British bombers and the lost links to 7/7-News-UK-Crime-TimesOnline
Mohammad Sidique Khan’s name featured twice in MI5 anti-terrorist operations more than a year before he went on to lead the 7/7 suicide attacks on London. The revelations can be reported for the first time after yesterday’s conviction of Omar Khyam, a close associate of Khan, for plotting to build a 1,300lb bomb to blow up a crowded nightclub or shopping centre.
Far from being a “clean skin” Khan had been photographed, followed and bugged by intelligence officers more than a year before the July 2005 bombings that killed 52 innocent people and ranked as Britain’s worst act of mass murder. Security sources told The Times that they had identified a “Sidique Khan” in 2004 as the owner of a mobile phone called by an alleged al-Qaeda financier and of a Honda car which was tailed from the SouthEast to Yorkshire by investigators. Despite those leads, which placed Khan firmly in the company of high priority terrorist suspects, he was not investigated further.
[...] The jury was not told that two men who met Khyam four times when he was under surveillance in early 2004 were Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, his right-hand man in the 7/7 cell. About 16 months later Khan, Khyam and two other men detonated suicide devices on three Tube trains – at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King’s Cross – and on a London bus.
Nor did the jurors know that Khan joined Khyam and other members of his bombing team at an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in July 2003.
The two men were part of a group of young Britons who trained under and took orders from Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, the al-Qaeda leader who was transferred to Guantanamo Bay last week after being caught by American forces in Iraq.
Hmm, it's striking at least.
More from the Star.com:
The fresh revelations showed that Omar Khyam -left with Anthony Garcia, both of them condemned-, leader of the so-called fertilizer bomb plot, also met with the second-in-command of the July 7 suicide bombers while under MI5 surveillance but that the links between the two groups were never followed up.
The disclosure of the multiple connections to the 7/7 bombers, which starkly contrasts with the widely held belief that domestic terror cells operate in almost total isolation, sparked opposition calls last night for an independent inquiry into why the security agencies failed to use their knowledge to prevent the July 7 attacks.
From The Guardian, the punishment:
Omar Khyam, 25, Waheed Mahmood, 35, and Jawad Akbar, 23, all from Crawley, West Sussex, were convicted of conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or injure property between January 1 2003 and March 31 2004. Anthony Garcia, 24, from Ilford, Essex, and Salahuddin Amin, 32, from Luton, were convicted of the same offence. Amin, who has repeatedly said he was tortured after being arrested in Pakistan, is planning to appeal.
Khyam and Garcia were also convicted of possessing 600kg of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism, and Khyam was found guilty of possessing aluminium powder for purposes connected with terrorism.
The judge, Sir Michael Astill, said Khyam, Garcia and Mahmood should not be considered for parole for at least 20 years, and Akbar and Amin should not be considered for parole for 17 and a half years.
[...] It also emerged yesterday that one of the gang's associates, Kazi Rahman, 29, was jailed for nine years last year after he admitted a charge of trying to purchase weapons.
By the way, they have been sentenced for life. And they actually did not kill anybody... Looks like we should have this kind of criminal code here for people like De Juana Chaos.
Of course, they do not mention Abd al-Hadi... even if he was again planning to attack UK...
More in LA Times:
Testimony from an American Muslim who was involved with the defendants in Pakistan revealed that two of the men said they were reporting to Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, whom they identified as the No. 3 representative of Al Qaeda. U.S. authorities revealed last week that Hadi had been taken into custody last year and has been providing information about Al Qaeda.
British MPs to probe MI5 actions.
Pressure grows for a 7/7 inquiry.
Khawaja: The Canadian connection.
5 Britons Guilty; tied to London 2005 Bombers.
More in The Jawa Report, The Lone Voice, O Insurgente, Expat Yank, Woman Honor Thyself, Gates of Vienna.
Very interesting: read the reflections on the subject by Benedict White at A Conservative's blog: Could the MI5 have stopped 7/7?. He really believes that not for blaming, but to consider what to do in the future a new investigation commission should be called upon. Just the contrary in Tangled Web, who considers that MSM are only thinking of the bad thinks and not of the good -being here the condamnation/punishment of these five ehhh.... peaceful guys.
Related posts: Al-Qaeda operative believed to be 7/7 mastermind, captured.
One only question: what are the "security" forces doing to ensure security???
Related news:
-
Wanted: three more wifes for Islamist heckler: Omar Brooks -left-, who described the 7/7 suicide bombers as "completely praiseworthy" and heckled Home Secretary John Reid in a high-profile confrontation last week, has signed up to a Muslim marriage website. Although already married with three children and reportedly living off £700 a month in state benefits, the 31-year-old is seeking more wives, with the intention of fathering more than nine children. There has been a demonstration in London to support him. Britain's Muslim Public Affairs Committee representative, Zulfi Bukhari believes that Abu Izzadeen is not a radical extremist.
- Another British Muslim jailed because he had allegedly tried to buy missiles to shoot down airliners h/t El Opinador Compulsivo.
- Controversial Sharia courts have been set up in major towns and cities to impose Islamic law and enable Muslims to shun the legitimate British legal system. Last night religious leaders and politicians expressed outrage that Sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in our society. Critics insisted that the Government is allowing a two-tier legal system to flourish in the name of political correctness and that the authority of UK justice is being undermined.h/t Yahel.
Marvellous hein???It is really depressing that the people who should be defending citizens, are instead, defending and protecting this kind of ...prehistorical warriors.
- Britain is becoming Big Brother society h/t O Insurgente. Well, certainly not for terrorists...
- oh, and I was forgetting about the bonds h/t EN.
Sent for Open Trackbacks to Dumb Ox and Pirate's Cove.
La policía investigó a Sidique Khan uno de los terroristas del 7/J, un año antes del atentado. Se le pinchó el teléfono, se le siguió... ¿La causa? Habían identificado a Sidique Khan como el propietario de un móvil en el que fue recibida una llamada de un presunto banquero de Al-Qaeda y la policía siguió la pista a su coche Honda desde el sudeste hasta Yorkshire. Pero, a pesar de todo ello, no se le siguió investigando.
Pero es que los dos hombres con los que se reunió Siddique Khan fueron Khan y Sheezah Tanweer, sus colaboradores en el 7/J, que habían sido entrenados por Abd al-Hadi, que hace pocos días se anunció que estaba preso en Guantánamo, y que quería volver a atentar en Gran Bretaña.
El descubrimiento ha tenido lugar en el curso de las investigaciones que se siguen contra los acusados -y condenados- por el caso de la bomba hecha con fertilizante. El jefe de esta última Omar Khyan -el morenito de la foto de arriba con cara de exaltado, el otro, Anthony García no parece muy inteligente- se había reunido en varias ocasiones con Sidique Khan, lo que prueba que las células terroristas no actúan solas.
Esto de que no se sabía que no actuaban solas es una idiotez: Al-Qaeda está formada como una franquicia -término mercantil- y no hay nada más mercantil que unirse para alcanzar sinergias. Así que ¿por qué no van a actuar conjuntamente?
Sin embargo, lo que nos deberíamos preguntar es: ¿realmente las fuerzas de seguridad están preparadas para encarar el terrorismo? Y, en segundo lugar, ¿qué es lo que deberían hacer para estarlo?
En español podeis leer el Opinador Compulsivo que señala que los explosivos que querían utilizar eran básicamente los mismos que iban a usar los que querían volar el Parlamento de Ottawa y degollar al presidente canadiense en directo.
Entradas
