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DOWN WITH MURDER INC.
Real terrorists or MI6 diversion?

Mushareffs Junta is dealing death
for Paymaster Bush & Poodle Blair

Pakistan says helped thwart UK attack before polls

13 Jul 2005 13:34:36 GMT Source: Reuters (Updates with further comment from intelligence official) By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD, July 13 (Reuters) - Pakistan helped thwart a militant attack in Britain before a general election there in May, Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said on Wednesday.

Arrests were made in several countries after Pakistan gave information to Britain about a possible attack, Sherpao told reporters in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"Let me be specific, that before the general elections in the U.K. we had received reports that this sort of situation may arise before the elections," he said.

"That was aborted because the information was provided by the government of Pakistan ... arrests were made in various countries," he said.

He did not elaborate on the plot or the arrests.

Sherpao said Pakistan would give Britain its full cooperation in the investigation into last Thursday's bombings in London that killed at last 52 people. - reuters newsdesk

Pakistan's Musharraf launches new fight against Islamic extremism

Posted: 16 July 2005 1153 hrs - ISLAMABAD : President Pervez Musharraf has launched a new campaign against extremism in Pakistan following last week's London attacks, in which three of the four suicide bombers were ethnic Pakistani Britons. Musharraf told an unprecedented gathering of some 200 hundred senior police officers from all over Pakistan that they must remove hate material including booklets, pamphlets and computer disks from local markets.

"You must ensure that this material is not available in markets, at the latest by December this year," he said, according to an official statement on Friday.

He also asked the police to crack down on militant outfits who were trying to resurface under new names after he banned most of them since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. He said the government would not allow any militant organisation to collect donations in any form or to address public meetings.

Musharraf said the new measures should not be seen as anti-religion but were meant to curb the "extremist minority" harming Pakistan's interest and tarnishing the image of Islam.

Thursday's bombings in London have thrown the terror spotlight back on Pakistan, where Islamic militants continue to thrive despite a military-led crackdown on Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Pakistan was the principal backer of the hardline Taliban movement which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1994 until their ouster by US led forces in late 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda.

Pakistan, a key US ally in the war on terror, has arrested around 700 Al-Qaeda militants and handed some key figures over to the United States. Musharraf has also asked the country's Supreme Court to rule on whether a Taliban-style justice law is unconstitutional, officials said.

Military ruler Musharraf interceded after the Islamist-ruled regional legislature in North West Frontier Province Thursday passed a controversial bill enforcing strict adherence to Islamic teachings. The court said Musharraf had asked the court to decide whether the so-called Hisba, or accountability bill, was "unconstitutionally overboard and vague and suffers from excessive delegation."

"The Supreme Court of Pakistan has issued notices to the government of North West Frontier Province and secretary of the provincial assembly to appear and assist the court," attorney general Makhdoom Ali Khan told reporters.

Under the legislation a watchdog will be set up with sweeping powers to reform the society in accordance with "Islamic values" and enforce the observance of such values in public places. Critics say the ombudsman is similar to the Taliban regime's notorious Department of Vice and Virtue in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

- AFP/ir

London bomber 'linked to al-Qaida in Pakistan'

15/07/2005 - 11:09:44 Authorities in Pakistan are looking into a connection between one of the London suicide bombers and two al-Qaida-linked militant groups there, including a man arrested for a 2002 attack on a church near the US Embassy, two senior intelligence officials said today. The investigation is focusing on at least one trip 22-year-old Shahzad Tanweer made to Pakistan in the past year, said the officials, who work at two separate intelligence agencies and are involved in the investigation. One of the officials said that while in Pakistan, Tanweer is believed to have visited a radical religious school - or madrassah - run by the banned Sunni Muslim militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.

"He only is believed to have spent four or five days there," he said.

The sprawling school in Muridke, 20 miles north of the eastern city of Lahore, has a reputation for hostility. Journalists who have travelled to the school in the past have been threatened and prevented from entering. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was banned by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for alleged links to a 2001 attack on India's Parliament. The official would not say when Tanweer is believed to have visited the school, but he disputed reports he studied there. The short nature of the visit could indicate Tanweer went there to meet someone or get instructions.

Tanweer's uncle, Bashir Ahmed, said his nephew travelled from England to Lahore earlier this year to study Islam.

But the officials said they believed he also made a trip in the latter half of 2004 in which he met with Osama Nazir, a Pakistani militant arrested in November 2004 for helping plan a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad that killed five people, including two Americans, in March 2002. Nazir, a member of the al Qaida-linked Sunni militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, told authorities from jail yesterday that he met with Tanweer in Faisalabad, 75 miles south-west of Lahore, before his arrest. It was not clear what the men discussed, or whether there was any connection between that meeting and the July 7 bomb attacks against three trains and a double-decker bus. The attacks were the worst on London since the Second World War, and killed at least 54 people.

Three of the four suicide bomb suspects - Tanweer, 18-year-old Hasib Hussain, and 30-year-old Mohammed Saddiq Khan - were Britons of Pakistani ancestry. Reports say the fourth suspected attacker was Jamaican-born Briton Lindsay Jamal.

Investigators in London believe a Pakistani Briton in his 30s with possible links to al Qaida may have orchestrated the attacks. They believe he arrived in Britain last month and left just ahead of the bombings. Pakistani intelligence officials said the Interior Ministry have provided photos and profiles of the London bombers to intelligence agencies to help them determine whether they have any links to al-Qaida suspects already in custody.

ABC News, citing unidentified officials, reported yesterday that the attacks were connected to an al-Qaida plot planned two years ago in Lahore. Names on a computer that authorities seized last year from Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, an alleged Pakistani computer expert for al-Qaida, matched a suspected cell of young Britons of Pakistani origin, most of whom lived near Luton, where the alleged suicide bombers met up on their way to London shortly before last week's blasts, according to the report.

Authorities have now discovered ties between Mohammed Sidique Khan - one of the July 7 bombers - and members of that cell who were arrested last year, ABC said.

Pakistani intelligence officials would not immediately confirm that report, though they said that information taken from Noor Khan's computer indicated plans for an attack in London, as was reported at the time of his arrest last year.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said on Wednesday that information provided by Pakistan helped thwart an attack timed for before Britain's May 2005 general elections. But London's police commissioner yesterday said he was unaware of any such plot.

In a telephone call late yesterday, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf assured British Prime Minister Tony Blair of "Pakistan's fullest support and assistance" in the investigation into the London attacks, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported. - IOL

Osama Bin Ladens 'Terror Camps' -
crikey! this sounds like a big organised army of terrorists...

Wed 13 Jul 2005 - At yesterday's briefing, intelligence chiefs warned the Prime Minister that there are more than 200 home-grown terrorists trained to carry out suicide bombings living in Britain. And they believe that as many as 50 of them may be trained and ready to attack now. Many of the 200 have been trained in Osama Bin Laden's terror camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. And like last week's four they are all British and virtually impossible to identify and round up.

A GOVERNMENT source said that Mr Blair reacted "coolly and calmly" when confirmation that the attacks were suicide bombings came through.

He said: "The PM knows now is the time for cool heads. It's crucial we take the right steps."

The 200 fanatics who trained in Bin Laden's camps are all British born or British passport holders. They have been schooled in suicide bombings. Security sources said they were convinced Britain's first suicide bombers wanted to be martyrs. All four of the British-born suspects were carrying driving licences, credit cards and other personal details when they travelled to their deaths. One source said: "They wanted people to know who they were. They wanted to be martyrs." - Scotsmen [or is it Klansman???]

Make your mind up Tony...

Commenting on the possible role of Al Qaeda, Blair said, "Al Qaeda is not an organization. Al Qaeda is a way of working ... but this has the hallmark of that approach."

source: Mad Murdochs Fox spews...

The REAL story: MI6 Drug Dealing Connections: Pakistan, Egypt, what a co-incidence...

sound familiar?

MI6 has operated as the covert interventionist instrument of British foreign policy. [..]since 1945, our secret service has engaged in "disruptive actions": attempted assassinations (Egypt, Libya), coup d'etats (Albania, Iran, Oman), forging Swiss bank account documents (East Germany) and psychological warfare (planting of false information, secret funding of propaganda and smearing opponents).

Many MI6 officers believed in the 50s and 60s that they were the true arbiters of the national interest. As former deputy chief George Young stated: "It is the spy who has been called upon to remedy the situation created by deficiencies of ministers, diplomats, generals and priests." So, for the past 50 years MI6 has operated as a state within a state, influencing and manipulating foreign policy to suit its jaundiced view of the world.

Like most western leaders, MI6 believed that nationalism in the Middle East and Africa would inevitably lead to communism. That baseless but popular preconception, alongside a desire to protect US/UK oil interests, coloured their operations, and Dorril catalogues just how far the service was prepared to go to ensure that a government was to its liking. A recurring theme is MI6's dependence on the CIA, whose financial fire-power often gave it the edge, notably in funding European anti-communist networks and technical intelligence-gathering. - [paraphrased from; Secrets and spies

The Psyops War

Hypocricy: Black Market Nuclear Proliferation is OK [sometimes]

Flashback: Selling the deadliest secrets of all -
Nuclear dealer Kahn

[Published: 04-Feb-2004] :

Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, on Pakistan TV :
"My dear brothers and sisters, I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies. There was never ever any kind of authorization for these activities by the government. I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon,"

"He appealed to the public to stop any further speculation -

all terribly convenient for the authorities.

And totally implausible to the relatives of other detained scientists, with whom we watched the first television reports of the meeting between Dr Kahn and the President. They accused the government of forcing Dr Khan to make his statement." Channel 4 UK

...An AP wire, Vienna, dated, February 3 2004 states:

"The nuclear black market that supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea is small, tightly knit and appears to have been badly hurt by the exposure of its reputed head, the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, diplomats and weapons experts told The Associated Press.

The dramatic televised confession came after he met Pakistan's President Musharraf, as both parties attempted to draw a line under the damaging affair. "

and...

"European diplomats also said it appeared unlikely that President Pervez Musharraf sanctioned the deals. But with Khan close to previous governments, senior civilian and military officials before Musharraf's take over in 1999 likely knew of some of the dealings, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity in interviews."

Nuclear parts trafficker gets 3 years, scolding

By Josh Meyer Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - Aug. 05, 2005 A federal judge sentenced convicted nuclear trafficker Asher Karni to three years in prison Thursday, saying he wanted to warn others that the illegal sale of U.S. high-tech products on the black market could help foreign governments or terrorists obtain weapons of mass destruction. After hearing Karni apologize for selling blacklisted U.S. electronic components to Pakistan and India, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Urbina told the former Israeli Army major that no amount of contrition could make up for the potential threat posed by his actions.

“I want you to know how serious I think your conduct was,” Urbina told Karni, stressing that he was sentencing him to a prison term far longer than that sought by his defense lawyers in order to send a message to the public.

Citing Karni's extensive cooperation in an ongoing nuclear trafficking investigation, lawyers for the South Africa-based businessman had sought a 19-month term. That would have freed Karni immediately, as he has been in federal custody since his arrest Jan. 1, 2004, at Denver International Airport while on his way to a family ski trip. Instead, Urbina shaved six years off of the maximum possible sentence Karni could have received under complicated federal sentencing guidelines, saying he was doing so because of Karni's cooperation.

But the judge said he was deeply troubled by Karni's admittedly central role in a conspiracy illegally to sell U.S. high-tech components to companies in Pakistan and India that the federal government believes are actually part of those countries' nuclear-weapon and missile programs. In all, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay I. Bratt told the judge, Karni sold such blacklisted products to entities in Pakistan and India on at least 17 occasions - a much larger total than authorities had disclosed. Urbina said he was most alarmed by Karni's admitted use in 2003 of a complex web of intermediaries to buy 200 precision electrical switches, known as triggered spark gaps, from a Massachusetts comany and then ship them to a shadowy business associate in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

At the time, Urbina said, Karni and the associate, Huymayun Khan, knew that the U.S. government prohibited the sale of the components to Pakistan because of their potential use to detonate nuclear warheads. The two men went to great lengths to camouflage the ultimate user, he said. Luckily, two U.S. Commerce Department agents had received a tip from an informant in South Africa and were monitoring the shipment. They disabled the first shipment of 66 spark gaps before Karni received them and forwarded them to Khan, and later used Karni's cooperation to obtain a grand jury indictment of the Islamabad arms merchant, who has close ties to the Pakistan military.

Khan has denied wrongdoing in interviews. - fortwayne.com

On Aug 5 Asher Karni, the Israeli citizen who was indicted for trying to ship nuclear triggers from the United States to the A. Q. Khan network in Pakistan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge for DC Ricardo Urbina to a mere three years in federal prison. It is an amazing sentence when one considers that U.S. citizen Jose Padilla is being held indefinitely in a U.S. military prison, without trial, for allegedly trying to set off a "dirty" radiological bomb, without any evidence being provided by the government. -

The Plame leak damaged a major CIA investigation linking senior Bush administration officials to WMD proliferation. U.S. intelligence insiders have pointed out that the White House is using "Rovegate" and "Who in the White House said what to whom?" as a smoke screen to divert attention away from the actual counter-proliferation work Mrs. Wilson and her Brewster Jennings & Associates team were engaged in. The arrival of Timothy Flanigan as Patrick J. Fitzgerald's boss is likely related to the mountains of evidence Fitzgerald has now collected to indict senior White House officials, particularly, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for criminal conspiracy in exposing a sensitive U.S. intelligence operation that was targeting some of their closest political and business associates. Libby, it will be recalled, was the attorney for fugitive global smuggler and Clinton-pardoned multi-billionaire Marc Rich, someone who has close ties to the Sharon government and Israeli intelligence. It is no coincidence that FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds uncovered nuclear material and narcotics trafficking involving Turkish intermediaries with ties to Israel at the same time Brewster Jennings and the CIA's Counter Proliferation Division was hot on the trail of nuclear proliferators tied to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and the A. Q. Khan network of Pakistan.

- Wayne Madsen

Pakistan signs extradition treaty with UK

Islamabad, uni: August 6, 2005 - In the wake of the London bombings, Pakistan and the UK have signed a bilateral extradition treaty. The treaty was signed during an unannounced visit of Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri to the UK, the Frontier Post reported quoting diplomatic sources. Mr Kasuri assured Britain of Pakistan's cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The treaty will be formally announced in next few days after being ratified by the two governments, the newspaper reported. The treaty, which the two countries were discussing for months, had not been finalised so far due to London's reservations about Islamabad's “poor human rights record”.

However, the 7/7 attacks forced the British authorities after the revelation that at least one of the bombers visited a religious seminary in Pakistan and used it to plan the attacks. The treaty would enable Pakistan to ask for the extradition of political personalities allegedly involved in loot and plunder of national exchequer. - deccanherald.com

Aegis and the ties that bind:
Dirty mercenaries are offering 'Intelligence' on the 'bombers'

"According to a confidential report produced the day after the bombing by a private London security firm, Aegis Defense Services, Ltd., which was seen and read by Pentagon officials, the team was probably four to six strong . . . The Aegis report says it is possible that the explosives were 'constructed by an experienced bomb maker, possibly coming to the U.K. for that very purpose.'" -Rush Hour By Michael Elliott

Aegis and its chief Tim Spicer are intimately involved with the Pentagon's Iraq operations. Spicer is also implicated for murders in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. Aegis is also tied to the sponsoring of an aborted coup in the West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, which resulted in the arrest of Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

How did Aegis conclude that the foreign origin for the bomb maker, when no such evidence was available? What role does this British security firm serve in helping drive Washington-London "war on terrorism" planning, and what was this confidential report "seen and read by Pentagon officials"?

Britain and "Terrorism"

British terrorism goes back to the days of the old British Empire, and since the 1970s, includes the creation and running of "Islamic terror" groups all over the world, right alongside US and US-backed intelligence counterparts playing the same game. These connections persist to this day. - Larry Chin

- Marketing the New 'Dogs of War' By Duncan Campbell

More on the dirty business of corporate intelligence The rape of Africa

Making a Killing I

Making a Killing II

Aswat set up Al Qaeda training camps in the USA

"Aswat has been known to Western intelligence services for more than three years after the FBI accused him of trying to set up Al Qaeda training camps in the United States. When he was arrested in a madrassa (religious school), Aswat is understood to have been posing as a businessmen and using a false name. He was picked up in a raid at a madrassa at Sargodha, 90 miles from Islamabad, by Pakistani intelligence officials and flown to a jail in the capital.

Security sources there told The Times that he was armed with a number of guns, wearing an explosive belt and carrying around £17,000 in cash. He had a British passport and was about to flee across the border to Afghanistan."

[snip]

"FBI documents obtained by The Times reveal details of how a London-based cleric sent Aswat to America in 1999 to set up camps in Oregon for U.S.-born recruits.

The papers indicate that Aswat spent three months in America and engaged in firearms and poisons training but decided against using a remote ranch in Bly as an Al Qaeda camp."

"We are holding a few militants who are suspected of having links to the London suicide bombers," said Tariq Saleem, police chief in the town of Lahore. Officials want to determine whether the "London bombings have any tentacles in Pakistan, especially in Lahore," he said. Milnet terrorist breif

SLEEPERS IN SEATTLE?

The Puget Sound Joint Terrorist Task Force is investigating a possible Islamic terrorist cell in the Seattle area with suspected links to an al-Qaeda recruiter in London as well as the former Taliban leadership in Afghanistan and a "jihad training camp" in rural Oregon, according to interviews and a law enforcement document obtained by the Los Angeles Times. One suspect is described as a US-born Muslim convert who provided computers to the Taliban before Sept. 11. He is also said to have helped recruit a British citizen, now in US military custody, for an al-Qaeda terrorist training camp, the report said. The confidential document, widely distributed to federal investigative and intelligence agencies, warned that suspected cell members may be trying to "identify targets for a terrorist attack." Among items seized after a related arrest were "instructions on poisoning water sources," according to the report. The document also details a suspected terrorist training camp held nearly three years ago at an isolated ranch in Oregon. "In November, 1999, local American Muslim converts with coordination of foreign radical Islamic extremists planned and conducted a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon," reads the federal alert. "This camp was conducted in concert with Sheik Abu Hamza Al-Masri [of London]." Abu Hamza, an Islamic radical who has publicly praised the 9-11 attacks, is regarded as a leading al Qaeda recruiter in Europe.

Federal authorities warn that the Pacific Northwest--with its broad open spaces, strategic ports and military bases, growing Muslim population and a largely open border with Canada--could be an "easy target." In a June statement, Seattle FBI chief Charles Mandigo said the region receives "a disproportionate high number of terrorism threats."

The investigation has led to only one arrest. Semi Osman, 32, believed to be a Lebanese national, and a former imam at a Seattle mosque, has been charged with immigration fraud and illegal possession of a semiautomatic 40-caliber handgun with its serial numbers removed. Items seized from Osman's residence at the May arrest reportedly include more firearms, military field manuals, papers by Abu Hamza, instructions on poisoning water supplies, a visa application to Yemen and "various other items associated with Islamic radicalism," according to the document. Osman is an active-duty reservist in the US Navy and a former Army enlistee. Navy investigators are assisting in the investigation. Osman's attorney, Robert M. Leen, said his client has no links to terrorism and is a victim of discrimination.

The ranch in Bly, where Osman lived for a time, was raided by FBI agents last month. But locals were skeptical of claims that a terrorist training camp was held there. "If there was anything unusual going on, if this was some kind of training camp or anything, everyone would have known it," said Kelly Peterson, a worker at a ranch. Residents said Osman, his wife and another Muslim woman living on the property in 1999 kept to themselves and seemed to be raising goats and long-haired sheep.

Word of the investigation came as US Attorney General John Ashcroft told Congress that numerous al-Qaeda sleeper cells remain intact in the US, despite the extensive law enforcement sweeps since the 9-11 attacks. - LA Times via WW3 Report

US calls Saudis 'significant source' of terror funds

WASHINGTON, United States : The US government has suggested wealthy Saudi individuals remain "a significant source" of funds for Islamic terrorists around the world, despite widely-publicised efforts by the desert kingdom to shut down these channels. The statement by Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, contrasted with earlier upbeat assessments by US officials that Saudi Arabia was making good progress in stemming the flow of private money to terrorist groups. Levey said challenges posed by terrorist financing from within Saudi Arabia were "among the most daunting" his agency had to face as it tries to persuade Islamic nations to strengthen controls over their banks and charitable organizations.

"Wealthy Saudi financiers and charities have funded terrorist organizations and causes that support terrorism and the ideology that fuels the terrorists' agenda", Levey told lawmakers Wednesday. "Even today, we believe that Saudi donors may still be a significant source of terrorist financing, including for the insurgency in Iraq," he added.

US officials expressed particular concern about three Saudi-run charities that operate around the world: the International Islamic Relief Organization, the World Association of Muslim Youth and the Muslim World League. The Saudi government has moved to establish an oversight commission for its charitable sector and ordered an end to uncontrolled collection of charitable donations at mosques and retail shops.

But US officials argued they wanted to see convincing proof that these proclaimed initiatives have become reality. Assistant Secretary of State Anthony Wayne told senators American diplomats continue to stress in their discussions with the Saudis "the need for full implementation, including a fully functioning charities commission." Republican Senator Richard Shelby, who chairs the committee, cited the case of the New York branch of Arab Bank, which is under investigation by the Justice Department on suspicion it had been used to channel funds to the radical Palestinian group Hamas and Al-Qaeda.

"At the core of the Arab Bank case sits the Saudi Committee for the Support of the Al Quds Intifada, a known conduit for money destined for terrorist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza," Shelby fumed. Administration officials also voiced alarm that Saudi supporters of Al-Qaeda and anti-American insurgents in Iraq were increasingly turning to individual couriers rather than financial institutions to move cash across the border.

"It is critical that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries lower reporting thresholds for cross-border transfers of cash and enforce these provisions aggressively," Levey said.

So far, Saudi officials have not publicly responded to the new criticism, but Adel Al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, said Wednesday his government had punished institutions and individuals suspected of providing financial support to terrorists.

"With regard to combating terror financing, Saudi Arabia has put in place one of the strictest financial controls in the world to ensure that no funds reach evil-doers intentionally or unintentionally," he said in an online discussion with readers of The Washington Post. The kingdom has been stepping up its counterterrorism campaign since May 12, 2003, when triple car bombings at a housing compound in the Saudi capital of Riyadh killed 34 people, including eight Americans.

AFP/ir

was the real Aswat arrested & then released in Pakistan?

Musharraf Appeals To Stop Terror

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 21, 2005

Pakistani intelligence officials were responding to a request by British authorities to track down Haroon Rashid Aswat, who reportedly had been in close contact with the suicide bombers.

Aswat, 31, was of Indian origin and may not be in Pakistan, according to two intelligence officials in Islamabad and one in Lahore, all speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media and because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

Two British newspapers - The Times of London and The Guardian - had reported Aswat had been arrested. The New York Times, citing unidentified intelligence and law enforcement officials, reported that police have begun a worldwide hunt for Aswat.

"We have no information about Haroon Rashid Aswat. He has not been arrested in Pakistan," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

Quoting unidentified intelligence sources, The Times of London said Aswat visited the hometowns of all four London bombers and selected their targets. It also reported there had been up to 20 phone calls between Aswat and two of the bombers in the days before the attacks. - cbsnews.com

Osama is a Bush

Pakistan not arrested London bomb suspects-diplomats

Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:45 PM BST By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A blitz of detentions of suspected militants and Islamists in Pakistan has not resulted in the arrest of anyone linked to bombings in London, British diplomats said on Thursday. Stung into action by Pakistani connections with the attacks on London that killed 56 people, security forces have detained close to 300 people, with more raids overnight on private houses and madrasas, or Muslim religious schools.

"No one connected to the London bombings has been arrested in Pakistan during the past 48 hours," Peter Wilson, political counsellor at the British High Commission (embassy), told Reuters.

Other media quoted High Commissioner Mark Lyall-Grant as saying that no arrests linked to the bombings had been made in Pakistan since the attacks on July 7. Security officials told Reuters on Wednesday they had on Monday arrested Haroon Rashid Aswad, a man reportedly wanted for questioning in London. The Daily Times newspaper reported on Thursday that a Haroon Rashid had been picked up but it was not the same man.

President Pervez Musharraf's is due to make a televised address to the nation at 8.00 p.m. on Thursday to explain a crackdown that has angered Islamists. Analysts expect Musharraf will be keen to show his government is not under any foreign pressure and that the aggressive measures taken are to fight internal threats to security rather than a reaction to the London bombings. Despite the denials, security officials say some of those in detention are believed to have links with the bombers, three of whom were Britons of Pakistani descent. The fourth was a Briton of Jamaican origin.

Certainly Pakistan's crackdown began in Faisalabad and Lahore, two cities in the eastern province of Punjab where intelligences sources say at least one of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, visited several madrasas.

Fifty more people were detained in Punjab overnight, during raids around the city of Multan, security sources said.

In the southern province of Sindh, police have arrested 45 people, including Maulana Ali Sher Hyderi, a top leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a Sunni extremist group with a record for attacks on the country's minority Shi'ite Muslims.

GONE UNDERGROUND

But in Karachi, Sindh's capital, Deputy Inspector General of police Mushtaq Shah said no arrests were made during overnight raids on several madrasas and mosques. "It appears that they have gone undergound but we are chasing them," he said.

Among those rounded up in Punjab were members of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad and a splinter group which have a history of running with foreign al Qaeda operatives hiding in Pakistan.

Jaish was linked to assassination attempts on Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the last 18 months, but there had not been a full clamp down on its top leadership.

Jaish's main activity in the past was sending guerrillas to fight Indian rule in Kashmir and for that reason, analysts say, the authorities were reluctant to move against it too strongly.

Similarly, Western powers are impatient with Pakistan's failure to curb those madrasas, among thousands of bone fide religious schools, that are suspected of breeding extremism.

"One can only hope that this time the government is really serious about cracking down on elements promoting terrorism," Pakistani daily The News wrote in an editorial on Thursday.

"The nation will wait and see if the government will follow up on Tuesday night's actions, and if they will indeed be effective in the long-term." - reuters

Arrest of key bomb suspect

By DAVID WILLIAMS and SAM GREENHILL - July 22, 2005

LONDON: Investigators hunting the London bombing mastermind are to question a suspected al-Qaeda planner in Pakistan.

British-born Haroon Rashid Aswad was seized at a religious school with a suicide bomb belt, explosives and £13,000 (A$30,000) in cash.

Security sources in the Pakistani capital Islamabad claim he had up to 20 telephone conversations with London suicide bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. One of these is believed to have been just hours before the blasts.

The arrest came as Pakistani authorities held more than 200 men with militant links, 11 said to be connected with the London bomb inquiry.

Aswad, a British passport holder, is thought to have slipped into the UK through the port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, two weeks before the attacks. He left on a flight from Heathrow only hours before the bombings, which killed 56 people and injured more than 700.

He was arrested in a pre-dawn raid yesterday at a hardline religious school in the town of Sargodha, 120km south of Islamabad, using the name Abu Ubaid. Investigators say he was "preparing to move on" to Afghanistan. He is now said to have been flown to Islamabad by helicopter, where he is expected to be questioned by MI6 officers.

Investigators in Pakistan say Aswad was born in Yorkshire, close to the homes of three of the suicide bombers. Aswad was traced to a madrassa (religious school) in the rundown Qasim Aloom district of Sargodha, where he had been hiding after leaving Lahore as Pakistani links to the London attacks began to strengthen. Arrested with him was a well-known local fundamentalist cleric, Qari Fateh Mohammad. A Pakistani security official describes the arrest of Aswad as "a very important catch, we strongly believe he has links with the bombers".

Officially, British investigators were waiting for the details of the arrests to be sent to them as checks continued on hundreds of phone numbers rung by suicide bombers Khan, 30, Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine "Jamal" Lindsay, 19.

Tanweer, Khan and Hussain had all visited Pakistan within the last year. They attended madrassas and are believed to have met with al-Qaeda operatives and militants. - daily telegraph

Telegraph get his name wrong...

Arrest of key bomb suspect

By DAVID WILLIAMS and SAM GREENHILL - July 22, 2005

LONDON: Investigators hunting the London bombing mastermind are to question a suspected al-Qaeda planner in Pakistan.

British-born Haroon Rashid Aswad was seized at a religious school with a suicide bomb belt, explosives and £13,000 (A$30,000) in cash.

Security sources in the Pakistani capital Islamabad claim he had up to 20 telephone conversations with London suicide bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. One of these is believed to have been just hours before the blasts.

The arrest came as Pakistani authorities held more than 200 men with militant links, 11 said to be connected with the London bomb inquiry.

Aswad, a British passport holder, is thought to have slipped into the UK through the port of Felixstowe, Suffolk, two weeks before the attacks. He left on a flight from Heathrow only hours before the bombings, which killed 56 people and injured more than 700.

He was arrested in a pre-dawn raid yesterday at a hardline religious school in the town of Sargodha, 120km south of Islamabad, using the name Abu Ubaid. Investigators say he was "preparing to move on" to Afghanistan. He is now said to have been flown to Islamabad by helicopter, where he is expected to be questioned by MI6 officers.

Investigators in Pakistan say Aswad was born in Yorkshire, close to the homes of three of the suicide bombers. Aswad was traced to a madrassa (religious school) in the rundown Qasim Aloom district of Sargodha, where he had been hiding after leaving Lahore as Pakistani links to the London attacks began to strengthen. Arrested with him was a well-known local fundamentalist cleric, Qari Fateh Mohammad. A Pakistani security official describes the arrest of Aswad as "a very important catch, we strongly believe he has links with the bombers".

Officially, British investigators were waiting for the details of the arrests to be sent to them as checks continued on hundreds of phone numbers rung by suicide bombers Khan, 30, Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine "Jamal" Lindsay, 19.

Tanweer, Khan and Hussain had all visited Pakistan within the last year. They attended madrassas and are believed to have met with al-Qaeda operatives and militants. - daily telegraph

'Batley man' linked to bin Laden and bombers

By Tony Harney - A BRITISH intelligence team in Zambia is today questioning a West Yorkshire man said to have been a personal body guard to Osama bin Laden and to have master-minded the London July 7 bombings.

30th July - Haroon Rashid Aswat, believed to have lived in Batley for 20 years and who has been linked to radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, is reported to have flown out of Heathrow just hours before 56 people were killed and hundreds injured when blasts wrecked three tube trains and a London bus. Aswat, who is understood to have left Batley 10 years ago, is said to have entered the UK by ferry a fortnight before the first wave of bombings. Searches of mobile phone records by British anti-terrorist police and secret service agents are understood to have found that he made numerous phone calls to the four suicide bombers.

American authorities have revealed they have been hunting the man for several years. They claim he master-minded the London horror although Scotland Yard has refused to confirm that theory.

Zambian authorities said last night that while in custody Aswat admitted he had acted as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden. That man, claim the Americans has been active around the world and their main interest focuses on a scheme to set up a terrorist training camp on a ranch in Oregon.

It emerged today that Aswat had made mobile telephone calls to two of the Yorkshire July 7 suicide bombers and had possibly visited Dewsbury in the days before the bombings. Dewsbury was the home town of Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of the suicide bombers. Aswat, or Ashwad as he was sometimes known was arrested in Lusaka, Zambia 11 days ago after entering the country from Botswana. An American source claimed that earlier this year their intelligence network had traced Aswat to South Africa, but an attempt to arrest him there failed because of a lack of co-operation from the government.

Training

The same source says that Aswat was known to have been in America in 1999 and 2000 checking out an Oregon ranch they believed was intended for use as a terrorist training camp.

An American Muslim was later convicted of plotting against US forces in Afghanistan and gave evidence concerning Aswat which caused the US to place him on a terrorism wanted list.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The Americans are obviously very interested in this arrest in Zambia and we are happy for them to take precedence. The man in custody there is not our priority at the moment."

Despite that statement it is believed that representatives of both British and American authorities are now in Zambia holding discussions over his possible extradition. A Batley family confirmed to the Yorkshire Evening Post they do have a son of the same name. They described him as an "angry young man" who they have had little contact with for 10 years.

But they stressed they have no confirmation that their son is the same Haroon Rashid Aswat. They said: "We are being asked about Haroon Rashid Aswat.

"He has not lived at this house and we have not had contact with him for many years.

"We ask the press to go away and we ask police to make sure our privacy is not invaded further."

One report said Aswat had left the UK to fight in Afghanistan.

Two years ago it was suspected Aswat had been killed in Afghanistan when his British passport was found on the body of a Taliban soldier.

But it was later revealed he had slipped into Pakistan where it is claimed he became a trusted associate of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

At least three of the July 7 bombers – Khan, 30, from Dewsbury, Hasib Hussain, 18, from Holbeck, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, from Beeston – visited Pakistan in the months before the attacks.

Aswat's phone number is thought to have been found on Khan's mobile phone. - leedstoday.net

Top al-Qaeda Briton called Tube bombers before attack

By Zahid Hussain in Islamabad, Daniel McGrory and Sean O'Neill

THE British al-Qaeda leader linked to the London terrorist attacks was being questioned by police in Pakistan last night after the discovery of mobile phone records detailing his calls with the suicide bombers.

Haroon Rashid Aswat has emerged as the figure that Scotland Yard have been hunting since he flew out of Britain just hours before the attacks which killed 56 people. Aswat, 30, who is believed to come from the same West Yorkshire town as one of the bombers, arrived in Britain a fortnight before the attacks to orchestrate final planning for the atrocity. He spoke to the suicide team on his mobile phone a few hours before the four men blew themselves up and killed fifty-two other people.

Intelligence sources told The Times that during his stay Aswat visited the home towns of all four bombers as well as selecting targets in London.

Aswat has been known to Western intelligence services for more than three years after the FBI accused him of trying to set up al-Qaeda training camps in the US. When he was arrested in a madrassa (religious school), Aswat is understood to have been posing as a businessmen and using a false name. He was picked up in a raid at a madrassa at Sargodha, 90 miles from Islamabad, by Pakistani intelligence officials and flown to a jail in the capital. Security sources there told The Times that he was armed with a number of guns, wearing an explosive belt and carrying around £17,000 in cash. He had a British passport and was about to flee across the border to Afghanistan.

Aswat, who is thought to have stayed in the madrassa with two of the British suicide bombers, is being questioned over claims that one - Mohammad Sidique Khan - telephoned him on the morning of the July 7 attack. Intelligence sources claim that there were up to twenty calls between Aswat and two of the bombers in the days leading up to the bombing of three Tube trains and a double-decker bus. A senior Pakistani security source said: "We believe this man had a crucial part to play in what happened in London."

Tony Blair has telephoned President Musharraf about the crackdown on militants which has led to more than 200 arrests in Pakistan since the weekend. Officials in Islamabad say that eight men are directly linked to the London investigation, and were in telephone contact with Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Khan, 30, a former primary school assistant.

Aswat is believed to have had a ten-year association with militant groups and met Osama bin Laden while attending an al-Qaeda training camp at Khalden in Afghanistan. FBI documents obtained by The Times reveal details of how a London-based cleric sent Aswat to America in 1999 to set up camps in Oregon for US-born recruits. The papers indicate that Aswat spent three months in America and engaged in firearms and poisons training but decided against using a remote ranch in Bly as an al-Qaeda camp. The CIA is keeping in close touch with Aswat's interrogation and British detectives are seeking permission to speak to him.

The FBI is to question a number of figures held in the US, including James Ujaama, an American convert to Islam who met Aswat, and a second al-Qaeda emissary in Seattle.

Ujaama has pleaded guilty to assisting the Taleban and is now a "co-operating witness" who has given details of Aswat's activities in the USA

Aswat flew into New York on November 26, 1999, on an Air India flight with Oussama Abdullah Kassir, who has Swedish nationality. Kassir, 38, described himself as "a hitman for Osama bin Laden" and claimed to have fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Ujaama drove the pair to the ranch but they complained that it did not have the facilities - especially barracks for otential recruits - that they had been led to believe existed. During November and December 1999, Aswat and Kassir met potential candidates for jihad training.

The FBI document details how they secured the Bly property with guard patrols and passwords and they and others received training in firearms and "improvised poisons". Aswat and Kassir were still in the United States in February 2000. They were living in Seattle where they "expounded the writings and teachings" of their London-based mentor in lectures to young Muslims at a city mosque.

Kassir also provided what the FBI described as "urban tactical training".

In 2002, an associate of Kassir was arrested in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, attempting to board a flight to London carrying a revolver. Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, was jailed for ten months in November 2003 for possessing illegal weapons at his home in Stockholm. Charges that he was planning a terrorist attack were dropped. - Times online

Hunt turns to ex-aide of cleric in London

By Don Van Natta Jr., Elaine Sciolino, William K. Rashbaum and Douglas Jehl The New York Times - FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2005

LONDON The police investigating the July 7 terrorist bombings here have begun a worldwide hunt for a former aide to one of Britain's most militant Islamic clerics who they believe may have played a key role in the attacks, according to British, other European and U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials.

The man, identified as Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, originally from Dewsbury, England, was a senior aide to Abu Hamza al-Masri, the blind, one-armed militant cleric who preached at the Finsbury Park Mosque in north London until his arrest in April 2004.

Masri, who urged young men to wage jihad in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond, is facing extradition to the United States on charges related to terrorism.

Several intelligence and law enforcement officials said they were almost certain that Aswat was no longer in Britain.

They said that they believed that he had also been involved in a plan to set up an American training camp in Oregon for Al Qaeda six years ago, although two U.S. officials cautioned that it was not fully confirmed that it was the same man. A theory now being pursued by Scotland Yard is that Aswat provided the four British-born bombers with support for the coordinated attacks in London on July 7, several senior intelligence and law enforcement officials said.

[Quoting unidentified intelligence sources, The Times of London said Aswat visited the hometowns of all four London bombers and selected their targets, The Associated Press reported. The Times also reported that there had been up to 20 telephone calls between Aswat and two of the bombers in the days before the attacks.]

Intelligence officials declined to say what specifically made them believe Aswat was linked to the bombers. One official noted that Aswat was raised in Dewsbury, the same area where Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the bombers, lived. On Wednesday, Aswat's family said that he had not lived at the family's home near Dewsbury for 10 years.

Officials said Aswat is of Pakistani descent, as are three of the four bombers, but his family's neighbors said the family was from Gujarat, India.

"Nobody's tying him in or making him the mastermind yet," said a senior U.S. official. "There's no real substantiation yet. But people are looking at some of his confederates and connections, and saying that it's a possibility."

A U.S. official and two European officials said Aswat spent several weeks in Bly, Oregon, in late 1999 and early 2000, trying to help several associates establish a training camp for Al Qaeda. Aswat was not identified by name in court papers that were filed in the Oregon case. But several U.S. officials said Aswat was an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment of James Ujaama, who pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban. Ujaama is now the leading witness in the terrorism indictment of Masri, the Finsbury Park cleric, U.S. officials said.

Aswat is believed to have met Osama bin Laden sometime in the late 1990s, senior investigators said. He trained at camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan run by Al Qaeda, the investigators added.

In recent days, Aswat has emerged as a suspect of intense interest to investigators searching for a principal plotter behind the July 7 London bombings, according to interviews with 10 officials. Scotland Yard believes that the four bombers had logistical, financial and technical support from several accomplices, and Aswat had the ability to provide that kind of leadership to the operation, two senior U.S. officials and two European officials said.

The hunt for Aswat was especially evident this week in Pakistan, where a senior government official said two men with names similar to Aswat had been arrested and released when neither proved to be the man they were looking for.

Another Pakistani intelligence official said Aswat had been under criminal investigation in Britain since 1999, but British officials declined to comment. The London police have said previously that a man on Britain's security "watch list" entered Britain by ferry two weeks before the attacks and then left from Heathrow Airport either the morning of the bombings or the night before. Officials declined to say whether Aswat was that man.

British investigators have told Pakistani officials that Aswat visited Pakistan in 2003, according to a close aide to President Pervez Musharraf. The aide said that no record had yet been found indicating that Aswat had entered Pakistan. - iht.com

Reports Say London Bombings Suspect Arrested in Zambia

By VOA News 28 July 2005 - News reports quote American officials as saying police in Zambia have detained a man whom U.S. authorities suspect of involvement in the deadly July 7 bombings in London. The reports Thursday by CNN Television and The Los Angeles Times newspaper identify the man as Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British citizen of South Asian descent in his early 30s.

The reports say U.S. and Zambian officials are holding talks to determine where to prosecute Mr. Aswat.

Reports say Mr. Aswat came to the attention of U.S. authorities in connection with alleged attempts to set up an al-Qaida training camp in the western United States several years ago.

Separately, British police are still conducting a nationwide manhunt for the three remaining fugitive suspects in last week's failed bomb attacks on the London transit system. Police arrested a fourth suspect Wednesday. - VOA

Zambia intends to hand Aswat over to Britain

By Michael Bleby in Johannesburg and Peter Spiegel in London
Published: August 1 2005 03:00 | Last updated: August 1 2005 03:00

A Briton arrested last month in Zambia who is suspected of links to al-Qaeda and the London bombings will be handed over to British authorities, a Zambian government official said. Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British citizen of Indian descent who grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was arrested on July 20 in the Zambian capital Lusaka after local intelligence agencies received information on his whereabouts from foreign security services.

Peter Mumba, Zambia's permanent secretary for home affairs, said Mr Aswat, who is being held in Lusaka, has admitted ties to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden under interrogation but has not acknowledged any links to the London bombings.

"During the interrogation he said he is very close to Osama bin Laden," Mr Mumba told the Financial Times. "When he was asked whether he was happy that so many people died in London, his answer was a question: 'Are you also happy that so many people are dying in Baghdad?' "

British authorities have sought to play down Mr Aswat's links to the London bombings, which are reported to include calls from the July 7 bombers to a telephone registered in Mr Aswat's name. Like three of the bombers, Mr Aswat is from the Leeds area.

The UK Foreign Office said yesterday its High Commission in Lusaka still had not gained access to the British national in Zambian custody and declined to comment on any extradition proceedings that might be under way.

US officials are believed to be more interested in talking to Mr Aswat, however. Court documents in the US have accused him of working with a radical Muslim American on plans to set up a jihadi training camp in rural Oregon, and American law enforcement officials have reportedly been seeking him for at least three years.

Zambia has no extradition treaty with the US, however, and Mr Mumba said that American and British authorities had come to an agreement to allow Mr Aswat's transfer to UK custody. "I think the two countries have reached a conclusion, some agreement," Mr Mumba said. "After the interrogations he will be handed over to Britain. I have no idea when. It's a highly sensitive matter."

He added: "If the country is a Commonwealth country, we use the Commonwealth treaty. According to our laws we cannot hand him over to a third country like the US. We have to hand him over to his country."

Mr Mumba would not say which countries aided in Mr Aswat's capture but local media quoted Zambian police as crediting the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency. Officials at the US embassy in Lusaka declined to comment but any participation by the FBI and CIA would give further credence to British accounts that Mr Aswat is of more interest to US than UK authorities.

Mr Aswat was originally reported to have been captured in Livingstone, on the border with Zimbabwe, but Mr Mumba said he was picked up July 20 in an "unregistered guest house" in Lusaka. Mr Aswat told Zambian officials that he entered the country on July 6 from Botswana. Mr Mumba said Mr Aswat had indicated he was trying to reach Tanzania. - FT.com

Zambia Agrees to Hand Over Briton

British investigators seek to question the alleged Al Qaeda member, who may be linked to the London bombings. He is also wanted by the U.S.

By Sebastian Rotella and Jeffrey Fleishman, Times Staff Writers

LONDON - Zambia will extradite to Britain an alleged Al Qaeda operative suspected of having links to the bombers who struck London last month and of attempting to start a terrorist training camp in the U.S., officials said Wednesday.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa told reporters in the capital, Lusaka, that after discussions with British and U.S. officials, his nation had agreed to hand Haroon Rashid Aswat over to British authorities.

Authorities in Zambia said Aswat, 30, a British citizen of Indian descent, was believed to have entered the southern African country July 6, one day before bombs on three London subway trains and a bus killed 52 commuters and the four bombers.

Zambia captured Aswat on July 20, an arrest first reported by the Los Angeles Times, and British and U.S. counter-terrorism agents questioned him in custody there, Western officials said. The agents held discussions with Zambian authorities about where Aswat should be prosecuted, officials said.

Although the British government sought to have him sent to London, officials here continued to be cautious about Aswat's possible involvement in the bombings. He piqued the interest of investigators after they found that as many as 20 calls were made between at least one of the bombers and a cellphone associated with Aswat, officials said. But it remains unclear whether Aswat was using the phone at the time and whether the calls were related to the bomb plot, U.S. and British officials said.

Investigators also want to interrogate Aswat here about his alleged involvement in other terrorist activity, a British official said Wednesday.

"It seems that Zambia will send him here," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Not because he's thought to be some kind of mastermind of the London bombings, as some newspapers have suggested. We are being very cautious about such allegations. He is wanted for questioning in regard to Al Qaeda terrorism."

The official said he did not think there had been serious tensions with Washington about where Aswat should be sent. Aswat might still be sent to the U.S. to face charges if British investigators cannot build a case against him, the official said.

"I guess it's more straightforward to have him sent here because he is a British citizen," the official said. "I don't have the impression that the U.S. tried to have him extradited from Zambia. We and the Americans both agree that we would like to have him questioned."

Aswat is a well-traveled figure who has been under U.S. and British scrutiny for several years. He has been living in South Africa and traveling extensively in Africa at a time when Western counter-terrorism agents are increasingly concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism on the continent.

South African intelligence agents had Aswat under surveillance in the months before his arrest in Zambia at the request of American and British counterparts, officials said Wednesday. At one point after the July 7 attacks, Pakistani officials said they had captured Aswat, but it turned out to be another Briton with a similar name.

Aswat grew up in the same area of northern England as three of the four bombers. A gaunt man with an unruly beard, he allegedly became a close associate of Abu Hamza al Masri, a radical Muslim cleric, in the late 1990s when Abu Hamza's Finsbury Park Mosque in North London was allegedly an international crossroads for extremists.

Like others active at the mosque, Aswat is alleged to have spent time at one of Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan, U.S. and British officials said.

Further feeding suspicions about his possible role in the London cases, several suspects in the follow-up transit bombings that were attempted July 21 worshiped at Finsbury Park Mosque, a senior Italian anti-terrorism official said.

But despite similarities in the targets, methods and explosives used, investigators have not disclosed concrete evidence, involving Aswat or otherwise, linking the July 7 and July 21 incidents.

"We just don't know about his role, if any, in the July 7 and July 21 attacks in London," said Charles Heyman, a defense expert with Jane's Information Group. "What we do know is that a number of attacks have been thwarted in London, at least five and possibly 10 [in recent years]. He may have been involved somehow…. The London police are just trying to put a few more pieces into this jigsaw puzzle."

Aswat's family has expressed concern that he might end up at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

U.S. agents are investigating him in connection with the prosecution of Abu Hamza and others in a plot to set up a training camp near Bly, Ore., about six years ago. Aswat allegedly traveled to the U.S. to meet with prospective militants and prepare a rural training site for them, although the project was abandoned, U.S. investigators say.

During visits to the U.S. in 1999 and 2000, Aswat allegedly described himself as Bin Laden's "hit man," according to court records.

In other developments Wednesday, British police filed their first charges in connection with the two attack plots. Ismael Abdurahman, a 23-year-old resident of South London, will go to court today to face charges that he withheld information that could have helped police catch suspects, authorities said. - la times.com

WAS "7/7 MASTERMIND" ASWAT "WORKING FOR BRITISH INTELLIGENCE" ?

John Loftus and Mansoor Ijaz came up with "surprising informations" about the mastermind - allegedly Haroon Rashid Aswat as I reported about the case - behind the London bombings. See this transcript from Dayside/FOX with Linda Vester, July 29 2005 and be sure to read my analysis at the end:

MIKE JERRICK [FOX NEWS]: John Loftus is a terrorism expert and a former prosecutor for the Justice Department. John, good to see you again. So real quickly here, have you heard anything about this Osman Hussain who was just picked up in Rome? You know that name at all?

JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, all these guys should be going back to an organization called Al-Muhajiroun, which means The Emigrants. It was the recruiting arm of Al-Qaeda in London; they specialized in recruiting kids whose families had emigrated to Britain but who had British passports. And they would use them for terrorist work.

JERRICK: So a couple of them now have Somali connections?

LOFTUS: Yeah, it was not unusual. Somalia, Eritrea, the first group of course were primarily Pakistani. But what they had in common was they were all emigrant groups in Britain, recruited by this Al-Muhajiroun group. They were headed by the, Captain Hook, the imam in London the Finsbury Mosque, without the arm. He was the head of that organization. Now his assistant was a guy named Aswat, Haroon Rashid Aswat. JERRICK: Aswat, who they picked up.

LOFTUS: Right, Aswat is believed to be the mastermind of all the bombings in London.

JERRICK: On 7/7 and 7/21, this is the guy we think.

LOFTUS: This is the guy, and what's really embarrassing is that the entire British police are out chasing him, and one wing of the British government, MI6 or the British Secret Service, has been hiding him. And this has been a real source of contention between the CIA, the Justice Department, and Britain.

JERRICK: MI6 has been hiding him. Are you saying that he has been working for them?

LOFTUS: Oh I'm not saying it. This is what the Muslim sheik said in an interview in a British newspaper back in 2001.

JERRICK: So he's a double agent, or was?

LOFTUS: He's a double agent.

JERRICK: So he's working for the Brits to try to give them information about Al-Qaeda, but in reality he's still an Al-Qaeda operative.

LOFTUS: Yeah. The CIA and the Israelis all accused MI 6 of letting all these terrorists live in London not because they're getting Al-Qaeda information, but for appeasement. It was one of those you leave us alone, we leave you alone kind of things.

JERRICK: Well we left him alone too long then.

LOFTUS: Absolutely. Now we knew about this guy Aswat. Back in 1999 he came to America. The Justice Department wanted to indict him in Seattle because him and his buddy were trying to set up a terrorist training school in Oregon.

JERRICK: So they indicted his buddy, right? But why didn't they indict him?

LOFTUS: Well it comes out, we've just learned that the headquarters of the US Justice Department ordered the Seattle prosecutors not to touch Aswat.

JERRICK: Hello? Now hold on, why?

LOFTUS: Well, apparently Aswat was working for British intelligence. Now Aswat's boss, the one-armed Captain Hook, he gets indicted two years later. So the guy above him and below him get indicted, but not Aswat. Now there's a split of opinion within US intelligence. Some people say that the British intelligence fibbed to us. They told us that Aswat was dead, and that's why the New York group dropped the case. That's not what most of the Justice Department thinks. They think that it was just again covering up for this very publicly affiliated guy with Al-Muhajiroun. He was a British intelligence plant. So all of a sudden he disappears. He's in South Africa. We think he's dead; we don't know he's down there. Last month the South African Secret Service come across the guy. He's alive.

JERRICK: Yeah, now the CIA says, oh he's alive. Our CIA says OK let's arrest him. But the Brits say no again?

LOTFUS: The Brits say no. Now at this point, two weeks ago, the Brits know that the CIA wants to get a hold of Haroon. So what happens? He takes off again, goes right to London. He isn't arrested when he lands, he isn't arrested when he leaves.

JERRICK: Even though he's on a watch list.

LOFTUS: He's on the watch list.The only reason he could get away with that was if he was working for British intelligence. He was a wanted man.

JERRICK: And then takes off the day before the bombings, I understand it--

LOFTUS: And goes to Pakistan.

JERRICK: And Pakistan, they jail him.

LOFTUS: The Pakistanis arrest him. They jail him. He's released within 24 hours. Back to Southern Africa, goes to Zimbabwe and is arrested in Zambia. Now the US--

JERRICK: Trying to get across the--

LOFTUS: --we're trying to get our hands on this guy.

JERRICK: John, hang around. I have so many questions now.

LOFTUS: Oh, this is a bad one....

[commercial break]

- vis IMCUK

watch video [thanks to infowars]

Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's second-in-command, speaks in a video aired by al-Jazeera in which he warned Britons that Tony Blair's policies will bring more destruction to London.Photograph: al-Jazeera/Reuters

Al-Qaida warns of more London destruction

Mark Oliver and agencies - Thursday August 4, 2005

Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's second-in-command, speaks in a video aired by al-Jazeera in which he warned Britons that Tony Blair's policies will bring more destruction to London.Photograph: al-Jazeera/Reuters

The deputy of the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden warned in a video broadcast today that Tony Blair's policies would bring "more destruction" to London.

The message, delivered by Ayman al-Zawahri, was broadcast by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television station, which has aired tapes from Bin Laden and Zawahri in the past.

It is the first message from al-Qaida's inner circle to directly mention the July 7 London suicide bombings, in which 52 people were killed. Zawahri described the bombs as "volcanoes of wrath". "Blair's policies will bring more destruction to Britons after the London explosions, God willing," he said.

The Egyptian-born terrorist leader also appeared to refer to an audio tape broadcast by the al-Arabiya television station last April. In that tape, a speaker purported to be Bin Laden offered a ceasefire to nations deciding not to "interfere" in Muslim countries, although the offer was not extended to the US.

In the tape broadcast today, Zawahri - referring to countries which have contributed troops to US-led forces in Iraq - said: "As to the nations of the crusader alliance, we have offered you a truce if you leave the land of Islam. "Hasn't Sheik Osama bin Laden told you that you will not dream of security before there is security in Palestine and before all the infidel armies withdraw from the land of Mohammed? "Instead, you spilled blood like rivers in our countries, and we exploded the volcanoes of wrath in your countries. Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers."

He also warned the US that tens of thousands of its military personnel would die if it did not immediately withdraw from Iraq. "As for you, the Americans, what you have seen in New York and Washington, what losses that you see in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the media blackout, is merely the losses of the initial clashes," he said. "If you go on with the same policy of aggression against Muslims, you will see, with God's will, what will make you forget the horrible things in Vietnam and Afghanistan."

Referring to the US president, George Bush, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, he said: "The truth that has been kept from you by Bush, Rice and Rumsfeld is that there is no way out of Iraq without immediate withdrawal, and any delay on this means only more dead, more losses. "If you don't leave today, certainly you will leave tomorrow, and after tens of thousands of dead, and double that figure in disabled and wounded."

Downing Street refused to make any immediate comment on the tape. In July, a report by the foreign policy thinktank Chatham House said there was a link between the Iraq war and the London bombings.

Mr Blair at first denied the war was a factor. He later said it was "an excuse", but argued that terrorists with an "evil ideology" would always find grievances to justify attacks.

Today's tape showed the Egyptian-born Zawahri wearing white robes, with an AK47 assault rifle by his side. Behind him was a muddy brown sack cloth of a kind often used in al-Qaida tapes to hide geographical features that could provide clues to where they were filmed. The new tape came as around 6,000 police were out in force in a major London security operation today.

Officers patrolled the capital's public transport system exactly four weeks after the July 7 attacks and a fortnight after the failed July 21 bombings. Analysts said it was likely al-Qaida had timed the message to be broadcast on a Thursday. The July 7 attacks were carried out by four suicide bombers, three of whom lived in West Yorkshire.

Experts believe it is unlikely that they were planned with the direct involvement of the al-Qaida leadership, and were more likely to have been inspired by the terror group in a similar way to the Madrid bombings of March 2004, which claimed 191 lives. However there has been speculation that the London plots could have been orchestrated by a "mastermind" who travelled to the country, recruited Britons and gave them training and help with explosives, fleeing before the attacks were carried out.

Zawahri is a former eye doctor who merged his militant faction with al-Qaida in Afghanistan in the late 90s. Today's tape was the first from him since September 2004, when he said the US was on the brink of defeat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. That message was also broadcast on al-Jazeera.

The last videotape from Bin Laden emerged on October 29 last year, prior to the November 2 US elections. He threatened another attack on the US, saying: "Bush is still deceiving you ... and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened". Bin Laden is suspected to be hiding somewhere around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and is the subject of a huge military manhunt that has so far proved fruitless. - Guardian.co.uk

How inconvenient

The Guardian - Monday 18th February 2002 - Bin Laden's No 2 'captured in Iran'

Jerusalem Post - 27th September 2004 - Top Bin Laden deputy caught in Pakistan

BBC News - Thursday 4th August 2005 - Al-Qaeda 'blames Blair for bombs'

Bush: Al Qaeda threats won't deter U.S.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Steve.

Q Thanks, sir. Al Qaeda's number two, Dr. al-Zawahiri, is warning that attacks will continue until U.S. troops leave Iraq. How serious a threat is this? And after so many Marines were killed this week, what's being done to improve their safety?

PRESIDENT BUSH: First, let me say that we mourn the loss of every fallen troop. And the community outside of Cleveland, Brook Park, Ohio, suffered mightily over the last couple of days. It's -- the people of Brook Park and the family members of those who lost their life, I hope they can take comfort in the fact that millions of their fellow citizens pray for them. I hope they also take comfort in the understanding that the sacrifice was made in a noble cause.

We're laying the foundation of peace for generations to come. We're defeating the terrorists in a place like Iraq so we don't have to face them here at home. And, as well, we're spreading democracy and freedom to parts of the world that are desperate for democracy and freedom.

The comments by the number two man of al Qaeda make it clear that Iraq is a part of this war on terror, and we're at war. In other words, he's saying, leave. As I have told the American people, one, that people like Zawahiri have an ideology that is dark, dim, backwards; they don't trust -- they don't appreciate women; if you don't agree to their narrow view of a religion you'll be whipped in the public square. That's their view, and they have tactics to help spread that view. In other words, they've got goals. They want to spread that point of view throughout the world, starting in the broader Middle East. And part of their goal is to drive us out of the broader Middle East, precisely what Zawahiri said. In other words, he's threatening.

They have come up against a nation that, one, will defend itself. Zawahiri is a part of that team that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001.

He was part of an al Qaeda group that said, well, we'll try to achieve our objective in attacking America. They must not have understood the nature of our country. I vowed then that we would stay on the offense against these people. We owe it to the American people, and other freedom-loving countries, to bring these killers to justice. And that's what they are: they're terrorists, and they're killers. And they will kill innocent people trying to get us to withdraw from the world, so they can impose their dark vision on the world. That's what they're trying to do. And the comments today by Mr. Zawahiri absolutely reinforce what I've just told you.

We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. And the job is this: We'll help the Iraqis develop a democracy. They're writing -- in the process of writing a constitution, which will be ratified in October, and then they will elect a permanent government. It's also important for our citizens to understand that progress has been made, particularly when eight-plus million people got to vote in the face of Zawahiri and Sarawak and these killers.

We're also training Iraqis. Our troops will come home as soon as possible. "As soon as possible" means when those Iraqis are prepared to fight. As Iraq stands up, our coalition will stand down.

The Iraqis want to live in a free society. Zawahiri doesn't want them to live in a free society. And that's the clash of ideologies -- freedom versus tyranny. We have had these kinds of clashes before, and we have prevailed. We have prevailed because we're right; we have prevailed because we adhere to a hopeful philosophy; and we have prevailed because we would not falter.

prnewswire.com

Terror suspect Aswat deported and arrested in UK

Sunday, 7th August 2005, 21:43 - A British al Qa'eda suspect was tonight arrested as he arrived back in Britain following deportation from Zambia. Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, was detained by the Metropolitan Police on landing at RAF Northolt, Middlesex, at 6pm, in response to a US extradition request.

Aswat, of no fixed abode, has been taken into custody at a central London police station and will appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court, sitting at Belmarsh maximum security jail, on Monday.

Aswat, who grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was arrested last week in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. The US government claims he tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon in the 1990s.

The extradition warrants issued on behalf of the US allege that Aswat: "between October 1 1999 and April 30 2000, conspired with others to control and manage an association of persons in Bly, Oregon, who would be organised and trained, or organised and equipped, for the purpose of enabling them to be employed for the use or display of physical force in promoting a political object, namely to make hijrah to, and to fight jihad in, Afghanistan.

"Between October 1 1999 and April 30 2000, conspired with others to control and manage an association of persons in Bly, Oregon, who would be organised and trained, or organised and equipped, in such manner as to arouse reasonable apprehension that they were organised and either trained or equipped for the purpose of enabling them to be employed for the use or display of physical force in promoting a political object, namely to make hijrah to, and to fight jihad in, Afghanistan." - LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK)

New York AP story: Aswat held in London on the 9th August


Artist's impression of British al-Qaeda suspect Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, appearing at the Magistrates Court in London, Monday.

Man held in London accused of plotting terrorist camp

NEW YORK (AP) - 8/9/2005 A British citizen believed to be tied to the July 7 bombings in London denies he tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon, his lawyer says. By Elizabeth Cook, AP

Haroon Rashid Aswat, according to federal prosecutors, conspired to provide material support to terrorism in the United States beginning in 1999.

Aswat, 30, appeared Monday before a judge in London, where he was ordered to remain until Thursday pending an extradition request from U.S. authorities.

Aswat's lawyer, Hossein Zahir, indicated his client would challenge extradition.

"He wishes to stress that he has nothing to hide," Zahir told the court. "He denies any suggestion that he's a terrorist or engaged in any terrorist activity."

Aswat was taken into custody in Zambia last month in connection with the London attacks. British officials want to question him about 20 phone calls reportedly made on his South African cell phone to some of the four suicide bombers who killed 52 people, Zambian officials say.

The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan declined comment.

The complaint against Aswat, filed under seal June 20, closely tracks the indictments of James Ujaama, a Seattle man who the government said first identified property in Bly, Ore., and Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who faces charges that include his role in the alleged camp scheme.

Manhattan prosecutors allege Aswat and another al-Masri associate, Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede convicted of weapons violations in 2003, were dispatched to the United States in 1999 to assess property in Bly for a training camp.

They allegedly flew to New York City on an Air India flight, then took a bus to Bly via Seattle.

Witnesses have placed Aswat and Kassir at the Bly site in late 1999, where they allegedly were overheard saying their plans "included bringing people from London and from the United States to the property for jihad training," the complaint said.

The papers also said Aswat claimed expertise in combat training, and that he had once been in a training camp in Afghanistan where he had seen al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Documents allegedly prepared by the plotters indicated they planned to tout the site as being in a "pro-militia and firearms state" that "looks like Afghanistan," the complaint said.

Authorities in Oregon have said the camp never materialized beyond a dozen people taking target practice and was abandoned for unknown reasons. Bly is an unincorporated town of a few hundred people 50 miles east of Klamath Falls.

Marilyn Thomas, who runs the Pit Stop convenience store in Bly, was skeptical the camp could have been run as allegedly planned without notice.

"Here they know what you're going to do before you do it," Thomas said. "And if you don't do it they get mad."

Al-Masri is awaiting trial in Britain on charges of incitement to murder. Ujaama pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his cooperation. usatoday.com

Local Brit News - 11th August - apparently Aswat
hasn't even been extradicted to the USA

Move to extradite terror suspect

7:30am - Aug 11 2005 - The case of a British al Qaida suspect accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in the United States is due before Bow Street Magistrates in central London.

Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, who was arrested in Lusaka, Zambia, last month, denies any involvement in terrorism.

American lawyers have applied for his extradition.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place at Bow Street magistrates.

In a hearing earlier this week, a lawyer for the US Government alleged that Aswat had been involved in the setting up of a training camp in Oregon which had aimed to provide training for American and British men who would then be sent to fight jihad in Afghanistan. - icsolihull.icnetwork.co.uk

Why was Haroon Rashid Aswat not deported directly to the USA from Zambia ?

If Haroon Rashid Aswat, deported from Zambia to Britain, is a "terrorist suspect" in the USA, why was he not deported there directly ? If he is an "international terrorist", and a key member of the "proscribed" Al Quaeda terrorist organisation, then why is he not facing charges here in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 ?

The Times reports:

"A BRITISH terrorist suspect deported from Zambia had attended an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, become a combat training expert and met Osama bin Laden, a court was told yesterday.

Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, appeared before Bow Street magistrates, sitting in Belmarsh prison, southeast London, less than 24 hours after a specially chartered jet brought him back to Britain.

Mr Aswat, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was arrested upon landing on a provisional extradition warrant issued by the United States.

He is accused by the US authorities of attempting to establish a jihad training camp in Oregon in 1999. The court was told that Mr Aswat was sent to America by a London-based cleric to assess the suitability of a ranch for a base at Bly, Oregon"

The alleged "Oregon terrorist training camp" plot, is presumably the the same one which the notorious Abu Hamza "The Hook" al-Masri was accused of.

This looks to be yet another dodgy Extradition Act 2003 extradition to the USA without any prima facie evidence case. - Spyblog

The inquiry so far

Richard Norton-Taylor and Duncan Campbell - Tuesday August 2, 2005

Is there a "mastermind" behind the bombings?

Senior counter-terrorist officials insist there is no evidence of a single mastermind responsible for the July 7 bombings in London and July 21's failed attacks. They dismiss reports that Haroon Rashid Aswat, held in Zambia, was behind the attacks. Aswat grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, the home of Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the July 7 bombers.

How many people are in custody and why are they being held?

Counting Hussein Osman/Hamdi Issac in Rome, there are 19 people in custody - 18 men and one woman. Four are being held as suspects in the failed suicide bomb attempts of July 21. The latest arrests were in London last night following raids on three addresses. Most of those detained were arrested on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism.

Are any suspects talking?

Osman/Issac is certainly talking, although what he is actually saying is uncertain as it is being passed on third-hand and via translation. He has been quoted as saying that there was no intention to kill with the bombs found on July 21. There have been reports that one or possibly two of the suspects held in London have been speaking to the police. It is a police technique when interviewing more than one suspect to tell them that the others are talking in the hope of persuading them to cooperate.

Are there any connections between the perpetrators of the two events?

Security sources say that it is quite possible - as with other Islamist groups or individuals influenced one way or another by al-Qaida rhetoric - that the two "cells" communicated with each other on the internet. There is no evidence as yet of telephone communications between the two groups.

The failure of the July 21 attacks suggests there is a big difference in bombmaking expertise between the two groups. It also suggests that the July 21 attacks were poorly planned. Anti-terrorist sources do not rule out the possibility that the July 21 incidents were "copycat" attacks. Two of the July 21 suspects - Ramzi Muhammad and Muktar Said Ibrahim - are believed to have attended the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, as did Aswat, and the shoe bomber Richard Reid.

Has the bombings led to a rift between US and UK counter-terrorist agencies?

Surprisingly, given the close relationship between the two allies in the "war on terror", the answer is yes. There is friction in particular over the Aswat case. The US wants to extradite him over allegations about an al-Qaida traning camp in Oregon. British officials are concerned the US wants to take him to an unknown but friendly Middle Eastern or Central Asian country to be interrogated and possibly tortured.

What is the next stage in the investigation?

There will almost certainly be more raids this week as the police are led by the information they are gathering from their current interviews and the telephone records of detainees.

Is London the only place under threat?

London is the obvious target because of its high profile and the ease with which bombers can blend with the population but police are also concerned that attacks could easily take place outside the capital.

Already Birmingham city centre has been closed down and 20,000 people evacuated after what police described as good intelligence about a possible attack was passed on.

Would-be bombers may also be deterred by the high police presence in London and the large network of CCTV cameras that have been used so successfully.

Are there any international links with the bombers?

July 7 bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan - and possibly Hasib Hussain as well - last year visited Pakistan where they attended madrasas, or religous schools. There are reports that Hussein Osman, one of the July 21 bomb suspects, made a call to Saudi Arabia on his mobile phone before he was seized in Italy. Osman has family connections in Italy. - The Guardian

Bin Laden is a good guy. Everyone likes him in the Muslim world, there is nothing wrong with the man and his beliefs - Abu Hamza

Profile: Abu Hamza

The controversial cleric has always denied recruiting terrorists

Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri is one of the most distinctive radical Islamic figures in Britain. Condemned by many Muslims as too extreme, the former Soho nightclub bouncer denies any involvement in terrorism. But the 47-year-old has also defiantly justified the attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001. Now he has been arrested in London on an extradition warrant issued by the US government.

He was born Mustafa Kamel Mustafa in Alexandria, Egypt, to middle-class parents. In 1979, he came to London with plans to become a civil engineer.

Divorce

He studied in Brighton and later worked as a doorman in the West End. He married a western woman, Valerie Fleming, in 1981 and received his British citizenship, although the Home Office is currently trying to have that removed.

Ms Fleming is reported as saying her ex-husband became more radical after their marriage and the couple divorced five years later. In Afghanistan, he sustained the injuries to his hand and eye - apparently clearing landmines for the Mujahideen - that make him such a distinct figure. He has also claimed to have worked in the Muslim community in Bosnia.

Son jailed In 1999, Abu Hamza was questioned by Scotland Yard detectives on suspicion of terrorism offences in Yemen. He was held for several days before being released without charge. He has always maintained his innocence. The Yemeni authorities had requested his arrest and extradition, claiming he was linked to plots to bomb targets there.

In the same year, his son Mohammed Mustafa Kamel was sentenced to three years in prison in Yemen for his involvement in a terrorist bombing campaign when aged 17. He returned to Britain in 2002 after completing his sentence. Abu Hamza runs Supporters of Sharia, which is a group dedicated to the rule of Islamic law.

In 2002 he addressed a rally in central London called by the radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, where members spoke of their support for al-Qaeda. But he strongly denies American suggestions he recruits al-Qaeda terrorists.

Many people will be happy, jumping up and down [after September 11]. America is a crazy superpower and what was done was done in self-defence Abu Hamza

His most infamous comments include praise for Osama Bin Laden and warnings to the UK Government about the consequences of attacking Iraq. These have provoked as much condemnation from within Islam as from outside. Many Muslims say he only represents a few hundred people.

In February 2003, he was banned from preaching at the mosque by the Charity Commission but he continued to speak from the street outside.

Home Secretary David Blunkett believes the radical cleric is linked to international terrorism but attempts to strip his British citizenship and deport him to Yemen have been delayed. An appeal against the decision to deport him was due in January 2005. - BBC

What isn't mentioned in the above BBC profile is that
Abu Hamza worked as a civil engineer at
The Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst for 6 years.

"... puppets for the US government hijacked the planes? Well, probably, he says, but that is not the most important part. "That neat collapse was a professional destruction job. A plane could not do that." Excuse me? "The planes were a Hollywood show. I know how this works. I was a civil engineer at Sandhurst military base [true: he worked there for six years until the early 1990s] and things don't collapse the way you have seen." So, he believes, there was a "demolition bomb" inside the building. "There is no reason for the frame to collapse, the frame is made of heavy, wide steel stations, they are joined well with nuts and bolts and plates. So when they get hot, they don't disintegrate. There is distortion, the building is twisted; if it is twisted badly then it will fall aside like a stick, not crumble." So, he concludes, "somebody had done a demolition on the heads of the rescue workers".

He ridicules the CIA's list of hijack suspects. "Can you believe they control the planes with some flick knives? Is that believable in the nation of Rambo?"

- The British Bin Laden - Interview New Statesman, Sept 24, 2001

just a coincidence: Jordanian Prince Hamza

As crown prince, Hamza's duties included representing the king at events at home and abroad. He oversaw several national institutions, including a prominent thinktank. Hamza also flies helicopters, parachutes, scuba dives, fences and practices taekwondo.

Hamza attended the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, England, graduating as a commissioned officer in the Jordan Arab Army in 1999. He served with the Jordan-United Arab Emirates force in the former Yugoslavia as part of an international peacekeeping force. - aljazeera

Al-Qaida suspect 'hidden by UK agents'

Vikram Dodd - Monday July 8, 2002 The Guardian

The alleged spiritual leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network is living with his wife and children in northern England, in a safe house paid for by the intelligence services, it was claimed yesterday. Abu Qatada, a Muslim cleric believed by several European countries to be a pivotal figure in international terrorism, disappeared from his west London home in December, before a round up of alleged terrorist suspects. It was rumoured that he had fled abroad.

Time magazine's sensational but bizarre claim is attributed to senior members of European intelligence services. The report says that Mr Qatada, claimed by some to be Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, and his wife and family are being fed and clothed by British intelligence.

Time quoted a senior European intelligence source as saying: "The deal is that Abu Qatada is deprived of contact with extremists in London and Europe, but can't be arrested or expelled because no one officially knows where he is."

The magazine says that the French authorities corroborated these claims. Their source added: "The British win because the last thing they want is a hot potato they can't extradite for fear of al-Qaida reprisals, but whose presence contradicts London's support of the war on terror."

A British government official described the report as "crap" and added: "We wouldn't give an awful lot of credence to it." A Home Office spokeswoman said she could not comment on intelligence matters.

Videos of Mr Qatada's speeches were found in the Hamburg flat of Mohamed Atta, who is believed to have been the leader of the September 11 hijackers.

Mr Qatada, 40, settled in London with his wife and four children eight years ago when he was given asylum after claiming that he had been persecuted in Jordan for his religious beliefs.

In his absence he was convicted in Jordan of funding a bombing campaign, and sentenced to 15 years in jail. - guardian.co.uk

Britain finalised an agreement with Jordan that could see Qatada deported. The agreement amounts to a guarantee Qatada would be safe from torture and the death penalty, but human rights groups are sceptical Jordan will stick to its side of the deal. Amnesty said the agreement was "not worth the paper it is printed on".

'Al Qaeda cleric' Abu Qatada

15:20pm 11th August 2005 Described as "Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", Abu Qatada once called on British Muslims to martyr themselves in a holy war on oppression. He has now been detained by police working with the Immigration Service as the Government cracks down on 'preachers of hate' in Britain.

The radical cleric, aged 44, had links to shoebomber Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of being the "20th hijacker" in the September 11 attacks, both of whom sought religious advice from him. Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian, was subject to a control order following a spell in detention at Belmarsh Prison in south London.

Last month it emerged that he could face deportation following an agreement in principle between the UK and Jordan that Jordanian nationals could be sent back there without fear of mistreatment. He became one of Britain's most wanted men when he went on the run in December 2001, on the eve of Government moves to introduce new anti-terror laws in the wake of the Twin Towers atrocity. Tapes of his sermons were found in a Hamburg flat used by some of the September 11 hijackers.

He has been described by one British judge as a "truly dangerous individual" and has been convicted of terrorism in his absence in Jordan. Several European countries are believed to be trying to extradite him.

Over 6ft tall and weighing more than 20 stone, he was an unlikely fugitive from his home in Acton, west London, but he avoided capture for 10 months. He was finally arrested in an armed raid on a council house in south London in October 2002.

Qatada was eventually freed on conditional bail from Belmarsh prison in March by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission and later handed a control order designed to limit his movements and contact with other people. The father-of-five arrived in the UK on September 16 1993, seeking to gain entry on a forged United Arab Emirates passport. He claimed asylum for himself and his wife and children.

He was recognised as a refugee in June 1994 and granted leave to remain in Britain until June 1998.

Qatada applied for indefinite leave to remain in May 1998 but his application had not been decided at the time the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 came into force in December 2001, leading to his detention at Belmarsh. - dailymail.co.uk

BRITAIN: RADICAL ISLAMIC CLERIC TO RETURN SAYS WIFE

London, 9 August (AKI) - The wife of radical Islamic cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed - who left Britain over the weekend amid growing speculation that he was to be investigated for treason - has said he will return to London "as soon as this media campaign against him and Islam is over." The Syrian-born radical, who some consider al-Qaeda's ambassador in Europe, went to Lebanon on Sunday carrying only a Lebanese passport and the clothes he was wearing, his wife told the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The BBC quoted the Muslim Council of Britain as saying his departure would bring joy and happiness to Britain's Muslim community. Two days earlier the cleric himself had told the newspaper he would leave.

His departure follows the announcement from prime minister Tony Blair of new measures against those who incite hatred. Before leaving, he said: "I don't want the British government to keep using [me] to make a new set of rules to put pressure on the Muslim community, so I decided to go on holiday for four or five weeks to stay with my mother." He also said that if the government did decide to charge him with treason for his outspoken comments, he would be the first to return and "challenge the allegation".

The vocal cleric drew major criticism for saying he would not tell the police if he knew of another attack planned for Britain, insisting Islam "forbids" him from doing it and saying he would try to stop the bombers himself.

It is thought Bakri Mohammed has joint Syrian and Lebanese nationality, but he was given political asylum by Britain in the 1980s, giving him permission to stay there indefinitely. Treason is considered a serious offence in Britain and carries a sentence of life imprisonment. It was only in 1998 that the death penalty for the crime was abolished.

Others facing scrutiny in Britain are Abu Izzadeen, spokesman for al-Ghurabaa [the Strangers] who said the 7 July London bombings would make people "wake up and smell the coffee", and Abu Uzair, a former member of Bakri's al-Muhajiroun group who called the 11 September attacks "magnificent". - adnki.com

"the rules of the game have changed" - Tony Blair

Move to deport foreign terror suspects

By Roger Blitz and Ben Hall - Published: August 12 2005 03:00 | Last updated: August 12 2005 03:00

The government has moved swiftly in its efforts to deport foreign terror suspects or those who encourage violence in the wake of the London bombings.

Six days after announcing new anti-terrorist measures in response to the July 7 and 21 attacks, 10 men were detained following raids by police and immigration officials in London, Luton, Leicestershire and the West Midlands. The men were taken to Belmarsh, the high-security prison in south London.

Hazel Blears, Home Office minister, said all 10 men were considered by the security services and the police as a threat to national security. Charles Clarke, the home secretary, had decided their presence in the country was not conducive to the public good. The Home Office has refused to reveal the identities of the detainees, al-though one is thought to be be Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric sentenced in his absence by a court in Amman to life imprisonment over a series of explosions.

He was one of 10 men subject to control orders imposed by the government, in effect house arrest, after he was held in Belmarsh without charge for two years. Two of the 10 men detained yesterday were also thought to have been previously held in Belmarsh and subject to control orders.

The government fully expects the deportation process to take months and is bracing itself for a second showdown in the Lords following last December's decision by law lords that detention of foreign terror suspects without trial was incompatible with human rights obligations.

The men are being detained pending deportation under the 1971 Immigration Act. In the past, foreign terror suspects held in Belmarsh could not be expelled because of human rights concerns about their home countries. The government now believes it can use diplomatic assurances to convince courts to deport them.

Echoing Tony Blair's comment last Friday that "the rules of the game have changed", Mr Clarke said in a statement: "The circumstances of our national security has changed. It is vital that we act against those who threaten it."

Britain has so far only concluded one agreement, with Jordan, but is seeking nine others. Ms Blears indicated the government was close to securing agreements with Algeria and Lebanon allowing their nationals to be detained.

"What we have to have is a realistic prospect of being able to deport people and that is exactly what we now believe that we have as a result of the intensive diplomatic work that has been going on for many months," Ms Blears said.

The 10 men are likely in the first instance to appeal against their detention, either through a judicial review or appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. Britain also needs to secure specific guarantees from Jordan in regard to the men it wishes to send back.

The memorandum of understanding between the two countries, published yesterday, also provides for an independent body to monitor the agreement. Its members will be appointed by Amman and London.

Under the agreement, Jordan promises to offer suspects humane treatment, judicial oversight if detained in Jordan, disclosure of the reasons for detention, regular visits by the independent monitoring body, unrestricted access to UK consular facilities, religious freedom, a right to a fair trial and the ability to prepare a proper defence. Both countries would be able to withdraw from the agreement, but its provisions would continue to apply to any deportees expelled under them. Human rights campaigners have said such assurances are "not worth the paper they are written on" but legal experts believe it may be hard to prove a foreign government would inevitably break its promises.

Gareth Peirce, the solicitor representing Mr Qatada and others arrested yesterday morning, said she had been denied access to her clients. "If the Home Office claims that it can now rely upon diplomatic assurances from appalling regimes whom it knows, on strong evidence, make use of torture, then it does so in the face of universal international rejection of such 'assurances'," she said. It is expected the men will seek judicial review of the deportation intentions, des-cribed by Ms Peirce as "insane and dangerous government at its worst".

Liberty, the civil rights group, called for real assurances of safety "and not just pieces of paper" from the governments concerned.

Separately, 10 people appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court accused of withholding information about the July 21 attacks. - FT.com

Case not proven

The Lies from Torture help generate the false terror fear

'Preacher of hate' is banned from Britain

By Richard Ford and Daniel McGrory [Aug 13th] - THE extremist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was banned from Britain yesterday amid Home Office fears that he was about to return to test the Government's tough policy towards the "preachers of hate".

Charles Clarke excluded Sheikh Bakri Mohammed from returning from Lebanon and stripped him of his leave to stay in Britain hours after ordering the deportation of ten other Islamic extremists, including Abu Qatada, another cleric.

Sheikh Bakri Mohammed could still try to confront the ban and fly to London if he fears that Syria intends to extradite him while he is in Beirut visiting his mother.

The threat of an extended stay in a Damascus prison answering terror allegations came as he was freed yesterday after 24 hours' detention in Lebanon. Ministers were alarmed that the cleric might fly back to Britain before next weekend when new rules will make it easier for the Government to deport extremists.

Mr Clarke's decision to move against Sheikh Bakri Mohammed is seen as a U-turn, coming only four days after John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that the Government was powerless to stop the cleric from coming back.

Officials say that the Home Secretary decided to act quickly after studying a security service file on the 47-year-old preacher during his holiday. Yesterday he ruled that Sheikh Bakri Mohammed's presence in Britain was "not conducive to the public good".

This power has always been at Mr Clarke's disposal but he would not say why he had not used it until now. The Home Office also refused to disclose whether the cleric was being banned on the ground of national security, public order or Britain's good relations with another country. Last night ministers denied tampering with the rules so that they could be seen taking action against fanatics. Hazel Blears, the Home Office Minister, described the ban as "a practical and pragmatic decision" that would be widely welcomed. - times online

Myths? or fabrications?

Myths about the bombings

[By Jason Bennetto Published: 13 August 2005]

MYTH

Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British-born Muslim who grew up in West Yorkshire, was reported to be the mastermind behind the July 7 suicide bombings and had been arrested in Pakistan.

REALITY

He was never in Pakistan but was eventually detained in Zambia. Scotland Yard does not view him as a key player in the July 7 attacks.

MYTH

A known terrorist was widely reported to have slipped into Britain to "mastermind" the July 7 London bombings.

REALITY

The man was an innocent Pakistani with a similar name to a suspected al-Qa'ida figure on a watch list of foreign security agencies.

MYTH

Police had identified a "fifth" suicide bomber connected to the July 7 team who was caught on CCTV at Luton railway station but who was never seen again.

REALITY

No one was identified as a fifth member.

MYTH

One or two of the men alleged to be responsible for the July 21 attacks were at a white-water rafting centre at the same time as two of the July 7 suicide bombers, Shahzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan.

REALITY

It is now thought to be a case of mistaken identity.

MYTH

US intelligence claimed Germaine Lindsay, 19, who carried out the King's Cross attack, was on a British watch list.

REALITY

The "fourth" bomber was wrongly identified in the US as Lindsay Jermaine, who had a similar name to a terrorist suspect.

I've got one for you:

MYTH

The Press is a trustworthy source of information with a history of journalistic principals, to investigate and report in a clear and meaningful manner.

REALITY

The Corporate owned Press is a machine which produces propaganda which has the purpose of misdirecting and misinforming the general public. This occurs to protect the Global reach & strategic interests of both Nation states and their corporate shareholders.

 

Captain Wardrobes

Down with Murder inc.