*** Now tell us how Muslims benefitted at all from this O Jihadi Wannabe's? We are subject to even more profiling, secondary checks and hateful stares if we do manage to get on that plane. Now you have left your parents and family in this mess of your own making ... Bravo! MS ***
FROM: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100712/world/eu_britain_airliner_plot
LONDON - The three final conspirators in a plot to bomb trans-Atlantic airliners and kill thousands of people were sentenced to at least 20 years each in prison on Monday, bringing a long-running legal saga to an end.
Since the plot to detonate liquid explosives aboard aircraft bound for the United States and Canada was uncovered in August 2006, nine people have been sent to prison — and air travel changed for passengers around the world.
Ibrahim Savant, 29, Arafat Waheed Khan, 29, and Waheed Zaman, 26, were convicted last week of conspiracy for being part of a group that planned to detonate liquid explosives hidden in drink bottles, attacks that could have killed people on a similar scale to Sept. 11, 2001.
The convictions came after four years and three trials. Two earlier juries failed to reach verdicts on the charge of conspiracy to murder, and an earlier trial acquitted them of knowing airplanes were the plot's target.
As he handed down the sentence, Judge Timothy Holroyde called the three "foot soldiers," and acknowledged they didn't know what the plot's target was. But he said they intended to kill "an uncertain but potentially large number of innocent men, women and children."
"Each of you agreed to join with others in this conspiracy with each of you intending that you would kill members of the general public and yourselves by acting as a suicide bomber," he said.
In total, nine people were jailed over the plot in a series of seven trials that began in October 2007.
After the plot was exposed in 2006, travel chaos ensued as hundreds of flights were grounded, disrupting the trips of thousands of travellers. Massive lineups formed outside London's Heathrow Airport as huge changes to airport security were implemented — including restrictions on carrying liquids on planes — that still continue.
Last September, Abdulla Ahmed Ali — the plot's ringleader — was convicted and jailed for a minimum of 40 years, one of the longest sentences ever handed out by a British court. He hoped to down at least seven passenger jets, and kill thousands, using liquid explosives.
Prosecutors said Ali had selected as targets seven flights from London's Heathrow airport, to New York, Washington, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal and two to Chicago.
Showing posts with label british muslim extremism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label british muslim extremism. Show all posts
Monday, July 12, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, May 21, 2010
INQUEST INTO LONDON BOMBINGS 7/7
*** We are not doing enough to counter this empty ideology of death and warmongering in the name of Jihad. When you let one side of the story perpetuate for so long without a counter message - you run the risk of having the wrong ideas harden and once that happens, it becomes almost impossible to correct. Conventional approaches are now outdated and simply do not work, except to exacerbate the problem. Imagine the tragic irony - that Western governments are doing more to recruit for extremism than any zealot ever could. PLEASE let's do something about this. MS ***
FROM: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/100521/world/world_uk_july2005_london_transit_attack_inquest
A British judge ruled Friday that an upcoming inquest on the July 7, 2005, attacks on London's transit system can look into possible failings of security services.
The decision, which was handed down by High Court judge Heather Hallett in London, was viewed as a victory for the families of the 52 commuters who died in the attacks on three trains on the city's underground system and one bus.
"The scope of the inquest into the 52 deaths will include the alleged intelligence failings and the immediate aftermath of the bombings," the judge said in her ruling.
Hallett said the families "want to know in essence the answer to two simple questions: Why were [the bombers] not put under surveillance? Had they been, might the London bombings have been prevented?"
Security agencies had argued against the move, saying it could compromise national security.
The inquest will also look into the aftermath of the attack. Some families want to know whether victims might have survived if the emergency response had been faster.
The inquest hearing is to start in October.
British security services have said they had the ringleader of the attack, Mohammed Sidique Khan, and another of the bombers under observation a year before the 2005 bombings. The U.K.'s domestic intelligence service, MI5, eventually decided Khan was not an important target.
FROM: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/100521/world/world_uk_july2005_london_transit_attack_inquest
A British judge ruled Friday that an upcoming inquest on the July 7, 2005, attacks on London's transit system can look into possible failings of security services.
The decision, which was handed down by High Court judge Heather Hallett in London, was viewed as a victory for the families of the 52 commuters who died in the attacks on three trains on the city's underground system and one bus.
"The scope of the inquest into the 52 deaths will include the alleged intelligence failings and the immediate aftermath of the bombings," the judge said in her ruling.
Hallett said the families "want to know in essence the answer to two simple questions: Why were [the bombers] not put under surveillance? Had they been, might the London bombings have been prevented?"
Security agencies had argued against the move, saying it could compromise national security.
The inquest will also look into the aftermath of the attack. Some families want to know whether victims might have survived if the emergency response had been faster.
The inquest hearing is to start in October.
British security services have said they had the ringleader of the attack, Mohammed Sidique Khan, and another of the bombers under observation a year before the 2005 bombings. The U.K.'s domestic intelligence service, MI5, eventually decided Khan was not an important target.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
LONDON RADICALS BARK...I MEAN SPEAK
*** There are people who know this mindset - so why not work with them instead of taking a we-know-best approach? Because we can all see how well that worked out. MS ***
FROM: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/February/How-London-Became-a-Terrorist-Hotbed/
Great Britain recently raised its terror alert to "severe" following reports that al Qaeda was plotting new attacks.
But Britain may be facing an even greater threat from within -- one the British government helped to create.
CBN News recently traveled to London to interview a number of leading Islamic radicals who have settled there with the full knowledge of the British government.
All Eyes on London
Just one year before attempting to blow up an airliner over Detroit, Christmas Day bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied engineering at University College London.
During his stay there, he networked with known Islamic radicals. Security sources believe he may have linked up with al Qaeda.
Abdulmutallab is just one of many Islamic terrorists with ties to London. Some live there with help from the state.
One example is Yasser al-Sirri, who faces a death sentence in Egypt.
Then there is Anjem Choudary. To date, he has not been charged with terrorism, but his pro-jihad views have led some to call him Great Britain's most hated man.
"Many people love the idea of jihad, you know?" Choudary told CBN News. "And they want to engage in it."
A radical Islamist can find a little bit of everything in London. Ex-jihadists, current jihadists, "wannabe" jihadists: they're all there. So how did this happen?
During the 1980s and 1990s, British authorities granted asylum to a number of Islamic terrorists wanted in their home countries.
"All of this happened under the assumption that if you allowed these people to operate in London, if you allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do, they would not be attacking Britain," terrorism expert Peter Neumann explained.
Neumann is author of the book Old and New Terrorism and heads the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization in London.
"The government, quite cynically, thought that whatever happened in other countries, whatever these people were plotting in other countries, was of no concern to the British government," he added.
Policy Backfires
On July 7, 2005, explosions proved the British government's open door strategy horribly wrong, as al Qaeda-linked terrorists killed 52 people in a series of bombings against London's mass transit system.
One year later, London was the staging ground for a massive al Qaeda plot to blow up 10 transatlantic airliners.
"Only then did the policy change," Neumann said. "However, the seeds of the radical Islamists' activity had already been sown."
Yasser al-Sirri has lived in London since 1994. In Egypt, he belonged to a terrorist organization led by al Qaeda's second-in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In 1993, he was found guilty of participating in a failed assassination plot against Egypt's then-prime minister and sentenced to death.
His recent interview with CBN News marked his first appearance on an American television network.
"The British government knows about my activities, my situation," al-Sirri said. "Everything is clear and I have done nothing to break the law."
The British government locked al-Sirri up in 2001 on terrorism charges. He was found not guilty and later released, but American officials still want to get their hands on al-Sirri.
In 2005, he was found guilty in a U.S. federal court of assisting terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel Rahman, the notorious "blind sheikh" behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
False Accusations?
Both the U.S. and Egypt have tried to extradite al-Sirri from Britain for years. He declares he is innocent.
"Many times the American government uses the wrong people for spies or to get intelligence information," al-Sirri claimed. "Some people do business with the FBI, CIA and give them wrong information and sometimes the wrong decision is made."
Al-Sirri didn't help his cause in 2008 when he was photographed walking on a London street with Abu Qatada, al Qaeda's spiritual leader in Europe.
Qatada received asylum in London in 1993 and collected welfare benefits for years. He is now in prison and awaiting deportation to Jordan, where he has been convicted on terrorism charges.
"There was a permissive environment to some extent," said Oxford-based terrorism expert Mahan Abedin. "There was the issue of a lot of foreigners, foreign fighters for instance, and foreign ideologues basing themselves here in London and finding a receptive audience."
Aaad al-Faqih is wanted in his native Saudi Arabia for allegedly seeking to overthrow the Saudi regime.
CBN News recently conducted an off-camera interview with al-Faqih in his London home.
He was designated by the U.S. and U.N. as a global terrorist in 2004 for alleged links to al Qaeda but maintains his innocence. Al Faqih says he meets with British government officials regularly and that they respect his work.
He believes there will be more confrontation between the West and the Muslim world, including terrorist attacks "even bigger than in 2001."
British officials have pushed to deport men like al-Faqih and Yasser al-Sirri back to their home countries. But the European Union and a number of British judges have blocked these efforts over human rights concerns.
"Over years, perhaps decades, a whole sub-culture had grown up," Neumann observed. "And to get to grips with that only through law enforcement and intelligence is very difficult. This subculture of jihadism still exists."
In April 2008, Britain's then home secretary said that British intelligence was monitoring some 2,000 individuals, as well as 200 radical Islamic networks and 30 active terrorist plots.
The British government banned Anjem Choudary's group, Islam4UK, last month under the country's counter-terrorism laws.
Choudary calls for Islamic Sharia law to be enforced in the United Kingdom. His group praised the 9/11 hijackers as "the magnificent 19."
"There is a huge amount of support for people like sheikh Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri [among British Muslims]," Choudary told CBN News.
A Ticking Time Bomb?
Choudary -- who collects welfare benefits from the state -- says his group is a non-violent political and ideological movement. But several former members have been convicted on terrorism charges.
"There are many youth out there who do contact us and do come to our talks and they have other ideas," Choudary said. "And we can make sure that those energies are channeled through discussion, dialogue, interaction. But if you take us out of the picture, then you have a very volatile situation."
"It's not a threat. It's a warning. It's a reality check," he added.
Abedin said things have improved significantly in London since 2005 and the British government has taken important steps to battle radicalism among young Muslims.
"The permissive environment that prevailed prior to July 7, 2005 is no longer the case," he said. "Radical preachers like Omar Bakri Mohammed, like Abu Hamza, for instance, have departed the arena. They've either been deported, expelled, or imprisoned.
But others like Anjem Choudary walk the streets of London as free men.
"I think that the British government is sitting on a tinderbox, you know, full of dynamite" he said. "And they have the matches in their hand and they're being very flippant."
"They're not dealing with it properly," Choudary continued. "It could all blow up in their face and it could be a very vicious situation."
FROM: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/February/How-London-Became-a-Terrorist-Hotbed/
Great Britain recently raised its terror alert to "severe" following reports that al Qaeda was plotting new attacks.
But Britain may be facing an even greater threat from within -- one the British government helped to create.
CBN News recently traveled to London to interview a number of leading Islamic radicals who have settled there with the full knowledge of the British government.
All Eyes on London
Just one year before attempting to blow up an airliner over Detroit, Christmas Day bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied engineering at University College London.
During his stay there, he networked with known Islamic radicals. Security sources believe he may have linked up with al Qaeda.
Abdulmutallab is just one of many Islamic terrorists with ties to London. Some live there with help from the state.
One example is Yasser al-Sirri, who faces a death sentence in Egypt.
Then there is Anjem Choudary. To date, he has not been charged with terrorism, but his pro-jihad views have led some to call him Great Britain's most hated man.
"Many people love the idea of jihad, you know?" Choudary told CBN News. "And they want to engage in it."
A radical Islamist can find a little bit of everything in London. Ex-jihadists, current jihadists, "wannabe" jihadists: they're all there. So how did this happen?
During the 1980s and 1990s, British authorities granted asylum to a number of Islamic terrorists wanted in their home countries.
"All of this happened under the assumption that if you allowed these people to operate in London, if you allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do, they would not be attacking Britain," terrorism expert Peter Neumann explained.
Neumann is author of the book Old and New Terrorism and heads the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization in London.
"The government, quite cynically, thought that whatever happened in other countries, whatever these people were plotting in other countries, was of no concern to the British government," he added.
Policy Backfires
On July 7, 2005, explosions proved the British government's open door strategy horribly wrong, as al Qaeda-linked terrorists killed 52 people in a series of bombings against London's mass transit system.
One year later, London was the staging ground for a massive al Qaeda plot to blow up 10 transatlantic airliners.
"Only then did the policy change," Neumann said. "However, the seeds of the radical Islamists' activity had already been sown."
Yasser al-Sirri has lived in London since 1994. In Egypt, he belonged to a terrorist organization led by al Qaeda's second-in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In 1993, he was found guilty of participating in a failed assassination plot against Egypt's then-prime minister and sentenced to death.
His recent interview with CBN News marked his first appearance on an American television network.
"The British government knows about my activities, my situation," al-Sirri said. "Everything is clear and I have done nothing to break the law."
The British government locked al-Sirri up in 2001 on terrorism charges. He was found not guilty and later released, but American officials still want to get their hands on al-Sirri.
In 2005, he was found guilty in a U.S. federal court of assisting terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel Rahman, the notorious "blind sheikh" behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
False Accusations?
Both the U.S. and Egypt have tried to extradite al-Sirri from Britain for years. He declares he is innocent.
"Many times the American government uses the wrong people for spies or to get intelligence information," al-Sirri claimed. "Some people do business with the FBI, CIA and give them wrong information and sometimes the wrong decision is made."
Al-Sirri didn't help his cause in 2008 when he was photographed walking on a London street with Abu Qatada, al Qaeda's spiritual leader in Europe.
Qatada received asylum in London in 1993 and collected welfare benefits for years. He is now in prison and awaiting deportation to Jordan, where he has been convicted on terrorism charges.
"There was a permissive environment to some extent," said Oxford-based terrorism expert Mahan Abedin. "There was the issue of a lot of foreigners, foreign fighters for instance, and foreign ideologues basing themselves here in London and finding a receptive audience."
Aaad al-Faqih is wanted in his native Saudi Arabia for allegedly seeking to overthrow the Saudi regime.
CBN News recently conducted an off-camera interview with al-Faqih in his London home.
He was designated by the U.S. and U.N. as a global terrorist in 2004 for alleged links to al Qaeda but maintains his innocence. Al Faqih says he meets with British government officials regularly and that they respect his work.
He believes there will be more confrontation between the West and the Muslim world, including terrorist attacks "even bigger than in 2001."
British officials have pushed to deport men like al-Faqih and Yasser al-Sirri back to their home countries. But the European Union and a number of British judges have blocked these efforts over human rights concerns.
"Over years, perhaps decades, a whole sub-culture had grown up," Neumann observed. "And to get to grips with that only through law enforcement and intelligence is very difficult. This subculture of jihadism still exists."
In April 2008, Britain's then home secretary said that British intelligence was monitoring some 2,000 individuals, as well as 200 radical Islamic networks and 30 active terrorist plots.
The British government banned Anjem Choudary's group, Islam4UK, last month under the country's counter-terrorism laws.
Choudary calls for Islamic Sharia law to be enforced in the United Kingdom. His group praised the 9/11 hijackers as "the magnificent 19."
"There is a huge amount of support for people like sheikh Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri [among British Muslims]," Choudary told CBN News.
A Ticking Time Bomb?
Choudary -- who collects welfare benefits from the state -- says his group is a non-violent political and ideological movement. But several former members have been convicted on terrorism charges.
"There are many youth out there who do contact us and do come to our talks and they have other ideas," Choudary said. "And we can make sure that those energies are channeled through discussion, dialogue, interaction. But if you take us out of the picture, then you have a very volatile situation."
"It's not a threat. It's a warning. It's a reality check," he added.
Abedin said things have improved significantly in London since 2005 and the British government has taken important steps to battle radicalism among young Muslims.
"The permissive environment that prevailed prior to July 7, 2005 is no longer the case," he said. "Radical preachers like Omar Bakri Mohammed, like Abu Hamza, for instance, have departed the arena. They've either been deported, expelled, or imprisoned.
But others like Anjem Choudary walk the streets of London as free men.
"I think that the British government is sitting on a tinderbox, you know, full of dynamite" he said. "And they have the matches in their hand and they're being very flippant."
"They're not dealing with it properly," Choudary continued. "It could all blow up in their face and it could be a very vicious situation."
Saturday, January 16, 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.
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.
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