|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Cian O'Connor
||
|| Firstly, if the Observer has any story on the security
|| services you can't trust it. Along with the Times,
|| they seem to be the most gullible of the real
|| newspapers.
Do you have anything to support this?
||
|| MI5 have been protecting some Islamics, but that was
|| to do with their rather shambolic attempt to bring
|| Quadaffi down. I don't think any of those guys has
|| appeared on any of the lists that MI5 have compiled.
||
"Guys" meaning who? The goings-on at Finsbury Park that you take so lightly were known to practically the entire EU intel community: ========================================= Apostles of Anger
{http://www.time.com/time/europe/eu/magazine/0,9868,178489,00.html}
Stung by accusations that the country is a haven for extremists, Britain toughens its antiterrorism laws BY {HELEN GIBSON/London} (...) Britain is "the weak link in the largely successful and cooperative effort to fight terrorism in Europe," says Roland Jacquard, the French president of the International Observatory on Terrorism. Britain is proud of its record as a refuge for those fleeing tyranny, and over the past two decades has provided a haven for many political dissidents from the Middle East. But critics say that extremists have used this openness to plan attacks, raise funds and otherwise foment terrorism. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has complained that Britain harbors "terrorists under the slogan of human rights." Others suggest that the absence of identity cards gives would-be terrorists an enviable freedom of movement. The "lack of controls inside Britain . . . means people plotting terror will continue to regard the U.K. as a haven," Jacquard says. "People come and go as they please, to and from [terrorist] training camps or on missions." A French antiterrorist official is even more accusatory: "In the last half-decade, virtually all Islamist extremists from Europe have shared the same itinerary: radicalization in London mosques and exit from Britain to Afghan camps."
The suspected terrorists who have used Britain as a transition point include the French national Zacarias Moussaoui and the Franco-Algerian Djamel Beghal. Moussaoui, who was arrested in the U.S. before the Sept. 11 attacks, lived undisturbed for years in south London despite French warnings that he had strong links with bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization. And Beghal, the admitted leader of a bin Laden European network, lived in Finsbury Park in the late l990s. Extradited from the United Arab Emirates, where he detailed his operation to investigators, Beghal now awaits trial in France. The hub of Islamic extremism in Britain is the Finsbury Park mosque Beghal frequented, located in a shabby neighborhood of north London. From here, cleric Abu Hamza al-Marsi, who lost both hands and an eye in Afghanistan, runs Supporters of Shariah, a group that promotes "military training for brothers" and whose website last week suddenly disappeared from the Internet. Hamza, an Egyptian who came to Britain in 1981 and is wanted in Yemen for terrorism, welcomed the Sept. 11 attacks as "justified." Since then, police have been guarding the mosque — they say for the Muslims’ protection, but this also makes monitoring visitors easy.
In response to the Sept. 11 attacks — and pressure from other European states — the British government has started to crack down. Last week, Sulayman Balal Zainulabidin, a 43-year-old cook, was arrested over connections with Sakina Security Services, an organization whose website — before it too suddenly disappeared — offered Muslim youths the "ultimate Jihad experience." This military course included training on how to "improvise explosive devices" in live operations and sessions at a U.S. firing range. (...) ========================================= The "overrated" Al-Masri ordered the bomb attack on the UK consulate in Yemen. His son and stepson were arrested there. Look at the dateline on the following story and you might understand why I don't buy the MI5 incompetence theory for Qatada's getaway. =========================================
London-based Muslim cleric named as a 'spiritual leader' of al-Qa'ida
{http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?dir=73&story=105963&ho st=3&printable=1}
War on Terrorism: Spanish investigation By Ian Burrell, Home Affairs Correspondent 21 November 2001
A Muslim cleric living in London has been named by the Spanish authorities as a pivotal figure in the al-Qa'ida terror network in Europe. Abu Qatada, 40, from Acton, is named in a judicial indictment as al-Qa'ida's "spiritual leader" in Europe and one of its key financiers. Mr Qatada, a Palestinian with Jordanian nationality, is believed to have been placed at the top of an MI5 list of suspects facing internment under controversial new anti-terror laws debated in the Commons this week. (...) ========================================= And it's not like MI5 lacked informants: ========================================= Spy on the front line against terror ------------------------------------ How I was betrayed by the British
{http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4137980,00.html}
Reda Hassaine risked his life infiltrating Islamic groups for police and MI5. But after two years service he was betrayed, he tells Jason Burke MI5 and police ordered illegal break-ins at mosques (...) ========================================= You're right about Al Masri being at the F.P. mosque, my mixup. The guy at Brixton, Baxter, looks pretty straight.
Hakki