Another Qaeda big fish disappears

[Hakki Alacakaptan]

I can't believe this: Abu Qatada is _the_ top Qaeda mullah in Europe, and
the Brits let him off - the same law-abiding, squeaky-clean Brits who had no
compunction in summarily executing alleged IRA terrorists in Northern
Ireland and Gibraltar. Abu Qatada is the mullah of the infamous Finsley Park
mosque where Qaeda bad guys from all over Europe congregate. Another one is
Brixton, where Abu Hamza al-Masri operates and the shoe bomber hung out.
Qatada was involved in the milennium plot, wanted by Jordan, wanted by
Spain, and allowed by the Brits to continue preaching the Wahhabist jihad as
a free man. Al-Masri is wanted by Yemen for plotting to blow up a British
consulate but the Brits won't extradite him. Why? Because they like seeing
their diplomats blown up? Or because these "ex" allies from the good old
Afghan war days may tell all sorts of entertaining stories about MI5-6, the
CIA, the ISI, and the Sauds? Nah, I bet it's those finicky, stuffy judges
and liberal laws that are tying their hands up, poor things.

Hakki
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http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4334375,00.html
Muslim terror suspect gives police the slip

{Terrorism crisis - Observer special}

Nick Pelham and Martin Bright
Sunday January 13, 2002
The Observer

One of the country's most wanted terror suspects has slipped the police and
intelligence service net and disappeared, according to Britain's
closely-knit network of Islamic radicals.

Abu Qatada, a Jordanian scholar of jihad, or holy war, was top of a list of
suspects handed to the Home Secretary by the intelligence services before
Christmas to be detained under new internment legislation.

Police seeking Abu Qatada raided his home in West London earlier this week
hoping to find evidence of his whereabouts.

His flight will be a major embarrassment for the Government, whose
controversial anti-terror laws were described by one official as
'tailor-made' to put Abu Qatada behind bars.

The new legislation is designed to hold indefinitely suspects who cannot be
brought to trial because of a lack of evidence.

Leaders of the Islamist community in Britain said Abu Qatada was
communicating with followers via chat sites on the internet. In a brief
voice message two days ago he told his followers: 'I'm safe... but just
don't ask too much about me.' His assistant, Abu Muntasser, an Iranian, is
also believed to be in hiding.

Abu Qatada's wife, who is due to give birth to their fifth child, has told
friends she has heard nothing since he was was last seen on 15 December, the
day after Parliament enacted its legislation providing for the internment of
foreign terrorist suspects. He has been seeking travel documents for the
past two years, and is believed to be in Britain.

Arab veterans of the Afghan war say that after winning asylum in the UK in
1993, Abu Qatada became a magnet for leading dissidents on the run from the
Middle East and Pakistan. Guerrillas from jihads in Afghanistan, Algeria,
Egypt and Palestine flocked to his Islamic centre in White City. In Hamburg,
numerous videos of Qatada's lectures were found in the flat used by Mohamed
Atta, who led the terrorist attacks on America.

(...)