LONERS AND WANNABE TERRORISTS

FROM: http://www.iiss.org/whats-new/iiss-in-the-press/press-coverage-2008/november-2008/loners-to-wannabe-terrorists/

In two separate cases, white British loners found acceptance online among Islamic extremists and then attempted to detonate bombs.

Presiding Justice Calvert-Smith declared that a twelve month delay on sentencing requested by the defence in the sad case of wannabe suicide bomber Nicky Reilly would not be acceptable last Friday. For many, the conclusion in this case seems to be that it was a one-off situation where extremists took advantage of a person suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome who had a mental age of 10. But while Reilly’s case is the most prominent to have reached the public imagination, thanks to the advanced nature of his plot, there are similarities to be found in other cases in the year preceding Reilly’s attempt.

Nicky Reilly, aka Mohammed Rasheed, apparently initially converted to Islam at some point in his late teens for reasons that remain unclear. More recently he was in contact with individuals on the internet who apparently persuaded him to attempt to carry out a suicide attack in his home city of Exeter. After some debate online about whether to target a police station or the general public, Reilly went into the city centre in Exeter and attempted to construct an explosive device using plastic bottles and nails in a restaurant toilet. Fortunately for the clientèle in the Giraffe restaurant that he targeted, the volatile device blew up in his face before he could run into the main restaurant, leaving him the only casualty.

Reilly pled guilty to the charges against him, and a note found in his bedroom by police apparently stated “I have not been brainwashed or indoctrinated. I am not insane. I am not doing it to escape a life of problems or hardships. I am doing what God wants from his mujahideen. We love death as you love life.” While this last line is a famous quotation taken from a speech by Osama bin Laden, it seems as though Nicky Reilly had no connection to any known terrorist group or network beyond the internet. There were claims in the wake of the attack that he was on the periphery of another Security Service investigation and two men were arrested in the immediate wake of Reilly’s arrest, but one was immediately released and the other detained on unrelated charges.

During the course of the case, it emerged that Reilly was apparently spurred into action by people he met on the internet, who pushed him down an ever more radical path and helped him figure out the logistics of what he was planning to do. While his family noticed that he was increasingly fascinated by more extreme form of Islam, it seems as though there was no particular trigger for his drastic action.

Almost a year earlier, on May 8, 2007, Nicholas Roddis, a 22-year old man from South Yorkshire left a hoax bomb on a bus in a plastic bag with nails, wire, a bag of sugar, and a working clock along with a note in Arabic which claimed to be from the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Raiding his home a month later, police found bomb-making instructions, fuse wire, acetone and hydrogen peroxide (chemicals that it was widely reported were used in the July 7 attacks), along with sermons by extremist preacher Abu Hamza. While police said he had not actually converted to Islam, Justice Milford declared that he “had become an adherent of Islamic militancy” but concluded he was a lone fanatic. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in July of this year.

Common in these cases is that the men are white converts to Islam who in relatively short order are alleged to have headed down a route to potential extreme violence in the name of Islamic extremism. They are described in the press as being relative loners, coming from broken and troubled homes, and it would seem as though for the most part their conversions happened virtually. Naturally, this background is not unique to these men, but it is hard not to miss the unfortunate similarities in these cases. In counter-terrorism parlance, these are described as “lone wolves” – individuals with no apparent connections to any known network or plot who apparently of their own volition attempt or succeed to carry out a terrorist attack.

Parallels are often drawn with those who carry out school shootings or other random acts of violence, but these actions do not result in the same sort of elevation of the perpetrators as one sees with Islamic terrorists (aspiring or successful). There may be particular danger in these Islamic plotters: these social misfits find relief and meaning in an ideology that makes them a part of a global movement that portrays self-sacrifice and the deaths of others as the ultimate purpose.

This is a problem that by itself will be almost impossible to counter: such individuals are by their nature hard to detect. But the question does have to be raised as to why these individuals are finding their voice in this violent Islamic expression – is it merely the loudest voice they are attracted to on the internet? Or is it that, as Justice Milford put it in his remarks at Nicholas Roddis case, “He is angry at the way he sees the world and the way it has treated him, he has found his focus in Islamic militancy. It is one of the dangers of this sort of terrorism when other people tag on to it for their own reason.” Either way, until we find a solution to the overarching problem, we are likely to continue to see such cases in our society.

MUSLIM EXTREMISTS PROTEST WHILE POACHERS PARADE

*** Do these self-righteous zealots have some evidence regarding the crimes they have accused all of these soldiers of? I don't understand: why the hell are they living in the UK if they hate it so much? Go to Yemen - lemme know how that works out for ya. MS ***

FROM: http://news.scotsman.com/news/Army-supporters-abused--protesting.6007959.jp
Published Date: 23 January 2010

By Rosa Silverman

TWO supporters of the British army shouted abuse about Osama bin Laden at Muslim protesters at a soldiers' homecoming parade, a court has heard.

Bryan Kelso, 27, and Kevin Carroll, 40, deny committing a public order offence at the parade in Luton, Bedfordshire, to welcome home the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, known as The Poachers.

Angry scenes broke out at the parade on 10 March last year after a group of Muslim extremists brandished placards with slogans including "Butchers of Basra", "British soldiers burn in hell" and "Baby killers".

Kelso, of Chapel Street, Luton, and Carroll, of Bollingbroke Road, Luton, pleaded not guilty at Luton Magistrates' Court to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Both men were part of a hostile crowd who confronted the Muslim protesters and told them to "f*** off", prosecutor Avirup Chaudhuri said.

They also sung a song with the words "Bin Laden's mother is a whore", he told the court.

Kelso, a father who had wanted to join the army himself, told the Muslims to "get out of my f****** country" and made obscene gestures, Mr Chaudhuri said.

He can be seen on CCTV footage approaching the protesters aggressively and having to be pushed back by the police, he added.

Carroll called the Muslims "scum" and "w******", he said, and could be seen on CCTV footage shouting and gesticulating at them.

Mr Chaudhuri said: "The two men were in the vanguard of the hostile crowd."

The Muslim protesters had links to the recently banned group Islam4UK, the court heard.

Kelso said in his police interview, which was read out in court: "They were just giving so much abuse to people who I consider to be heroes.

"They were shouting at the people who are defending this country. I ain't going to lie to you, I would have hit one."

A large crowd of well-wishers turned out on the day of the parade and Kelso had attended with his daughter and his former partner, the court heard.

He and Carroll were arrested in September after police viewed CCTV footage recorded on the day.

Giving evidence, Inspector David Atraghji, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "(The) counter-demonstrators ... were collectively loud, the chants were obviously abusive and I would say they were physically intimidating."

Both men accepted that the language they had used was abusive.

Father-of-one Carroll, a carpenter, told the court he was "extremely angry and outraged" at the Muslims' protest against the British army.

Giving evidence, he said: "(My language) was meant to be abuse because that was how I felt at the time.

"I went there to greet my home-town regiment because one of the chaps that was killed there, I knew him, and I felt I owed it to him to turn up."

"What made me intensely angry was that these extremists were allowed to stand in front of the these troops, who had just lost three of their best friends." He was not a member of the National Front and was not a racist, he said in his police interview.

Kelso, who worked as a market trader at the time, said he had two friends in the local regiment.

He said he was "close to tears" when he heard the Muslims' protest.

Giving evidence, he told the court: "The march made me really proud, so happy ...

"(The protesters) were just abusing people that defend this country."

The trial was adjourned to 5 March and both men were released on bail.

AL QAEDA - WHITE ARMY OF TERROR

*** Almost a year to the day of this article. Connecting dots... MS ***

FROM: http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/AlQaeda39s-white-army-of-terror.3667425.jp

Published Date: 13 January 2008
By Richard Elias

HUNDREDS of British non-Muslims have been recruited by al-Qaeda to wage war against the West, senior security sources warned last night.

As many as 1,500 white Britons are believed to have converted to Islam for the purpose of funding, planning and carrying out surprise terror attacks inside the UK, according to one MI5 source.

Lord Carlile, the Government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, said many of the converts had been targeted by radical Muslims while serving prison terms.

Security experts say the growing secret army of white terrorists poses a particularly serious threat as they are far less likely to be detected than members of the Asian community.

Since the 7/7 and 21/7 London bombings, police and intelligence services have had considerable success in identifying, disrupting and stopping extremist plots. As a result, groups such as al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen have been forced to change tack. Converting white non-Muslims has been one response.

The trend is well established in the United States. American-born Adam Gadahn is one of the FBI's top 10 most-wanted terrorists after converting to Islam and rising through al-Qaeda's ranks to become a prominent spokesman.

One British security source last night told Scotland on Sunday: "There could be anything up to 1,500 converts to the fundamentalist cause across Britain. They pose a real potential danger to our domestic security because, obviously, these people blend in and do not raise any flags.

"The exact figure of those who have converted to Islam and turned to terror is not precisely known. Not everyone who converts becomes radicalised and it may be that just two-fifths go down that path, but it remains a significant and dangerous problem."

Carlile said he was not aware of specific numbers, but confirmed to Scotland on Sunday that Whitehall was aware of the new threat and was actively tackling it. He said: "These people are an issue and are potentially very dangerous. There have been cases of non-Muslims converting before, and of these, Richard Reid, the so-called Shoebomber, is the most obvious example.

"They are more difficult to detect and the security services are right to place some focus on this issue."

Carlile said the majority of converts were targeted when they were in prison: "These (converts] are outside the standard type of profile which most police forces would have of a terrorist, which is male, young, and of Middle Eastern or Asian appearance. That is why they are so potentially dangerous."

Carlile added: "The Home Office has a lot of money, millions of pounds, which is being put forward for communities and fighting radicalisation. There is no question how tackling this issue is best achieved: it is achieved at a community level."

Security experts say radical Muslims in prison have become adept at identifying potential new recruits to their cause. Those in custody for the first time, the young and the lonely are particularly susceptible.

Initially, the approach is made to comfort, console and support, with very little reference, if any, to religion.

However, after several 'chats', the conversation will be turned towards the subject and, gradually, over a period of weeks or months, it is possible to complete the conversion.

Robert Leiken, director of the Immigration and National Security Programme and a specialist on European Muslims based at the Nixon Centre in Washington DC, said: "To me, the figure of 1,500 seems reasonable as many, perhaps less than a third, will actually go on to become radicals.

"New religious recruits always tend to be more zealous than those who have grown up with that specific religion."

Edwin Bakker, a Dutch-based security specialist, has studied at length the issue of radical conversions. He said: "The question is relevant and timely. Newcomers to Islam are extra-sensitive to perceived discrimination of Muslims and Islam-bashing.

"They feel they have to defend Islam – one of the essential concepts of Jihad – and they feel they have to prove themselves as newcomers."

But one of Scotland's leading Muslims disputed the claims of radicalisation, saying Islam's strict moral code made it unattractive to many westerners.

Bashir Maan added: "I do not know of any Islamist terror group in Scotland and, considering as a Muslim a person must pray five times daily, abstain from drinking (and] sex outside marriage, adhere to strict dietary and many other rules, it is impossible to convert to Islam a young person brought up in this very liberal society.

"I agree that the security services must be vigilant and keep their eye on everybody, but I think in this case they seem to be over-reacting."

*** Well, unless you are with the government, you probably would not know of any Islamist terror groups in Scotland Brother Bashir. Secondly, Muslims don't always do what they're supposed to; no different than someone from any other religion or code. Third, it is hardly IMpossible to convert someone from this path: I have done it myself and seen it done right in front of me. MS ***

BANNING ISLAMIST GROUPS VS FREE SPEECH

*** How far are we willing to go in the name of "free speech" ? MS ***

FROM: http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35936&tx_ttnews[backPid]=26&cHash=ed01757c24

Ban on U.K. Radical Islamist Group al-Muhajiroun Raises Free Speech Questions

Raffaello Pantucci

The British Home Office finally proscribed the radical Islamist organization al-Muhajiroun (The Emigrants) and a number of its successor organizations on January 14. The ban included the best-known offshoot of al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK. Described by the Home Office as a sort of “cleaning up” following the proscription in July 2006 of two predecessor organizations, al-Ghurabaa (The Strangers) and the Saved Sect, the order awakened a heated debate in the United Kingdom about whether the government was taking responsible security measures or criminalizing dissent and persecuting Muslims. U.K. Home Secretary Alan Johnston cited al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect in his defense of the proscription of al-Muhajiroun in a letter to the Guardian, which had been critical of the move:

"Prior to its proscription in 2006, those two organizations called for readers of its websites to "kill those who insult the prophet," praised the terrorist actions of Osama bin Laden, and advised that it was forbidden to visit Palestine "unless you engage in the main duty of that place, i.e. jihad." These are not views that are merely provocative – they are designed to encourage violence and legitimize violent acts in the name of religion. They are vehemently opposed by the vast majority of Muslims."

"Anyone living in a democracy has to accept that freedom of speech gives people the right to say things that others find offensive. But all democracies have to set reasonable limits. Freedom of speech, cannot, by definition, be extended to those who use this right to incite hatred or violence – to curtail the rights of their fellow citizens to life, liberty and security (Guardian, January 19)."

For many, the actual proscription of al-Muhajiroun may come as something of a surprise, given the general perception it had been banned years ago. This incorrect assumption was borne out of the fact that the British government had previously proscribed the predecessor groups, without bothering to add the name al-Muhajiroun to the official list of banned organizations since the group had officially disbanded in October 2004. The group claimed the decision to disband was made as in the wake of 9/11 as, “there is nothing left except that the sincere Muslims who fight with their lives, flesh and wealth unite for the sake of Allah.” Analysts have instead speculated that there was growing concern in the organization about a schism between the Pakistani and British branches, and the fact that earlier in 2004 a group of individuals linked to the organization had been arrested as part of a major police counterterrorism investigation codenamed Operation Crevice.

According to group founder Omar Bakri Mohammad, al-Muhajiroun was established on March 3, 1983 in Saudi Arabia. At the time Bakri Mohammed was an on again-off again member of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he was then having difficulty with as they disapproved of his activities in Saudi Arabia. He was duly arrested and expelled by Saudi authorities and landed in the United Kingdom in January 1986. He spent the next decade establishing Hizb ut-Tahrir in the U.K., making it into the most public face of the “Londonistan” phenomenon. However, his brash pronouncements (including a declaration that Prime Minister John Major would be a target for assassination) attracted increasingly negative attention and in the end resulted in his falling out with Hizb ut-Tahrir. In January 1996, he announced the “reformation” of al-Muhajiroun, taking only two loyal followers with him.

Unfettered by Hizb ut-Tahrir’s politically wary global leadership, Omar quickly steered al-Muhajiroun deep into the radical fringe. While already known before 9/11, the group achieved even greater notoriety afterwards by hosting events honoring the “Magnificent 19” [the 9/11 suicide bombers] and became a focus for counterterrorism investigators. While initial attention focused on the more overt jihadi preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri (currently in a British jail fighting deportation to the United States), over time it became increasingly apparent that al-Muhajiroun figured prominently in the background of a number of terrorist suspects and cells. The group regularly rejects links to terrorism; the standard denial is that the people concerned were not members when they were involved in terrorism, but this is something very hard to prove or disprove given the opaque nature of al-Muhajiroun’s official membership. Nevertheless, it is hard not to note the group’s presence on the British jihadi fringe for much of the late 1990s and 2000s. Aside from the group arrested in Operation Crevice, there has been evidence linking the rest of the organization to numerous terrorist networks in the U.K.. Looking abroad, members or former members of the group have been present on the battlefields of Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine and Afghanistan, both before and after 9/11. In late 2000, al-Muhajiroun founder Omar Bakri Mohammad claimed responsibility for recruiting Britain’s first suicide bomber, Mohammed Bilal (a.k.a. Asif Sadiq), who blew himself up and several Indian soldiers in Kashmir on Christmas Day, 2000 (Asian Age, December 30, 2000; Dawn Weekly, January 6, 2001).

Within the U.K., however, the decision to ban the group was seen by many in a very different light. Early this year, the group announced that it was planning a protest march in Wootton Bassett, a village in southwest England which has become famous for honoring fallen British servicemen whose remains pass through after repatriation at nearby RAF Base Lyneham (Times, January 2). Al-Muhajiroun’s plans met with universal opprobrium, including that of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who declared the plans “abhorrent and offensive” (Guardian, January 4). At the same time, in the town of Luton, a group of five local men tied to al-Muhajiroun were convicted of using “threatening, abusive or insulting words and behavior likely to cause harassment and distress” (BBC, January 11). The men had protested a march through Luton by servicemen of the Anglian Regiment returning from Iraq by waving placards denouncing the troops as the “Butchers of Basra.” Thus when the Home Secretary made the announcement that the group was to be proscribed on January 12, the events were naturally linked. This opened up a debate about whether it was proper to proscribe groups for expressing distasteful opinions.

The government’s response was to point to a just completed (and confidential) Joint Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC) report commissioned after the group announced its “reformation” in May of last year (BBC, January 12, 2010). Naturally this was received with some skepticism, and when the renewed attention brought to “Londonistan”—in the wake of revelations that Christmas Day “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may have been in part radicalized in London—was factored in, the belief was that the government needed to take visible action and this group was the target (Times, December 29, 2009).

The actual impact of the ban is very hard to measure. Al-Muhajiroun co-founder Anjem Choudary remains a very public figure (he did numerous public interviews in the wake of the proscription) and has not given any indication that he is going to curb his calls for Shari’a in the U.K. As he pointed out, “unless the Government can prove that you are ostensibly exactly the same organization, doing the same things at the same time, it’s very difficult to clamp down” (Times, January 16). More likely, the group will go relatively quiet for a while before re-emerging under a new name – as it did when some of its predecessor groups were proscribed. This cycle will likely continue to repeat itself until enough of the senior leadership receives heavy prison sentences for infringing terrorism legislation – something that is unlikely given Choudary’s background as a lawyer and the care with which the extremists make their inflammatory statements.

Raffaello Pantucci is a Consulting Research Associate with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and an EU Science and Technology Fellowship Programme (China) Research Fellow.



Notes:

1. For the official proscription order and complete list of the proscribed al-Muhajiroun off-shoots see: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2010/uksi_20100034_en_1.

2. Omar Bakri Mohammed, “An official declaration dissolving Al-Muhajiroun,” http://www.almuhajiroun.net, October 8, 2004.

3. For a comprehensive history of the genesis of the group, please see: Quintan Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising: Muslim Extremism in the West, (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).

4. For a complete overview of the group’s links to terrorism, please see the forthcoming Raffaello Pantucci, “The Tottenham Ayatollah and the Hook Handed Cleric: An examination of all their jihadi children,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 33(3), March 2010.

BRITISH HUB OF AQ IN WEST

FROM: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6998580/British-al-Qaeda-hub-is-biggest-in-West.html

Britain has the greatest number of Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda of any Western country and poses a grave risk to international security, the US government believes.

Terrorist groups are using the UK as a base to plot terrorism attacks around the world, American officials have disclosed.

The level of al-Qaeda activity in the UK is a “major source of concern” in Washington.

American leaders believe Gordon Brown's government is failing to combat the threat of extremism among Muslims living in Britain.

“The UK has the greatest concentration of active al-Qaeda supporters of any Western country,” a senior US official told the Daily Telegraph.

“As a result, no Western country has been more threatened than the UK, but the UK-based al-Qaeda network poses not only a potent threat to Britain but to the rest of the world.”

The disclosure of American fears will increase Transatlantic tensions over the attempted terrorist attack on an airliner over Detroit last month.

The would-be suicide bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has said his attack was inspired and directed by al-Qaeda.

It has been claimed he was radicalised in London, where the bomber, a Nigerian, was a student between 2005 and 2008. British officials insist that he became a terrorist in Yemen.

American officials believe that European Muslims are more likely than their counterparts in the United States to subscribe to extremist doctrines.

The US prides itself on “assimilating” all immigrant groups into mainstream culture, while European nations including Britain have pursued a policy of multiculturalism. Critics say it leaves Muslims at risk of being alienated from wider society and susceptible to radical movements. (MS: Blaming multiculturalism again? Assimilation the only way? I respectfully disagree. Look more into what causes this "alienation from wider society" - does that just happen all of a sudden? No it does not.)

“The level of al-Qaeda activity in Britain is becoming a major source of concern,” said a senior State Department official.

“The organisation’s ability to use Britain as a base to plot terror attacks constitutes a serious threat to the security of Britain and other Western countries.”

The failed Detroit attack has renewed international attention on Britain’s record in dealing with international terrorism.

Abdulmutallab’s attack was the third al-Qaeda attempt to bring down a US-bound plane linked to Britain. In 2001, Richard Reid, from London, tried to explode a bomb hidden in his shoe on a flight to Miami.

In 2006, a plot by Islamic extremists to blow up transatlantic airliners using homemade liquid bombs was foiled.

Among some US politicians and security experts, the British capital has been dubbed “Londonistan” because of the presence of so many radical Muslims and mosques with connections to extremist preachers.

British universities are a particular concern. Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society at University College London between 2006 and 2007, while he was studying for an engineering degree. UCL, together with many other British universities, has been accused of failing to stop radical preachers giving talks on campus for fear of being accused of Islamophobia. (MS: There IS a way to walk the line...but my suggestions may not be appropriate for the public sphere. Rest assured, it does not have to be one way or the highway.)

Although the July 7 attacks in London in 2005 were the only fatal al-Qaeda attacks in the UK, many other plots have been disrupted. In 2006, British police disrupted an al-Qaeda plot to explode liquid bombs on several Transatlantic airliners, an operation officers said could have killed thousands of people.

Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, has said that his service was aware of around 2,000 radicalised Muslims in Britain who might be involved in terrorism plots.

The Security Service has not updated that number since, but American officials believe it is now even higher. (MS: Believe it.)

United States intelligence officers are also gravely concerned about the number of British Muslims travelling to Yemen to become involved in extremist activity. Yemen is emerging as a focus for international counter-terrorism, as intensive military activity forces al-Qaeda to reduce its activity on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Yesterday, launching his party’s new national security strategy, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, suggested that immigration systems are allowing dangerous extremists to enter the UK.

“There’s not much point having tougher laws to deport people who are a threat to Britain if at the same time we don’t have a proper border police force to stop unwanted people from coming in,” he said.

The stark American assessment of Britain’s position is, however, at odds with the optimism of British officials.

Last year, the official UK “threat level” was lowered, and Whitehall officials have claimed that British intelligence agencies have identified every significant terrorist cell in the country.

Earlier this month, relations between London and Washington were strained over just what information about Abdulmutallab had been passed to the US authorities by British intelligence agencies.

Downing Street has said that more than a years ago, MI5 passed on “security information” about Abdulmutallab’s links to radical preachers. However, US officials have insisted that any information passed on did not identify him as a potential terrorist.