison office at Birkdale School in Dewsbury. But her distress must be nothing to that of Khan's parents, Tika and Mamida, who were being quizzed by police at their Nottingham home They were said to be polite, traditional Muslims whose British-born children appeared "very Westernised". Mr Khan, a retired labourer, was born in Pakistan. The family moved to the £160,000 Nottingham house in 2000, having previously lived on Stratford Street in Beeston, Leeds, where police raided another house in the street on Tuesday. Neighbours said Mr Khan senior spent long periods in Pakistan and only returned from his most recent visit last week. The couple are believed to share the house with Khan's sister, Nafiza, a 34-year-old teacher, and her children. Another son, believed to be 30-year-old Hanif, arrived at the house yesterday to comfort his distraught father. "All the boys went to university and are educated," a neighbour said. "The family are well thought of in the Muslim community. What happened is a dreadful shock to us all." Khan and his wife moved from Leeds back to Dewsbury five months ago. Their neighbour, Imran Zaman, described him as a "quiet person". He said: "He kept himself to himself. He was a nice bloke, but who would have thought he would have done something ike this? I never knew he had a religious background. I go to the local mosque and have never seen him there." Documents belonging to Khan were found in the debris of the Edgware Road blast. |
Sinclair - December 19, 2006 09:11 AM (GMT)
For any new Forum members, there is a thread with Operation Crevice stuff here:
http://z13.invisionfree.com/julyseventh/in...p?showtopic=663
One of the important nuggets of info is that there were reports that originally 13 people were 'detained' in the Op Crevice raids at the end of March 2004, but then only 7 No. end up in the trial. Also the suspect Nabeel Hussain (has never been pictured in any web/news reports) aged 20, from Horley, Surrey - a student from Brunel University seems to be treated slightly differently as he was allowed bail.
Note that this trial is still ongoing at the Old Bailey (I think?!), but there have been no updates for a while.
Maybe the PC Sharon Beshenivsky * trial had to be sorted out first. I note that the Met Police were involved in that case (where men from Kentish Town & Forest Gate, London & Small Heath, Birmingham drove in a car (hired at Heathrow Airport apparently under the force of a Somali drug dealing gang), to rob a Travel Agency in Bradford & there were reporting restrictions in place during that case also.
* More on the WPC Beshenivsky Murder case on this thread
http://z13.invisionfree.com/julyseventh/in...p?showtopic=663
One of the important nuggets of info is that there were reports that originally 13 people were 'detained' in the Op Crevice raids at the end of March 2004, but then only 7 No. end up in the trial. Also the suspect Nabeel Hussain (has never been pictured in any web/news reports) aged 20, from Horley, Surrey - a student from Brunel University seems to be treated slightly differently as he was allowed bail.
Note that this trial is still ongoing at the Old Bailey (I think?!), but there have been no updates for a while.
Maybe the PC Sharon Beshenivsky * trial had to be sorted out first. I note that the Met Police were involved in that case (where men from Kentish Town & Forest Gate, London & Small Heath, Birmingham drove in a car (hired at Heathrow Airport apparently under the force of a Somali drug dealing gang), to rob a Travel Agency in Bradford & there were reporting restrictions in place during that case also.
* More on the WPC Beshenivsky Murder case on this thread
Kier - December 19, 2006 11:32 AM (GMT)
So, after referring to Tika Khan and his trips abroad, Sidique Khan's in-laws, in the same article, said:
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| He has been to Pakistan a few times, but not for long periods. |
This does at least show that trips abroad are nothing unusual for people of Pakistani descent living in this country, so it would be great if the media could stop making such a meal out it.
amirrortotheenemy - December 21, 2006 03:05 PM (GMT)
A Guardian article from 2001 with a reference to Omar Khyam.
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| 'We will replace the Bible with the Koran in Britain' Islam and the West: Observer special Paul Harris and Burhan Wazir in London Jason Burke in Peshawar Sunday November 4, 2001 The Observer On a brisk Thursday night outside Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, Abdul Qassim and his friend Mohamed Salim were talking of war. They look like typically articulate and casually dressed young Asians. But they want to fight for the Taliban. 'I'd never have previously considered going off to fight. But this is serious. Very serious. And something has to be done,' said Qassim. Qassim, 26, and Salim, 22, are members of al-Muhajiroun, followers of firebrand Islamist Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohamed. They had gathered at the mosque along with 50 other young Asian men to hear their leader speak. Fiercely uncompromising in their interpretation of Islam, the members of al-Muhajiroun are dedicated to their faith. But there can be a price to pay. Last week the group announced the death of at least three of its British members in Afghanistan. It said they had joined the Taliban to defend Islam, but were killed by an American bomb. Qassim and Salim walked into the mosque and began to wash before prayer, removing their socks and shoes at a sink. Salim looked approvingly at the bearded Bakri, dressed in white robes and seated by the microphone. 'I have pledged myself to what he says. It's a promise and one that I intend to keep. I'd do anything he'd ask me to,' he said. The duo listened as Bakri began to condemn, with characteristic flair, Britain's war against terrorism. 'The British Government has to be stopped,' said Bakri. 'Blair knows that he is wrong. And he will pay for it. We will remodel this country in an Islamic image.' Waiting until his followers stopped giggling at the vision of an Islamic state of Great Britain, Bakri continued: 'We will replace the Bible with the Koran.' Salim leaned inwards, whispering of his intention to fly to Lahore within weeks. 'I have managed to save some money from my job in a shop and I'll use that to get over there.' He looked round at Qassim in encouragement. 'You're going to do it as well, aren't you?' he asked. 'I think we should both go and fight. It's our duty to do it.' He glanced up at Bakri, who was now vociferously condemning Britain to an internal intifada . 'Christians have to learn that they cannot do this to Islam. We will not allow our brothers to be colonialised. If they try it, Britain will turn into Bosnia.' Al-Muhajiroun was founded in Jeddah in 1983 by the charismatic, Syrian-born Bakri. It promises to re-establish 'true' Islam throughout the world to the extent of wiping out other religious faiths. It is extremely anti-Semitic. Bakri, who was expelled from Saudi Arabia and has lived in London since 1986, calls for young Muslims to take up arms against the opponents of Islam. The organisation has offices across the developed world - in Kuwait, France, South Africa, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Syria and Algeria - and regularly asks its members for donations to fund its work. It funnels its British supporters to conflicts around the world by providing them with guides and contacts, but volunteers almost always have to pay their own way. Many commentators have previously written off Bakri and his tiny band of followers as an unpleasant joke. Bakri was even the subject of a documentary by the humorist Jon Ronson. But after the deaths last week, few people now see al-Muhajiroun as funny. Suddenly it is a threat. To Al-Muhajiroun, Afzal Munir, Aftab Manzoor and Yasir Khan are martyrs who died defending their Islamic brothers against an attack by the infidel. They are to be glorified. To many Britons, including government politicians, they are traitors, willing to take up arms to fight the armed forces of the country they grew up in. They are to be feared. But to their parents, they were idealistic but perhaps mistaken young men, who gave up a life of suburban normality to die in a foreign field. They are to be mourned. For Chudry Manzoor, who last week buried his son in the village of Sakria just outside Islamabad, it is a tragedy. He had repeatedly warned him about the risks, forbidding him to fight several times over the past three years. 'I never wanted him to fight a holy war against anybody,' he said at the burial. For many, the most shocking thing about the three young men is the suburban normality of their lives. Chudry Manzoor is a Luton grocer who has lived in Britain for 20 years and brought Aftab up to be a respectful family man. Aftab, 25, had a variety of part-time jobs, including one as a driver. The family home - like those of the other two dead men - is on a quiet residential backstreet, leafy and modestly prosperous. Aftab divided his time between Pakistan, where he had a wife and young daughter, and Luton, where he had gone to Denbigh High School and took his GCSEs. He worked hard and sent much of his earnings to Pakistan for his young family. He had left Luton for Pakistan for the last time before the 11 September attacks. But three weeks ago he telephoned his father and spoke of his plans to join the Taliban. Afzal Munir, 25, was also from Luton. He still lived with his father - a builder - and his mother, three sisters and 11-year-old twin brothers. The crowded family home was less than a mile from Aftab's house. He was known as a quiet, friendly young man. He too had gone to a local school, Challney Secondary, before going on to do A levels at Barnfield College and a computer course at Luton University. He was a regular mosque goer and attended Friday al-Muhajiroun meetings. But even three weeks ago - when he was still in Luton - many of his friends had known little of his intentions to head for Afghanistan. Some did, however. Mohamed Abdullah, 22, said the bombing of Afghanistan had affected him deeply. 'He may have lived in Luton but he felt the pain of his Muslim brothers and he wanted to do something about it,' he said. When Munir left for Pakistan he did not even tell his wife where he was going. The third man in the trio, Yasir Khan, was from the Sussex commuter town of Crawley. He may have lived across the other side of London from the Luton pair, but Khan inhabited the same, seemingly quiet, suburban world. He lived with his mother in a maisonette. He was also a regular worshipper at the local mosque and had recently helped out with some renovation work. He was a keen cricketer with the Eagles Cricket Club, whose players come from Asian backgrounds. Three years ago a picture was taken at a club presentation night. The only hint of Khan's religious conviction was a t-shirt bearing the slogan: 'The Final Revelation, The Final Message, The Final System, The Final Conquest: Islam.' Like scores of Crawley residents, Khan worked at Gatwick Airport. He had spent the last five months as a driver and loader for LSG Sky Chefs but, ironically, lost his job due to the downturn following the New York attacks. He had been asked to change his work schedule and refused. He is believed to have left for Pakistan shortly afterwards. His family insist that he was only on a mission to carry out aid work. No one should have been surprised that Luton and Crawley produced Taliban fighters. Last year a Crawley family went to Pakistan to search for 18-year-old Omar Kyam. Al-Muhajiroun had sent him to fight in Kashmir. A Briton jailed in Yemen on bombing charges hailed from Luton. A suicide bomber in Kashmir was from Birmingham. Al-Muhajiroun are effective because they exploit a sense of Asian victimisation, a feeling that - despite their qualifications, jobs and families - Asians will never be seen as properly British. It is a situation the older generation have tolerated. But young Asians like Manzoor, Munir and Khan, are less willing to accept the status quo. 'There is a sense that Asians have to be twice as good to be accepted as an equal, whether in accounting or football,' said Professor Tariq Modood of the University of Bristol's Ethnicity Research Centre. That gives al-Muhajiroun an opening. Islam is the answer, they say. The West will not accept you, therefore reject the West. The Muslim world is where you belong. Come home to Islam. Come home to Afghanistan. Near the banks of the River Ravi workers, hawkers and beggars push and shove down Lahore's traffic-clogged streets. In the din it is difficult to pick out the call to prayer. But in the plush suburb of Garden City the wail of 'Allah-u-Akhbar' can be heard loud and clear. And the men in the al-Muhajiroun office are listening. One of their leaders is Hassan Butt, a 21-year-old Luton-born former student. He helped the three on their move to Afghanistan. Butt has been in Pakistan for the past eight months. He has been involved in al-Muhajiroun for far longer. Butt, who grew up in Manchester and has A levels in media studies, computing and English, has been busy recently. There has been a steady flow of donations, including a cheque for £6,500 from a British-based doctor, and new people to be processed and sent to war. Some are from Britain. Abdul Momin, a 25-year-old from east London - where al-Muhajiroun is known to have recruited among university students - arrived a month ago. Now the former civil engineer is preparing himself for jihad. 'I did not like London because it is spiritually rotten,' he said. 'I want to live a proper Muslim life.' Despite the claims of al-Muhajiroun to have recruited up to 600 Britons to fight for the Taliban, the true numbers are much smaller, perhaps no more than a few dozen. Spokesmen for several Islamic groups with offices near to al-Muhajiroun headquarters all said there has been no flood of British volunteers. But the fact remains that a few are making it through. The Britons killed in Kabul two weeks ago were with a group of Islamic fighters diverted from the guerrilla war in Kashmir. It had been simple to join them and head into Afghanistan through the gateway of Peshawar. From there it's a short ride in a pickup and a few hours' mountain hiking. The handful of British volunteers for the Taliban are unlikely to have any material impact on the war in Afghanistan. They are poorly trained, poorly equipped and few in number. A British deserter last week described the problems he had faced when he was taken to the front line with other overseas novices and told to shoot at Northern Alliance soldiers. The result had been a bloody shoot-out, with the Taliban losing. But the real danger from the British volunteers lies in the impact they can have on race relations. That is why the Government has threatened prosecution against any found to have fought and rumours have circulated about reviving long-dormant treason laws. The nightmare scenario would involve British soldiers clashing with British Muslim volunteers, which experts warn could spark a disastrous breakdown in race relations. 'The ripple effect upon social attitudes, community segregation and race gang fights would be enormous, especially as many white people can't tell who is a Muslim and who just has Asian or Middle Eastern appearance,' said Modood. But the divisive impact has already begun. In Luton the vast majority of Muslim leaders were outright in their condemnation of al-Muhajiroun. The group's leader in the town, a man known only by the name Shahed, has been forced into hiding. 'We cannot allow this generation to fall off our radar and leave them in the hands of extremist lunatic groups like al-Muhajiroun. That would be to condemn them to certain death,' said Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. Yet many young Muslims may not be listening to their elders any more. At the Finsbury mosque Mohamed Salim now hears only the words of al-Muhajiroun. 'It seems to have given me a place in life. I was never very religious before, until I met someone from al-Muhajiroun. Now I think of the good of Muslims everywhere in the world.' Source |
amirrortotheenemy - December 21, 2006 05:16 PM (GMT)
Both Jawad Akbar and Yasir Khan of Crawley worked for airline catering firm LSG Sky Chefs.
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| Neighbours of a house in Juniper Road, Crawley, woke to see anti-terror cops on garage roofs. One claimed a father and son living at the address worked for Gatwick catering firm Sky Chefs. The neighbour added: “I’ve seen them with their airport security passes on their necks. They have the run of the airport — they are getting on and off planes with food all day.” The Sun |
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| Dead Muslim was Gatwick worker By Stewart Payne (Filed: 30/10/2001) ONE of four British Muslims killed by American bombs after apparently volunteering to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan, was a security-vetted employee at Gatwick Airport, it emerged yesterday. But the family of Yasir Khan, 28, of Crawley, West Sussex, insisted that he had travelled to Kabul, the Afghan capital, to distribute aid. Khan worked for LSG Sky Chef as a driver, delivering pre-prepared meals to airlines operating out of Gatwick. He left his job two days after the September 11 attacks in America after a disagreement over working practices, said the company. advertisement A spokesman said: "Yasir Khan was employed between April 18 and Sept 13. He was thoroughly security-vetted before he was taken on and neither his past employment record nor his character references gave any cause for alarm. He was a British citizen and carried a British passport. "He left after he refused to accept a change in working practices as a direct consequence of the terrorist attacks in America. With no flights departing for the US he was asked to transfer to other duties in the short term and he declined." A spokesman for Mr Khan's family said: "Yasir was a good Muslim. He was not a member of any extreme organisations . . . The family is angry that his name is being linked with extreme religious groups." His mother and sisters were being consoled by friends and members of the Muslim community at the family home in the Broadfield, Crawley, yesterday. Unconfirmed reports suggested that Mr Khan had travelled to Afghanistan with the intention of joining Taliban fighters. The other three men killed were from Luton, Beds. Source |
Update:
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| Friday, September 21, 2001 Update: Three terrorist suspects have CDL training A man licensed to haul hazardous cargo was arrested near Chicago last week by federal terrorism agents. According to published reports, two of three men arrested at the man's former Detroit residence also had recently trained to drive tractor-trailers. Nabil Almarabh, named by a source close to the federal investigation as a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was arrested in a Burbank, IL, convenience store where he had recently started working. He is being held on a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service request and on a warrant issued in Boston in March for allegedly violating terms of his probation on an assault conviction. In Detroit, agents interviewed officials of the U.S. Truck Driver Training School, where two of the men found in Almarabh's former residence, Ahmed Hannan and Karim Koubriti, spent a month this summer learning to drive big rigs, the Detroit Free Press reported. At Almarabh's former residence, federal officials discovered false identification papers and a day planner with notations in Arabic related to the U.S. base in Turkey, the American "foreign minister" and an airport in Amman, Jordan, according to the newspaper. The planner also contained sketches of an airport believed to be in Turkey. The men worked as dishwashers until July for LSG Sky Chefs, which provides in-flight meals for airlines at Detroit Metro Airport. Reportedly, Almarabh obtained his CDL on Sept. 11, 2000 - one year to the day before hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He is alleged to have visited a Secretary of State branch in Dearborn in August 2000 and showed proof that he had passed a road test in a big rig given by a driving examiner for Detroit Public Schools. Hannan and Koubriti started training at the truckdriving school the same month they took a leave of absence from their jobs at Sky Chefs. After they left, they kept their ID badges. At the school, the men claimed they needed the training classes for their jobs at Sky Chefs, the Free Press reported. Sky Chefs officials, however, say they never considered promoting the men to truckdrivers. The two men and another man, Farouk Ali-Haimoud, are charged with possession of false identification documents and conspiracy. They are being held without bond by the U.S. Marshal's Service. Source |
Bridget - May 4, 2007 11:16 AM (GMT)
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| An Operation Crevice inquiry would be a major waste of time By : Fraser Nelson 02/05/2007 It seemed a prima facie case of MI5 letting terrorists get away. David Davis is calling for a judicial inquiry. Once I would have agreed Just over two years ago, a well-known firm of consultants were appointed by a client whom they could never admit to serving. MI5 had, for years, used its own people for everything. A typical agent could be posted to Moscow, followed by a spell in the accounting department, to keep everything in-house. But then Islamic terrorism arrived, and with it the need to deploy as many people as possible to the front line – hence the need to bring in outside advisers. In their report to the Home Office, the consultants were not able to help MI5 much. They had no experience of any other organisation going through such rapid and profound change, other than the usual internet start-up companies. There is no “best practise” when it comes to infiltrating a terrorist cell, and not much guidance on how many resources to throw after a 22-year-old school dropout caught muttering about blowing up planes. This was entirely new territory, and the spies would have to work it all out for themselves. One of MI5’s successes, Operation Crevice, was finally made public last week. The convicted men had paid for 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, and had discussed whether to use it to blow up the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent or the Ministry of Sound nightclub. The jury deliberated for 27 days – the longest time in British criminal trial history – and by the time they came out Westminster was in a pique. The political class has known for months what can only now be revealed to the rest of the country: during Operation Crevice spies had been tracking Mohammed Sidique Khan, the mastermind behind the London bombs of 7 July 2005. To the Conservatives, this is a chance to pin the blame for those bombs on the Blair government. It seemed a prima facie case of MI5 letting terrorists get away. So David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, is loudly calling for a judicial inquiry. So little is known about MI5 and the way it operates that his demand may make sense superficially. Surely the agency can learn lessons? The Americans held a long, cathartic inquiry over the 11 September attacks: shouldn’t Britain now have one over 7 July? Once, I would have agreed. But the MI5 that thwarted Operation Crevice bears little resemblance to today’s larger organisation. And even looking back, it is hard to identify any procedural mistake which the spooks then made. Secrecy and television drama both do wonders for MI5’s image as an omniscient agency with infinite resources. Yet during the Crevice raids, in March 2004, there were just 2,000 people working for MI5. To put this in perspective, there were 2,600 assigned to the tax credit hotline and 10,000 at the Department of Trade and Industry. It was more than two years after 11 September, and staff numbers had hardly changed. Like the police, MI5 was working within parameters set by ministers. Tracking a suspect full-time is a luxury which requires about 60 staff, and during the Crevice case 55 suspects were being followed. There was not enough manpower to tail them all, so they needed to be prioritised. The 40 who had just been talking about crime, not terrorism, were let go. Khan belonged to this group, and he slipped off the radar. He lay low until his murderous comeback at Edgware Road tube station on 7 July 2005. Was this a gaffe? The files which have been in 10 Downing Street for two years – and the records read out in court – indicate not. There is nothing Khan said or did which would warrant treating him as a terrorist. He spoke about pulling on a balaclava and raiding an HSBC branch. His evil took longer to gestate. Even now officials in the Home Office are satisfied that, were MI5 to go through the same situation with same staff, the same decisions would be taken. But MI5 now has more resources – and more expertise in identifying terrorists. Its financial expansion did not start until the 2005/06 financial year, but since then the agency has been growing as fast as it prudently can. By next year, it will have reached its target of 3,500 staff – though still markedly less than the 5,500 staff of the Communities and Local Government Department. Should John Reid survive as Home Secretary, it will be up to him to see whether he wants to expand the agency further. At the time of the London bombings, MI5 was not up to strength. Now it is – which is why an inquiry into Mohammed Sidique Khan would achieve nothing more than the discomfiture of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. On the downside, it threatens to infect MI5 with the Whitehall malaise: where officials take decisions simply to cover themselves should there be an inquiry further down the line. MI5, of all agencies, cannot afford to lose its entrepreneurial approach. We should never forget that MI5 has one agent for every 20,000 Brits. There will always be misses. As the IRA told Baroness Thatcher after their failed attempt on her life, terrorists just have to be lucky once. The security services have to be lucky every time. For an agency of its size, MI5 has been extraordinarily lucky so far. An inquiry into Operation Crevice would do nothing to help. article |
Which firm of consultants? Who were these 'outside advisers'?
numeral - May 4, 2007 01:04 PM (GMT)
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| MI5 'kept police in dark over Khan inquiry' By Andrew Vine and Kate O'Hara POLICE were asked to do "next to nothing" to check out the ringleader of the July 7 suicide bombers when he was implicated in a major terrorist probe – but detectives later investigated him just months before the attacks that killed 52 people. Intelligence officers only asked for a "negative vet" – the lowest grade of inquiry – on Mohammed Siddique Khan, from Dewsbury, when he was linked to the Operation Crevice inquiry into a plot to detonate a massive fertiliser bomb, a senior Whitehall source has revealed. That request to Special Branch officers in West Yorkshire only involved them checking records for any mention of Khan – and they were never told by MI5 that he was connected to a major plot to bomb a crowded shopping centre or nightclub. The source told the Yorkshire Post last night: "This involved doing next to nothing, and the police were never told what was going on with Khan." He said that the intelligence services appeared to be attempting to scapegoat West Yorkshire Police over the failure to prevent the attacks. The revelation that officers in West Yorkshire were given too little information about Khan came a day after claims that it had been the police who "dropped the ball" in the inquiry. The matter is now to be investigated by the Parliamentary Intelligence Security Committee, following an outcry by survivors of the bombings and relatives of the dead after it emerged Khan had been under surveillance two years before the suicide bombings. As the row over the security blunder continued, it emerged that Khan had been under surveillance in West Yorkshire by officers from the Metropolitan Police anti-terror branch just six months before 7/7. Scotland Yard discovered Khan's name, mobile telephone number and a family address during inquiries connected with the fertiliser bomb plot. According to reports, police took a statement on January 27 2005 from the manager of a garage in Leeds which loaned Khan a courtesy car. The manager showed them records which said the car had been loaned to a "Mr S Khan" and gave a mobile number and an address in Batley, West Yorkshire. Khan had also asked for his repaired vehicle to be delivered to another address which proved to be that of his mother-in-law, in Dewsbury. On February 3 2005, Scotland Yard looked into Khan again. Officers from the anti-terrorism branch carried out inquiries with the company which insured a car Khan was seen driving, disclosing that the five-door silver Honda Accord was insured in his own name but registered in the name of his mother-in-law. The fertiliser bomb plot saw five men jailed for life this week. Both Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, of Leeds, had been photographed meeting the plotters. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "Police made routine investigations into a Vauxhall Corsa during Operation Crevice, including taking a witness statement. "This statement was disclosed to both the defence and the court." Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected calls for a public inquiry into July 7. Instead, he asked the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee – which last year gave MI5 a clean bill of health – to look again at the evidence. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "It is becoming clear the story presented to Parliament is at odds with the facts. "We were led to believe the investigation into Khan had been dropped when the security services had moved onto a new investigation. It is now clear that some element of investigation continued into at least February 2005." Last Updated: 04 May 2007 |
Bridget - May 6, 2007 09:32 AM (GMT)
Here we go:
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| MI5 'asked police force to investigate 7/7 bomber' Jamie Doward and Andrew Wander Sunday May 6, 2007 The Observer West Yorkshire Police failed to investigate the ringleader behind the 7/7 bombings despite being asked to by MI5, according to new evidence that the security service will present to parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. The ISC was asked to reopen their investigation into the 2005 bombings after it emerged last week that bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, had been on the periphery of the fertiliser bomb plot which saw five men receive life sentences for planning a terrorist campaign. Khan was filmed meeting the leader of the fertiliser bomb plot, Omar Khyam, at a service station in February 2004. A senior counter-terrorism source told The Observer that evidence to be supplied to the ISC would show the West Yorkshire force had been asked to make follow-up inquiries about Khan but the request was never followed through. 'When push comes to shove, evidence will be presented that a request was sent to West Yorkshire police asking them to make further inquiries about Khan,' the source said. West Yorkshire police is said to have no record of the request. But MI5 does not want to blame the police. A security service source told The Observer that further checks on Khan were not considered a priority because he was deemed to be a 'petty fraudster' with no interest in domestic terrorism and that even if there had been further investigations it is doubtful as to whether this would have altered its evaluation. |
Bridget - May 6, 2007 09:54 AM (GMT)
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| The network The five men jailed for life in London last week for a fertiliser bomb plot were all members of a violent Islamist group. With a worldwide influence and a radicalised following, is al-Muhajiroun waiting to strike again? Jamie Doward and Andrew Wander report Sunday May 6, 2007 The Observer Rewind to London, Sunday, 8 September, 1996. Al-Muhajiroun, an obscure Islamist organisation, has booked the London Arena in Docklands for a conference dedicated to 'the struggle for Khilafah', the creation of an Islamic state. Speakers are to include Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, al-Muhajiroun's leader, who 10 years later will flee Britain to Lebanon after praising the 7 July London bombers. Video addresses will be beamed in and letters of support are to be read. There will be one from Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas leader held in an Israeli prison for authorising the execution of two Israeli soldiers. There is another from Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, jailed in the US for plotting to set off bombs in New Jersey and New York. There will also be an address on behalf of a man called Sheikh al-Jihad, better known as Osama Bin Laden, who a month earlier had publicly declared war on America. Bin Laden's address, according to the conference organisers, will refer to the heroes of the Taliban. It will talk about Muslim suffering, about injustice, about the need to take action. For al-Muhajiroun this is a coming of age moment, the day the group emerged from its hinterland and on to the world stage. At the time the conference, which the organisers cancelled at the last moment, raised hardly a blip on the radar of British intelligence. Now The Observer can reveal how al-Muhajiroun became the incubator of a global terror network that played a decisive role in radicalising the five 'fertiliser bomb' plotters jailed for life last week for planning a multiple bombing campaign at targets that included the Bluewater shopping centre in Essex, the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London and Britain's domestic gas network. The fertiliser bomb plotters were typical of those al-Muhajiroun found and indoctrinated. The parents of many of those the group attracted pleaded desperately with their sons to break away. But al-Muhajiroun's appeal was irresistible. Hundreds embraced Bakri's call to jihad and, with al-Muhajiroun's help were dispatched to terror training camps in Pakistan. The bomb trial heard how the five - Omar Khyam, Waheed Mahmood, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar and Saladhuddin Amin, all Home Counties twentysomethings interested in sport and studying - were transformed from moderate Muslims into angry radicals keen to fight abroad. And at the heart of their conversion lay Bakri and his network of lieutenants whom he despatched to campuses, mosques and prayer centres to spread his message. 'While extremists are not always terrorists, terrorists are always extremists,' said Professor Anthony Glees, director of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies. 'The fertiliser bomb trial has given us the smoking-gun evidence that groups like al-Muhajiroun have had an important part in radicalising young British Muslims, and that this can create terrorists.' With hindsight the Islamic International Conference should have set off alarm bells. But the reaction from on high to the group's emergence was muted. Few politicians wanted to be seen to criticise ethnic and religious minorities when what passed for multiculturalism was an all-encompassing ideology. Instead the rantings of Bakri, his acolyte, Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric now serving seven years for inciting murder, and their growing number of followers, were dismissed simply as the headline-grabbing posturings of a lunatic fringe. The security service's assessment was that those brainwashed by al-Muhajiroun would simply end up dying in some corner of a foreign battlefield that was of no concern to Britain. As Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's Counter-Terrorism Command, said last month: 'In the Nineties many people believed extremists from overseas regimes who were active in the UK were, if anything, pursuing agendas against foreign governments, and posed little or no threat to the UK.' This failure allowed a dangerous global network to flourish. A network that has come back to haunt Britain and shows no sign of being dismantled. Forward: New York 2002. Everyone who knew Syed Hashmi says he was a good kid. Born in Pakistan but brought up in New York's gritty borough of Queens, friends recall Hashmi as a caring, bright young man, whose devotion to Islam was passionate but not of the sort that marked him out from any other Muslims. But things changed when Hashmi switched colleges, leaving Stony Brook University in Long Island for the more mixed Brooklyn College, from where he graduated with a degree in political science in 2003. It was at Brooklyn that Hashmi, 23, discovered al-Muhajiroun, inviting a member to speak at his campus. At the time the memory of the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Centre was hardwired into New York's consciousness. People were edgy and security services more vigilant. One prominent Muslim radical who lived in Queens had been a particular concern. In November 2001 Mohammed Babar, a naturalised US citizen who had been born in Pakistan, attracted the interest of US intelligence when he openly declared in a TV interview that he was willing to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. 'My loyalty will forever be with the Muslims,' he said, despite his mother having narrowly escaped from the World Trade Centre when the planes struck. Shortly after 9/11, Babar, who had been recruited by al-Muhajiroun in 2000, disappeared off the US intelligence service's radar. He had fled to Pakistan where he stayed at al-Muhajiroun's office in Lahore before buying an apartment in the city's Eden Heights suburb in 2002. Over the next two years, the flat became a temporary home to a conveyor belt of radicalised British Muslims, many of whom, like Babar, had been born in Pakistan and wanted to fight. Angered by what they saw as the West's failure to protect Bosnian Muslims in the Nineties war in the former Yugoslavia, their sense of grievance was heightened by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the turmoil in Chechnya and Kashmir. Many of those who stayed there ended up at the Malakand training camp hidden in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. It was there that Mohammed Siddique Khan, an al-Muhajiroun convert and the ringleader of the 7/7 plot that killed 52 people in London, learnt his murderous skills. Other Britons at the camp in the summer of 2003 included Omar Khyam, ringleader of the fertiliser bombers. He attended the camp with Saladhuddin Amin, later to play a key role in the plot. Along with scores of other militants the pair practised making explosives, detonating devices in the camp. Until now the details of how Babar met the fertiliser bomb plotters have been hazy. But documents filed by the US authorities who are extraditing him from the UK, say it was Hashmi, described as one of al-Muhajiroun's top recruiters, who brought the American, Babar, into the organisation where he later met the British fertiliser bomb plotters. Hashmi, who moved to Britain from Queens in 2003, allegedly allowed his London flat to be used to store supplies and money that Babar was shipping out to Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, then head of al-Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan. The supplies included ponchos, torches and boots, useful for recruits fighting US troops in remote parts of Afghanistan. Hashmi was arrested on 8 June last year as he tried to board a plane from Heathrow to Pakistan carrying thousands of pounds in cash. If convicted in the US he faces up to 54 years in prison. His lawyers say he will deny all the charges and that much of the evidence against him is conflicting. A Canadian, Momin Khawaja, said to be a close associate of Babar and al-Muhajiroun, will soon stand trial in his own country for his alleged role in the fertiliser bomb plot. Both trials threaten to shine new light on the links between al-Muhajiroun's operations in North America and Britain - links the US authorities are playing down. Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, quickly blamed British Islamists, but it is increasingly clear al-Muhajiroun's influence in the US spawned a small army of jihadists who exported the movement's ideology around the world. As Babar, who turned supergrass against the fertiliser bombers, admitted at the trial, the US arm of al-Muhajiroun was a key component in its success. 'Most influence started in the early Nineties - Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed here in the UK,' Babar said. 'They [al-Muhajiroun] had representatives in New York. I was able to meet them on the internet. We spoke numerous times over the phone and there was a lot of literature available on the internet.' The influence of al-Muhajiroun is apparent in the number of terrorists it allegedly influenced. The shoe bomber, Richard Reid, was seen at several al-Muhajiroun meetings in Ilford, east London, in the months before his failed attempt to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 flying between Paris and Miami. One regular visitor to the group's north London office was Asif Hanif, 21, from Hounslow, west London. On 29 April, 2003, he walked into Mike's Bar, a crowded cafe in Tel Aviv, Israel, and detonated his explosive belt, killing three people and injuring 60 others. Haroon Rasheed Aswad, another prominent member of al-Muhajiroun, was arrested in 2005 accused of attempting to set up a terror training camp for British and American jihadists in Oregon. In 2005 Mobeen Muneef, 25, a Londoner, was picked up by US Marines on patrol in Ramadi, southern Iraq, after being caught allegedly passing weapons to insurgents. Muneef is believed to have attended al-Muhajiroun lectures in London. But then, if the US needed reminding of the threat al-Muhajiroun posed to its own, it needed only to read a leaked memo by an FBI agent named Kenneth Williams. Written on 10 July, 2001, the memo warns bin Laden was attempting to send recruits to civil aviation colleges in the US. The document notes that the head of al-Muhajiroun, Omar Bakri Mohammed, had been receiving faxes from bin Laden in which the al-Qaeda leader urges Muslims to take action against the West: 'Bring down their airliners. Prevent the safe passage of their ships. Occupy their embassies. Force the closure of their banks.' Pause: east London, the Nineties. Few people can fathom how young British men are capable of turning on their country and killing innocent people, even if it sometimes involves killing themselves in the process. The five fertilizer bomb plotters were not loners, hiding away to nurture a discernible grudge against society. Three were married and two had children. Ed Husain, a former member of Hizb-ut Tahrir, the radical group from which Omar Bakri Mohammed split to set up al-Muhajiroun, is one of the few who knows how the conversion process from moderate to radical works. Like most of the fertiliser bombers, Husain grew up in a moderate Muslim family, but was radicalised in his teens. 'I grew up with a sense of being both Muslim and British,' Husain said. 'I went to a multicultural primary school and I really enjoyed it. But when I went to Stepney Green secondary school the atmosphere changed. It was a single-sex school, with boys predominantly from Bangladesh. There was nothing British about that school. It could have been in Karachi. My only choice at school was to become a gang member or become an Islamist.' Husain, who last week published a book about his experiences, The Islamist, says his first exposure to radical Islam came in religious education lessons at the school. 'We read a basic textbook that linked Islam and politics as the same and spoke about the Muslim Brotherhood as a perfectly legitimate organisation.' It appears a culture of Islamism was entrenched at the school. 'Prayers were being led by people linked to the East London Mosque. When my father heard they were holding these sessions he asked me to stop praying at school. I refused.' By then Husain was hooked. 'Eventually I was invited to the mosque. The atmosphere was radically different to my parent's mosque. There were young, dynamic Muslims. They were people I could identify with.' By then Husain's parents were deeply unhappy with the company he was keeping, and tried to persuade him to leave the mosque, known for its extreme brand of Islam. 'My parents knew I was betraying what they had raised me on. After trying to convince me, they gave me an ultimatum - either leave Islamism or leave the house. People at the mosque told me it was a test from God. 'So one night I wrote a note to my parents and left for the mosque. My mother phoned at nine the next morning. The caretaker answered and said I wasn't there. I was sitting right beside him. I could hear my mother crying. That was my first moment of doubt about these people. But by then I couldn't leave. My family had lost and I had won. It was a process of indoctrination.' Husain joined Hizb-ut Tahrir after meeting Bakri. 'People at the mosque could identify problems but couldn't offer solutions,' he says. 'Bakri offered a direct solution: the establishment of Muslim state with a foreign policy of jihad. There was a powerful message: this was the only way to be a Muslim.' The government continues to resist demands to proscribe Hizb-ut Tahrir, despite continued concerns about its influence expressed by both the Pakistan and US authorities. Press play: Present-day Britain. Somewhere in the UK hides a deeply disturbed 27-year-old would-be suicide bomber, a close friend of Asif Hanif, who killed himself and three others in Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv and an associate of several fertiliser bomb plotters, including Babar. The man, referred to as at the trial as 'Imran', has been on the run since last year.He had returned to the UK after a spell in a Pakistani jail, where he had been interrogated by MI6 over his links to suspected terrorists. When he was arrested in 2005, Pakistani intelligence found 'Imran' had the telephone numbers of several defendants in the fertilizer bomb plot trial, as well as high-ranking al-Qaeda figures. The jury heard the plotters had approached 'Imran' to become a suicide bomber but he had bailed out at the eleventh hour, believing they would not go through with their side of the plan. 'Imran', who had been radicalised by al-Muhajiroun in Britain before linking up with its office in Lahore, also admitted to the Pakistani authorities that he had met two of the 7/7 bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shezhad Tanweer, at a jihadist training camp in late 2004. His story should act as a warning: al-Muhajiroun's legacy lingers and its followers are still out there. Bakri may be in exile but he still spreads his message from his luxury flat overlooking the Mediterranean in Beirut where his neighbours include the Egyptian ambassador. 'Al-Muhajiroun are still a threat because Bakri's followers continue to operate under different names giving leaflets out at mosques and universities,' said Dr Irfan al-Alawi, director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism. 'Bakri continues to preach his sermons via an internet chatroom from his exile, which means his evil ideology is still being practised by his followers who are part of a new group called Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah.' These followers, notably Abu Izzadeen, charged last month with inciting terrorism overseas, have continued to preach incendiary sermons around the country. Splinter successor groups have emerged and, despite being proscribed by the government, continue to act as conduits for young radicals. Even Bakri acknowledges his former organisation's continuing influence. 'Al-Muhajiroun was a political party,' he told The Observer. 'We were not a militant group. During my 20 years as an Islamic preacher in the UK, three or four thousand people heard me speak. I cannot be responsible for everything these people do. Yes, I spoke of jihad, but people have taken it out of context.' The security service's greatest fear is that the hundreds, possibly thousands, of young men al-Muhajiroun helped dispatch to become 'holy warriors' overseas are now returning to Britain, ready to turn their sights on domestic targets. The trend was predicted as far back as 2002 by Hassan Butt, a former al-Muhajiroun member who attended terror training camps in Pakistan. 'These were people I was meeting and these were people who decided to return to Britain to become sleeper cells,' Butt said. The question is how many of those who returned will become active. It is an ugly conundrum for counter-terrorism services as they attempt to prioritise the most dangerous radicals. 'Intelligence suggests there are between 1,600 and 2,000 young Muslim men linked to terrorism in Britain,' said one counter-terrorism source. 'At any one time 20 will be talking about jihad overseas. Do you pick them up or wait and see? What nobody can answer is what happened to Mohammed Sidique Khan to turn him from a radicalised young man to someone who wanted to kill himself. We just don't know.' Answering the question may prevent further atrocities, but those charged with protecting Britain admit another successful attack is inevitable. And just as inevitably its perpetrator will have been influenced by an obscure Islamist group that appeared to have all of the answers: al-Muhajiroun. The origins of al-Muhajiroun Formed in 1996, al-Muhajiroun established a network that stretched around the world using public meetings and lectures in radical mosques. From an office in north London, the organisation maintained a presence in the US and Pakistan, gaining a reputation for extremist rhetoric. Under the leadership of Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the group recruited young men from mosques, gyms and universities. Many members travelled to Pakistan to train in 'jihad' camps before being dispatched to fight in Kashmir or Afghanistan or, as in the case of the 7/7 bombers and the fertiliser plotters, returning to the UK to plan domestic attacks. Al-Muhajiroun officially disbanded in 2004. A month after 7/7, fearing investigation by anti-terror police, Omar Bakri left the UK for Lebanon. Experts believe the organisation splintered into successor groups, which continue to operate in the UK. |
Is 'Imran' Haroon Rashid Aswat?
numeral - May 7, 2007 12:26 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Unheard pleas of terrorist's family By Adam Lusher and Olga Craig Last Updated: 12:43am BST 07/05/2007 The family of Omar Khyam, the British Muslim terrorist jailed for life for conspiracy to murder last week, claim they begged the authorities seven years ago to silence the Islamic cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed. Khyam's grandfather Taj-ud-Din, a decorated war hero who fought for the British in Italy and Egypt during the Second World War, says he spoke to police, MPs and his local council after realising that Bakri was ''brainwashing'' young Muslims and recruiting them into his militant Islamic group, al-Muhajiroun. ''Bakri has been influential in moulding my grandson,'' he said. ''I am very angry about that. I was very concerned that the Government didn't do anything. We parents were screaming for something to be done about Bakri.'' Khyam's uncle, Sajjad Ahmad, says he lobbied to have Bakri deported. ''We could see this disaster of brainwashed youth unfolding," he said. ''But the council, the MPs, the police, didn't want to know. They kept talking about freedom of speech.'' Bakri, whose rallying call was ''terrorism is part of Islam'', plied his trade in Crawley, West Sussex, where Khyam grew up. He is now banned from Britain and lives in Lebanon. |
amirrortotheenemy - May 7, 2007 01:15 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Bridget @ May 6 2007, 10:54 AM) |
| Is 'Imran' Haroon Rashid Aswat? |
Imran seems to fit the profile of Zeeshan Siddique
The Antagonist - May 7, 2007 01:19 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (amirrortotheenemy @ May 7 2007, 02:15 PM) | ||
Imran seems to fit the profile of Zeeshan Siddique |
numeral - May 8, 2007 09:37 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Bomb-plot warning to Welsh farmers – safeguard your fertiliser May 8 2007 by Sally Williams, Western Mail FARMERS in Wales are being urged to be extra vigilant when storing fertiliser, after five men were jailed for life at the Old Bailey for conspiring to bomb civilians in Britain. During the trial, jurors heard of the men’s plans to target a shopping centre, nightclub and the gas network, using a giant fertiliser bomb. According to the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (Nactso), the vast majority of terrorist attacks in the UK have used home-made explosives – most of which has been fertiliser-based. Even some of the smaller devices (less than 50kg) have caused fatalities, injuries and substantial damage, so the FUW says security is crucial at all levels of storage. Gareth Vaughan, FUW president, called on farmers to consider measures to prevent fertiliser from being acquired and misused by criminals. He said, “At a time when terrorist attacks are on the increase, we as farmers need to be extra careful when storing our fertiliser.” He advised farmers to adopt Nactso’s 10-point plan for fertiliser security: Do not store fertiliser where there is public access; Do not leave bags of fertiliser in the field overnight; Do not store fertiliser near to, or visible from, the public highway; Do not sell fertiliser unless the purchaser is personally known by you to be a bona-fide farmer and is aware of the need to follow this guidance. (Be aware of the requirement to provide a copy of the detonation-resistance certificate if you sell or supply relevant ammonium nitrate-based fertiliser); Do record fertiliser deliveries and usage; Do, wherever possible, store fertiliser inside a locked building or compound; Do fully cover fertiliser with a sheet when stored outside and regularly check to ensure that the stack has not been tampered with; Do carry out regular, frequent stock checks; Do report immediately any unexplained stock discrepancy or loss/theft to the police; Do record any manufacturer’s code numbers from the bags and if available, the number of the detonation-resistance test certificate. |
Sinclair - May 8, 2007 07:42 PM (GMT)
Sinclair - May 9, 2007 03:44 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (The Antagonist @ May 7 2007, 01:19 PM) | ||||
|
| QUOTE |
| One of the first to arrive in Pakistan to help this cause was Mohammed Junaid Babar, the "supergrass" witness in the fertiliser bomb plot trial. A New Yorker of Pakistani descent, Babar had associated with Al Muhajiroun in New York and after the attacks headed to the organisation's office in Lahore. There he found many other British men arriving. Many of these British men shared an apartment in Lahore. They loosely knew each other through their respective cells in the UK, in particular Luton, Crawley and the East End of London. Two men in this British network were Londoners Zeeshan Siddique, known by the plotters as "Immi" or "Imran", and Kazi Rahman. Babar alleged in court that "Imran" was asked to become a suicide bomber because he worked on the London Underground. Imran is said to have rejected the idea and his whereabouts are now unknown. Kazi Rahman is in jail. A senior figure in the East London cell, he was arrested in 2005 in a British police sting after trying to buy weaponry, including rockets to shoot down airliners. This was one of the most successful follow-up operations to the fertiliser bomb plot. source:BBC (emphasis & links mine) |
Bridget - May 9, 2007 03:49 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE ("sinclair") |
According to a preliminary report of the investigations jointly conducted by Canadian and British authorities and sent to Islamabad, Junaid Baber, Momin Khawaja and Haroon Rasheed Aswad, a suspect in London bomb blasts, had met in London some time in February 2004. Shahid brothers thread |
Yet no mention (to my knowledge) of Aswat has appeared in any of the Crevice Trial 'revelations'.
numeral - May 11, 2007 08:34 PM (GMT)
From Nafeez's blog Friday, May 11, 2007:
| QUOTE |
| Inside the Crevice: 7/7 and the Security Debacle to be printed in The Muslim News: After the verdict of the crevice trial announced on 30th April, which convicted five British Muslim defendants of plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in the UK, the spotlight has been on MI5’s handling of connections between the crevice plotters and the alleged 7/7 bombers, Mohamed Sidique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer. In an official statement on its website, the security service claims that Khan and Tanweer were “never identified during the fertiliser plot investigation because they were not involved in the planned attacks. Rather, they appeared as petty fraudsters in loose contact with members of the plot. There was no indication that they were involved in planning any kind of terrorist attack in the UK." Thanks to the investigations of a number of British journalists, we now know that MI5 has been somewhat economical with the truth. Richard Watson of BBC Newsnight, Vikram Dodd at the Guardian, and David Leppard at the Sunday Times, among others have obtained evidence from security sources showing that Scotland Yard and MI5 had indeed identified Khan, by name, at latest around six months prior to 7/7, via his car registration. This is also confirmed by a Crown Prosecution Service document that came up in the course of the crevice trial. Other interesting tidbits also surfaced in that trial about what was known about Khan. Contradicting the notion that he was only believed to be a petty criminal, the Crown also wanted to produce evidence at the beginning of the trial about Khan’s attendance at an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, as early as 2003. In the words of the trial judge, the evidence was supposed to prove “that the purpose of the training camp was to plan and cause explosions in the UK.” At this time, Khan was already under surveillance, and indeed MI5 knew that he was “fully versed in how to make bombs” by the time he returned to the UK in summer that year (Sunday Times 22.1.06) Intelligence leaks also suggest that Khan was directly involved in the fertiliser bomb plot. MI5 surveillance tapes obtained by journalists showed him contributing to attack plans with the fertiliser bomb plotters, and that he was involved in “late-stage” discussions about the plot, while repeatedly expressing his own desire to participate in al-Qaeda terrorist activity. (Sunday Times 14.5.06) In fact, contradicting the British official narrative entirely, French security officials are insisting that the 7/7 suspects had “belonged to the same network as the Britons of Pakistani origin who were partially arrested in Great Britain in March 2004” in Operation Crevice. Out of the total number of terrorist suspects “identified by the British only eight were arrested and five escaped”, according to a senior French police officer in Liberation (14.7.05). Among the five suspects at large, say the French, was Mohamed Sidique Khan. Khan seemed to surface everywhere. He came up again when MI5 was investigating the unimaginable series of plots (the dirty bomb project, the limousine gas project, etc.) hatched by Dhiren Barot, also convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in the UK. The Luton cell under Barot was, according to security officials, also linked to Khan. (ABC News, 14.7.05) Given this extensive track record of apparent terrorist activities and connections in multiple plots linked by authorities to al-Qaeda, the stated reasons for why Khan was dropped just don’t add up. All the evidence available to MI5, according to the aforesaid intelligence leaks, shows that the security services knew that Khan did indeed have direct knowledge of, and was involved in, terrorist activity in the UK. But the new evidence that has come to light after the crevice trial additionally shows that Khan was indeed under ongoing MI5 surveillance. A British security source told this author that Khan was monitored all the way through to May 2005. Further, a document disclosed by prosecution lawyers to the defence before the commencement of the crevice trial cited MI5 surveillance recordings of Tanweer “discussing bombings and using the internet to make such a bomb,” as late as “two weeks before” 7th July 2005. (Guardian, 3.5.07) So why didn’t the security services pick up any further information about the 7/7 plot, especially considering that not only Khan and Tanweer, but all four London bombers had been “watched by intelligence officers a year before” the attacks according to security sources cited in the Mirror (3.11.05)? Indeed, MI5’s insistence that Khan was only viewed as peripheral has also been torpedoed by its own officers. Last year, British security sources told BBC News (30.3.06) that: “… the security services had been so concerned about him [Sidique Khan] they had planned to put him under a higher level of investigation. MI5 officers assigned to investigate the lead bomber in the 7 July attacks were diverted to another anti-terrorist operation sources have now told BBC News. [emphasis added]” Why was an assessment that Khan needed to be prioritized, by officers on the ground monitoring him, rejected by senior officers? Did it have something to do with the possibility, mentioned by Charles Shoebridge, a 12-year veteran Metropolitan Police detective and Royal Military Academy graduate, who told BBC Newshour (June 2006): “The fact that that has been so consistently overlooked it would appear by the security service MI5, to me suggests really only one of two options. Either, a) we’ve got a level of incompetence that would be unusual even for the security services. But b) possibly, and this is a possibility, that this man Khan may even have been working as an informant for the security service. It is difficult otherwise to see how it can be that they’ve so covered his tracks in the interim.” Indeed, the evidence in the public record suggests significant intelligence about the London bombings was obtained in advance, yet clearly it was not acted upon. In the year before 7/7, MI5 and MI6 had received just under a dozen credible warnings of an impending terrorist attack, many from foreign allied intelligence services, including vital clues as to date, target and even timing. The Americans flagged-up the London Underground as a prime target, the Saudis pinpointed July 2005 as the deadline for the attack, the Pakistanis pointed at UK-based extremist networks in which Khan participated, while the French and Spanish gave general warnings of an imminent strike. Many of these warnings emphasized the threat from cells allegedly linked to al-Muhajiroun. Yet MI5 continues to pretend that it received no warning whatsoever of the London bombings. So why is MI5 being economical with the truth? The service’s increasing defensiveness, oversensitivity to criticism, and ritual denials of the evidence leaking from its own officers like water from a broken dam, bear witness to the validity of the questions that 7/7 survivors and families, journalists, investigators, opposition MPs and the public at large are asking. But we will never have the answers without an independent public inquiry. |
I'm going to check the sources cited. Khan everywhere?
Sinclair - May 13, 2007 12:16 AM (GMT)
Embedded links at the original article
| QUOTE |
May 8, 2007 Explosive Revelations in UK 'Fertilizer Plot' by Loretta Napoleoni The true story of the foiled "fertilizer plot," in which Muslim radicals planned to bomb a shopping center and a famous London nightclub using over a half ton of ammonium nitrate, has finally emerged. The jihadist cell in Crawley, a small town south of London, was dismantled thanks to the largest British counter-terrorism effort to that point: 36,000 man-hours of surveillance on both coasts of the Atlantic and in Pakistan and hundreds of reconnaissance missions led to the arrest and conviction of the thwarted bombers. This operation, code-named Crevice, should have been a feather in the cap of the MI5, but instead it risks throwing the Blair government into crisis as it unveils more lies fed to a credulous public. In the face of alarming news from the trial records of this case, Britons are asking two agonizing questions. First, why, in the aftermath of the suicide bombings of July 7, 2005, did the government declare that the 7/7 bombers had "clean skin" when two of them had come to the MI5’s attention at least three times during Operation Crevice? And why did the special services let them escape the surveillance net without alerting the police in the city where they resided? As if this were not enough, from the court records it has emerged that a mysterious individual of Pakistani origin known as "Q," who would come to be identified as Mohammed Quayyum Khan, recruited both cells’ heads. Mohammed Sidique Khan, leader of the 7/7 suicide mission, and Omar Khyam, the brains behind the fertilizer plot. Even more disconcerting is the revelation that Q is still on the loose, even though he only vanished just before the court’s verdict. The MI5 claims that there is no evidence to indict Q, therefore he cannot be arrested. But habeas corpus has been abolished in Tony Blair’s England, and the police have almost unlimited powers when it comes to "suspected terrorists." Hundreds of Muslims are sitting in British jails awaiting formal charges against them; why is Q not one of them? The uncomfortable questions don’t end there. Why wasn't Q included on the the blacklists of al-Qaeda financiers? The trial transcripts confirm that one of his skills was securing funds and materiel for bombings. Mere suspicion of involvement is normally enough to land one on the lists, making it difficult to vanish, because access to funds is barred. Credit cards, debit cards, checks, bank accounts – all are frozen. The press has proffered the hypothesis – neither confirmed nor denied by the special services – that Q was a "Deep Throat" similar to Mohammed Junaid Babar, also part of the fertilizer plot, who became an FBI informer after he was arrested in 2004. Babar – who is also free, thanks to the immunity granted him by the American authorities – revealed to the court that the heads of the two cells were identified in the spring of 2003 as they trained in the same jihadist camp in Pakistan. There they would have learned terror techniques, including how to use explosives and how to compartmentalize their cells. Babar also identified Q and established a link between the UK cells and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Both Babar and Q were followers of Omar Bakri Muhammad, a charismatic preacher who lived in England for almost 20 years. Muhammad, the head of al-Muhajiroun, a very popular group among Pakistani immigrants to Britain, fled the law in 2005 by moving to Lebanon, where he continues to grant inflammatory interviews to the British press. Al-Muhajiroun was looked upon favorably by the British authorities in the 1980s for supporting the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. It was only in the 1990s that they entered al-Qaeda's orbit. The Pakistani trail that came to light after the 7/7 attacks is back in the news, as are questions about the mysterious relationship between the two countries. In the wake of the new revelations, the survivors and the families of the victims of the 7/7 bombings are calling for a public inquiry into the government's handling of the two plots. If Q was an informer, why not say so? Or does the hawkish and intransigent Blair fear having to admit that even he is willing to negotiate with the enemy? More damning is the notion that two of the 7/7 bombers were left loose because, as the MI5 maintains, the government lacks the resources to properly survey the jihadist cosmos. If this is indeed the problem, then why spend money and sacrifice human life to "export democracy" overseas when the government cannot protect the citizens at home? source:antiwar.com |
Bridget - June 1, 2007 12:53 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Bomb plotters 'directed from the mountains' By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor Last Updated: 3:15am BST 31/05/2007 Al-Qa'eda chiefs in Pakistan are thought to have planned all of the recent terrorist incidents in Britain, including the suicide attacks in London on July 7, the thwarted fertiliser bomb plot to blow up shopping centres and the alleged conspiracy to destroy transatlantic airliners. Two of the London bombers and the leader of the fertiliser plot had been to training camps in the Pakistan border areas. They were in direct contact with ''core al-Qa'eda leaders'' and had received orders and equipment from them or through them. A leaked quarterly intelligence report produced recently by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (Jtac), based at MI5's London headquarters, said: ''Networks linked to AQ Core pose the greatest threat to the UK.'' It said recent intelligence also showed a potential threat from "AQI" or al-Qa'eda in Iraq, the network originally established by the Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The leaked report said: "A member of this network is reportedly involved in an operation which he believes requires AQ Core authorisation. ''He claims the operation will be on 'a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki' and will 'shake the Roman throne'. ''We assess that this operation is most likely to be a large-scale, mass casualty attack against the West." The report says there is "no indication" this attack would specifically target Britain, "although we are aware that AQI networks are active in the UK". A civilian worker with the Metropolitan Police has been charged under the Official Secrets Act in connection with this disclosure. Last year al-Qa'eda's leader in Iraq called on nuclear scientists to apply their knowledge of biological and radiological weapons to "the field of jihad". Details of a separate plot to attack Britain, "ideally" before Tony Blair steps down next month, were contained in a letter written by Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an Iraqi Kurd and senior al-Qa'eda commander. It was reported last month that he is now in American custody in Guantanamo Bay after being captured late last year. According to the Jtac document, Hadi "stressed the need to take care to ensure that the attack was successful and on a large scale". He has been described by the US state department as a former "internal operations chief" for al-Qa'eda and is said to have acted as a treasurer in recent years. Some have described him as occupying the position of number three in the organisation's hierarchy, behind Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Hadi was the man to whom Omar Kayyam, the leader of the fertiliser bomb plot - smashed by MI5's Operation Crevice - answered through a middleman. Police and MI5 have been conducting a covert inquiry, known as project Rich Picture, aimed at finding people who are being groomed for terrorism and identifying the Islamic extremists carrying out the recruitment. The nationwide investigation follows intelligence suggesting there is a very small, but significant number of British-born and Britain-based Muslims who are prepared to carry out bombings and other terrorist attacks in this country. They work to an al-Qa'eda appointed head who can either be home grown, or a foreigner living in Britain. Last November, Dhiren Barot, a Hindu convert to Islam, pleaded guilty to planning several attacks, including a radioactive "dirty bomb" and a plot to blow up limousines filled with gas cylinders in London, and received a 40-year prison sentence. MI5 is currently investigating dozens of suspected plots and watching hundreds of "primary investigative targets''. Telegraph |
matt - June 1, 2007 01:22 AM (GMT)
less of a leak than an intentional 'golden shower', methinks (and utterly believable too) :rolleyes:
Sinclair - June 1, 2007 12:07 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Bridget @ Jun 1 2007, 12:53 AM) |
A civilian worker with the Metropolitan Police has been charged under the Official Secrets Act in connection with this disclosure. |
This will be Thomas Lund-Lack.
Bridget - June 6, 2007 11:22 PM (GMT)
2.000 names in connection with Crevice:
| QUOTE |
| British and American officials close to the inquiry (they can't be named for fear of compromising the investigation) say that as far as they can tell, none of the four ever attracted serious attention from British police or intelligence agents who track Islamic extremists. Yet two of the suspected bombers appear to have had at least tangential connections to terror suspects from an earlier case. The most mysterious member of the bombers' group has been identified by British investigators as Germaine Lindsay, 19, a Jamaican-born British citizen and Muslim convert who has lived both in Leeds and in the town of Aylesbury, roughly 170 miles away. Some investigators now think he may have been the team leader. How he might have joined up with the others is still unclear. Some American officials, who render the Jamaican bomber's name as Jermaine Maurice Lindsay, say he was on a list of some 2,000 names collected last year in connection with Operation Crevice, a British and Pakistani joint police action aimed at foiling an alleged terror plot. It appears that Lindsay had contact with someone under scrutiny in the case, which concerned a scheme to blow up London's Heathrow airport or some other target of similar magnitude. But the Jamaican, who American investigators say visited his mother in Cleveland more than once during the 1990s, was never listed as a major terror suspect, and some British officials deny they ever had him in their sights. Investigators say Mohammed Sidique Khan's name also surfaced in the Operation Crevice inquiry, which ended with the arrest of eight British-born ethnic Pakistanis. (Those eight appear to be in custody, awaiting trial, although Britain's restrictive press laws have circumscribed media coverage of the story.) Newsweek 25/07/05 |
Sinclair - June 7, 2007 12:41 PM (GMT)
Q&A Article with Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell
| QUOTE |
Q&A: RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Friday, June 01, 2007 The National Post asked RCMP's top counter-terrorism officer, Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell, what police have been doing in the year since the arrests of the Toronto 17. Here is a full transcript of the interview: Q: It's been a year since the 17 terrorism arrests in Toronto. Where does the investigation stand? A: The investigation is concluded. Q: When did it conclude? A: That's difficult to say. In that world, you're always following, we're always watching. But with respect to the 17, their cases are concluded. We're still watching the periphery of the file, if you will, and where all the associations go, but the case is built against the 17. However further investigation has, and until its tracked right down to the nth degree, will always continue. Because it's just the nature of today's threat. It's an amorphous threat that uses the Internet, so every contact should be tried to track down and they're very complex, these investigations but I can say with respect to the 17 that the investigations are concluded. The overall [Project] OSAGE will go on forever. I shouldn't say forever, but will go on until we're 100 per cent satisfied. And again I take you back to Project CREVICE [which resulted in the 2004 arrests of Momin Khawaja of Ottawa] and that became public knowledge although it was one of the worst kept secrets ever, the link between Project CREVICE in the United Kingdom and the July 7 bombings, so it's that kind of thing that we're guided by. The only guidebook we have in this fight against this new world of terrorism is experience, and until five, six years ago, everybody was lacking that so we're struggling to get on top of it." Article Continues @ source:Canada national Post |
Now if you were a counter-terrorism investigative officer, would you describe a link/connection between two 'terror plots' or two 'terrorists groups' (even if the link was uncovered after an event) as a 'worst kept secret'?
I don't think so, only in a War of Terror
Bridget - June 9, 2007 12:14 PM (GMT)