For all you Rambos out there, while we taking out Afganistan, please let's make a stop in Britain and take them too, while we are at it let's send to concentration camps all Irish Americans who support the IRA, etc etc. Just imagine the defense department, defense companies, jobs, votes, political prostitutions, wow!
siliconinvestor.com
Terror in America: Muslims in Britain
Law fails to keep extremists at bay
BY MICHAEL BINYON AND DANIEL MCGRORY
LONDON is still a haven for Islamic extremists preaching global
terrorism, despite tough laws passed last year to curb their activities.
Dozens of Islamic activists, wanted in their own countries on
terrorism charges, are still resident in Britain, and are active in
movements supporting the violent overthrow of pro-Western
governments in the Middle East. Embassies in London said that the
law passed after the Omagh bombing, which was intended to
prevent London being used to plot terrorism overseas, had made
little difference.
At least nine governments have asked Britain to extradite terrorists
who they complain are operating freely in Britain. They are believed
to include India, Yemen, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Afghanistan,
Algeria, Jordan and Sri Lanka. Already this year, 16 men with
alleged links to Osama bin Laden have been arrested in Britain. One
of them, Khalid al-Fawwaz, is alleged to have bought the satellite
telephone that was used to give the orders to bomb the US
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was moved from Brixton to
Belmarsh top security prison within hours of the US attacks as he is
still awaiting extradition to America.
A senior Israeli diplomatic source said that known Palestinian
militants were sheltering in London. “Just because you put some
groups on a banned list it doesn’t mean that its members just sit at
home knitting. They are still active. They just are a bit more careful
and operate under different names.”
Yemen has sent Britain a detailed dossier on Sheikh Abu Hamza al
Masri, a militant cleric whom it accuses of masterminding a plot to
bomb British targets in the port city of Aden in 1998.
Security sources in Sanaa have evidence that he sent his son,
stepson and others from his Supporters of Sharia (SOS) group to
training camps in Yemen run by the Islamic Army of Aden. His
recruits confessed in a Yemeni court to giving £2,000 to Abu
Hassan, a local terrorist leader, to pay for weapons and their
training.
Abu Hassan led the kidnap of 16 Western tourists and told his
gunmen to murder as many as they could when the Yemeni Army
tried to rescue them. Four tourists, including three Britons, were
killed.
While Abu Hassan was holding his hostages he contacted the
Sheikh at his London office using a satellite telephone provided by
the SOS group. The Islamic Army of Aden is on the banned list but
Hamza’s own SOS group is not.
Tunisia, which has demanded the extradition of several prominent
extremists who have claimed asylum in Britain, said that the entire
leadership of the banned al-Nahda party was now in London.
Tunisia is calling for this party to be added to Britain’s list of banned
organisations.
“There is a whole terrorist cell here with links with other extremist
groups,” Muhammad Bou Gamra, the Tunisian press counsellor,
said. “We have been warning our partners in Britain and Europe,
and a month ago we again asked Britain for their extradition. We
have still not received a reply.”
A prominent Tunisian Islamist who heads the list was convicted in
absentia in Tunisia of plotting a terrorist explosion that blew off the
foot of a British girl visiting Tunisia.
Egypt also has demanded the extradition of Yassir Serri, whom it
accuses of responsibility for the Luxor massacre. Zaki Ghazi, the
Egyptian press counsellor, said that a number of Egyptian Islamists
lived in London. “The new law has not stopped their activities. They
have linked up with other terrorists.” He said that Mr Serri had
recently published a book by an associate of Osama bin Laden,
encouraging Muslims to kill Americans, Christians and Jews.
Egypt has been so angered by Britain’s refusal to expel Egyptian
Islamist activists that it has on several occasions summoned the
British Ambassador in Cairo and warned him that Egypt would take
diplomatic measures if nothing was done. Islamic Jihad, one of the
Egyptian militant organisations, has been placed on a banned list.
Turkey has also demanded the extradition of political and religious
extremists in London, but never succeeded. Two Kurdish groups,
the PKK Workers Party and HKPC, are now banned in Britain, but
an embassy spokesman said that its members were “still terrorising
people and extorting money in North London”. He said that some
extremists had now established legal businesses in Britain, but many
were also involved in anti-Turkish and terrorist activities.
Before the law was changed to ban the collection of money for
terrorism overseas and to outlaw conspiracy to commit terrorism,
Britain was seen as a haven for any extremist wanting to hide from
his government. Britain’s partners, especially France and Germany,
were angered by the number of Algerian and Kurdish militants who
made London their headquarters and co-ordinated operations
overseas from there.
As Prime Minister, John Major promised to make extremists
unwelcome in Britain but proposed Conservative legislation to
outlaw the advocacy for or support of terrorism in Britain was
defeated after Labour objections.
Indian diplomats have evidence of young British Muslims being
recruited by British-based groups to fight in Kashmir. A suicide
bomber who attacked an army base in Srinagar in January came
from Bradford. One diplomatic source said: “We have arrested a
number of Britons trying to infiltrate into Kashmir with explosives
with the intention of carrying out terrorist attacks. We know who is
recruiting these people and they are not on the UK’s banned list.”
He added: “We have also listed mosques and colleges where money
is raised for terrorist activities in Kashmir.” Three groups, including
Jaish e-Mohammed, Lashkar e Tayyaba and Harakat Mujahideen,
are on the banned list. A senior Indian diplomat said yesterday: “We
now hope that Britain will introduce tighter enforcement laws on
militants operating in the UK and make extradition a swifter
process.”
Last year two Sikhs, Mukhtiar Singh, 27, and Paramjit Singh, 26,
fought extradition in the Court of Appeal in London. They had been
arrested for plotting to smuggle explosives from Pakistan to India
and planning terrorist attacks. A judge blocked their deportation,
saying that the pair were at risk of torture if they were handed back
to India. Both belonged to the International Sikh Youth Federation
which has been outlawed.
British security services found evidence that the pair who arrived in
Britain illegally, were using their base here to continue to plot terror
activities abroad.
The Russian Government has also protested at the number of
British passport holders who have been recruited by extremist
Islamic sects to fight in Chechnya. |
