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July 17, 2007

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism (2 of 4)

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism

Part Two (of Four)

As an island, Britain's lack of shared borders has meant that for 1,000 years, it has avoided invasion. Those borders are now seen to be porous, and people can enter Britain with ease. Amongst those are people who wish to destroy the nation. The case of the three car bombs from June 29-30, apparently plotted by doctors who had arrived to work in the health service, once again brought up questions of border security. Several of the car bomb suspects were said to have been identified by MI5 as potential terrorists, but no action had been taken to remove them from Britain's shores.

The two car bombs in central London, and the subsequent attack upon Glasgow airport, have led to a former MI5 chief questioning the effectiveness of Britain's border controls. From 1993 to 1996, Dame Stella Rimington headed MI5, the first woman to be appointed to the role, and the first to be publicly named.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Stella Rimington stated that "if you have people who would kill you there have got to be a lot more checks." On being asked how long such checks need to be maintained, she replied: "I would say that it is a generation. I don't think we should take a great deal of comfort from the fact that these latest bombs were botched. Creating home-made explosives is difficult and they will get it wrong but they will get it right as well."

Rimington continued: "We have realised that the free movement of people is a great concept but if you have people who would kill you there have got to be a lot more checks. It is sad that the ideals at the end of the Cold War turned out not to be possible. We are historically a very international community. London was regarded as a place people could come to. We believed in freedom of speech, freedom of movement but all those wonderful things also made it a place where people could come to plot, a place for terrorists."

From 2002 until April this year, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller was MI5's Director General. She had warned in November 2006 that Britain faced a "generation" of Islamist terrorism. In a report published this month, Manningham-Buller claimed that there are now more than 100 terrorist suspects awaiting trial in Britain, an unprecedented figure. She wrote that additionally there are 1,700 terrorists, in 200 networks around the country. These are thought to be plotting 30 attacks at any one time.

The Sunday Times revealed that of all those arrested between 2001 and 2005 under antiterrorism measures - one quarter were asylum seekers. The figures came from analysis by the Home Office. Out of 963 cases, 232 had previously applied for asylum. Currently there are 400,000 known asylum-seekers in Britain who have had their applications rejected, but have not been deported. Of failed asylum seekers who were deported, there have been 4,000 who tried to re-enter the country since September 2006. In addition, the government acknowledges that there are 570,000 illegal immigrants in Britain. The true figure may be as high as 870,000.

In Part One I mentioned that Omar Altimimi had been jailed for nine years on July 5. He had arrived in Britain in 2002, claiming to be an asylum seeker from Iraq. He used the name "Abou Hawas" in his asylum application, which was turned down. He had, in fact, arrived from the Netherlands, where he had connections with terrorists. Instead of being barred entry to Britain, he had settled in Bolton, Manchester, and had even applied for a cleaning job with the police. Under the name "Abou Hawas" he received $200,000 from the National Asylum Support Services, funds which he placed in one of his eight bank accounts.

Four years aqo, the opposition Tory party urged that all asylum seekers be held in secure accommodation until their cases are approved or rejected. This recommendation was never taken up, and asylum seekers are still allowed to "disappear" into communities while their cases are processed.

Exactly two weeks after the attacks of 7/7, 2005 upon London Transport, four individuals attempted to repeat the attacks. These individuals, using a hydrogen peroxide recipe similar to that used in 7/7, failed in their plot. They were given life sentences on July 10 last week. All four had arrived in Britain as asylum seekers. The leader or "emir" of the group was Muktar Said Ibrahim, who had come with his family from Eritrea.

Muktar Ibrahim had tried to detonate a rucksack on a Number 26 bus on Hackney Road, east London, on July 21, 2005. He came to Britain in 1990, when he was 12. Yasin Omar tried to explode his rucksack at about the same time on a train at Warren Street, central London. He had arrived in the early 1990s from Somalia. Ramzi Mohammed had tried to blow up a tube train in Oval, south London. Born in Somalia in 1981, he came to Britain in 1998. Hussain Osman (Handi Isaac) tried to blow up a Hammersmith and City tube train at Shepherd's Bush, west London. He was born in Ethiopia, went to Italy in the early 1990s, and settled in Britain in 1996.

The explosives had been badly made by the 21/7 bombers, but they had been intended to be triacetone triperoxide or TATP, the same substance used by the 7/7 bombers. The four 7/7 bombers had intended to bomb four trains, but Hasib Hossain had boarded a Number 30 bus, which he blew up at Tavistock Square. The 21/7 attackers had tried to copy the modus operandi of the 7/7 bombers, even down to the "mistake". Hasib Hossain's bomb had caused most loss of life, and Muktar Ibrahim had tried to emulate his actions on the Number 26 bus.

Ibrahim was a known criminal, but a year before he tried to blow up the bus, he had been granted a British passport in September 2004. A condition of naturalization is that applicants must be "of good character" and pledge to uphold Britain's democratic values and to observe its laws. In 1995, he had been arrested with four other youths for being involved in at least five street robberies. Muktar Ibrahim was given a five year jail sentence as he had carried a knife. How this criminal was granted citizenship is a cause for concern.

At the close of his trial, more details emerged of how Ibrahim had evaded both Mi5 and the police. 11 months before the 21/7 attacks, he had been under surveillance by MI5. In August 2004, he had been engaged in "training" while at a recreation camp in Scotland. In December 2004, he had been under surveillance as he had left Britain to travel to Pakistan. Like Mohammed Siddique Khan, leader of the 7/7 cell, Ibrahim was believed to have met senior Al Qaeda figures in Pakistan. While remanded in custody in Belmarsh prison awaiting trial, Ibrahim boasted to inmates that he had met Siddique Khan in Pakistan. Records of his cellular phone conversations have also linked Ibrahim to another terror plot, whose suspects are still awaiting trial.

Muktar Ibrahim had been placed on an MI5 "watch list", but had still been allowed to leave the country in December 2004. He had been questioned at Heathrow Airport for four hours by police Special Branch officers. He claimed to be going to a wedding, but could not recall the bride's name. At the time, he was already awaiting trial for assaulting a police officer. This information was not disclosed to the authorities when he later gained citizenship.

The lax approach towards law-breakers has also been reflected in the Home Office's policy on foreign criminals. In April last year, it was revealed that 1,023 foreign criminals were at large. These had been imprisoned but when released they had not been considered for deportation, even though judges had recommended that 160 should be removed from Britain. The individuals had included murderers, rapists, pedophiles, 27 convicted for indecent assault, 20 drug importers and 57 who had been convicted of violent offenses. Such Home Office incompetence has meant that in March this year, the department was split in two to create a "Ministry for Justice" which deals with sentencing. The Home Office still deals with immigration, terrorism, and policing.

After the convictions of Muktar Ibrahim and his associates, the opposition's shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said: "This trial has revealed that the ringleader in the 21/7 plot was allowed to leave the country to train at a camp in Pakistan and return to plan and attempt the attack. This was despite the fact that he was facing criminal charges for extremism. When will the Government answer our call to establish a dedicated UK border police force to secure our porous borders?"

Stella Rimington is concerned that there is little control over who comes into or goes out of Britain, yet there seems little political will to take action. In November 2006, it was revealed that one member of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir works in the Home Office's. This individual, who belongs to a group that wishes to see democracy destroyed to create an Islamist superstate and vilifies Jews, is called Abid Javaid. He works in the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate. He has even been given a grant of tax-payer's money to organize an event for Hizb ut-Tahrir.

A week after the failed car bomb attacks, the Daily Mail revealed that up to eight police officers are employed in Britain, who are suspected by MI5 of links to Islamic extremism. Some are thought to have undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan. One officer, employed in the south east of England, had been using the internet to distribute videos of captives being beheaded, and of roadside bombings in Iraq. He has not been dismissed from his post.

Continued in Part Three...

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 17, 2007 9:50 PM

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