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Home Front: WoT
Briton Charged in Online Terrorism Case
2006-07-19
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A British man was indicted Wednesday on charges he helped run terrorism fundraising Web sites, set up terrorists with temporary housing in England and possessed a classified U.S. Navy document revealing troop movements. Syed Talha Ahsan was arrested at his home in London on a federal indictment in Connecticut charging him with conspiracy to support terrorists and conspiracy to kill or injure people abroad.

Ahsan is accused in the same case as Babar Ahmad, a British computer specialist who was indicted in Connecticut in October 2004. Both are accused of running several Web sites including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit members for the al-Qaida network, Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and Chechen rebels. Prosecutors allege that from 1998 until at least 2002, Ahsan and Ahmad operated Web sites encouraging people to donate money or equipment. The sites allegedly operated in Connecticut, Nevada, Britain, Ireland and Malaysia. U.S. prosecutors said Ahsan helped terrorists find temporary residence in London and shuttled them into Afghanistan and Chechnya to participate in ``jihad.''

A few months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Ahsan allegedly possessed classified documents discussing a U.S. Navy battle group's movements and vulnerability to attack. The existence of that document became public with Ahmad's arrest in 2004 but authorities have not said how it was obtained. The battle group was not attacked.

A spokesman for Connecticut U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said Ahsan was being held without bail in England. Extradition papers were being prepared, officials said. Ahmad has been fighting extradition to the United States for nearly two years.
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Britain
UK approves extradiction of Ahmad
2005-11-16
British officials ordered a British computer specialist Babar Ahmad extradited to Connecticut to face terrorism charges Wednesday, a decision announced after sixth months of deliberation. Connecticut investigators say Ahmad ran several Web sites, including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit and raise money for the al-Qaida network, Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and Chechen rebels. A judge ruled May 17 that the 31-year-old could be sent to the United States to face charges of supporting terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and running a Web site used to fund terrorists. But the extradition had to be approved by Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Britain's top law-and-order official, who made his decision Wednesday.

"We are very pleased with the home secretary's decision, which represents yet another important step in our efforts to bring Babar Ahmad to justice," said U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor, Connecticut's top federal prosecutor. "We will continue to work closely with our counterparts in London to secure his extradition." Ahmad's arrest last year capped a multiyear investigation by Connecticut's anti-terrorism team.

Investigators said Ahmad had obtained classified documents discussing a U.S. Navy fleet's vulnerability to attack. Ahmad's family said it would appeal Wednesday's decision, setting up a High Court challenge to contentious new rules that allow American authorities to seek extradition without producing evidence of a crime. The case is proceeding under new extradition rules that lessen the burden of proof in some cases, allowing certain countries — including the United States — to provide "information" rather than evidence that a crime has been committed. Some lawyers and civil libertarians are alarmed by the "fast-track" procedures, which are not reciprocal because the U.S. Senate has not yet ratified the extradition treaty. A petition calling for Ahmad to remain in Britain gathered thousands of signatures.

Ahmad's lawyers have 14 days to appeal. They said if evidence against him existed he would have been charged in Britain. British police arrested Ahmad on suspicion of terrorism offenses in December 2003, but released him a week later without charge. "If our government has any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Babar Ahmad, then he should be charged in this country and put on trial here," said Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

In a statement posted on the Web site www.freebabarahmad.com, Ahmad said Clarke's decision "should only come as a surprise to those who thought that there was still justice for Muslims in Britain." The lawmaker for Ahmad's home district in south London, Sadiq Khan, also said he should face trial in Britain. "Mr. Ahmad's family and the local community are extremely concerned that he will not be subject to a fair trial in the United States," Khan said.

In May, Judge Timothy Workman allowed extradition after receiving assurances from U.S. authorities that they would not seek the death penalty or declare Ahmad an "enemy combatant," a category applied to detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. British law forbids the extradition of suspects who could face capital punishment. Workman called the extradition bid "a difficult and troubling case," and said it raised complicated issues that the High Court should explore. Before the new rules were introduced, several high-profile U.S. extradition bids fizzled out when authorities were unable to back up their charges of terrorism with evidence.

In April 2002, Workman dismissed a U.S. extradition bid against Algerian pilot Lotfi Raissi, who was arrested shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and accused of being a lead trainer for the suicide hijackers. Workman ruled that the United States had offered no evidence to link Raissi to terrorism. The same year, U.S. authorities failed in a bid to extradite Egyptian Yasser el-Sirri, who allegedly funded terrorist activities targeting the United States, after the British government decided there was not enough evidence.
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Britain
Britain Given More Time for Extradition
2005-07-16
The British government said Friday it has been granted more time to decide whether to extradite a British man facing terrorism charges in the United States. A judge ruled May 17 that Babar Ahmad could be sent to the United States to face charges of supporting terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and running a Web site used to fund terrorists.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke, the top British official in charge of law and order, had 60 days to decide whether Ahmad would be extradited. That period expires Friday, but the Home Office said Clarke had obtained an extension from the courts until Sept. 16. In May, a judge allowed extradition after receiving assurances from U.S. authorities that they would not seek the death penalty or declare Ahmad an "enemy combatant," a category applied to detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that affords fewer legal protections. British law forbids the extradition of suspects who could face capital punishment. The 31-year-old computer specialist has been in custody since his arrest last August on a U.S. extradition warrant. He is accused of running several Web sites, including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit members for the al-Qaida network, Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and Chechen rebels and to outfit them with gas masks, night-vision goggles and camouflage gear.
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Home Front: WoT
Ahmed tried to set up terrorist camp in Arizona
2005-03-04
A British computer specialist tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Arizona in 1998 and met with Islamic radicals there who claimed ties to Osama bin Laden, a government attorney said Wednesday. Babar Ahmad, who is being held in London on charges he ran terrorist fund-raising Web sites, met in Phoenix with Yaser Al Jhani, a member of the Islamic mujahedeen militia, and others who said they had access to bin Laden, said John Hardy, a British lawyer representing the U.S. government. "He expressed an interest in developing a training system in Arizona," Hardy told The Associated Press. "That is, a training system, in effect for the mujahedeen to visit and train to fight abroad."

Hardy was hired to help extradite Ahmad to the United States on charges he ran several sites, including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit al-Qaida, Taliban and Chechen rebel fighters. The site allegedly encouraged people to train in street combat, land mine operations and sniper combat. While in Phoenix, he practiced using firearms and tried to purchase military equipment, Hardy said.

Details of the Phoenix trip were outlined in a report by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Appleton, who would prosecute the case in Connecticut because one of the Web sites was hosted here. Prosecutors plan to present the report as evidence at Ahmad's extradition hearing which began Wednesday in London. There was no evidence in the report that Ahmad successfully set up the camp, Hardy said.

The report, which has not been released to the public, does not mention any attacks on U.S. targets, Hardy said. "Mr. Ahmad was not inclined to conduct terrorist strikes in the states because he didn't want to jeopardize the use of the United States as a valuable source of resources," Hardy said.

The mujahedeen are guerrilla soldiers fighting what they see as holy wars around the world. Al Jhani fought in the Philippines and Bosnia, Hardy said. The mujahedeen is also involved in combat in Chechnya, where the Russian government says the group is aided by bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Hardy told Bow Street Magistrates Court in London earlier Wednesday that the United States alleges Ahmad "sought and incited and solicited contributions to terrorist causes in Afghanistan and Chechnya."

Investigators discovered classified U.S. Navy documents in Ahmad's parents home, along with a compact disc with audio tracks praising bin Laden, prosecutors said. The Navy documents revealed a fleet's weakness to terrorist attacks, prosecutors said. Ahmad's case is being heard under contentious "fast track" extradition procedures that came into effect in January 2004. The new rules lessen the burden of proof in some cases, allowing certain countries, including the United States, to provide "information" rather than evidence that a crime has been committed.

British police arrested Ahmad, allegedly for terrorism offenses, in December 2003, but released him a week later without charge. His lawyers have said he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder after being assaulted during that arrest. A police officer has been charged with misconduct over the incident. Scores of Ahmad's supporters demonstrated outside the courthouse on Wednesday, calling for him to face trial in Britain. "We do not accept this extradition," Ahmad's father, Ashfaq Ahmad said outside a London court Wednesday. "Inside they are going to decide the future of my son. This is just all politics."
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Britain
Azzam.com webmaster bought camouflage, tried to buy chemicals
2004-11-18
Fred, you got any camo or chemicals? Just, you know, asking.
A terror suspect facing extradition to the US bought 100 camouflage suits and tried to buy large amounts of chemicals, a court has been told. A US government lawyer set out evidence at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, after hearings to decide whether to extradite Babar Ahmad, 30, of south London. Ahmad is accused of trying to raise funds for terrorism via websites and emails. The US has accused Mr Ahmad of trying to raise money for terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan. America also claims he had plans for a US Navy battle group in the Gulf, including comments on how ships were vulnerable to attack.

James Lewis QC, acting for the US government, said Mr Ahmad ran a website - Azzam.com - that encouraged terrorist acts. The site said it was a religious obligation for all Muslims who could not fight to donate money to jihad, Mr Lewis said. He also told the court that Mr Ahmad had e-mail links to a Chechen rebel leader who planned the 2002 Moscow theatre siege, in which 129 hostages died. It was claimed another e-mail found in the Azzam account was from an individual who said he was serving in the Middle East with the US Navy, but which expressed hatred towards the US and support for terrorism. Mr Lewis also alleged that from mid-1997 to early 1998 Mr Ahmad had attempted to buy up to 5,000 tons of sulphur phosphate. There was also evidence the suspect had made a "miscellaneous" shipment to Pakistan, the court was told. Mr Lewis alleged that Mr Ahmad, on a trip to the US in 1999, had bought 100 cold weather camouflage suits and shipped them back to himself in the UK.

Mr Ahmad, a 30-year-old IT administrator of Tooting, south London, was arrested in August. He had previously been arrested under anti-terrorism laws in December 2003 but released without charge. Edward Fitzgerald QC, defending, said there were concerns over whether Mr Ahmad would get a fair trial in the US. Mr Fitzgerald told the court a report would be prepared which "looked into evidence in relation to the treatment of Islamic defendants charged with terrorism offences in the US as respects their trial and subsequent detention". The hearing was adjourned until 16 December, when the report is due to be served on the government and the court.
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Terror Networks
IntelWire Recovers Recently Arrested Terrorist's Defunct Pre-9/11 Website
2004-08-07
From IntelWire, an article by J.M. Berger
.... INTELWIRE has recovered two pages hosted on Azzam.com prior to the September 11 attack, which praised the Taliban and defended the sect's decision to protect Osama bin Laden against U.S. extradition attempts. The pages, recovered from the Internet Archive, are mirrored here for the use of news media and terrorism researchers. ...

The first page, an index of Taliban-related material, bears the headline "Taliban: Allah's Blessing on Afghanistan." It contains pictures and links to various articles about the Taliban, as well as to a page titled "What you can do to help the Taliban (01 Feb 2001)." That page could not be loaded as of this time of this update.

The second page defends the Taliban's policy of harboring Osama bin Laden, despite U.S. attempts to apprehend him for trial. ...

Babar Ahmad was arrested in the U.K. and faces extradition charges related to publishing the Azzam Web site, soliciting funds for use in terrorism and conspiracy to support terrorism. U.S. authorities also said Ahmad was found in possession of classified information sent by an active U.S. Navy enlistee stationed with a carrier group in 2001. As reported previously on INTELWIRE, al Qaeda is known to have infiltrated the U.S. military both before and after the Gulf War, and the terror network actively recruited U.S. veterans during the early 1990s with the assistance of at least one active duty serviceman.
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Terror Networks
Wackos Say: Jihad Unspun Website is a CIA Front
2004-04-16
You will enjoy this post more, if you hum the theme from the "Twilight Zone."
...take a closer look at the website.....This is a very sophisticated operation and I am sure that even some of its own muslim reporters have no clue what is going on. But again, as the graphic on its homepage portrays Bush on one side and Binladen on the other. For an agitated muslim as well as reactionary goyim, the NWO reinforces the assertion it made on Sept.11th by bringing down those towers by "heated jet fuel ": The war of civilisations is on : Binladen after grandly bringing down the towers now seeks to further his Jihad on the West.

Secondly, unlike other genuine Jihad sites, there is not even a whisper of conspiracy regarding Sept 11th on this site. In other words,
1. The goyim must continue hunting "Al Qaeda"
2 The muslims should resume the "jihad" on the West inaugurated by Binladen.
OR IN OTHER WORDS, NWO/ JEWISH CABBAL/ ILLUMINATI /SATAN/ CIA AGENDA! Notice how the tab "The players" has only Bush Binladen and Co. whereas the Real players are simply missing.
There is also another purpose. Suppose Bush is having a real unpopular moment. Jihadunspun could furnish another lab doctored video/audio recording of Binladen urging war on Americans. This will serve to distract and at the same time emphasise the need for a war. With its Al Qaeda credentials, few would doubt the source...

Here is some interesting stuff I found in the contact information under domain name lookup.
Jihad Unspun
Bruce Kennedy, #300 - 1497 Marine Drive
West Vancouver, BC V7T1B8 Canada
+1 604 913 2241, Fax: +1 604 913 2240
bkennedy@jihadunspun.net
...Now here’s what happened lately.....Genuine Jihad site Azzam.com smelt something wrong in wannabe jihadi site JUS and sounded the alarm by publishing articles titled "JUS is CIA". Since Azzam is widely read, it had to be closed, or it would be the end of an expensive well orchestrated operation. For reasons unknown, Azzam.com was instantly shut down and has been offline since then.
Kennedy, who runs Jihad Unspun, is a Muslim convert. Azzam.com is shut down and chased off the internet, just like TalibanOnline.com, alneda.com, and similar sites — for whatcha might call safety reasons.
In order to counter the damage done by Azzam.com, JUS published some damage control, which can be best described as the work of some other "Bruce Kennedy" whose experience with Islamic Arabs is Lawrence of Arabia movies and Tintin comics. Dont be impressed by the dropping of Koranic verses and Arabic lines. You can get Pakistani muslims@ 5$ an hour to do that. I am posting the whole article just in case JUS deletes it from its website noticing clumsiness.

AND I INVITE ALL OF YOU TO TAKE A GOOD READ AND JUDGE FOR YOURSELF WHETHER "BRUCE KENNEDY" WILL PLAY A GOOD ARABIAN FEMME ONLINE OR SHOULD BE REPOSTED BACK TO THE CIA RADIO STATION IN ALASKA.

And a pro-al-Qaeda website has its own spin.
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Britain
Is Britain A Nest Of Islamic Militants?
2003-05-02
Source: Reuters
British passport photos of an alleged Tel Aviv suicide bomber and his accomplice, staring from newspaper front pages on Thursday, posed an awkward question for Britain — is it becoming a bastion of Muslim militancy? From "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, who tried to down a transatlantic flight with explosives stuffed in his shoes, to the mastermind of the murder of a U.S. journalist in Pakistan, growing numbers of militants have set off from British shores. Israel says the two men it blames for killing three people at a Tel Aviv nightclub on Wednesday entered the country using British passports. "The two terrorists are British nationals," a police spokesman said. Israeli television broadcast images of those passports, bearing the names of Assif Mohammed Hanif, 21, the alleged bomber, and Omar Sharif, 27. Britain said it was working with Israel to establish the identity of the men. Hanif lived in Hounslow, west London, but was studying Arabic at a Damascus university, his brother told Britain's The Sun newspaper. Sharif was born in Derby in central England. If a British link is confirmed, it will reinforce London's growing and unwanted reputation as a safe haven for militants seeking to strike at targets around the world.
Importing outside Krazed Killers represents a new departure for the Paleostinians. Indications so far have been that they have a plentiful supply of domestically-raised loons. Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades say they were the ones who planned the op, working together, as Dire Revenge™ for the IDF bumping off Mazen Erahpe. Of course, they also say the killer was a Paleo from Tulkarm...
Several British Muslims went to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan two years ago, fired up by the radical preaching of clerics including Abu Hamza al-Masri, a north London imam who applauded the September 11 attacks in the United States. Egyptian-born Abu Hamza, who brandishes a hook in place of his right hand which he says was blown off when he was in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces, has become one of Britain's most recognisable and controversial figures. He is accused by Yemen of involvement in a 1998 kidnapping of Western tourists. Britain revoked his citizenship last month, part of a crackdown prompted by the September 11 U.S. attacks.
That's one of them the Brits seem to be cracking down on...
Anjem Choudhary, British leader of the Islamic militant group al-Muhajiroun, described Hanif as a "martyr" and said British Muslims wanted to support Palestinians "as much as they can". "The feeling for jihad at the current time in light of Iraq and Afghanistan and the continuing intifada in Palestine is very hot within the Muslim community," he told BBC radio. Mainstream Muslim groups in Britain dismiss al-Muhajiroun as unrepresentative and extremist. But its message is not rejected by all — several Britons are still languishing in a U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay for alleged links to Osama bin Laden's militant al Qaeda network.
I thik they let Hassan Butt out of jug, though. There were warnings on Azzam.com about 18 months ago that Muhajiroun's jihad funnel was a sting. I'd guess that's why the outfit hasn't been busted up yet, but I think any usefulness it had is ended with the latest boom...

Last year Briton Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who attended an elite London private school, was sentenced to death in Pakistan for the kidnapping and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. In Britain itself, the threat of attack was highlighted by the discovery in January of the lethal poison ricin in a north London flat.
Omar Sheikh is a giggling psychopath, affiliated with Jaish e-Mohammad, and through them with al-Qaeda. I'm not too sure what he got out of the London School of Economics, except for one of those ties. The ricin plot seems to have been driven by al-Tawhid, an Ansar al-Islam affiliate run by Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, and involved mostly North Africans. It's another al-Qaeda affiliate. So that operation's not really home-grown, except for any involvement by Abu Qatada, who was a buddy of Zarqawi's back in the Olde Countrie...
Analysts say Britons may continue to pay the price of their relaxed attitude to Muslim dissidents before 2001. "For very many years the United Kingdom accepted people who sought safety in Britain and didn't inquire too much into their background," said security specialist Garth Whitty. Britain had traditionally paid far greater attention to the threat from guerrillas fighting British rule in Northern Ireland. "Other countries have been much harder on Islamic groups and kept a far closer watch," Whitty said.
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Europe
Hassan Butt jugged in Manchester...
2002-12-04
Sharon e-mailed me this. Sorry, no link. It's from AFP and Bloomberg, but I couldn't find it. Should show up on the wires soon, though...
A member of a militant Islamic group has been arrested in Britain for recruiting Muslims to fight British forces, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the organization's director. Hassan Butt, 22, was arrested under the Terrorism Act at his home in Manchester, northwest England, and taken to a London police station for questioning, AFP quoted Anjem Choudary, director of the group known as al-Muhajiroun as saying. In January, Butt told British Broadcasting Corp. radio he had recruited 200 British Muslims to fight on the side of the now-deposed Taliban regime in Afghanistan, AFP said.
I was never able to figure why Hassan wasn't either jugged or bumped off by either the Brits or the Paks. Then I quit worrying about it when I ran across a posting on one of the Jihadi boards — it might have been on Azzam.com — warning about him. Apparently he wasn't nabbed because the Feds from at least three countries were watching the people he was associating with and recruiting, and a bunch of them were snagged. Guess his utility is used up.
Al-Muhajiroun is one of the most militant Islamic groups in Britain. Its spiritual leader, Sheikh Omar Bakri, is based in London.
He's also a virulent nut case. The headline of their most recent (October 24th) press release reads: "WESTERN VALUES ARE PERVERTED VALUES". That's because only God can make laws, and God, as we all know, speaks only through pious holy men with turbans and automatic weapons.
Try to put this wretched system next to the beauty and perfection of the Islamic ideology and there really can be no comparison. For a start Islam does not recognise ‘freedom’ but rather insists on complete submission to the law of Allah in all the affairs of society, whether that be in the ruling, social, economic or judicial systems or in the foreign policy of the Islamic State. There is no compulsion for non-Muslims to embrace Islam but no compromise in obeying the ISLAMIC law of the land, upon Muslims and non-Muslims. Democracy is also anathema to Islam, since Muslims do not believe in the rule of the majority or in elections every 4 or 5 years or in sovereignty for anyone or anything other than Allah, whether that is the people, their government or any constitution, be it the UN, OIC or any other body. As for secularism, Islam considers anyone adopting this to have committed an act of apostasy, for considering any part of life’s affairs to be outside the ambit of the divine law will make one a non-Muslim apostate.
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Home Front
Mulla Fazal Tortured to Martyrdom In Camp X-Ray
2002-07-31
Source is Azzam.com, via Markaz ad Dawa website. Take with at least a 10-pound grain of salt:
Sources have indicated that due to the barbaric nature of the torture used by the American intelligence appartaus at Camp X-Ray in Guantamano Bay, Cuba — Mulla Fazal Akhwand, one of the chief commanders of the Taliban has embraced martyrdom.
He will be missed...
This rumour, yet to be substantiated by a reliable source, was being circulated in Kandahar on Monday. A source closer to Mulla Fazal indicates that he was held by the US in Camp X-Ray, where he had been tortured ruthlessly and barbarically. However the same source has not confirmed the report of his martyrdom.
Flowers and donations of arms and ammunition can be sent to your local mosque...
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