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Britain
Bunglawala Sez: "Lyrical Terrorist" Case Reveals UK Oppression
2007-11-13
Inayat Bunglawala, Guardian
I seem to recall that a California blog received e-mail threats from an office building where Bungy was employed.
The conviction last Thursday of the self-styled "Lyrical Terrorist", 23-year old Samina Malik, marks a further dramatic erosion of our liberties in the United Kingdom.
The British public was outraged when the leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, complained of "Nazism" in the UK, and did so 1 day before "Armistice Day" (Nov. 11)
In the wake of the guilty verdict, several newspapers printed extracts from her attempts at poetry, including gems such as How to Behead, and The Living Martyrs. The court had heard that on an online social networking group known as Hi-5 Samina Malik had listed her interests as "helping the mujahideen any way I can" and, in the section for her favourite TV shows, she entered "watching videos by Muslim brothers in Iraq, yep, the beheading ones".

However, Malik was also said to have downloaded some material from the internet including The al-Qaida Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook - it took me less than a minute to find both of these using Google, along with a document entitled How To Win Hand-to-Hand Fighting.

Although she was acquitted of the more serious charge under section 57 of the Terrorism Act of possessing an item for a "purpose" connected with terrorism, she was still convicted under section 58 of the same act which states:

A person commits an offence if ... he collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism

It hardly needs stating how incredibly broadly this act can be interpreted. The act does allow a defence for a person to download such material if the person can "prove that he had a reasonable excuse for his action or possession". Evidently, the court felt that Samina Malik had no such reasonable excuse and as the Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, of Scotland Yard, remarked after the trial: "Merely possessing this material is a serious criminal offence."

It is to be hoped that this case may yet serve as a demonstration of just how badly-framed some of our anti-terror legislation actually is. In a truly free society, it should not be a crime to merely download and read such material.

During her trial, Malik argued that she was not a terrorist and that she had chosen the online moniker "Lyrical terrorist" simply because it had "sounded cool" and that her poetry, online remarks and downloading of internet material was undertaken in an attempt to attract male admirers.
The "poetess" clearly declared her hate for the majority in her adopted homeland, and she more than advocated violence, she expressed an intent to personally act on her hate.
Her story is quite plausible and I am sure there must be many more like her. Countless young British Muslims visit popular internet sites such as YouTube every day to obtain footage of what is really happening in Iraq and come across sickening material such as US soldiers deliberately killing a clearly wounded Iraqi and then appearing to gloat over the murder, a US soldier in Iraq using a loudhailer to taunt Muslims with his expletive-filled mocking of the Islamic call to prayer, footage graphically showing the enormous and terrible impact of the US-led war on Iraqi civilians (this last one has the haunting Manic Street Preachers hit, If you tolerate this your children will be next ... as its soundtrack). If you have not already done so, then do try viewing some of this material - there is a lot more out there - and ask yourself whether, if you were a 23-year-old it might not also have prompted dark thoughts to cross your own mind, however fleetingly, and perhaps even have led you to download similar material from the internet.

Samina has been put under house arrest for the time being, but she must return for sentencing on December 6. As one blogger noted, it will be interesting to see if the judge chooses to make an example of her in order to discourage others or if he chooses instead to make an example of what is undoubtedly a bad and illiberal law whose primary purpose is to punish people for having the wrong thoughts.

There would appear to be something preposterously wrong with our criminal justice system if nearly five years after the Iraq war was launched and hundreds of thousands of wholly unnecessary deaths later, Tony Blair is able to just walk away from his responsibility for the ongoing carnage and unbelievably emerge as a Peace Envoy to the region, while a foolish young woman who did not harm anyone now faces a maximum 10-year term in prison for what can only be described as a thought crime.
Free speech? Bungy and the MCB have a habit of demanding "hate" prosecutions of non-muslims who scrutinize his cult. He would jail "islamophobes" if he had the power.
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Britain
'Lyrical Terrorist' found guilty
2007-11-08
A 23-year-old who called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" has become the first woman in the UK to be convicted under the Terrorism Act. Samina Malik from Southall, west London, has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of owning terrorist manuals. Malik worked at WH Smith at Heathrow Airport until her arrest last October.

The jury heard Malik had written extremist poems praising Osama Bin Laden, supporting martyrdom and discussing beheading. She had earlier been found not guilty of the more serious charge, under Section 57 of the Act, of possessing an article for a terrorist purpose. She denied the charges.
"Lies! All lies!"
Malik burst into tears in the dock when the verdict was read out.
"Waaaaaah! They're onto me!"
Following the verdict, Judge Peter Beaumont QC, the Recorder of London, told Malik: "You have been in many respects a complete enigma to me."
"Other than you're guilty as hell, of course."
She had posted her poems on websites under the screen name the Lyrical Terrorist, prosecutors said. Malik said the poems were "meaningless", but prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said: "These communications strongly indicate Samina Malik was deeply involved with terrorist related groups."

Police said they had found a "library" of extreme Islamist literature in her bedroom including The Al-Qaeda Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook. The court also heard she had written on the back of a WH Smith till receipt: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom."

Malik said she had only called herself the Lyrical Terrorist "because it sounded cool".
"And it made the guys all hot for me!"
She was convicted of having articles "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: "Malik held violent extremist views which she shared with other like-minded people over the internet. She also tried to donate money to a terrorist group.

"She had the ideology, ability and determination to access and download material, which could have been useful to terrorists. Merely possessing this material is a serious criminal offence."
There goes the UK market for Paladin Press...
Malik was bailed under what the judge described as "house arrest" until her sentencing on 6 December. He warned her that "all sentencing options" remained open to him.
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Britain
Hero copper saves 100s from Iraqi style car blast horror
2007-07-01
A DEVASTATING car bomb was just two minutes from exploding in a 900ft fireball when it was defused by a brave expert yesterday. The silver 1990 E-class Mercedes saloon was packed with eight propane gas cylinders, 60 litres of fuel in a dozen petrol cans plus another 30 in its tank and fistfuls of lethal three and six-inch nails. Parked outside a Haymarket nightclub packed with 1,000 revellers, the Baghdad-style bomb could have killed and injured hundreds, laying waste to people and property in a 300-yard radius.

Astonishingly the hero bomb squad officer immediately recognised a mobile phone in the car as the potential trigger device. Knowing he could have been blown up on the spot, he severed a wire from it, disabling the detonator, and hurled it from the vehicle. Earlier, a message on a jihadist website boasted: "Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed."

A Scotland Yard source said: "If the officer hadn't acted swiftly there would have been a cataclysmic explosion. The results would have been awesome. It is no exaggeration to say that anyone within 600-900ft caught in that conflagration would have been incinerated on the spot."

Last night a massive international hunt for the would-be bombers, feared to be linked to al-Qaeda, was under way. Terror detectives working with MI5 are thought to have a description of the Mercedes driver. They have seized dozens of CCTV tapes from shops and pubs and will trace the car's movements on traffic cameras and through automatic number plate recognition. Propane cylinders carry a serial number identifying the point of sale. The undamaged car will also yield a feast of forensic clues. Officers could have a DNA profile of people linked to the vehicle as early as this morning.

A second suspect Mercedes was left in Cockspur Street, near Trafalgar Square before being towed away by unsuspecting clampers to a car compound off Park Lane.

The first Merc was discovered by chance outside the Tiger Tiger club in Haymarket, in the West End, at 1.30am after an ambulance crew was called to the club to treat a sick partygoer. Paramedics spotted what appeared to be smoke coming from the vehicle. But it was leaking vapour from the gas cylinders. Believing the car was on fire the crew contacted their control room who alerted fire crews and the police. Police were on the scene in minutes.

Our source disclosed: "By the grace of God one of our officers spotted the trigger, realised its significance and literally threw it out of the car. He was a hero. He knew instantly it was a lethal situation. If he'd been standing close by at the moment of blast he'd have ceased to exist." Tiger Tiger was swiftly evacuated.

Alastair Paterson, 25, said: "There were up to 1,000 people on all three floors. Suddenly, the music was turned off and all the lights went up. Doormen and security rushed to escort people out. We were all led out of the building through a side alleyway. I've never seen a place empty so quickly. I saw the car with smoke coming out of the boot. It could have been the next 7/7, it could have been the end. I thank God that I'm still alive."

Mahinthaparan Yogarajah, the manager of a Spa store 50 metres away, said: "We're lucky to be alive as the bomb could have gone off at any time. This area is very busy early in the morning as clubbers leave to go home."

Anti-terror boss Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke hailed the courage of the bomb squad officers. He said: "It's obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been significant injury or loss of life. Not only did the officers' action prevent damage and injury but they gave us opportunities to gather a great deal of forensic and other evidence. We're doing absolutely everything we can to keep the public safe. The threat from terrorism is real and is here. Life must go on but we must all stay alert." Worryingly, he added: "There was no intelligence whatsoever that we were going to be attacked in this way."

Propane canisters contain liquefied propane which when released expands into 200 to 400 times the original size. Mixed with air, it creates a volatile cloud of vapour that is easy to ignite. Hans Michels, Professor of Safety Engineering at Imperial College, London, said last night: "The vapour cloud would fill a big room. When ignited, the effect would be even bigger. In addition to the power of the explosion and the shrapnel, you'd get a fireball the size of a small house. The nails would have been added to slice into people."

Yesterday's drama carried echoes of two previously foiled plots. One aimed to target a London nightclub. The other was linked to the use car bombs.

Words of Hatred On A Website
A MESSAGE on a jihadist website hours before the bombs were found indicates the attack may have been planned by Islamic terrorists. The 300-word entry in the al Hesbah chatroom says: "Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed." It was posted by a regular contributor using the name abu Osama al-Hazeen. Al Hesbah is often used by Sunni militants, including al-Qaeda and the Taliban, to post propaganda.

The message begins: "In the name of God, the most compassionate, the most merciful. Is Britain Longing for al Qaeda's bombings?" Al-Hazeen condemns the knighthood for Salman Rushdie and ends "by Allah, London shall be bombed."

New PM Calls Up Big Guns
IN a radical move Gordon Brown appointed Admiral Sir Alan West, former head of the Royal Navy, as the new Home Office Minister for Security. The decision to bring in a military chief known as a hardliner and with extensive experience of the war on terror will be seen as a master stroke. Mr Brown said the bomb drama showed Britain faces "a serious and continuous threat" and added that the public "need to be alert" at all times.

He went on: "The first duty of Government is the security of the people and as the police and security services have said on so many occasions we face a serious and continuous threat to our country. I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days."

Tiger Club 'Is Place To Pull'
TIGER Tiger nightclub has been dubbed "the place to pull in town", according to one review. Described as a "colossal playground for twentysomethings", its early evening happy hours and cocktails draw in large crowds. It had been hosting its Sugar 'n' Spice night when the bomb was found. The club classic and party anthem event was "for women by women featuring Lady H on the decks". At full capacity, the venue can hold 1,770.

Established in the West End in 1998, the over-21s club houses a restaurant, bars and a nightclub. It offers drinking and dancing until 3am. One reviewer remarked: "I have heard that it is, without a doubt, the place to pull in town."
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Britain
We Have Got Him On CCTV
2007-07-01
POLICE have a "crystal clear" CCTV image of the Haymarket car bomber who they already know, it was claimed last night. Detectives reportedly believe the male suspect was locked up and quizzed over a mass murder plot by convicted al-Qaeda terrorist Dhiren Barot to pack three limos with gas, petrol and nail bombs. The dramatic claim was made by US TV station ABC News.

Officers are understood to have a picture of a man outside the Tiger Tiger club. Last night, specialists were thought to be studying the image with high-tech equipment. The Haymarket is one of the most closely monitored areas in the world. Westminster Council has 160 24-hour CCTV cameras trained across the area. Hundreds more check London's congestion charge and capture the registration plates of every vehicle coming in and out of the zone. Detectives will also be able to scour camera tapes from private venues, such as theatres, clubs and restaurants.

Yesterday's plot has chilling similarities to 34-year-old Barot's conspiracy and another by terrorist Omar Khayam, 25, to blow up Bluewater shopping centre and nightclubs. The pair were snared before they could carry out their cowardly attacks. Barot was jailed for 30 years in December. Khayam was jailed for 40 years earlier this year.

It is now feared yesterday's would-be bombers may have combined the wicked pair's plans to launch an attack. Anti-terror chief Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said last night the Haymarket bomb "resonated with previous plots".

Barot told al-Qaeda chiefs in Pakistan why he favoured using gas canisters for bombs. In a 39-page document, he said: "Gas can be employed to cause large-scale damage to structures since many of them (gas types) are extremely flammable as well as explosive. Since, in the Western world, it is not always possible/feasible to obtain real destructive ingredients (eg common explosives) the project was based on being an improvised explosive device, hence gas."

The proposal - found by Pakistani police on a laptop - coldly stated its aims were "to be able to inflict mass damage and chaos". Barot suggested packing petrol cans with nails to "further maximise the damage caused" and said each cylinder would become a "huge exploding grenade" when detonated.

The Kenyan-born Muslim convert, who lived in North London, also had a plan B. He said: "As a secondary recourse, we are trying to obtain grenades since these may offer better success. I have several times come close to obtaining a few and feel confident, Inshallah (God willing), that I will be able to get my hands on some in the near future."

Barot wanted each limo to contain a dozen 47kg cylinders of propane gas and ordered the bomb raids to be carried out simultaneously. He concluded: "Projects are to be co-ordinated back to back - as they were with 9/11 - thus forming another black day for the enemies of Islam." Barot was arrested in 2004 after a tip-off by Pakistani police. His seven followers were jailed two weeks ago.

In a bugged conversation, Khayam and Jawad Akbhar discussed bombing the packed Ministry of Sound, in South London. Khayam, of Crawley, West Sussex, asked: "If you got a job in a bar, yeah, or club, say the Ministry of Sound, what are you planning to do there then?"

Akbhar replied: "Blow the whole thing up." Police are not sure the Tiger Tiger club was the target of the latest bomb plot because there are other nightspots nearby. However, a source said: "We know al-Qaeda-style terrorists have spoken about targeting nightclubs and, specifically, women."

Police are appalled by the threat of car bombs because of their destructive power.
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Britain
Breaking: Police defuse bomb in central London
2007-06-29
Sounds more like the IRA than Islamonuts.
British police said today they had defused a bomb in central London. Explosives officers were called to examine a car parked in The Haymarket, a central London street, early this morning, London police said in a statement. "They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device. This was made safe,'' they said, adding that counter-terrorism officers were investigating.

A police spokesman confirmed the device was a bomb.

Police responded after a member of the public reported a suspicious vehicle shortly before 2am (1100 AEST). The street was sealed off while police investigated and was likely to remain closed for most of the morning, they said. The nearby Piccadilly Circus underground train station was open, but exit restrictions were in place, the police said.

More, courtesy of Tarzan Threck7932:
London escaped what could have been its worst terrorist attack this morning when a car bomb packed with nails, gas canisters and containers of petrol apparently failed to detonate outside a popular West End nightclub hosting a 'ladies' night'.

Police were called to Tiger Tiger nightclub in the West End shortly before 2am when smoke was seen coming from the inside of a Mercedes car parked outside. A man was seen running from the vehicle. Inside officers discovered a "significant quantity" of petrol, nails and gas cylinders. They used a remote-controlled device to check the vehicle before bomb squad officers made it safe.

If the bomb had exploded, police said that the shrapnel would have killed or injured anyone within a wide area. The bomb itself could have caused a fireball as big as a house followed by a large shock wave.

Authorities were called to the area when an ambulance crew saw smoke coming from the car.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, said: "It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been significant injury or loss of life.

"What the ambulance people saw was what they thought was smoke." He said the investigation would discover if it was smoke or something else.

Whitehall sources said that the police and security services are looking at possible international links - including similarities to car bombs used by insurgents in Iraq. "It is entirely possible. There are various things - it is outside a nightclub, it is a vehicle-borne device, it is close to the anniversary of the July 7 attacks," one source said. "But we are keeping an open mind."

Officers were contacted at 2am after the pale green Mercedes drove into a number of bins outside Tiger Tiger on Haymarket. Witnesses said that the driver of the vehicle jumped out of the car and ran away. Terry Neil, managing director of TSS, the firm which provides doormen for the club, said that his bouncers had called the police before promptly evacuating the premises. "We work very closely with Operation Griffin, the anti-terrorism thing, and the boys have been briefed as to what they should do. They did what they were trained to do," he said. "If it wasn’t for their awareness, it could have been sat there outside a club with 1,000 people in it. It’s a very busy road."

Mr Neil added that the club's cameras are "absolutely everwhere" around the club. "If you look at where it is, the camera should pick him up getting out of the car. It shouldn’t be long before they start putting out images."

The incident came on Gordon Brown's second full day in 10 Downing Street, marking his first real test as Prime Minister. Mr Brown was due to host a Cabinet meeting today and said that he would remind his ministers that "vigilance must be maintained".

As investigations at Haymarket continued, with the area almost completely closed off, there was a second alert close to London Bridge Station, where a street was temporarily closed to traffic while a suspicious car was examined. A massive manhunt began for the driver of the Haymarket vehicle, wiith police trawling through CCTV footage from the club and nearby streets. Congestion charge cameras situated throughout central London are also capable of tracking where the car came from, and which routes it took.

Terror groups like al-Qaeda are believed to have been planning attacks on nightclubs, which are considered by Islamic fundamentalists to be symbols of Western decadence. Earlier this year, a number of Islamist extremist terrorists were imprisoned for planning a number of major terror attacks, including a bomb attack on London's Ministry of Sound nightclub.

Tiger Tiger is a combined bar, restaurant and nightclub, part of a wider national chain, that opens from midday until the early hours of the morning. It has several floors, and is believed to have a capacity of over 1,000 - although staff said that only around 650 were in the club at the time of the incident. Last night was scheduled to be 'ladies' night' at the club, complete with female DJ.

Police this morning cordoned off a number of entrances and exits to Piccadilly Circus Tube station, which was then closed for safety reasons by Transport for London. The station is set to remain closed for much of the morning, along with roads all around the area.

In addition to their Haymarket investigation, police were thought to be conducting a huge operation around other London landmarks - including Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament - to search for other potential devices.

This morning Mr Brown said: "The first duty of the Government is the security of the people and as the police and security services have said on so many occasions we face a serious and continuous threat to our country.

"We should allow the police to investigate this incident and then report to us. But this incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert at any potential incidents.

"I will stress to the Cabinet that the vigilance must be maintained over the next few days".

Going into her meeting this morning, Ms Smith said: “What I think is very important is that the public remain vigilant at all times. Obviously the police are investigating and I think we should allow them to get on with that without undue speculation.”

The attempted attack comes as the current terror threat against the UK is assessed as "severe," the second highest level, meaning that intelligence analysts consider an attack highly likely. The highest level, "critical", means that an attack is expected imminently. Earlier this month security spot checks were introduced on petrol and chemical tankers, cement mixers - and other vehicles that could be used by suicide bombers - on key routes into London. That reflects increasing concern in the security services that UK terrorists might copy tactics used to deadly effect by insurgents in Iraq. Bombers in Baghdad have blown themselves up in hijacked petrol tankers and, in at least three attacks this year, have used chlorine gas canisters in lorry bombs.

The checks follow a warning this year by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, that "vehicle-borne weaponry is the greatest danger that we can face". But Scotland Yard said on June 6 that it had no specific intelligence to suggest that a lorry-bomb attack was imminent. The Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command set up the checks as a precautionary measure but they were then incorporated into Operation Mermaid, a long-running operation aimed at ensuring vehicle safety.

An al-Qaeda terrorist convicted last year had been planning vehicle-borne bomb attacks in London when he was arrested. Dhiren Barot pleaded guilty to plotting a series of attacks, including detailed plans to pack stretch limousines with gas cylinders and explosives and detonate them in car parks beneath hotels or office blocks.
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Britain
Three charged over London bombings
2007-04-05
THREE suspects have been charged over the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings in London which killed 52 commuters, in the first indictments since the horrific attacks. The men - identified as Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem and Mohammed Shakil - were involved in the “reconnaissance and planning” of the attacks, in which four bombers blew themselves up on underground trains and a bus, police said.

“I appreciate that bringing these charges will have an impact on many people,” said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism squad. “For some it will bring back horrible memories of that terrible day. "For others there may be some relief that after such a length of time there is some visible progress in an investigation that has had to be kept secret.”

Their arrests last month were the first major detentions since the bombings, in which near-simultaneous blasts caused devastation on the London transport system during the morning rush-hour. The three were charged that between November 1 and June 29, 2005, “they unlawfully and maliciously conspired ... to cause explosions on the Transport for London system and/or tourist attractions in London,” prosecutors added.

The four suicide bombers - three of them Britons of Pakistani origin and one a naturalised Jamaican - died when they set off rucksack bombs on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus. The attack also injured more than 700 in what was the worst terrorist atrocity on British soil and the first such suicide attack in Europe.

The bombings were followed exactly two weeks later by an apparent copycat attack which failed. Six men are currently on trial for that alleged attempt.
The three suspects charged Thursday were detained on March 22 under the Terrorism Act 2000. At the time police said detectives had been investigating at home and abroad since the July 7 bombings, which prompted soul-searching about the extent of Muslim integration in British society.

The suspected ringleader of the bombings, Mohamed Sidique Khan, and fellow bomber Shehzad Tanweer said in videos recorded before their deaths that British foreign policy, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, motivated their actions.
The Metropolitan Police said last month that they had always been keen to determine whether anyone else helped Khan, Tanweer, plus fellow bombers Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay.

A May 11, 2006 report by the British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said that Khan and Tanweer were “likely” to have had contact with Al-Qaeda members while visiting Pakistan. A theory that a terrorist mastermind fled Britain shortly before the bombings was discounted. In addition, there was no intelligence to indicate there was a fourth or fifth bomber, the committee said.
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Britain
Britain to indict most of London suspects
2006-08-21
British police, investigating an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners, are optimistic they will be able to charge most of the 23 suspects in custody, reports said on Sunday. The newspaper reports come after the British Broadcasting Corp said that detectives have recovered “martyrdom videos” as well as a suitcase containing components needed to make a bomb.

Senior police and government officials told The Sunday Times that more than half of the 23 suspects held over the alleged plot to blow up the trans-Atlantic airliners are expected to be charged with terrorist offences. Most of the 23 can be held until Wednesday before police have to ask a judge to further extend their detention, police say. Under Britain’s anti-terror laws, police can hold them up to 28 days before charging or releasing them. Two people arrested by the police have already been released.

The Sunday Times said that police are building a strong case after having uncovered bomb-making equipment, chemicals, a large sum of cash, at least one gun and “significant” documents. The BBC, quoting unofficial police sources, reported that detectives found at least half a dozen “martyrdom videos” on laptops apparently recorded by some of the suspects as they prepared for suicide attacks. London’s Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the report.

The BBC has also reported that police had found a suitcase containing components needed to make an explosive device in High Wycombe, northwest of London. A police spokeswoman told AFP late on Saturday that investigators are still searching 12 locations. Since announcing the foiled plot, they have obtained more than 50 search warrants. Senior sources quoted by The Sunday Times claim that the first batch of suspects will be charged with terrorism offences within the next 10 days.

Additional: LONDON (AP) -- Eleven people were charged Monday with conspiracy to commit murder in the alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners, prosecutors said Monday. One person, a woman, was released without charge. The investigation discovered bomb-making equipment, including chemicals and electrical components, along with the existence of martyrdom videos on the computers belonging to those in custody, said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke. He didn't say if those in custody had made the videos.
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Britain
Police hunt for lethal chemical suicide vest
2006-06-03
A DESPERATE search is under way for a “chemical vest” that a British suicide bomber was ready to deploy in a terror attack on London.
Those suckers go out of their way to play dirty, don't they?
Police fear that the strike, using a home-made chemical device, was imminent after an informant told MI5 that he had seen the lethal garment at the home of two young men.
"Yes, effendi! I seen it!"
Last night detectives were at the hospital bedside of a 23-year-old postal worker shot during a pre-dawn raid on his parents’ home, while his younger brother, aged 20, was being questioned at Paddington Green high security police station.
"Nigel, the number seven, please!"
"Here you are, sir!"
"Nigel, this is a 9-iron! I distinctly asked for a number 7 truncheon!"
Armed officers who led the assault on the terraced house in Forest Gate, East London, wore oxygen masks and protective chemical gear after a tip-off from MI5 that the device had already been assembled.
Sounds pretty pleasant, doesn't it?
Security chiefs are deeply concerned that there was no sign of the vest inside what they believe is a chemical bomb factory. No weapons were found either as officers searched the two adjoining properties that have been converted to accommodate a large Bangladeshi family. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch, said that the raid, codenamed Operation Volga, was ordered in response to “specific intelligence”. He said that there had been no time to conduct further surveillance, which suggests that the police believed a terrorist was close to launching an attack. The fear is that if chemicals were to be used then a likely target could be a train compartment on the London Underground. Another theory is that a suicide attacker, wearing the vest under a shirt, could trigger the device in a crowded venue, such as a pub full of people watching an England World Cup match.
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Britain
BBC: Man shot in UK anti-terrorism raid
2006-06-02
A 23-year-old man has been shot by police during a house raid involving 250 officers carried out early on Friday under the Terrorism Act. The man, who was later arrested, was taken to hospital after the search in Forest Gate, east London. His injuries are not life-threatening. A 20-year-old man is also being held at a central London police station. A single shot was fired, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission which will investigate. The operation was not linked to the London bombings of July 2005, police have said. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Met's anti-terror branch, said the operation was planned in response to "specific intelligence".

"Because of the very specific nature of the intelligence we planned an operation that was designed to mitigate any threat to the public either from firearms or from hazardous substances," he said. He said the purpose of raid was to prove or disprove intelligence they had received. A protective tent has been set up outside the house BBC Home Affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford described it as the most significant anti-terror operation this year.

The 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism as he was being treated at the Royal London hospital The 20-year-old man was being questioned at Paddington Green police station.
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Britain
Who guided the London bombers?
2006-03-08
This is how the youngest bomber spent his last hour:

When three explosions shut down the subway system before Hasib Hussain reached his target on the Northern Line, the 18-year-old wandered in a seeming daze. He ate at a McDonald's. He went into a pharmacy. He repeatedly called his dead coconspirators' cellphones. Finally, he boarded a double-decker bus and blew it up as police sirens approached.

In the eight months since Hussain and three other suicide bombers killed 52 people on the transport system here July 7, police have reconstructed parts of the plot in minute detail. They have found that the multiple attack was cheap as well as simple. It cost less than $5,000, said Det. Supt. Peter Wickstead, the chief of an anti-terrorism finance investigation unit, at a recent conference here.

But anti-terrorism officials say the investigations of the bombings and failed follow-up attacks on July 21 have been slow and difficult. Not only are extremist networks murky and fragmented, but investigators also have run into resistance and radicalization on the street: In a recent poll of British Muslims, almost a quarter of respondents said they felt some sympathy with the motives of the subway bombers.

"The absence of hard data on 7/7 is striking," Shamit Saggar, a political science professor at the University of Sussex, said at the conference at the Royal United Services Institute think tank. "The only way we can explain that is as a significant circle of tacit support existing in that community."

Three of the four dead bombers were middle-class Britons of Pakistani origin from the northern region of Yorkshire. Investigators suspect that they got help and training from an Al Qaeda network in Pakistan that had targeted Britain before. In contrast, the imprisoned would-be bombers who on July 21 tried to blow up three trains and a bus were East African refugees and ex-convicts based in London.

Despite the timing and similarities, police have found no concrete links between the two groups, anti-terrorism officials said.

"July 7 and July 21 seem not to be related," said a British counter-terrorism official, who, like others interviewed, requested anonymity because the cases remained open. "The picture of July 21 is much fuzzier as far as travel, training and network links."

Nonetheless, a July 21 suspect did travel to Pakistan months before the attacks, British and Italian officials said. That increases the likelihood of a link because three July 7 plotters also traveled to Pakistan and are suspected of contact with a terrorism network there. Few details are available about the trip by the July 21 suspect, which was reported last week by the Sunday Times of London.

Because of laws limiting discussion of ongoing court cases, the security forces are reluctant to reveal what they know. But in recent interviews, officials did say investigators had accumulated considerable information about the dead bombers and living suspects and their activities in Britain. The problem has been determining the role of possible masterminds, trainers and other figures, officials said.

The same difficulty has beset cases such as the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, where questions persist about whether Al Qaeda figures outside Spain gave orders to several dozen suspects who are jailed or dead. Home-grown jihadis usually need some outside direction and expertise. In London as in Madrid, however, the possibility exists that there may not be much more to the attacks than meets the eye.

The assault on London's subways culminated a transformation in extremism in recent years: Operatives with British roots replaced foreigners, predominantly North Africans and Gulf Arabs, as the foremost threat here. Police were forced to "change completely our concept of operations," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke of Scotland Yard said in a speech at the two-day conference on politics and terrorism.

Clarke is Britain's top anti-terrorism investigator. During the frenzy ignited by the July attacks, he became the public face of the police response: a bespectacled, low-key detective exuding both determination and restraint. Last week, his assessment of the enduring threat was gloomy. He said the Al Qaeda terrorist network had a 50-year strategy in its war on the West.

"We have achieved a lot in terms of our understanding what we are dealing with," Clarke said. "I think that five to 10 years to get a grip on it is hopelessly optimistic. I don't think we are anywhere near it. It's an evolving threat. It's a changing threat. It's incredibly resilient."

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the July 7 bombings in a video featuring its second in command, Ayman Zawahiri, who is thought to be hiding in the Pakistani-Afghan borderlands. Images of Zawahiri appeared in a previous video with the defiant "martyrdom message" of Mohamed Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old former primary school teacher who led the cell.

It has been "clearly established" that Khan got training in Pakistan, which he visited in 2004 and 2005, the counterterrorism official who requested anonymity said. Bombers Shahzad Tanweer and Hussain also visited Pakistan, their families' country of origin. They allegedly were recruited by a Pakistani network that had been involved in a foiled bomb attack in London by Pakistani Britons in 2004.

In fact, Khan became known to security forces during the 2004 case, identified only as Ibrahim, a figure on the edge of the foiled plot, a British security official said. Investigators decided he was not significant enough to keep under surveillance, officials said.

The self-contained nature of Islamic terrorism cells makes it possible that the bombers themselves, most likely Khan, chose the targets and prepared the homemade explosives in an apartment bomb factory.

But questions remain: Why did they leave behind hoards of explosives in a bathtub at the safe house and in the trunk of the car they left parked north of London? Were others, perhaps an expert bomb maker, involved?

"The degree of the training Khan received is questionable," the security official said. "They left a great deal of explosive mixture, and it was so volatile. We don't know whether they had the capacity to make that. Khan was certainly the recruiter: bright, articulate, a good talker."

Whether for technical direction or mere inspiration, the bombers were in contact with Pakistan and elsewhere by phone in the final months. Police must still untangle an Al Qaeda web — one involved in previous plots against Britain — based in Pakistan, not an easy country for Western agencies to decipher. Moreover, investigators are still examining a trip that Khan made to Israel, possibly a reconnaissance mission, shortly before two Pakistani Britons carried out a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2003.

In the July 21 subway attack in London, police have the great advantage that the five accused would-be bombers are alive and behind bars: the four whose backpack bombs failed to ignite fully and a Ghanaian who allegedly aborted his attempt. Seventeen suspects have been charged, mostly friends and relatives accused of sheltering the fugitives during a manhunt.

But nothing made public substantially alters the account in the confession of Hamdi Issac, an Ethiopian-born suspect captured in Rome and extradited to London. During his interrogation in Rome, Issac described an improvised, low-tech plot in which his group decided to pay tribute to the July 7 bombers and put together their plan and bombs in two weeks, Italian anti-terrorism officials said. Issac named an Eritrean-born exconvict, Muktar Said Ibrahim, as the recruiter and bomb maker, Italian officials said.

There are serious doubts about aspects of the story, particularly the claim that the backpacks contained a nonlethal mix intended to frighten, not kill. Although officials say they have not connected the two plots, that does not necessarily mean the cells weren't directed from afar by the same network.

The trip to Pakistan by one July 21 suspect, whose name has not been revealed, suggests that he could have received orders and instruction there. In the past, Al Qaeda has dispatched selected operatives to lead terrorist cells whose members knew little about contact with the network.

The case "is still very difficult," a former top security official said. "Was it really just emulation?"

A significant development was the arrest in December of Adel Yahya, 23, a North London man captured as he stepped off a plane from his native Ethiopia. Police charged him with conspiring with the five would-be bombers, suggesting a front-line role.

At first, it appeared that the accused bombers, four of whom came from Ethiopia, Somalia or Eritrea as youths, were products of a radical, multiethnic mosque scene in London that has little relation to Islamic networks in their war-torn homelands. Now investigators are reexamining their activities and potential ties to others.

In at least two incidents during the last year, suspected East African militants have been detected conducting reconnaissance of Western embassies in Malaysia, which is not their typical area of operation, the British counter-terrorism official who was interviewed said.

The details may remain secret until after the trial on the July 21 attacks, which could start by September.

As in Madrid, where police have named suspected leaders in court documents but not charged them, some experts believe the July 7 plot, in particular, involved skilled Al Qaeda operatives who traveled to Britain or called shots from abroad.

"I call them mystery men," said Sajjan Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, which monitors terrorism. "They set up the cell, they facilitate, preparing bombs, they do everything. Then they disappear."

But British officials cautioned against the idea that they had their sights on a fugitive mastermind.

"It's dangerous to credit the plot with too much intellectual rigor," the British security official said. "The [subway] was a natural target, we knew that…. And suicide bombers don't need a lot of training."
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Britain
Queen hails brave 7 July heroes
2006-02-15
The Queen has praised the "outstanding bravery" of workers as she honoured them for their efforts in the aftermath of the 7 July London suicide bombings. Police officers and transport, health and other emergency workers collected honours, announced at the New Year, at a Buckingham Palace investiture.

Tube worker David Boyce, who gave first aid at the Russell Square blast, said the Queen had commented on his courage. The attacks on three Tube trains and a bus by four bombers killed 52 people. Mr Boyce, a Russell Square station supervisor who ran into the smoke-filled tunnel following the Piccadilly Line bombing, received an MBE.

"The Queen said, 'Very well done on your efforts for what you did on the day'," he said. "I didn't think about my own safety as I ran down the tunnel. I just thought, 'What am I going to find?' "It was very dark and there was smoke everywhere. I couldn't see two feet in front of my face. "On the train it was horrific. There were bodies lying all over the place and limbs missing." He used his own clothes to create tourniquets that he tied on people's limbs, before going to get more first aid. "I know that I've received this award but everyone at Russell Square was fantastic," said the 25-year-old, from Watford, Hertfordshire.

British Transport Police Constable Deborah Russell-Fenwick also collected an MBE for helping dying and injured people at the scene of the Tavistock Square bus bombing. The Queen told her that what she had done was "outstanding" and "brave". "I told her it was something out of your worst nightmare and she said it would take some time to recover from it." The 44-year-old, from near Gravesend, Kent, recalled that before ambulances reached the scene she wrapped parcel tape around people's heads to keep them still against blocks of wood to prevent further injury. She added: "To be honest, it's a bit bittersweet being here today. I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for all those people who died. "If I could wave a magic wand not to be standing here, I would."

The day was a celebration of the efforts of staff from London Underground, London hospitals, British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police. Many of those who helped on the day had been off-duty at the time.

Tube driver John Boyle, collecting an MBE, was at Aldgate station and went down to the tracks to help evacuate people from trains and lead them to safety. "I didn't know it was a suicide bomber, but I knew it was a bomb," he earlier told the BBC. "I was scared another would go off, so my priority was to get people out."

Tim Wade, Tube duty line manager on the East London Line, is receiving an MBE.
He evacuated passengers from the Russell Square train, then helped people in the carriage where the bomb went off in the "mayhem" of the first 20 minutes before paramedics arrived. "I did the job I was supposed to be doing - at the time it was pure adrenaline," Mr Wade said. He said colleagues who helped alongside him in the train carriage also deserved to be recognised.


Those honoured for their actions on 7 July include:

Peter Hendy, (CBE) Transport for London
Tim O'Toole (honorary CBE) London Underground
Julie Dent (CBE), South West London Strategic Health Authority
Roy Bishop (OBE), London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority
Martin Flaherty (OBE) London Ambulance Service
Major Muriel McClenahan, (OBE) of the Salvation Army
Dallas Ariotti (MBE), Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals
David Boyce (MBE), station supervisor Russell Square
John Boyle (MBE), Tube driver, London Underground
Alan Dell, (MBE) London Buses
Constable Deborah Russell-Fenwick (MBE), British Transport Police
William Kilminster, (MBE) paramedic London Ambulance Service
Peter Swan (MBE) paramedic London Ambulance Service
Jim Underdown (MBE) paramedic London Ambulance Service
Roy Webb (MBE) London Ambulance Service
Alastair Wilson (OBE) Royal London Hospital
Julia Peterkin (MBE), Royal London Hospital
Angela Scarisbrick (MBE), Great Ormond Street Hospital
Peter Sanders (MBE), station manager at King's Cross Tube station
Insp Glen McMunn (MBE) British Transport Police
Insp Stephen Mingay (MBE) British Transport Police
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke (OBE) Metropolitan Police
Commander Chris Allison (MBE) Metropolitan Police
Det Supt John Prunty (Queen's Police Medal) Metropolitan Police
Det Supt Douglas McKenna (Queen's Police Medal) Metropolitan Police
Timothy Wade (MBE) Line Manager, London Underground


Good stuff I'd say! Congratulations to all.
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Britain
Andrew Rowe convicted
2005-09-24
A BRITISH-BORN "international warrior" who waged jihad across the globe before being caught at the Channel Tunnel with explosives on his socks was jailed for 15 years yesterday.

Petty drugs dealer turned al-Qaeda weapons expert Andrew Rowe, 34, was believed to be on the verge of carrying out a terrorist attack when he was caught, the Old Bailey heard.
Peter Principle clearly at work.
Anti-terrorist officers described him as "a very dangerous man indeed". His contacts included known terrorists, and Malaysian security sources believe he was involved in a planned mortar attack on Heathrow airport. He is also thought to have been carrying out recruitment missions for the cause as he travelled between war zones.
Mortar attack? These guys have seen too many bad movies.
Yesterday Rowe was convicted on two counts of possessing an article for the purpose of terrorism. He was found guilty of having a notebook which detailed how to fire a mortar and of possessing a code which would allow him to discuss a terrorist attack while referring only to various types of mobile phones.

The jury of six men and six women was unable to agree on a third charge of having a pair of socks which, as they contained traces of explosives, the authorities believed had been adapted for cleaning a mortar. Rowe maintained the socks, which were rolled in a ball and tied with a chord, were used as a target in martial arts training.

Jailing him for seven-and-a-half years on each count and ordering that the terms should run consecutively, Mr Justice Fulford said he believed Rowe was on the verge of an act of terrorism when he was caught. "Whatever your terrorist purpose was, its fulfilment was imminent," he said.

He told Rowe: "You were a paid operative over a substantial period of time, travelling the world and furthering the cause of Muslim fundamentalism." He called for a change in the law to enable a life term to be passed for the offence, in place of the current ten-year maximum.

Rowe was arrested on the French side of the Channel Tunnel as he prepared to travel back to Britain in October 2003. The Islamic fundamentalist was already being monitored by the security services. A search of his former flat in west London in August 2003 had turned up a notebook with 22 pages of hand-written instructions on how to aim and fire a mortar.

After his arrest police searched the Birmingham home of Shaibia Tafla, his estranged wife and mother of his four children. In a video cassette case they found a code which Mark Ellison, the prosecutor, said "made it possible to communicate in an innocent message which only spoke about mobile phones".

Giving examples of the code, Mr Ellison said money was "Nokia 3310", trouble-police was "3410", weapon was "3610", airport was "3310" and army base was "3331". Other codes for explosive materials made it a "shopping list for terrorism", said Mr Ellison. Other words on the list included "target one", "target two" and "target three", as well as the ingredients of the home-made explosives used in July's London terror attacks. Rowe had also made a list of English counties, used for substition with foreign countries.

A draft letter revealed that Rowe was travelling abroad on "mobile phone business" and that he would soon be meeting a man who needed his help.

Since converting to Islam at the age of 19, Rowe had travelled extensively and had applied and received four passports in the past seven years. The prosecution has, however, failed to uncover wether or not he was part of an al-Qaeda plot to attack Heathrow Airport. According to reports from Malaysia, he and Lionel Dumont, a French national, were planning to attack the airport using a shoulder-mounted missile.

The head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, said yesterday that Rowe "intended to use some form of violence during a terrorist attack. "We don't know where, we don't know when and we don't know exactly how. But it was quite clear that he did intend to commit acts of terrorism."
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