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British secret agent was al Qaeda mole who cracked new 'underpants' bomb plot

2012-05-10

A British undercover agent infiltrated al-Qaeda, volunteered to be a suicide bomber and smuggled out the latest version of the deadly underpants bomb, it can be disclosed. The man, who risked his life to get close to al-Qaeda's master bomb-maker in the Yemen, is of Saudi origin but holds a British passport, sources told the Daily Telegraph. MI5 recruited the agent for an operation in which the CIA planned to target the bomb-maker with a missile from an unmanned drone. MI6 then worked with the Saudis who have previously infiltrated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), based in Yemen. The individual was sent to target Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the ruthless Saudi-born bomb-maker for AQAP. He infiltrated the terrorist group, risking execution if he was discovered, and volunteered to be a suicide bomber. Two weeks ago, the agent walked away from al-Qaeda with the device he was supposed to use in an attack on US-bound aircraft. He traveled to the United Arab Emirates and then to Saudi Arabia, with the device before handing it over to his British handlers. He was also able to give information which led to a CIA drone strike on Sunday which killed Fahd al-Quso, AQAP's director of external operations. However al-Asiri was not there and remains at large, frustrating efforts to kill him. The mission is particularly sensitive because British agents are not supposed to give "targeting information" for lethal operations. The underpants device was handed to the FBI laboratories in Quantico, Virginia, which examined a similar device used by Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab on a trans-Atlantic airliner to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. The FBI has discovered that Asiri had refined the prototype he first developed for use by his own brother in a suicide operation three years ago so that it could be detonated in two separate ways. The British security services are thought to be unhappy that their role has become known, fearing it may jeopardise the recruitment of future agents who are given anonymity even after they die by the service. Whitehall sources refused to comment. So who authorized the release of the information? And why?

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Britain

Islamic preacher to college students: 'Terrorism works'

2011-06-07

An Islamic preacher told students that it was difficult to argue with Bin Laden's views and said "terrorism works" during a speech at a university in London. Abdur Raheem Green, a Muslim convert and former public schoolboy, Not one of the poor and ignorant claimed to populate the ranks of the jihadi organizations, then. Certainly not Harry Paget Flashman either... claimed that a "permanent state of war exists between the people of Islam and the people who opposed Islam," while addressing students at University College London (UCL). He gave the speech to the university's Islamic society while Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, the Detroit bomber, was a student there in 2005. Quite some time ago. Still, nice to know. Referring to Osama in his 2005 UCL speech, Green, who says he is not an extremist, said that it was difficult to argue with his views. Green said, "His rational [sic] is, we are going to keep on killing your women and children until you stop killing our women and children. How do you argue with that? The other thing is that it seems that terrorism works. We certainly have precedent." Did he mean the 9/11 attacks? I'm not sure that in the end that's worked well for the group organizing the attack... This disclosure follows a statement by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, in which she said there had been "complacency" by universities about Islamism. Qasim Rafiq, a spokesman for the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, invited Green to speak at UCL along with two speakers from Hizb ut-Tahrir and another who has supported the Taliban. Since then, Green has been invited to give lectures at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, Queen Mary and Bart's and at UCL. Has the government considered either jailing such speakers for incitement or something, or expelling them from the country for un-British activities? Defenestration works as a concept, too.

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