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From The Times, May 3, 2007 The supergrass I helped to create - Mohammed Junaid Babar Our correspondent reveals how his TV interview led to Mohammed Junaid Babar turning informer in the Crawley bomb plot trial Jon Gilbert As the TV camera rolled Mohammed Junaid Babar’s eyes shone indignantly behind nerdish glasses: “There is no negotiation with the Americans. I will kill every American that I see in Afghanistan, and every American I see in Pakistan.” Babar was an American-born al-Qaeda terrorist, who would go on to plot hundreds of murders. So what caused him to give three separate television interviews that led to his own capture and imprisonment and the jailing for life of five fellow terrorist conspirators? I’d like to know, because it was me who filmed them. Mohammed Junaid Babar, 31, was the world’s first al-Qaeda supergrass, and the first US witness to testify in a UK terror trial. The star prosecution witness in the largest and costliest terror trial in UK history. Over three weeks he gave evidence against co-conspirators with whom he had plotted to blow up a British shopping centre and a nightclub, poison football stadium food, destroy the Houses of Parliament, and detonate a “dirty” nuclear bomb. It was Britain’s biggest post-9/11 terror plot. His detailed confessions helped to condemn his former friends to a lifetime behind bars. The reason Babar found himself in court at all was because six years ago in Pakistan he let me interview him – the only time that he ever appeared on film. Those hate-filled rants, aired on CNN and worldwide, alerted the FBI to his existence. Three years later he was arrested, charged and persuaded to turn state witness. I first met Babar near Islamabad shortly after the 9/11 attacks. We were introduced by Hassan Butt, a smooth-talking university dropout from Manchester acting as spokesmanfor al-Muhajiroun, a radical Islamic movement. Babar was a plump, talkative American with a nasal New York accent. He was intelligent and likeable. Keen to discuss religion and global politics. Despite his virulent antiWesternism, he once took me for a meal at KFC. I wondered how eating in a US fast-food chain sat with his rabid loathing of the infidel West. I soon learnt that Babar’s principles had the solidity of the milk-shake in his hand. In spite of his nerdiness, Babar’s sentiments were anything but comical: “My intention is to go to Afghanistan and fight the Americans that have invaded and attacked our Muslim brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.” At that time such remarks seemed extraordinary. But Babar was one of the first of a breed of young men who have come to define our century: home-grown Islamic terrorists, radicalised in Pakistan. Later, in Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, I met dozens more, clamouring for global jihad in Cockney, Brummie or Yorkshire accents. One, an 18-year-old from Dagenham named “Abdullah”, promised to kill every British soldier he found. Another calling himself “Abdul Falam” said that he “couldn’t wait” to kill British soldiers and claimed to have recruited hundreds of UK Muslims for the Taleban. His real name was Kazi Rahman, 24, an East London plumber. Last year he pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to attempting to buy sub-machine guns and missle launchers for terrorism and was jailed for nine years. In this secretive company, though, US citizen Babar stood out, actively seeking the TV spotlight while friends melted away: “I will kill every American that I see in Pakistan. I am willing to kill American soldiers if they enter into Afghanistan,” he raged. His own story was incredible. His mother had barely escaped from the burning northern tower of the World Trade Centre. “She used the fire escapes because the stair-wells were full of smoke. She said everybody was running, people were falling all over.” Had this experience turned him against radical Islam? Far from it – he had “no remorse, and no loyalty with the US. My loyalty is and will forever be with my Muslim brothers.” Babar’s family had emigrated to New York from Lahore when he was just 2. His was an unhappy childhood, full of bullying and racist abuse. “There was a great deal of racism where we lived in New York,” he said. “I was not only the only Muslim but the only nonwhite in my school at the time, and I was ostracised. Even going out to job markets you could feel the racism.” Babar’s Islamic grandfather had nurtured his unhappiness into a hatred of American values. “He instilled in me the idea that your loyalty is with Islam, your loyalty is with the Muslims not the Americans.” He dropped out of college, taking up menial jobs. With each upheaval, his resentment for the society in which he lived grew. He studied the teachings of the UK-based clerics Omar Bakri Mohammed and Abu Hamza, and when war broke out in Afghanistan post9/11 – what he called “the playing field of jihad” – he, like many hundreds of others, had responded to the call to arms. “I can’t stand by and live in America while my Muslims are being bombed. My loyalty and responsibility are towards them – now it’s time to prove my loyalty.” Babar had even taken time to say goodbye to a friend in the US Army, telling him: “Hopefully we won’t have to meet on the other side.” At the time it was hard to believe that this Bunterish figure could be a terrorist. But, in Pakistan, it seems that I had misjudged him. Shortly after we parted he met Waheed Mahmood, 30, a Crawley-born al-Qaeda gun-runner, and they began to scheme. Later he met Omar Khyam and Salahuddin Amin, two of the other convicted Operation Crevice plotters. Those were innocent times for journalists. Even as I said goodbye to Babar in Lahore, in Karachi a US reporter named Daniel Pearl was tapping up contacts in search of a scoop. Those contacts snatched him. In January 2002 a British public school-educated terrorist, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, organised his kidnapping. Pearl was later beheaded and the killing broadcast on the internet. Babar and Sheikh later became friends. Had they met earlier this grim fate could have been my own. By summer 2003 the group of talkative college dropouts and idealists had become hardened would-be terrorists. Babar organised a Taleban terror training camp in the mountains of northern Pakistan, attended not only by himself and his friends, but Mohammad Sidique Khan, thefuture London 7/7 Tube-bombing mastermind. He also met Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, the so-called “al-Qae-da No 3”, recently captured by the US in Iraq. By this stage Babar was taking orders directly from al-Qaeda, and it is thought that it ordered him to plan a UK attack. At our final meeting, in the shadow of Islamabad’s Faisal Mosque, Babar told me that he would never return home. “I have no intention of going back to New York. Right now I see my life here in Pakistan and Afghanistan and I’m here to see this conflict through.” But then he did two extraordinary things. He fell in love with a local Pakistani woman and got married. Soon they had a child. Then in early 2004, for reasons that remain unclear he did return to the US, where the FBI promptly arrested him. The authorities had been diligently tracking him since the day our first interview had been aired. In room 538 of the plush Embassy Suites Hotel, in Manhattan, FBI agents gave him a choice: a lifetime in jail separated from his wife and child, or turn supergrass against his friends. Babar agreed to cooperate. He spent a week spilling his guts, and pleaded guilty to five counts of providing material support to terrorists. The authorities said that they’d never seen anyone turn state’s witness so fast. Babar’s final words outside that mosque now seem grimly ironic: “I see my struggle and life’s work here. Maybe I’ll miss a couple of friends from home, but I’ve made more friends and more brothers who are involved with me in the struggle and these people are with me for life.” As some of those lifelong “friends” sat in the dock of Old Bailey courtroom eight watching Babar sell them out for his own freedom, perhaps they wondered where that lifelong commitment had gone. It was at the Old Bailey that our own paths crossed for the last time. Babar, surrounded by policemen and lawyers, stood in the witness box. Watching from the press gallery, I saw how he had changed: the wispy goatee replaced by a full beard. Puppy fat by the gauntness of a two-year incarceration. Only the voice was the same, as high-pitched and frenetic as it had been in Pakistan. Not once in 17 days did Babar look at the five former friends he was condemning to a life in jail. Nor did he look at me, although he did have one last unpleasant surprise up his sleeve. The jury watched transfixed, as Babar’s America-hating interviews to me were played on court TV. When asked why he did it, Babar declared that I had paid him cash to “sex up” his remarks. Now it was my turn to stare at the videos. This lie would make little difference to his eventual fate, but was easily enough to destroy my career as a broadcast journalist. Finally, after agonising moments, he changed tack. Babar admitted that he’d tried to deceive the FBI to save his skin. The conundrum still remains, though. Why did Babar talk to me so willingly in the first place? It’s a question that I’ve been asking myself for more than six years. Some suggest that he may have already been an FBI agent. If so he was the most indiscreet “sleeper” in their history. His life sentence hardly an incentive to future recruits. There may be those who suspect that, like a hack in search of a kiss-and-tell story, I somehow coerced this potential mass murderer. Certainly such confessions are meat and drink to a broadcast journalist. But I am sure of this much: Babar knew what he was doing. We even discussed the impact his remarks were having, which at the time seemed to please him. His character clearly plays a part: a victim of bullying with a sense of perpetual injustice, combined with an attention-seeking vanity that was to prove his undoing. And as his eagerness to cooperate with the FBI indicates his precious principles were as disposable as the Western cultures that he so hated. In the end this was a case of modern information warfare that backfired spectacularly. Babar was obsessed with the media and its perceived antiMuslim bias: “There’s more sides to the story than just the one the Western media is portraying,” he fumed. “They use any excuse to attack Islam.” He saw himself as a bin Laden-esque 21st-century jihadist warrior, using the West’s propaganda tools to his own advantage: “I try to portray Islam not the way the media portrays it but the way it really is,” he said. There is just one crucial difference: Osama bin Laden did not fly to New York and enrol in a taxi school. Not even Babar himself knows how long he will spend behind bars. He is pencilled in as star witness for at least two more terror trials, and will be squeezed mercilessly for information before any thought is given to his release: such is the fate of a supergrass. Perhaps he takes solace in knowing that his wife and daughter are safe: flown to the US after his arrest and given new identities courtesy of the FBI’s witness-protection scheme. Mohammed Babar is not in al-Qaeda’s good books. Like other self publicists, perhaps he soaks up articles about himself such as this. Although the content may be less enjoyable from behind the bars of a US prison cell than his comfortable home in Pakistan. In this celebrity-driven age it seems that even some jihadists will sacrifice their principles, and ultimately their liberty, for a few minutes of fame on CNN. Jon Gilbert reports for ITV News source: Times online |
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| This case has taken on a number of weird twists and turns and I'll do my best to examine them each separately. The first oddity is this article from Monday's Washington Post entitled "Pakistani American Aiding London Probe". It goes on to state that a Pakistani-American man named Mohammed Junaid Babar, arrested last year on terrorism charges, has been helping the authorities in the London case. Specifically: Babar has told authorities that he recognized Khan, one of the London bombers, as a person he met in Pakistan and that he accompanied him to a jihad camp in the area, sources said. Essentially Babar was shown photographs of Siddique Khan, the 30 year old 7/7 bomber and said he knew him and had accompanied him to a "jihad camp" in Pakistan. What makes this so suspicious is the back story of exactly who Babar is. I wrote a full-length article on him in August 2004 entitled Don't Drink the Junaid. Click on the link for all the details but: * Junaid's mother was in the WTC towers on 9/11 but survived * Junaid went on television in November 2001 stating his vocal support for the 9/11 attacks and Osama bin Laden and that he didn't care his mom almost died * Junaid was in Pakistan at the time and gave that statement to several different television crews, including ITV (Britain) * Junaid then returns to New York City in April 2004 but is not arrested or detained * Junaid is secretly arrested in June 2004 while on his way to "taxi school" in Queens * Not a word about his arrest is spoken to the media until June, when an ABC reporter in court on other business sees this guy and asks questions about who he is, breaking the story * It is not until August however that the news of his arrest is trumpeted in the media * Although Junaid's testimony is sealed (and still secret), the Justice Department releases partial transcripts (in August) where Junaid said he bought "sleepingbags, waterproof socks, ponchos, night vision goggles and aluminum powder" for Al-Qaeda in Pakistan * Reporters trying to find Junaid's back story come up with nothing and his family is "disappeared" into the witness protection program I will also add here that Junaid was linked to the Pakistani Britons who had 1000 pounds of ammonium nitrate in what was later called "Operation Crevice". What I didn't know then but know now is that the NYT story about Junaid was written on August 11, just 9 days after the story which outed Noor Khan, the Al-Qaeda "communicator" who was in contact with sleeper cells in Britain. So now we know both stories came out at a time when the administration was trying to justify the terror alerts by leaking information saying "see? we got some real terrorists under lock and key here". So now this guy (who by the way has yet to be sentenced almost one year later!) is "confirming" that Siddique Khan was in some kind of jihadi training camp in Pakistan? Of course we just have the administration's word on it, as no journalist can question him. Furthermore, from this week's Washington Post, note this ominous aside: Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey also said in an interview during the same period that Babar's case provided a lesson on the importance of greater surveillance powers for the government, citing evidence that he checked e-mail at a library despite having access in his home. The WaPo also notes that Babar's mother is still unable to be located. In short, we've got a guy who gave numerous interviews to television stations, shouting to the rooftops how much he loved Al-Qaeda, later mysteriously arrested and spirited away from prying eyes, giving all kinds of supposedly useful information to authorities. Meanwhile nothing about his personal life can be confirmed and nobody who knows him can be found to be interviewed. Interesting... Whatever or whomever Babar is, the point is now that he's tied Siddique Khan to both the Operation Crevice British Pakistanis as well as "placing" him inside a jihadi camp in Pakistan in 2004. From my own previous parts of this investigation, Siddique Khan is also tied to the Noor Khan Pakistanis (Aug 2004) as well as a New York based Al-Qaeda group (April 2004). Despite all the arrows pointing to him now, MI5 never thought he was a threat despite "investigating" him in a "routine assessment" last year. Source |
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| Don't Drink The Junaid 17.06.04 20:41:29 There's an old saying in my family - "Don't drink the Junaid". Well, something like that. As reported on this blog (two stories below this one), a report has trickled out that an American man, Mohammed Junaid "Babar", was secretly arrested in Queens, New York in April. Yesterday, a local New York TV station broke the news. My guess is that the ABC reporter was wandering the halls of justice when this guy went in to make his secret plea. From there the story trickled out to CNN and now the New York Times and the AP are on it. From the Times we learn a lot of valuable information: A Queens man has been arrested and the authorities are investigating accusations that he aided a group of men who British authorities believe were planning to blow up pubs, train stations and restaurants in London, law enforcement officials said yesterday. The man, Mohammed Junaid Babar, 29, was taken into custody in Queens in April on his way to a taxi-driving school he had been attending in Long Island City, one official said. He was arrested by F.B.I. agents and New York City police detectives assigned to a Joint Terrorist Task Force squad that investigates international terrorists, the official said. The arrest was first reported yesterday by ABC News. One official said that Mr. Babar had pleaded guilty in a sealed court proceeding in federal court in Manhattan to providing material support to the group in London and that he was cooperating with investigators. But no charges against him have been made public, and the official would not describe what specifically Mr. Babar is accused of doing. He would say only that Mr. Babar "provided material support directly linked to plans to bomb the British targets." A spokesman for the United States attorney's office in Manhattan would not comment. It could not be determined yesterday whether Mr. Babar had a lawyer, and last night, a woman who answered the door at a home that a neighbor identified as his parents' simply shook her head and politely declined to answer questions. Let me just say three words: anonymous, anonymous and anonymous. Nobody is named, nobody is speaking on the record, there are no known charges against Junaid, nobody knows what he's testified to (it's sealed, nobody knows what he's pleading guilty to, and nobody can find his parents or family. Yesterday we learned they had all been placed under federal protection. Since when do terrorist's families get put under federal protection? When did that start? Later in the article we learn that he is the same Junaid who told a British (the Times is wrong and reports it as a Canadian channel) TV camera crew in Pakistan in October 2001 that his mom had been rescued from the World Trade Center on 9/11 but he didn't care if she had died - it would've been "worth it" because the attacks were a successful strike against America. Also from the Times: Another law enforcement official said that investigators also had developed information linking Mr. Babar to the London plot, in which eight men were arrested by British authorities in London and southeastern England during a series of raids on March 31. During the raids, the authorities seized 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used to make explosives. Well yesterday it was "nearly a ton" and now we learn it is half that, or 1,000 pounds. Was it exactly 1,000 pounds this time or "nearly" a thousand pounds? We learn from here that the British group had the fertilizer (yep that's what it is, ordinary farm fertilizer) in some kind of storage locker in London and that it "could have been used" to make a bomb. Yep, it sure could have. It also could have been used to fertilize a field in a farm. So Junair goes to Pakistan in October 2001 and returns to the United States in March 2004. He then makes some kind of "communication" with the 8 British guys who are arrested on March 31st for suspicions to blow up "pubs, restaurants and train stations". Junair is then put "under surveillance" on April 6th and then arrested on April 10th. And ever since has been held in secret incommunicado non-arrested detention where he has been giving secret, sealed information to the federales who in turn are accepting a secret, sealed "plea" to an unknown charge. The odd thing about the British 8 is that they belong to a very small organization called Muhajiroun, which has their own website. There you will see kind of strange statements in defense of fundamentalist Islam, such as urging British Muslims not to vote in public elections. The truth is that Muhajiroun is a tiny group (500 members at most, per press reports) of British Muslims who tend to make fiery, antagonistic speeches in London which get the government quite riled up. But making fiery speeches and commiting acts of violence are two different things altogether. Muhajiroun got quite angry when a British Muslim cleric named Abu Hamzza al-Masri was arrested a few weeks ago at the direct request of the United States. One of the things the American government want to try Hamza for is the alleged kidnapping of westerners in Yemen. In other words, they're charging him with doing something in a third country. Hamza has denied all participation in terrorist events but freely admits he makes pro-Osama statements. Britain hasn't found anything to charge Hamza with despite the fact he's been making these antagonistic statements for years. But Hamza is probably the "fieriest" British cleric. Muhajiroun have been denying their links or affiliation with Al-Qaeda since 1998. The BBC did a really great story about what Muhajidoun is about - they had someone secretly on the inside of this small group. I've read the entire report and my impression is that these guys make some pretty antagonistic statements but they seem to me to be all bark and no bite. I think many Muslims in Britain (and the US, where Muhaijiroun has a branch) often feel overwhelmed by being immersed in a non-Muslim, secular, exhibitionist society. I think sometimes they turn towards a "back to basics" approach to their Muslim identity, and groups like Muhajiroun represent the fundamentalist edge of that movement. Certainly some of the things Muhajiroun have said are troubling and I strongly disagree with them personally. But someone's troubling free speech is a horse of a different color than actual plans and actions to commit violence against other people. I remain utterly convinced that Junaid was, if not a spy in the truest sense of the word, a planted informant. I think his information has been less than stellar - information about eight guys (that everybody in British law enforcement is ALREADY watching like a hawk) with a few bags of fertilizer is hardly a great advance in the "War on Terror". This seems to me to be more of what I call this "war" - the 5 Minute Hate. Junaid's personal information is too outrageously simplistic, and all the key details about him are being held secret. Even more troubling is the anonymity and refusal to be on the record by all the law enforcement agencies/officials/spokespersons. If you've got real evidence against the man, then use your real name so we can hold you accountable to it. And that reminds me to ask - how many other people are in secret "detention" (not arrest) as "material witnesses" through the United States? Five? Five hundred? A thousand? How many? I'm an American. I was working to protect the public's safety on 9/11. But I didn't sign up for a country that makes secret arrests and denies people access to a lawyer. Tell the truth to your people! |
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| The Mysterious Case of Mohammed Junaid Babar Wed Jun 16, 2004 at 04:49:37 PM PDT What exactly is going on here? Since when does CNN cover a story about terrorism in New York and almost nobody picks it up? What is going on? The only other source for this story right now is ABC local television station in New York - and their story is just a blurb inside a longer story. Ce s-a intimplat aici?: Suspected terrorist in FBI custody From Kelli Arena CNN Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Posted: 2038 GMT (0438 HKT) (CNN) -- The FBI has had in custody since April a Pakistani-American who is believed linked to al Qaeda and who allegedly participated in plots to attack Americans overseas, law enforcement sources said. Mohammed Junaid Babar is cooperating with authorities, the sources said. He is being held as a material witness as part of an ongoing investigation, which means details of his case are under seal. Several sources said a plea deal with Babar is expected to be announced soon, possibly as early as Thursday. The sources would not say what charges might be involved. Babar, a naturalized American citizen, was arrested in Queens. The sources said he is believed to have been involved in a financing operation in the United States to send money to a group in London known to law enforcement as "al Muhajiroun," which includes Pakistani terrorists. That group allegedly was plotting bombings and assassinations overseas. One senior law enforcement source said Babar was "on the radar screen" for a while before being taken into custody. The group he is associated with in London has been under British surveillance and members of it purchased nearly a ton of ammonium nitrate that has been used in bomb making, the source said. Law enforcement sources said Babar "is the real thing -- a dangerous terrorist." The sources said there are no other people currently in U.S. custody connected to Babar, but the investigation into him continues. This story starts out looking like another case of heavy handedness on the part of the United States, but I think something else is afoot. He's being held as a "material witness", which means he isn't charged with a crime (and can therefore be held indefinitely - nice eh?), but he is cooperating. Then you read he's about to enter a plea agreement, which is sort of strange because he hasn't been arrested for anything he could plead to. He's under "suspicion" for financing a group in London which purchased "nearly a ton" of ammonium nitrate. First of all, don't tell me "nearly a ton", tell me the actual amount. Secondly, practically every farmer in England buys "nearly a ton" of ammonium nitrate. It's a 100% legal product. If you talk to bomb experts, they'll tell you that ANFO bombs, of which ammonium nitrate is one ingredient (the other is often diesel) are extremely powerful chemical bombs. Chemical bombs are rapid changes at the molecular level when two or more chemicals interact. The famous baking soda and vinegar "volcanoproject" kids do for science fairs is a version of a chemical "bomb" except that the change happens too slowly to injure anyone. Chemical bombs are much weaker per mass than other kinds of bombs, such as dynamite or Semtex or plastique. The only way to make an ANFO bomb do some serious damage is to make an enormous bomb. Conventional wisdom is that the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19 was a Ryder truck packed with an ANFO explosive. They also require a relatively higher level of bomb knowledge because to have a reliable explosion you have to forcefully inject the FO (diesel) into the ammonium nitrate. The accident in Romania recently in Mihailesti was an unlucky fluke. People transport millions of tons of ammonium nitrate by diesel-power trucks every single day. If it were that easy to make an ANFO bomb, then those fertilizer trucks would often detonate if they got into a bad motor vehicle wreck.... Now, how much ammonium nitrate would you need to fill up a Ryder truck? A lot. Maybe "nearly a ton" or maybe even more. If these guys in England were that close to making a bomb, then why weren't they also arrested? But the key piece of knowledge is here, where we learn his family is under federal protection. Hmmm... and he's offering prosectors "significant amounts" of Al-Qaeda information. There are still a lot of questions to ask about this. One such question would be, is this Mohammed Junaid the same guy as this Mohammed Junaid from November 7, 2001? Article continues |
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It was April 6, 2004, and the police and the terrorist were in the Embassy Suites Hotel in lower Manhattan. The building is more frequently used by tourists and corporate clients such as IBM and Merrill Lynch who negotiate contracts and strategize in the hotel's expansive conference rooms. But the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation opted to use Room 538 — a 10-metre by 15-metre space — to make a deal with different consequences. This was the interrogation that would sever friendships and help authorities dissect a bombing conspiracy that had been uncovered in Britain. It would also bolster the evidence against Momin Khawaja, then a 24-year-old computer programmer from Ottawa and the first man to be charged under Canada's anti-terrorism legislation. Inside the confines of Room 538, the agents started pressing Mr. [Mohammed Junaid] Babar to give evidence against Mr. Khawaja and the other accused, a court has heard. “I don't know if it was because I was tortured by my thoughts or in custody, but I had many nights where I couldn't sleep,” Mr. Babar, a native New Yorker, would later testify. He had been devoted to his militant version of Islam and his Muslim brothers, and now he was being severely tested. To make his decision, he turned to the life of the Prophet Mohammed.When Mr. Babar made his first public appearance as an aspiring Islamic warrior, he picked the perfect venue. In November of 2001, the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad was a holding pen for the world's press. Dozens of reporters were holed up there, awaiting permission to enter Afghanistan to cover the U.S. invasion. Every morning they were greeted in the lobby by potential translators, fixers and Pakistanis trying to pitch them stories. Mr. Babar and his friends joined the flock, saying they were members of a group called Al-Muhajiroun, a British-based organization of militant Muslims who were calling for a global Islamic revolution. He said he was from New York and had flown to Pakistan shortly after the attacks on his hometown — to help fight U.S. soldiers. “I will kill every American that I see in Afghanistan. If I see them in Pakistan, I will kill every American soldier I can in Pakistan,” he told a British television news reporter. “It's time to prove my loyalty to the Muslims of Afghanistan.” The press was skeptical. Anne Barnard of The Boston Globe wondered about this bearded young man in glasses. He knew the subway route to Yankee Stadium, and even said his own mother had fled from the north tower of the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks. “He seemed like the kind of kid who would have never been in a schoolyard fist fight,” she recalled. “I kept asking him: ‘Have you ever fired a gun? Have you ever hit a guy?' “He seemed like a guy who was trying to prove his manhood or something.” Just to be safe, before she wrote a story about her encounter, one of her colleagues checked public records for the man. None was found, because Mr. Babar had given her a false name. He dropped his last name, and called himself Mohammad Junaid. His story seemed impossible. Mr. Babar even told her he was going to start his own terrorist training camp.Then the Taliban was ousted faster than Mr. Babar expected and he never made it into Afghanistan. But he was serious and he kept his word on the training. Mr. Babar found a wife and settled in Lahore, but often travelled to Britain. His anger toward the Western incursions into Muslim lands persisted. During his trips, and on the Internet, he sought out others — usually Western Muslims like himself — who felt the same way. In his backyard, he and a close circle of intimates from Britain began conducting small-scale bomb experiments, detonating spice jars full of ammonium nitrate fertilizer — but only when his wife was away. They decided that if they wanted to be full-blown jihadis, they had better get serious. A core group of six Britons and Mr. Babar made their way to a training camp in the mountains of Malakand, near the Afghan border, Mr. Babar would later testify. As they travelled, they pretended to be secular Western tourists who wanted to take a peek at Pakistan's glaciers. No public praying was allowed on the journey. Everyone was to stay clean shaven. They took a lot of pictures along the way. During one trek to the 3,050-metre peak, one warrior faltered because he had no mountain boots — only Nikes without laces. Another got food poisoning and became notorious for hogging the bathroom at pit stops. It has come out in court that another was given a nickname by his impatient peers: “Abu Finish-up!” Still, at the end of the journey, Kalashnikov rifles awaited on a mountain top. Mr. Babar says that jihadis-in-training took target practice with cans, and learned how to assemble and disassemble their rifles. A lucky few even got to fire the rocket launcher, Mr. Babar would later testify. Others experimented with fertilizer bombs. Mr. Babar left jihad training early — he had to see the birth of his child. But he would later testify that the Britons at the camp gave him another task — to get in touch with a Canadian who also wanted to train. “What up bro, listen my name is Kashif,” Mr. Babar, using a pseudonym, wrote in an e-mail that was later displayed in court. “[The group leader] is away for a little while and won't be back for a couple of weeks. He told me to e-mail you and arrange everything with you. “Send me your flight information because I will be picking you up from the airport. . . . I will be wearing green trousers, a blue Diadora T-shirt and blue Nike sneakers.” The response came quickly. “Alright bro, arriving on Thursday July 15 at 3 p.m. at Islamabad airport.” British prosecutors say the e-mail was sent by Mr. Khawaja, a Canadian newcomer who would become a close confidante of Mr. Babar.Mr. Khawaja had grown up in suburban Ottawa, playing street hockey with his brothers and praying in a mosque across the street from a Tim Hortons. The son of Pakistani immigrants, his day job was to fix computers for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs. But his true passions were Islam and the Internet. He picked up a lot of his ideas and friends on-line. British prosecutors say he blogged about his “radical approach to Islam” and met likeminded people through instant-messaging programs. ... source:Caged Prisoners |
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| In 1999, according to Richard Watson on BBC's Newsnight - (video here) - Omar Bakri Mohammed wanted to expand Al Muhajiroun's operations. He sent an envoy to New York, called Sajil Shahid (pictured). It was in New York that Shahid, a Dutch/Pakistani, met Mohammed Junaid Babar, whose testimony would later help to convict the Operation Crevice members. In New York in the mid-1990s, the Queens Islamic Center, based at the Masjid al-Fatima on 37th Avenue, Woodside, had been taken over by radicals from Hizb ut-Tahrir. The US Hizb ut-Tahrir branch had been set up in Queens in the 1980s by Iyad Hilal. He recently lived in Orange County, California, before being forced into hiding. Aqeel Khan, founder and secretary of the Queens Islamic Center, said of these Hizb radicals: "They had their own programs, which were not the directions of the mosque... There were five times (a day) prayer, but then they had their own meetings here and we - the general public - were not invited." The radicals were officially thrown out after $400,000 had gone missing from mosque funds, but they continued to use the mosque. It is believed to be here that Junaid Babar met Sajil Shahid.  Sajil Shahid From June 2 to 4, 2000, there was a meeting at the Masjid al-Fatima mosque, with lectures given by Sajil Shahid (pictured) and also American Al-Muhajiroun member Syed "Fahad" Hashmi, who was arrested at London's Heathrow airport on June 6 [2006] last year on suspicion of providing cash and military equipment for al-Qaeda terrorists. In 1999 Shahid's brother Adil Shahid had gone to Pakistan where he set up an Al Muhajiroun office in Lahore, Pakistan. He was joined here by his brother Sajil who met "friends" of Osama bin Laden. These included Khalid Khawaja, who is now in prison. Khawaja, who was sacked from the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence agency) in the mid 1980s, boasted of meeting bin Laden hundreds of times, and said: "Mr Sajil Shahid was promoting jihad, so it is not only Mr Sajil Shahid, any true Muslim has to promote jihad. If he doesn't, he should not call himself a Muslim; he is a hypocrite." source:Western Resistance [Note:I have added in the links to the arrest of Syed "Fahad" Hashmi & to Khalid Khawaja] |
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| A friend of [Syed] Hashimi, Mohammed Junaid Babar, pleaded guilty in 2004 to providing support to terrorist groups between August 2003 and March 2004. source |
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| The defence remained deeply suspicious about why Babar, a committed jihadi was picked up off the streets of New York by the FBI and implicated his fellow colleagues. Several defence lawyers suggested Babar was in fact a US agent who could have been recruited in 2004 when he visited the US embassy in Pakistan to ask for a visa for his family to return to America. Why would the US grant a visa to a man who had told a British television reporter in 2001 that he wanted to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, they asked? That was treason and he should have been arrested. The guilty convictions undoubtedly show the advantages of evidence from witnesses like Babar. Yet his full story and real motivation remain unknown. When Babar is released he will go into a witness protection programme. The question is how many more will follow his example. source:BBC 30/4/07 |
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| 'Supergrass' crucial to fertiliser bomb convictions Jeevan Vasagar Monday April 30, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Mohammed Junaid Babar was crucial to the prosecution case in the fertiliser bomb plot trial that ended today. He was the first al-Qaida supergrass to give evidence in a British court and provided a wealth of detail about activities at a camp in Pakistan, where members of the fertiliser bomb cell and July 7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan received weapons training. Babar has immunity from prosecution in Britain after pleading guilty to terrorism offences in a New York federal court. Two of the charges related to the fertiliser bomb plot - he confessed to obtaining ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder for use in bomb-making. Babar's family moved to the US from Pakistan when he was two, and he became radicalised after the first Gulf war. The university drop-out came under the influence of the militant preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed in the early 90s, joining a New York branch of Bakri's radical group al-Muhajiroun. Abu Hamza, the Finsbury Park mosque preacher, was also an influence. After the September 11 2001 attacks, he believed it was his duty to go to Pakistan and try to aid the Taliban, even though his mother worked in a bank at the World Trade Centre and had narrowly escaped death. Babar told the jury: "I loved my mother but if she was meant to die in the attack then she was meant to die in the attack." While in Pakistan, he gave a series of interviews to journalists, including one with Channel Five in which he vowed to kill US troops who entered Afghanistan. A few months after September 11, he was introduced to Waheed Mahmood as a contact who could get fighters into Afghanistan. In 2002, Babar travelled to Britain to raise money for jihad in Afghanistan and met some of the fertiliser bomb plotters, including Omar Khyam and Anthony Garcia. Describing the meeting with Khyam, at a mosque in Crawley, West Sussex, he said: "He had a long beard. He was wearing a black robe. We just exchanged greetings." They went together to talks given by Hamza and militant preacher Abdullah al-Faisal. Babar told the Old Bailey that in 2003 he met British militants named Ausman, Abdul Waheed, Abdul Rahman and Khalid, in Pakistan. These were aliases of four of the fertiliser bomb plot defendants; Khyam, Waheed Mahmood, Garcia and Salahuddin Amin. Together, they attended a terrorism training camp and tried to make a fertiliser bomb. They were successful once, creating a "U-shaped" hole in the ground. During his evidence, Babar claimed to have conspired in two attempts to kill the Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf, and said he would be facing the death penalty in Pakistan if he had not agreed to collaborate with the FBI. While in Pakistan, he got a job with the Pakistan Software Export Board but never did any work there. He stole five computers from them, three of which he gave to Mahmood. Pakistan Software Export was run by the brother of a man named Sajeel Shahid, who the court heard was a founder member of al-Muhajiroun in Pakistan. When Babar returned to New York in March 2004, he was approached in the street by members of the FBI, interviewed him over four days in a hotel. He claimed that he cooperated with them because his wife was still in Pakistan and he knew the authorities were searching for her. He appeared before a US judge in June 2004 and pleaded guilty to five charges including "conspiracy to provide material support or resources" to al-Qaida. Defence barristers in the fertiliser bomb trial accused him of being a double agent for the US government. Babar's wife and child have been allowed into the US, and the family will have a new life under assumed identities when he is released from prison. article |
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| Babar has immunity from prosecution in Britain after pleading guilty to terrorism offences in a New York federal court. Two of the charges related to the fertiliser bomb plot - he confessed to obtaining ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder for use in bomb-making. |
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| During his evidence, Babar claimed to have conspired in two attempts to kill the Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf, and said he would be facing the death penalty in Pakistan if he had not agreed to collaborate with the FBI. |
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| N.Y. man admits he aided al Qaeda, set up jihad camp Mohammed Babar agrees to cooperate with investigation NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York man has admitted to smuggling money and military supplies to a senior member of al Qaeda in Pakistan, setting up a jihad training camp and assisting in a bombing plot in the United Kingdom. Mohammed Junaid Babar, a naturalized American originally from Pakistan, pleaded guilty June 2 to five counts of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, as well as providing the support, according to a court transcript recently released. Babar is being held without bail and faces up to 70 years in prison, but Federal Judge Victor Marrero indicated Babar will serve less jail time under a plea deal. Babar has agreed to cooperate fully with any investigation or prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office and he may apply to the witness security program, which would relocate his family under a new identity. Babar told Marrero he provided night-vision goggles, sleeping bags, waterproof socks, waterproof ponchos and money to a high-ranking al Qaeda official in South Waziristan, a Pakistani region near the Afghan border. Babar said he delivered the supplies personally in January and February 2004 and someone else transported the items in the summer of 2003. "I understood that the money and supplies that I had given to al Qaeda was supposed to be used in Afghanistan ... against U.S. or ... international forces or against the Northern Alliance," Babar said. The Northern Alliance helped remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan by joining forces with U.S. and British soldiers. "I set up a jihad training camp," Babar told the court, "where those who wanted to go into Afghanistan where they could learn how to use weapons, and also, you know, any explosive devices that they wanted to test out over there." Babar, 29, confessed he supplied people who attended the training camp with aluminum powder and attempted to buy ammonium nitrate for them "with the knowledge that it was going to be used for a plot somewhere in the U.K." Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Baroni said in court that Babar's training camp lasted for three to four weeks in July 2003 and he was involved in planning a bomb plot in Britain from around December 2002 until about March 2004. Baroni said prosecutors had witnesses, documents and other physical evidence to prove the case against Babar. Babar, who grew up in the New York borough of Queens, was arrested after he returned from Pakistan in April. One senior law enforcement source said Babar had been "on the radar screen" before he was taken into custody. Babar is believed to have been associated with a group in London known as al Muhajiroun, which includes Pakistani terrorists, according to law enforcement sources. Al Muhajiroun was under British surveillance and members of the group purchased nearly a ton of ammonium nitrate, a raw material used to make bombs, the source said. British police foiled an apparent bomb plot March 30 when they arrested eight men and seized about 1,320 pounds (600 kg) of ammonium nitrate from a self-storage warehouse in west London. Six of the men -- five of Pakistani descent -- were charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and possessing ammonium nitrate for possible use in terrorism. Ammonium nitrate was a key ingredient in the bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1995, killing 168 people, as well as a bomb that destroyed a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002, killing more than 200. CNN |
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| New Yorker Admits Aiding Al Qaeda -Court Papers REUTERS (www.reuters.com) Wed Aug 11, 2004 04:39 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Pakistani-American man admitted in a closed court hearing to supplying al Qaeda with money, night-vision goggles and other equipment to be used against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to a transcript unsealed this week. Mohammed Junaid Babar, 29, of Queens, New York, revealed his role in the scheme while pleading guilty to multiple counts of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Transcripts of the guilty plea, which was entered in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in June, were released by prosecutors this week. In his secret plea deal, Babar admitted to meeting with a high-ranking al Qaeda official in South Waziristan, Pakistan, near the border of Afghanistan, earlier this year and turning over equipment ranging from waterproof socks to goggles. "I understood that the money and supplies that I had given to al Qaeda was supposed to be used in Afghanistan, you know, against U.S. or ... international forces or against the Northern Alliance," he said. Babar, who faces up to 70 years in prison but could get a far lighter sentence with the plea deal, also admitted to establishing a Muslim militant training camp in Afghanistan, which he supplied with materials such as aluminum nitrate and ammonium nitrate, which can be used for explosive devices. The explosives were earmarked for a plot to blow up London train stations and pubs. British authorities broke up the plot in March and arrested eight men. Babar was arrested in April in New York. source |
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New Al-Qaeda leaders may be planning more attacks Straits Times (http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg) NEW YORK - American and Pakistani authorities fear a 'second string' of Al-Qaeda leaders is plotting a major new attack after a terrorist summit in Pakistan, Time magazine reported. Some United States officials fear the meeting could have been a key planning session ahead of a major attack, similar to the way a 2000 meeting in Kuala Lumpur was ahead of the Sept 11 terror attacks in the US. 'The personalities involved, the operations, the fact that a major explosives expert came here and went back,' Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the magazine, 'all this was extremely significant.' A US official described the participants at the event in March in the north-western province of Waziristan as 'cold-blooded killers who are very skilled at what they do and have an intense desire to inflict an awful lot of pain and suffering on America'. They included Abu Issa al Hindi [also known as Dhiren Barot, ] an Indian convert to radical Islam and surveillance specialist living in Britain; Adnan el Shukrijumah, a commercial pilot and bomb-maker of Arab-Guyanese origin; and Mohammed Junaid Babar, a Pakistani-American who arrived at the summit with cash, sleeping bags and ponchos, the magazine said. Al Hindi and Mohammed Babar are under arrest in London and New York respectively. Others, including Shukrijumah, are at large. Shukrijumah, 29, 'speaks English and has the ability to fit in and look innocuous', an FBI agent told Time. 'He could certainly come back in the United States, and nobody would know it.' FBI agents said he could be the next Mohamed Atta - a reference to the ringleader of the Sept 11 attacks. -- AFP source |
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| Thirteen people, including al-Hindi [Barot], were subsequently arrested by British police in London. The arrests were followed by raids, as police continued to search a number of addresses in London, central England, and the northwestern town of Blackburn. Most of the 13 people arrested in these raids were of South Asian origin. source |
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From The Times (UK) June 18, 2004 Bomb plot guilty plea By Nicholas Wapshott A PAKISTANI-BORN American linked to al-Qaeda, whose mother escaped with her life in the Twin Towers on September 11, has pleaded guilty in a closed court in New York to plotting to blow up railway stations, restaurants and pubs in London. Mohammed Junaid Babar, 29, is connected to the arrest in London in March of eight suspected terrorists by Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist squad. He raised money in the United States to finance the activities in Britain of a Pakistani terrorist group known as al Muhajiroun. It was planning bombings and assassinations in Britain and had been under surveillance by British anti-terrorist agents for months. Barbar has told interrogators of al-Qaeda plans to mount further terrorist attacks in America. He is co-operating with authorities in exchange for a lighter prison sentence. source:The Times |
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Thursday, June 17, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M. N.Y. man tied to pub plot jailed secretly By TOM HAYS The Associated Press NEW YORK — A New York man has been jailed secretly since April on suspicions he joined a Pakistani extremist cell in a plot against targets in London, officials said yesterday. Mohammed Junaid Babar was detained by the Joint Terrorism Task Force on April 10 as a material witness, according to two law-enforcement officials who spoke only on condition of anonymity. One of the officials said Babar aided a plot to "blow up pubs, restaurants and train stations" in London. The plot was foiled in late March, when British authorities arrested eight suspects and seized 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer — which can be used to make bombs — from a storage locker in London. Babar, 29, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, has not been publicly charged. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan declined to comment. U.S. authorities said Babar, who grew up in New York, was put on a terror watch list after he made inflammatory remarks to a Canadian reporter in Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The suspect said that despite the fact his mother had escaped from the ninth floor of one of the World Trade Center's towers, his loyalty was "to the Muslims, not the Americans." He also announced his intention to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. It was unclear whether Babar went to Afghanistan. But on April 6, he returned to New York, where police investigators and FBI agents put him under surveillance, the officials said. Babar was arrested four days later. The arrest was first reported by ABC News. It said the suspect was cooperating with investigators and has warned of more terrorist attacks in the United States. source:The Seattle Times |
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Friday, June 18, 2004 Pak-American pleads guilty to terror plot NEW YORK: A Pakistani-American man pleaded guilty in a closed US court hearing to helping Islamic militants in a plot to blow up London train stations and pubs, law enforcement sources said on Thursday. The man, identified as Mohammed Junaid Babar, 29, was arrested in April in New York and no specific charges have been made public. Babar, a Pakistani-American who grew up in the New York borough of Queens, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court some time after his arrest, but the hearing was sealed, a law enforcement source said. The US attorney’s office in Manhattan declined comment. British authorities told US officials they believed Babar was involved in a plot by a London group known as al Muhajiroun to bomb pubs and train stations in London, a law enforcement source said. British authorities said they broke up the plot in March and arrested eight men. reuters source:pakistan Daily Times |
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| Does anyone have or can anyone get a copy of this New York Times article: 2004 British Raid Sounded Alert on Pakistani Militants (July 14, 2005) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/14/internat...pe/14intel.html which is behind a 'pay-for-access' gate |
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| BOMBINGS IN LONDON: SLEEPER CELLS; 2004 British Raid Sounded Alert on Pakistani Militants By ELAINE SCIOLINO AND DON VAN NATTA JR.; STEPHEN GREY CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FROM LONDON FOR THIS ARTICLE, DOUGLAS JEHL FROM WASHINGTON AND RENWICK MCLEAN FROM MADRID. Published: July 14, 2005 Scotland Yard called it Operation Crevice. In late March 2004, a force of 700 police officers arrested eight British-born ethnic Pakistanis and a naturalized Briton born in Algeria in two dozen raids in southern Britain. They also seized 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used in making bombs. The operation -- one of the largest British counterterrorism raids in years -- was a terrifying alert for the British police: longtime ethnic Pakistani residents of Britain, most in their teens or early 20's, were accused of forming a sleeper cell that intended to stage an attack here. For years, senior counterterrorism officials feared an attack by a home-grown terror cell on British soil. Just as worrying was the fact that the threat had come from a new source, British citizens with Pakistani roots. Until then, most of the terrorist plots on European soil had involved cells involving ethnic North Africans and other Arabs. Now, the police say last Thursday's bombings, which killed 52 people, were carried out by a sleeper cell that included young British-born residents of Pakistani origin. And investigators are trying to determine if there is a connection between the four bombers and the men who were arrested in Operation Crevice, British and European investigators said. That part of the investigation is at the earliest stages, and investigators caution that no link may be found. But they say they have found some clues that require further inquiry. One investigator said it was believed that at least one of the suicide bombers on Thursday had telephone contact with one of the men arrested in the 2004 plot. In addition, the British police are focusing on a 25-year-old Briton named Zeeshan Siddique, who was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan, in May on suspicion of links to terrorism. Two investigators said they were trying to determine if he had any connection to the men responsible for the London attacks or their associates. Investigators say exploring these potential links is important as they try to understand the shape of the plot in Thursday's attacks and whether the terrorists had support from abroad. ''We have just begun to look at this, but it's possible some of these men knew the men arrested last year,'' a senior counterterrorism official said. Operation Crevice and the London bombing inquiry underscore the challenges that investigators face in trying to uproot cells involving ethnic Pakistanis that have used Britain and other parts of Europe as a base. At an emergency European Union meeting of interior and justice ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy of France told reporters that it seemed that ''part of this team'' involved in the London attacks had been ''subject to partial arrest'' in the spring of last year, apparently in Operation Crevice. Charles Clarke, the British home secretary, angrily denied the claim, telling the British Sky Television: ''It's completely and utterly untrue. I am absolutely staggered he should make that assertion.'' A senior French law enforcement and intelligence official said Mohamed Sidique Khan, one of the dead suspects in the London bombings, was not arrested in the 2004 operation but appeared to have had contact with those who were. ''I can't tell you if he was part of the group, or close to the group, but he had contacts with it,'' the official said, adding that the contacts were ''very likely by telephone.'' Many of the suspects arrested in the 2004 operation have been freed, according to senior French and Belgian law enforcement and intelligence officials. In Milan on Tuesday, the police visited the home of a man of Pakistani origin as the Italians searched for evidence to assist the London investigation. The man's phone was monitored last year after he was found to be in contact with a relative of one of those accused in Operation Crevice, but the Italian police judged the relationship to be innocent. Operation Crevice shows only one example of how ethnic Pakistani cells have begun to work in Europe. Last July, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old Pakistani computer technician and communications chief for Al Qaeda with ties to ethnic Pakistanis in Britain, was arrested secretly in Pakistan in a joint operation with Britain. The Pakistani authorities said they had found a computerized archive of surveillance information on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, the Citigroup tower in Manhattan, the New York Stock Exchange and the Prudential Building in Newark. That was followed last August by the arrest in Britain of several other ethnic Pakistanis allied with Mr. Khan who had been under surveillance. The police charged them and Mr. Khan with conspiracy to murder and violations of the Terrorism Act, as well as conspiring to use ''radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals and explosives'' to cause fear, panic and disruption against unspecified targets. Spain has also begun to confront Pakistani-born radicals operating there since the terrorist train bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004. One plot uncovered in September involved a cell of Pakistanis in Barcelona whom police and intelligence officials suspect of planning to destroy one or more landmark buildings in the city. After 10 Pakistanis were arrested on suspicion of belonging to an Islamic radical support network, the Spanish police discovered a video showing details of a number of buildings in Barcelona, including the 40-story Mapfre Tower and the 44-story Hotel Arts, which are known as Spain's ''twin towers,'' a senior Spanish intelligence official said. The police also seized documents and videos calling for an Islamic holy war, several pounds of cocaine and more than $20,000 in cash. In November, two more Pakistanis were arrested, and in April, 11 were indicted on charges of raising money and recruiting for terrorist cells in Pakistan loyal to Al Qaeda and of conspiring to commit terrorist acts in Spain. According to the indictment, the suspected leader of the Barcelona cell, Muhammad Afzaal, a Pakistani, was assigned in early 2004 by top Qaeda leaders to create a cell in Spain as well as Norway or Denmark. No direct link has been established between the Barcelona plot and the London bombings, a senior Spanish official said. But he added that there was every possibility some members of cell were still at large and that Spain and British were pooling their information on the London bombing investigation. |
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Muhammad Junaid Babar was a 29 year-old, Pakistani-born man, whose family moved to the United States when he was two years-old. Babar spent most of his formative years in Queens. · Babar attended La Salle Military Academy, an all-boy [Catholic] military boarding school in Oakdale, Long Island and graduated with the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1994. |
| QUOTE (Sinclair @ Sep 25 2007, 04:57 PM) | ||
The New york Police Dept. (PDF) document Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat contains the following:
The Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat document contains a section on the 7/7 accused & also a number of research leads. From searching the name James Elshafay (who had links to the UK), I found this link: UK 7/7 bombers, US subway bombers and Iqra bookstores :: Terrorism ... More diggin' required........ |
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| Mohammed Junaid Babar Mohammed Junaid Babar Mohammed Junaid Babar is a Pakistani-American who, after pleading guilty to terrorist related offences in New York, testified in March 2006 against a group of men accused of plotting bomb attacks in London. [1] History Early life Mohammed Babar moved to the United States with his family when he was two years old and grew up in Queens, New York.[2] He attended La Salle Military Academy, an all boy military boarding school in Oakdale, Long Island and graduated with the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1994. He studied pharmacy at St. John's University in New York but dropped out. He adopted radical views of Islam during the Gulf War when he was employed in a number of unskilled jobs including Valet parking. He joined various groups including the al-Muhajiroun [3] September 11, 2001 Attacks Mohammed Babar's mother worked in the World Trade Center on the 9th floor[4] and survived the Terrorist Attacks on September 11th. Within one week of the attack, he decided to move to Pakistan and fight against the United States led invasion in Afghanistan. He supplied materials such as Night vision goggles, sleeping bags, waterproof socks and ponchos and money to high-ranking al-Qaeda official in South Waziristan Arrest in America He was arrested in New York in April 2004 after his return from Pakistan, and on June 2 2004, pleaded guilty to five counts of providing, and conspiring to provide, money and supplies to Al Qaeda "terrorists" fighting in Afghanistan against U.S., international forces, or the Northern Alliance. He faced up to 70 years in prision, but will serve less time after agreeing to cooperature fully with any investigation or prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office.[5] Operation Crevice Babar is the star witness in the case against seven terrorist suspects arrested in Britain in March 2004 as part of Operation Crevice. He has been flown to London to give evidence in the case, and arrived at court amid heavy security, driven from a police station in an armoured convoy with a helicopter overhead.[1] During his testimony he claimed to have been part of two separate attempts to kill General Pervez Musharraf in 2002 and would be facing the death penalty in Pakistan if he was not working for the FBI.[2] Also he said he met Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri Mohammed in the early 90's and he joined Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb-ut-Tahrir[6]. He also in 2007 told a British court during 17 days of testimony that he ran training camps in Pakistan for Islamic militants and nurtured a generation of homegrown British terrorists. Babar is still working with the British under a deal that he will not be charged as long as he cooperates.[3] References 1. ^ Rosie Cowan. "FBI informer 'met Britons on Afghan jihad'", The Guardian, 24 March 2005. Retrieved on 2006-12-18. 2. ^ Rosie Cowan. "Witness at terror trial admits plots to kill Pakistan president", The Guardian, 31 March 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-18. 3. ^ AP. "American says he trained terrorists, cheered videos of 9/11", CNN, 1 May 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-01. * "The US 'supergrass' central to trial" by Andy Tighe, BBC News, March 23, 2006, retrieved March 26, 2006 * "Accused 'talked of Poison Plot'" BBC News, March 24, 2006, retrieved March 26, 2006 * New Yorker may be link to London attacks" by Tom Hays, ABC News, July 19, 2005, retrieved March 26, 2006 * "Supergrass tells of terror fight" BBC News, March 24, 2006, retrieved March 26, 2006 * "N.Y. man admits he aided al Qaeda, set up jihad camp" by Jonathan Wald, CNN, August 11, 2004, retrieved March 26, 2006. This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer) |
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Supergrass tells of connection to alleged bomb plot Press Association Friday March 24, 2006 Guardian Unlimited A terrorist supergrass supplied computers to an alleged British bomb plotter because they were needed by al-Qaida, a court heard today. Mohammed Babar, 31, gave three stolen computers to Waheed Mahmood, who was also known as Abdul Waheed, while they were both in Pakistan, the Old Bailey was told. Babar, a Pakistani-born American citizen with links to al-Qaida, has been flown to England to give evidence at the Old Bailey against seven British citizens accused of plotting bomb attacks in the UK. He says he was a member of their cell, meeting some of them in training camps in Pakistan. Mr Mahmood, 34, from Crawley, West Sussex, had told him that the "brothers needed computers", Babar told the court. "In February 2003, I thought the brothers he was talking about were the Pakistani brothers involved in Jihad," Babar told the Old Bailey. "But in March 2003, I understood 'brothers' to mean Arabs or members of al-Qaida." Babar had taken the computers from a software company, Pakistan Software Export, run by the older brother of Sajeel Shahid, one of the founder members of the extremist al-Muhajiroun group in Pakistan. Babar had been working for the company as a regional manager in Peshawar. Mr Mahmood had acted as a "contact" for men coming to Pakistan who were looking to receive training to fight in Afghanistan, Babar alleged. Babar told the court that Mr Mahmood had used various aliases including Jabed, Jab and Ismael. Babar said he first became aware of him in late 2001, because his flatmate in Pakistan - a man named Asim - had identified him as his "contact". Asked what he meant by contact, Babar said: "If you wanted to go somewhere or wanted something, to go to Afghanistan or to receive some sort of training, you needed to contact someone who will lead you to your goal." Asim had come to Pakistan from east London, but he also had "strong ties" with the "Crawley group", Babar told the court. Asim had wanted to go to Afghanistan for jihad, it was alleged. He and Babar had lived together in a flat in Lahore and were joined by others from the "east London group" of which Asim was part. In early 2002, Babar said he had married and then moved out of the flat. He had worked briefly teaching English as a second language before taking the job with the software company, run by Sajeel Shahid's older brother Suhail. He told the court that at one point he was about to go to receive explosives training in Kashmir, but was talked out of it by Sajeel, who had supplied him with the money to come to Pakistan in the first place. Babar told the court that he first came face to face with Waheed Mahmood in April of May 2002 when he came to Babar's home in Lahore. A man from east London had left a stash of weapons buried near the Punjab University and Babar said Mr Mahmood had arrived to be shown where they were. "He left some weapons behind. I just wanted to show Waheed Mahmood where they were buried in case he ever need these weapons. He knew what he was coming for," Babar said. He listed the weapons as AK47s and their magazines, up to 3,000 rounds of ammunition and grenades. Babar said Mr Mahmood was working at the time for a utility company in England and was from the Crawley area. The supergrass, who told the court he used aliases including Big Dawg in emails, said he visited the UK at the end of 2002. "The purpose of my visit was to raise money for some of my brothers and to finance my stay in Pakistan," Babar said. "I was involved in some jihad activity in Pakistan and I needed some money for that too. I made some contacts but I was not successful in raising money." He said he met another of the defendants, Omar Khyam, 24, also of Crawley, whom he knew as Ausman, in the UK and also went to hear Abu Hamza, who was convicted of incitement to murder earlier this year, speak outside London. "On this occasion, I just heard him speak. I spoke to him on another occasion in 2003," Babar said. Babar, who has pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to being part of the British plot, has been given immunity from prosecution in the UK. The seven British men accused of being part of the terror cell are: Omar Khyam, 24, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex, Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Beds, Anthony Garcia, 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey. They deny conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between January 1 2003 and March 31 2004. Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism. Source:The Guardian |
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| Don't Drink the Junaid: Part 2 Friends, it looks like we have another stinker on our hands. This time it involves the mysterious case of Mohammed Junaid Babar (I originally posted on this in June). The articles that I'll be referencing all appeared on August 11: CNN, Seattle Times, Express India, New York Times and Pakistani Newspaper. I'll quote most of the NYT article since it's the "best" one of the bunch:
What makes this story a stinker is all the information that's missing from these articles. Since your trusty blogger is on the case, we'll see what even the "mighty" NYT missed. Considering the history of printing White House spin verbatim and hiring outright liers, that isn't saying much. Let me tell you what happened. Back in June [2004], a local ABC TV reporter saw Junaid being transported to a Manhattan court. After some inquiries, the FBI finally admitted that Junaid had been in custody since April 2004. Junaid's original arrest was unreported in April and therefore was a secret arrest. Compare this with the normal trumpeting and blowing of the horns that happens when even a terrorist suspect is arrested in any other case. Junaid was giving secret, sealed testimony to the government. His family is being given "federal protection" and no reporter has spoken to them and they have never given a statement about Junaid. Reporters who tried to find any members of Junaid's family came up empty. So Junaid gives his secret, sealed testimony in June but then on August 10 the government suddenly releases censored parts of his "testimony". Conveniently, this testimony corroborates and lends credence to a number of recent anti-terrorist arrests, particularly in Britain. Why release Junaid's testimony from June in August? For no other reason than a political one - it buttresses the recent scares and warnings about terrorism. Consider this: Junaid is receiving immunity for his testimony and his family is already hidden away. Junaid reportedly will disappear into the federal Witness Protection program and therefore no one will ever be able to contact him or question him. So far, this sounds like it still could be a "legitimate" terrorist who has given valuable information and is therefore being protected from retaliation by Al-Qaeda etc. Except the information about Junaid stinks and has done so for nearly 3 years. Let's review: Junaid was originally a Pakistani citizen but became a "naturalized" American one a few years ago. Both of his parents moved to the United States with him, both of them from Pakistan as well. Junaid's mother was on the ninth floor of one of the World Trade Center towers on September 11th but managed to survive. In November 2001 he shocked the world: Mohammed Junaid's mother was led to safety from the blazing World Trade Centre by New York's brave firefighters and policemen. But 26-year-old Junaid's thank you has shocked New York. In return for saving his mum's life, the Islamic-American has turned traitor and bought a one-way ticket to Pakistan to sign up for the Taliban and kill Americans. Junaid left on what could be a suicide mission one week after his mother an office worker on the ninth floor of the north tower was among the survivors. "My mother was in the north tower of the World Trade Centre but I still feel absolutely no remorse about what happened on September 11," Junaid said. "I saw the towers collapse but felt nothing for the Americans inside. I may hold an American passport, but I am not an American I am a Muslim." You may remember this guy and his story - at the time it really was quite scandalous - an American citizen openly declaring his allegiance to the Taliban after his own flesh-and-blood (Muslim) mother was nearly killed? Junaid then did fly to Pakistan and talked to several different TV crews, reported variously as British (ITV), Canadian and Australian operations. He became an instant media sensation yet was headed to Afghanistan to meet up with a secretive organization. It seems ridiculous. So Junaid spent time in Pakistan or elsewhere from October 2001 to around April 2004 when he returned to the United States. Say what? Junaid then returns to New York City and goes about his merry way, being arrested on his way to learn to drive a taxi. After Junaid's outrageous and inflammatory statements of 2001, even the bumbling FBI knew enough to put him on a terrorist watch list. If Junaid was on the watch list (which he obviously should've been), then why wasn't he picked up as soon as he showed his passport in the airport upon arrival in the United States? According to the news accounts, he was arrested by a total of five law enforcement officers, including one police sergeant. If this man is a wanted terrorist, why not use more men to make sure he didn't go down guns blazing? It took about 20 guys to snatch Elian Gonzalez from his Miami home and no one there was a suspected terrorist! Furthermore, if you look at any other arrest of a suspected terrorist in the United States, its always a large-scale operation. The rule in law enforcement is that the use of overwhelming force (and numbers) is preferable specifically because it minimizes the risks of escape and injury. A man desperate to escape arrest facing 20 armed men is going to capitulate and go quietly more often than a man facing just four or five guys, especially if some of them are plainclothes and not wearing uniforms. Anyway, so Junaid, the guy even a simpleton would be on the lookout for after his 2001 comments, peacefully enters the United States and enrolls in a taxi driving school. He's walking down the street, whistling a tune, headed to taxi school one day when he gets picked up in a completely secret arrest. Nobody knows about this arrest for two months. Two months later, a curious ABC reporter sees him being transported to court and the first story breaks about his arrest and secret, sealed testimony. He then gets spirited off to an unknown, undisclosed and secret location and two months later the government starts waving around selected parts of his testimony as proof that the "War on Terror" is being won. Let's look at what we know about this testimony: he bought "sleeping bags, waterproof socks and ponchos" for Al-Qaeda. Say what? Even if he was buying these items for Osama himself, it's a strange way to be connected to terrorism. You or I could walk down to the nearest camping store or army surplus store and buy the same items ourselves. They're hardly rare or dangerous items. Secondly, waterproof socks and ponchos are for people operating in areas where it rains frequently. Afghanistan and Pakistan's border areas are two of the driest areas on earth. Why on earth would Al-Qaeda members need wet weather gear, especially from some hothead from the United States whose name appeared in every major newspaper? The other item Junaid supposedly provided was "aluminum powder". Not only is this easy to get (it's not even a hazardous material), it's also easy to make. About the only thing dangerous aluminum powder does is burn very quickly. Here is some more information on aluminum powder. Junaid also "tried" to buy ammonium nitrate, the most commonly used agricultural fertilizer in the western world. Any British or American citizen can run down to the local feed store and get a sack of this stuff for just a few dollars. I don't know why Junaid just "tried" to get ammonium nitrate instead of getting it. ANFO bombs, which are a combination of Ammonium Nitrate (fertilizer) and Fuel Oil (usually diesel) are probably the least effective bombs you can make. To get a destructive explosion, you need enormous quantities of the stuff. The only reason why people make ANFO bombs is that both of the ingredients are cheap and easy to get. Mixing fuel oil and ammonium nitrate is not enough however - it takes a little bit of skill to inject the fuel oil into the ammonium nitrate at the right time so that the chemical chain reaction is potent enough. To show you how inert the two substances are together, millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate are transported on trucks powered by diesel fuel every day without incident or explosion, even when the trucks are in motor vehicle crashes. There are occasional spontaneous ANFO explosions in wrecked trucks carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, but it's extremely rare. Extremely. The British men Junaid was "working with" that were arrested on anti-terrorism charges had less than 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate in their possession. While this is certainly more than I own in my own home, it's hardly the most damning evidence either. Until this men get their day in court, we'll never know if there's anything substantial to the allegations that they were going to use this fertilizer to "bomb pubs, restaurants and train stations". All Junaid really did was point the finger at eight men who may or may not be guilty of anything. So Junaid has pled "guilty" in secret testimony to supplying material goods to terrorists, all of those goods being something an ordinary citizen could purchase in their own hometown without any special equipment or knowledge. That's hardly damning, yet Junaid and his entire family get federal protection for this? At the very worst, this guy somehow scrounged up a few items and drove to a remote part of Pakistan and donated them. Junaid's claim of "setting up" a "terrorist training camp" is ludicrous. What I see instead are two incidents when Junaid was used for political purposes. The first was when his pro-Taliban comments scandalized the American public (he didn't care if his mom died!) and the second was the release of his "secret, sealed" testimony that justified other terrorism arrests (he gave night goggles to Al-Qaeda!). A look at Junaid's past reveals even more: Those attempting to verify the details of Junaid's story are stymied in their efforts. He refuses to provide checkable information about himself, claiming that to do so would endanger family and friends. Other than his presence in Pakistan, nothing about him can be confirmed — not where he went to school, what firm he worked for, or where he lived. He further declines to even say if "Mohammad Junaid" is his legal name. (Checks of various New York City public records for a Mohammad Junaid produced no verifying information). Given that nothing is known about this man, his story is highly suspect. As for the aspect of it that places his mother on the ninth floor of one of the assaulted World Trade Towers, that too is wholly unverified at this time. Those tempted to take everything Junaid says at face value should keep in mind there are always those who attempt to insert themselves into high profile events just for the media attention. (Our page detailing five cases of those who publicly played upon others' sympathies by falsely claiming to have lost loved ones in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers serves as a good reminder that folks with astonishing or heartbreaking tales to tell are not always what they proclaim themselves to be.) Junaid is clearly a Westerner who has come to join up with the Taliban, though. In this, he is not alone — at least two British Muslims (Hassan Butt and Abdul Monim) are also attempting the same thing. It's far from likely any Westerner, no matter how devout a Muslim or how fervent a believer in the cause, would be welcomed with open arms by the Taliban or the al Qaeda network. The possibility that they might be spies is far too great for either entity to risk taking a chance on these men. So we've got a guy with no background suddenly involved in two politically expedient news stories. How convenient is that? His entire family is incommunicado and no one has ever even verified his identity, much less his statements. He gets on a terrorist watch list then "slips" into the United States to learn how to drive a taxi? And in exchange for delivering some waterproof socks he gets immunity and protection by the federal government? It seems ludicrous beyond belief. I'm going to take a guess here and say that this guy is a shoddy creation by an intelligence agency. Nothing else can explain his high profile anti-American statements and then his loving embrace and protection by the United States in exchange for very weak testimony indeed. Meeting this "Al-Qaeda" commander and delivering the socks was probably the best infiltration he could do. A mouse would be suspicious of him and Osama's momma didn't raise any fools. If he is a creation, start to finish, by the American government than this is one of the worst cases of scaring the public for political gain. Will post more if I find more. Peace -Soj source:Flogging the Simian Blog (Cached) |
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| I wonder if there are any records/media reports of Babar’s appearance ‘in a New York federal court’ in June 2004? Without Babar’s ‘evidence’ (& the confessions of Salahuddin Amin, allegedly extracted under torture), there would be no case at all. |
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| United States v. Mohammed Junaid Babar (Material support to Al-Qaida): - Sealed Information. According to this filing in New York federal court, Babar "attempted to and did make and receive a contribution of funds, goods, and services to, and for the benefit of, al Qaeda...by providing military gear to others who transported the gear to al Qaeda associates in South Waziristan, Pakistan, and by traveling to South Waziristan, Pakistan to provide military gear and money to al Qaeda associates there." |
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COUNT THREE Conspiracy To Provide Material Support Or Resources To Terrorist Activity The United States Attorney further charges: 4 . From at least in or about December 2002, up to and including in or about March 2004, in an offense begun out of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district of the United States, MOHAMMED JUNAID BABAR, the defendant, and others known and unknown, at least one of whom was first brought to and arrested in the Southern District of New York, unlawfully and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to provide "material support or resources," as that term is defined i n 18 U.S.C. S 2339A(b), including lodging, training, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, transportation and other physical assets, and concealed and disguised the nature, location, source and ownership of material support and resources, knowing and intending that such material support and resources were to be used in preparation for, and in carrying out, a violation of Section 2332a(b) of Title 18, United States Code, and in preparation for, and in carrying out, the concealment and an escape from the commission of such violation. 5. It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that MOHAMMED JUNAID BABAR, a United States citizen, agreed with others to organize a jihad training camp where training in military skills, explosives, and weapons was given, agreed to provide lodging and to arrange transportation for others to and from the training camp, and agreed to purchase and attempt to purchase ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder for destructive devices and bombs to be used in attacks in the United Kingdom. (Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2339A and 3238.) source |
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| Abdul from dagenham The Sun (London); Oct 30, 2001; Nick Parker; p. 6 Full Text: (Copyright © News Group Newspapers Limited 2001) 'I can't wait to kill squaddies' A TALIBAN recruit calling himself Abdul from Dagenham declared yesterday: "I'm British-born and British-bred -but I'm willing to kill British soldiers." The 21-year-old warned: "They are engaged in a war against my brethren. "Although the British are my countrymen, the world's Muslim population are my people." Telecoms engineer Abdul kept his face masked as he made his bloodthirsty boast just a day after four Britons were revealed to have been killed in Afghanistan. A thousand UK Muslims are said to have signed up to defend Kabul's fundamentalist regime, which is shielding terror boss Osama bin Laden. Border. Abdul, who has left his mother and three brothers in East London, was among 30 Brits who yesterday trooped across the border from Pakistan. They were joined by an American whose own MUM cheated death in the Twin Towers horror -masterminded by bin Laden. She managed to escape from her ninth-floor office in the World Trade Center. But her son Mohammad Junaid, 26, swore to fight for the Taliban and bin Laden. He said: "When the American troops enter, we will kill them in Afghanistan." The New Yorker told Channel 5 News: "My mother was in the north tower of the World Trade Center but I still feel absolutely no remorse about what happened on September 11. I saw the towers collapse but felt nothing for the Americans inside. I may hold an American passport but I am not an American -I am a Muslim." Back in Pakistan, one Briton boasted of training 200 UK recruits and smuggling them over the border. Former civil engineer Abdul Salam, 25, who grew up near London's Brick Lane, grinned: "I have been waiting a long time for this -to kill British soldiers." Asked what type of people were flocking to fight for the Taliban, Salam said: "Pakistani, Bengali, white, black, yellow -everything you can think about. And they are all British." Yesterday the father of one of the four Brits kill by a US rocket near Kabul told how he had BANNED his son from going to Afghanistan. Heartbroken Chudry Manzoor, a grocer from Luton, Beds, said as he arrived in Pakistan to fetch his son's body: "I never wanted him to fight a holy war against anybody. "It is an unbelievable shock for both me and my wife. He had told me three years ago that he wanted to fight a jihad and I told him not to. I said it was forbidden and he obeyed me." His son Aftab died with fellow 25-year-olds Muhamad Omar and Afzal Munir, also from Luton. Yasir Khan, 24, from Crawley, West Sussex was also killed. Treason. Police sources said the activities of a shady recruiting organisation called al Muhajiroun were being probed. Its local leader in Luton yesterday said of bin Laden: "He is a Muslim brother." An egg was thrown from a passing car as the 28-year-old, who gave his name only as Shahed, led a demonstration in the town centre by 15 placard-waving Muslims. Former Tory cabinet minister Norman Tebbit demanded that Britons captured fighting for the Taliban be charged with treason. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said they WOULD face trial, but warned that they also risked being killed in the war. Mr Hoon declared: "I hope that anyone who is contemplating going to Afghanistan does think very carefully about the consequences." Nick Hancock's plea -Pages 12 & 13 |
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| One British Muslim in Pakistan said he had helped train and smuggled more than 200 Britons into Afghanistan to fight against the West. Abdul Salam, 25, who grew up in and around Brick Lane in east London, said: "Hundreds of them come over from Britain to Pakistan and Afghanistan. What we do is we supply them with weapons, clothing, we feed them, we shelter them, we take them over to the border and we train them up." One of those volunteers, a man who would give his name only Abdullah, aged 21, from Dagenham, Essex, said: "I'm British, British- born, British- bred. I'm willing to kill British soldiers simply because of the fact they are engaged in a war that is against my brethren." The leader of the Luton branch of Al-Muhajiroun, who wanted to be known as Shahed, said: "We are not recruiting anyone specifically for violence but we do recruit for jihad. There are three ways of waging jihad, physical, verbal and financial. It was the duty of every Muslim to choose one of these three. Which one they choose is up to them." At an outdoor press conference in the Biscot district, which is 68 per cent Asian, Shahed described Tony Blair and President George Bush as "terrorists" who were killing innocent people in Afghanistan. However, when asked by The Independent if any of them were prepared to fight, they expressed extreme reluctance. Shahed, 28, said: "I would dearly love to but I have a wife to take care of." One of his comrades, Shajjadur Rahman, 23, a web designer, said: "I envy those boys who died. I would love to be in their shoes. I just don't have the bottle so I pray to Allah to give me courage." Independent |
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| FOUR BRITS DIE FOR TALIBAN The Sunday People (London); Nov 18, 2001; p. 9 Full Text: (Copyright 2001 MGN LTD) FOUR British Muslims are missing and thought to have died fighting for the Taliban. Abu Waheed, 26, Zulfikar Ahmed, 28, a 21-year-old known only as Abdul and an unnamed Brit, got into Afghanistan over the Pakistan border on November 1. They were supposed to report back but had not been seen. Yesterday Crawley MP Laura Moffatt said the death of Abu, who lived in the West Sussex town, was a tragedy. She added: "It's such a waste of a young life." A spokesman for extremist group Al- Muhajiroun said of Abu, Abdul, of Dagenham, Essex, and Zulfikar, from Leicester: "They were supposed to return on Wednesday but were reported missing in action." |
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| 5 Brits die for Taliban The Sun (London); Nov 17, 2001; Paul Thompson; p. 8 Full Text: (Copyright © News Group Newspapers Limited 2001 ) One had boasted: I'm going to kill squaddies FIVE Britons have died fighting for the Taliban - including one who just weeks ago crowed: "I can't wait to kill squaddies." The men were killed when Northern Alliance troops stormed the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, it was revealed yesterday. Their deaths bring the total number of British Muslims who have lost their lives in the war to at least ten. Three Taliban volunteers from Luton perished in a US air strike on a training camp near Kabul last month. The latest victims were said to include Abdul Saleem, 25. Before crossing into Afghanistan he BOASTED of training 200 British volunteers for the Taliban. The former civil engineer, from Whitechapel, East London, grinned: "I have been waiting a long time for this - to kill British soldiers." He also HAILED terror chief Osama bin Laden as an "inspiration to British Muslims". Admiration The fanatic claimed to have spent several months in a training camp run by the al-Qa'ida terror organisation. Speaking in Pakistan, he said of bin Laden: "He is a man of a high class family who is sleeping in a cave and giving all his worldly goods to Islam. "I have not seen anything in what he says that contradicts Islam." Saleem revealed his admiration for the brute behind the September 11 horror in America as fellow fanatics from the UK streamed across the border to join up with the Taliban. They included a 21-year-old calling himself Abdul from Dagenham - who kept his face masked by a scarf as he declared: "I'm British- born and British-bred but I'm willing to kill British soldiers." Last night it was unclear whether he too was among the dead in Mazar. Two others were identified as Zulfikar Ahmed, 28, from Leicester, and Abu Waheed, 26, from Crawley, West Sussex. Martyred The Pakistan-based Islamic militant group Al Muhajiron, said: "Five of our British Muslim volunteers were martyred." But spokesman Hassan Butt said MORE recruits were still queuing up to give their lives for the Taliban. He said: "We still believe that the Taliban have not been defeated. "We will send more volunteers, money and weapons to them. "There are about 700 British Muslims out here now. "A hundred of them are in Afghanistan. The others are waiting on the Pakistan border. They are all ready to die." Hundreds of other foreign Muslims who volunteered to defend the Afghan regime also perished in Mazar-e-Sharif. The fall of the key northern city sparked a wholesale rout of the Taliban across the country. Rebel At least 400 Pakistanis, many of them from tribal regions close to the border with Afghanistan, were killed as the victorious Northern Alliance marched towards Kabul. Once in the capital, the rebel troops slaughtered several Arabs and Pakistanis left behind by the retreating Taliban. There are believed to be thousands of Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens in the ranks of the Taliban troops. Many are in the besieged city of Kandahar - the Taliban's final bolthole, |
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| British Taliban recruits found dead Daily Mail (London); Nov 17, 2001; PETER ALLEN; p. 17 Full Text: (Copyright Associated Newspapers Ltd. Nov 17, 2001) FIVE British Moslems who went to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban have been killed. The group were butchered when Northern Alliance forces entered a school where they had been hiding in the northern city of Mazar-i- Sharef a week ago, it was claimed yesterday bringing the total death toll of Moslems from the UK to ten. The dead men were hailed as 'martyrs' by Islamic extremists last night. Among those killed was Abdul Salim, 25, an unmarried website designer from Wapping, East London, who was photographed and interviewed in the Pakistani city of Lahore last month. Zulfiqar Ahmed, 28, from Leicester, and Abu Wahweed, 26, from Crawley, Sussex, were killed with him. Two other British Moslems, who are believed to have been executed, have not yet been named. Hassan Butt, spokesman for the extremist Al Muhajiroun group which is based in Pakistan and recruits Taliban fighters from the West said: 'They all died as martyrs fighting the so-called coalition against terrorism. 'They went out there to fight for the Taliban and were prepared to give their lives.' The men's bodies were found last Saturday, the day after Alliance soldiers stormed the city. The Alliance has been especially hostile to the foreign conscripts of the Taliban, who include Pakistanis, Arabs and militants from numerous other countries. During his interview last month, Salim, who was originally from Bangladesh, claimed to have spent four months in one of Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda camps last year, learning hand to hand combat and sabotage techniques. Speaking before crossing the border into Afghanistan, he described Bin Laden as 'an inspiration to British Moslems'. 'He is a man of a high class family who is sleeping in a cave and giving all his worldly goods to Islam. 'I have not seen anything in what he says that contradicts Islam,' he added. Hassan Butt said Salim went out to Pakistan soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks. 'We still believe that the Taliban have not been defeated,' he added. 'We will be sending more volunteers, money and weapons to them.' A friend of Salim, Abu Wahya, of East London, said: 'He did go out to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban and we have been told he has been killed. 'We have no other details than that, but I do not believe his family are planning on flying out to the area.' There are thousands of Pakistani, Arab and Chechen fighters in the ranks of the Taliban troops, according to the Northern Alliance. Many of them were part of Bin Laden's terrorist network. Last week Yasir Khan, 27, of Crawley, 23-year-old Afzal Munir and 25-year- old Aftab Manzoor, both from Luton, and Muhamed Omar, who was in his late 30s, were victims of a rocket attack on Kabul. It was also reported that another unnamed Briton had been killed. p.allen@dailymail.co.uk |
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| War On Terror: British Muslims 'back from the dead' in Pakistan Birmingham Post (Birmingham); Nov 19, 2001; p. 7 Full Text: (Copyright 2001 Birmingham Post and Mail Ltd.) Five British Muslims reportedly killed fighting for the Taliban have turned up alive in Pakistan, a militant Islamic group said yesterday. But the al-Muhajiroun organisation said that although their safe return was good news, the men may well return to battle. The north London-based extremist group had originally claimed they died at the weekend when Mazar-e-Sharif fell to the Northern Alliance. Spokesman Abu Yahya said they arrived early on Saturday at the group's office in Peshawar, on the Afghan border. 'We presumed they were dead because we hadn't heard from them for some time and communications are very difficult,' Mr Yahya said. 'Then when we saw the pictures of Mazar-e-Sharif with the massacre of all the Pakistanis and Arabs we thought they must have been killed. 'But we have spoken to them now and all of them are well.' The men had spoken to their families but it was not certain whether they would stay in the region or return to Britain. The five included Mr Yahya's flatmate, east London website designer Abdul Saleem, aged 25, Zulfikar Ahmed, agen 28, from Leicester and Abu Waheed, aged 26, from Crawley, Sussex. The other two have not been identified at the request of their families. Mr Yayha said: 'We are glad they are well but it works both ways. 'If they had been martyred then we would be pleased, because martyrs go straight to heaven as it is the most honourable way for any Muslim to die. 'And if they don't die, we are happy because it means they can still go back and fulfil their obligations.' There had been growing scepticism about the reported deaths because of the lack of bodies or of any evidence to back up the claims. Last month the al-Muhajiroun claimed three other Britons had been killed while fighting for the Taliban. They were named as Aftab Manzoor, aged 25, and Afzal Munir, in his early 20s, both from Luton, and Yasir Khan, from Crawley. |
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| War in Afghanistan: Recruits: Five British volunteers killed in attack on Mazar, says Islamist group: Reports of men who fought and died for Taliban The Guardian (Manchester); Nov 17, 2001; Vikram Dodd; p. 3 Full Text: (Copyright Guardian Newspapers, Limited Nov 17, 2001) A website designer who drove a BMW is one of five British Muslims an extreme Islamist group claims were killed fighting for the Taliban in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The claims came from al-Muhajiroun, which has been the source behind a string of reports that British Muslims have gone to the warzone to take up arms against British soldiers and their allies. None has so far been verifiable. Speaking in Islamabad, Hassan Butt, a representative of the group, said the five men had been killed in the battle for the town. It fell last Friday to the Northern Alliance, which denies massacring hundreds of Taliban fighters. "Five of our British Muslim volunteers were martyred in Mazar-i- Sharif," Mr Butt said. They include Abdul Saleem, 25, from east London, Zulfikar Ahmed, 28, from Leicester, and Abu Waheed, 26, from Crawley. Mr Butt refused to identify the other two. The group says three of its volunteers were killed last month during US bombing raids. Previously there has been no trace of those British Muslims claimed by al-Muhajiroun to have fought for the Taliban. But official records do exist that confirm someone called Abdul Saleem had lived in a two-bedroom council flat in Whitechapel, east London. At the address Abu Yahya, also a member of the extreme group, said Saleem had lived there until March this year. Mr Yahya said he had first met Saleem three years ago after they both joined al-Muhajiroun. He said Saleem had been single and worked as a contract website software developer. Among his clients was a City bank. He also drove a black BMW 5-series car. He had a brother who is a doctor in the US, another brother in the Netherlands and another in Pakistan, who is there with his mother, said Mr Yahya. "He used to be very generous and friendly. He used to take people to dinner, and drive people around in his car," Mr Yahya said. Most of his spare time was spent helping al-Muhajiroun and Mr Yahya said it had been natural for Saleem to fight in Afghanistan against the American attack: "It did not surprise me that he went to fight with the Taliban. We see it as a divine obligation to help. "There's no better way to die than on the frontline. Everybody is going to die, including you and me, and Bush and Blair." Saleem regularly played football on Wanstead Flats in east London, and used to support Liverpool when he was younger. He spoke with an east London accent and shuttled back and forth between London and Pakistan. Omar Bakri Mohammad, the UK leader of al-Muhajiroun - which has very little British Muslim support - said he had never heard of Abdul Saleem or any of the others claimed by Pakistan-based representatives to have died: "I don't know if the reports are true or not," Mr Mohammad said. "I don't know any of them." Last week a newspaper quoted an Abdul Salim, 24, also from Whitechapel, as having said he had trained for four months with al- Qaida in Afghanistan last year in sabotage and hand-to hand combat. He is reported to have said: "Bin Laden is an inspiration to Muslims. He is a man of a high-class family who is sleeping in a cave and giving all his worldly goods to Islam." Last month Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, warned that any Britons returning after fighting against British forces could be prosecuted. Many Muslim leaders have attacked al-Muhajiroun's claims, saying they are damaging the interests of Muslims in Britain to serve their own extremist agenda. In London the Foreign Office has made no efforts to verify the reports. A spokeswoman said: "We have no diplomatic presence on the ground, therefore we have nobody who can confirm the reports. If the families want, they can contact us, then we will of course talk to them. "If they've chosen to fight with the Taliban they're clearly taking up arms against British soldiers and their allies." * Russian authorities yesterday claimed they had arrested a British Muslim on the Chechen border on suspicion of terrorism. The man, reported to be called either John Beneni or John Domeni, was detained on Thursday with two others after they were discovered carrying explosives, radio equipment, an AK-47, grenades and ammunition. According to the police, the Briton was of Turkish origin. He gave a London address and claimed to be a journalist. Special report on Britain after September 11 at guardian.co.uk/ ukresponse |
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| Middle East crisis: The Britons: Muslims in UK train for jihad: Martin Bright meets the young 'Mujahideen' fighters being taught to attack Israelis in a holy war The Observer (London); Oct 22, 2000; Martin Bright; p. 23 Full Text: (Copyright Guardian Newspapers, Limited Oct 22, 2000) YOUNG British Muslims are being trained to make bombs and use Kalashnikov rifles to fight in a jihad - holy war - in Israel. The first 'Mujahideen' fighters, trained in military-style camps around Britain, flew out this month for Lebanon and Jordan. At a secret location in a technology park in north London, three men in their mid-twenties told The Observer that it was their duty to fight the Israelis. [The secret technology park is probably the same one (Lee Valley) that Omar Bakri Mohammed ran his front company, Info 2000, out of before being booted out by Haringey Council in 2000/1] Anyone in Britain who supported the state of Israel and companies such as Marks & Spencer, which had connections with Israel, were also legitimate targets, they said. The men will leave for the Middle East as soon as they can arrange visas. These Islamic warriors, who are known only by their noms de guerre , Abu Yahya, Abu Izzadeen and Abu al-Mujahid, have been schooled in the Koran and believe that the holy verses told them to fight against the occupation of Arab lands. 'When we see what is happening in Palestine, it's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of obligation,' said 23-year-old Abu al- Mujahid. 'I have chosen to go and fight to fulfil that obligation and hopefully reap the highest rewards.' He said he had been trained to use a range of arms, including Kalashnikovs. Abu Izzadeen, a 25-year-old black Muslim convert, said: 'I have been with the Islamic movement since the day I embraced Islam, eight years ago, and I am willing to die for it.' He said he had been trained in Britain, but also in Islamic camps in Pakistan: 'In Islam, when we say training, we mean military training. The camps inside the UK prepare people with physical training and martial arts, and if they can obtain weapons they use them for training. 'When we talk about jihad , we are not talking about harsh words, we are talking about training in bomb-making and strategy.' He added that, although he had no argument with individual British Jews, those who supported Israel were a legitimate target, as were companies with Israeli connections, such as Marks & Spencer and the Jewish Chronicle newspaper. 'If someone supports a government which kills and rapes and murders, then you have a responsibility for it.' Abu Yahya, also 25, went further: 'We don't have a problem with Christians and Jews, it is only with people who occupy our lands. We have a problem with oppression. That is, with the Hindus in Kashmir, the Russians in Chechnya, the Christians in the former Yugoslavia and the Israelis in Palestine.' To illustrate, he quoted a verse of the Koran: 'Fight together those who fight you together.' A spokesman for Maddad Security Services, which is organising the recruitment, said the process was a closely guarded secret: anti- terrorism legislation now makes it an offence in Britain to conspire to commit terrorist acts abroad. The legislation was introduced by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, after pressure from Arab governments who claim that Britain has become a haven for Islamic extremists. The spokesman said: 'Emotions are running very high at the moment and it should be no surprise that people are volunteering for the jihad .' The Jewish Chronicle has been in a state of high alert since the increase in tension in the Middle East, but there have been no direct threats against the newspaper. A spokesman from Marks & Spencer said it was a publicly owned company that no longer had any special link with Israel. He said the company traded with Jordan, Egypt and Morocco as well as with the Jewish state. |
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| Britons take war holidays in Kashmir The Sunday Times (London); Jan 21, 2001; Dalip Singh, James Clark; p. 5 Full Text: (Copyright Times Newspapers Ltd, 2001) AT LEAST 900 young British Muslims are leaving the country each year to take part in the battle for Kashmir, with many using holidays from good jobs to fight in what they regard as a holy war, an investigation has revealed. Recruited in mosques, bookshops and community groups, they spend three months being trained in mountain camps on the Pakistan border before entering the conflict against India. Delhi is so angry about the increasing numbers of fighters being trained, and the Pounds 7m raised in Britain to "defend" the disputed province, that a private meeting has been called in the Indian capital tomorrow with representatives of the Foreign Office and MI5, the security service. Indian officials will demand that Britain take stronger action to stop recruitment and fundraising, which they claim goes directly to terrorism and sees up to 1,800 Britons making the journey each year. MI5, which has a special section dedicated to looking into the problem, disagrees with the Indian estimates. However, a security source said: "There are about 900 UK citizens who make this trip for training each year. About 10% of those stay and fight, the rest take their political and religious indoctrination and bring it back to their own communities, mostly for fundraising and recruitment." He said the service was accutely sensitive to accusations that it was targeting Muslims, but insisted that it was targeting terrorists regardless of colour. The Sunday Times spoke to three men in north London, all university graduates from middle-class British families, two of whom held down highly paid jobs. All three had trained or fought in Kashmir. Abu Yahya, 27, said: "I have just returned from Pakistan. I joined Islamic camps and met Islamic leaders. There I was trained with Islam jihad movements like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Harkat-ul-Jehad-Islami and Harkat-ul-Ansar. We were trained to use Kalashnikovs, make bombs, everything that an army would need to wage battle." Izzadeen Abdullah, a 25-year-old white former Christian with a degree in optical engineering, adopted Islam, had also recently returned. "I crossed the border in Kashmir. I think for any Muslim, the most eagerly awaited opportunity is to kill the enemy. "The Indian soldiers don't deserve any mercy and I'm happy to say that I took part in wiping them out. "We are planning to go there next month. I'm an engineer in fibre optics so I just contract out for a couple of months from work." Also in the house was Abu Ibrahim, a 29-year-old computer engineer. "You would be surprised to know that there are many computer guys in places like Canary Wharf who are involved in these kinds of activities. I have had training here in the Territorial Army and again in Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan." The one thing all three have in common is a fear of the government's new anti terrorism act, due to come into force this year. They believe it will lead to them being jailed in Britain if they continue to travel to Pakistan and Kashmir. |
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| In London, prepared to die for Allah THE TERRORIST CRISIS Evening Standard (London); Sep 19, 2001; BOB GRAHAM; p. 10 Full Text: (Copyright Associated Newspapers Ltd. Sep 19, 2001) Muslim extremists yesterday besieged the Pakistan embassy in Knightsbridge in support of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. They were followers of the militant cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. Bob Graham visited his London headquarters and found the Al-Muhajiroun leader recruiting new disciples in the wake of the atrocities in America THE holy message according to extremist Muslim leaders in London is reflected in the death- wish of their impressionable young disciples. Take ardent young businessman Abu Yahya as an example: born and raised in east London, he says if America and Britain retaliate with bombs against Afghanistan, Iraq or any other Muslim country, he will recruit fellow East Enders to fight against the country of his birth. The 26-year-old native of Plaistow will also send the profits of his business to those who harbour the perpetrators of last week's American tragedy and he will go and fight alongside any Muslims who come under attack from the West. "My support for my brothers in the Taliban or any oppressed Muslim group will be verbal, financial and physical," he says in a matteroffact manner. "If the West goes to war against any Muslim country I have a divine obligation to defend my brothers and sisters. If I don't come back it will be because God has made that decision. "If I have to fight against British troops it is because I don't see myself as a British person. I am a Muslim, that's the reality." Yahya, who lives in Essex and is married with two young children, is part of the radical Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun which believes in a worldwide Islamic state. The group, with offices in many of Britain's major cities where there are concentrated numbers of Muslims, such as Birmingham, Leicester, Derby and Manchester, is the result of careful recruiting by Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, a militant Muslim extremists yesterday besieged the Pakistan embassy in Knightsbridge in support of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. They were followers of the militant cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. Bob Graham visited his London headquarters and found the Al-Muhajiroun leader recruiting new disciples in the wake of the atrocities in America fundamentalist cleric. Bakri, a Syrian by birth, came to Britain as a visitor in the mid- Eighties after being expelled by Saudi Arabia. His aim was to head for Pakistan, but when the Syrian embassy took his passport, he applied for asylum here. He was not recognised as a refugee but he was granted exceptional leave to remain, a recognition that while he was not actually fleeing persecution, he was legally entitled to stay in Britain. Since then, the father of six, who lives with his Lebanese wife and family in a housing association home in north London, has courted controversy with often violent rhetoric against the United States in particular and the West in general. He claims to have recruited between 600 and 700 British volunteers to fight in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Kashmir, including a suicide bomber responsible for an attack in Kashmir on Christmas Day last year. HE preaches holy war and has openly a d v o c a t e d chemical warfare against America and her allies, but his extremist Al- Muhajiroun group is not banned. Moderate Muslim leaders say he is a "paper tiger", more of an irritant than a real threat. But security sources see him as a man who creates a climate which legitimises hardline attitudes and makes the recruitment of impressionable young men much easier. To many young Muslims he carries the message they want to hear: give yourself to Islam and you will be rewarded in heaven. Bakri and his fellow radical cleric, Sheikh Abu Hamza, preach pure hatred against countries such as Britain and America - "the great Satan" - and have a hypnotic and shocking influence on young Muslims who flock to their lessons in Islamic fundamentalism. In recent days Bakri, who runs an office from an industrial estate in north London, has surrounded himself with followers who worship his every word, listening intently as he tells them of the terrifying "evil forces" that are now being waged against Muslims in London and throughout Britain as a result of the backlash to last Tuesday's events in America. "There are Muslims being attacked every day as a result of the events in America," he claims. "Terrible murders, assaults, Muslims being covered in petrol and being burned by racists." Bakri's office is officially listed as that of a small computer company. Inside, his followers, all young men under the age of 30, sit at row upon row of desks to listen to Bakri and his promulgations. The office is, in reality, the headquarters of Al-Muhajiroun and a newly- formed militant group called Khalifah. In the office Yahya sits and backs up Bakri's preachings. "This is an incident room where Muslims now contact us to tell us about the assaults upon them," he says. [was that an official race hate incident reporting centre like the Leeds Community School?] "To date they have logged 457 cases of attacks since last Tuesday. The worst cases are the murder of a Somali woman, stabbed to death on Friday in Finsbury Park. "On Saturday a man was badly burned when a white gang poured petrol over him. The majority of calls are about Muslims being kicked out of jobs because they are considered fundamentalists and, therefore, terrorists." The trouble with the claims made by Bakri and allegedly recorded by Yahya is that the police - who are acutely aware of the possibility of such reactions following last week's outrage - do not have a record of any such attacks. When Bakri and his cohorts are asked for evidence they sigh and explain the victims and their families do not wish to be identified because "they are scared and want privacy", or the police are covering up. On the one hand Bakri condemns the American attacks: "Of course I condemn it, it is against the teachings of Islam." Yet in the same breath he roundly uses the deaths of more than 5,000 people in New York and Washington to peddle his own ideology. He turns to a group of eight young men, who act as his bodyguards during a trip to speak at an Islamic centre in Luton, and exhorts: "Muslims are under attack and it is not new. What about the evil forces that have railed against Palestinians and Iraqis? This event in America will reactivate the Islamaphobia, it will bring further discrimination against Muslims. People in the West will adopt the views of the Crusaders and all Muslims will be considered evil people they can't live with." Bakri is a man many young Muslims turn to for advice and help. He is a judge in the Islamic Shari'ah Court of Britain. "I have many students, many people who come to me for advice and to settle disputes," he says. "I am their teacher, a juristic scholar qualified in Islamic law." Bakri is openly contemptuous of Britain and the very idea of democracy: "My job is to speak about Islam, I don't agree with manmade laws. In Britain I engage in opposition to manmade laws and expose the weaknesses of manmade laws. I don't believe in democracy or dictatorship, they are both manmade. They are the two faces of the same coin." Al-Muhajiroun, now banned from university campuses across the UK, has succeeded in recruiting thousands of often militant, disenfranchised young Muslims. They are often second generation Britons, the sons and daughters of immigrants. Many have been targets of racist attacks in their youth. They are often angry and looking for a cause. BAKRI admits he provides it: "Within the margins of the law I propagate the political belief of Islam. I have penetrated many university campuses, I get a lot of support. I spread the word of Islam and there are thousands of people who believe and listen." But what is it that Bakri is spreading? In the case of his young disciples it is militancy. An example was the effect on a 21-year-old engineering student. On Sunday he attended one of Bakri's "lessons". After, the young man would not be identified but he said: "I want to be a martyr, to die for a just cause because I would end up in Paradise." The course to martyrdom in Islam is called "Shaheed". Bakri smiles at his convert and says: "There is nothing better in Islam than to be a martyr, to die for a just cause. I tell the many young men who wish to follow Shaheed that to become a martyr must not be for personal interests, not for personal gain or for promoting his own name. "You fight sincerely for the sake of Almighty God not for your own personal gain. When you fight for the cause and die for God you go to Paradise if you achieve the mission. But not to kill innocent people, which is why we condemn last week's attacks in America." One of Bakri's disciples is 19-year-old Shah Jalal Hussain, the son of Bangladeshi parents who live in London. Last Friday, Hussain was seen ranting against America in a public demonstration of anger outside Finsbury Park Mosque. He won the admiration of the several hundred Muslims as they filed out after the weekly prayers read by Sheikh Abu Hamza. A 19-year-old politics student at university in London, he spoke of how he - and many of his friends who are British Muslims - believe Whitehall and Downing Street would be "legitimate targets" if Britain helped the US strike against Osama bin Laden. He said he would willingly dedicate his life by becoming a martyr. Is he brainwashed? "When people say that to me, I ask them to find a contradiction in anything in the Koran. If they can I'll believe their way is better. But I know they cannot." This young man grew up in London wanting to be a doctor or a lawyer. "That was the goal my typically Asian parents had set for me," he explains. "But two years ago I went to a lecture where Sheikh Omar Bakri and Sheikh Abu Hamza were speaking. When I heard their vision of Islam I was convinced." Neither Hamza nor Bakri make any secret of their recruitment for Islamic militant groups and Yahya and Hussain are typical examples of young men ready to go to war. Yahya, who graduated in fibre-optical engineering, says: "You can't expect me to stand aside. I am a Muslim and if you kill my people you cannot expect me to do nothing. They are my brothers and sisters. In that case take my passport and let me go and defend them." And Hussain adds: "If America retaliates, every single Muslim is obliged to help those who are targeted. America will start the war without a doubt because they will be killing helpless women and children. It will mean I will be obliged to fight for Islam." Additional reporting by David Taylor Hater of democracy happy to live in one WHY BAKRI STAYS LONDON is a convenient base for extremists like Omar Bakri Mohammed. The democracy he rejects allows him to oppose his Western hosts and Middle East dictatorships. While he speaks of moving to Pakistan, in the UK he can exploit the disillusion of many British-born Muslims to gain new recruits. Bakri is legally resident, although his bid for asylum failed and three applications for British citizenship have been rejected. His exceptional leave to remain recognises that his homeland Syria has washed its hands of him and will not give him a passport. The Home Secretary could revoke this leave to remain and deport him if his behaviour caused alarm, but first a country must want to accept him. Also, Bakri could argue in court that his human rights were being breached: some of his children were born here. For his British-born supporters, it is illegal to be in a named group which encourages, promotes or funds terrorism - but Al- Muhajiroun is not one of these. Stricter race hate laws, however, mean they must choose their words carefully. |
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| The Ottawa Citizen, canada.com network Friday March 24 2006 Terror informant names plotters Babar says he went to Pakistan, like the London Seven, to fight Ian Macleod The Ottawa Citizen Friday, March 24, 2006 LONDON - An Islamic extremist-turned-police informant began naming names minutes after taking the witness box at the London Seven terror trial yesterday. The testimony of Mohammed Judaid Babar, a 33-year-old New York City university dropout and convicted terrorist, capped an already dramatic day. Morning rush-hour traffic in central London was halted to make way for a screaming police convoy that deposited Mr. Babar at the Old Bailey after retrieving him from the secret location where he is being hidden. Overhead, police and media helicopters trailed the speeding caravan to the courthouse, where it was met by a squad of intimidating London police officers wielding large black military assault rifles. Others guarded the entrances to Courtroom No. 8, where Mr. Babar, his brow locked in an anxious furrow, took the stand at 3:45 p.m. He is here to save what he can of his own skin. After pleading guilty in 2004 of providing support to al-Qaeda, he is awaiting sentencing in a New York federal court. He is hoping to lighten his prison sentence, the London trial heard this week, in return for testifying here about his role in setting up an Afghan terrorist training camp and to helping plot an alleged bombing campaign in and around the British capital. Seven young British men, charged with plotting to blow up pubs, clubs, trains and a giant shopping mall in Britain, stared intently at Mr. Babar from the courtroom's heavily guarded prisoners' box. Momin Khawaja of Ottawa is named -- but not charged -- as a co-conspirator and will face trial in Ottawa next year. He is in an Ottawa jail cell and, like the others, denies all charges. Bill Boutzouvis, the Ottawa Crown attorney handling the Khawaja case, sat at the back of the court yesterday, not far from a clutch of grim-faced Scotland Yard Special Branch counterterrorism officers and U.S. federal marshals. The pulse in the room quickened as Crown prosecutor David Waters, cloaked in a black gown and traditional barrister's wig, rose before Judge Sir Michael Astill and began questioning his star witness in the biggest terrorism trial in Britain since the IRA cases of the 1970s. For 30 minutes, the bearded and broad-shouldered Mr. Babar recounted his childhood from the age of two in New York, how he dreamed of becoming a doctor. Instead, he ended up in his native Pakistan as an Islamic jihadist for the group al-Muhajiroon, supplying cash and military equipment to al-Qaeda and other Islamist fighters in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks against the U.S. In a bizarre twist, his mother was working in one of the World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhattan when the jetliners struck that morning. She survived. He became an Islamist warrior. "When 9/11 came, that's when I decided it would be the best thing for me to do," he told the court, speaking quickly in a nervous voice. "I knew that Americans would be invading Afghanistan and that this was the best time to go." What had begun a decade earlier as an innocent interest in Islamic political issues was now a seething rage over Western involvement in Muslim nations and culture. He already knew Sheik Omar Bakri, the British-based leader of al-Muhajiroun, then banned in Britain and now disbanded. Soon after, he said, he made contact with Sheik Abu Hamza, the extremist cleric at the the North London Central Mosque, infamously known as the Finsbury Park mosque, a one-time suspected hotbed for terrorist recruiting. Mr. Hamza was charged by British authorities last year with, among other things, inciting the killing of Jews and other non-Muslims. He was sentenced last month to seven years in prison for inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder. Less than two weeks after the attacks on Lower Manhattan and Washington, Mr. Babar was on his way to Pakistan, via London. When he arrived in Pakistan, he said he met 15 to 20 other men, many from London and the bedroom community of Crawley. They also were there "to fight." Do you recall the names of those men? Mr. Waters asked. "Ausmann," better known as defendant Omar Khyam, 24. "Abdul Waheed," -- defendant Waheed Mahmood, 33. "Abdul Rehman," -- defendant Anthony Garcia, 27. "Khalid," -- defendant Salahuddin Amin, 30. "Tanweer, from London." One of the four suicide bombers who killed themselves and 52 London subway and bus commuters last July 7 was Shehzad Tanweer, 22. At 4:17 p.m. the judge adjourned court and sent the 12-member jury home for the night. They return this morning. Mr. Babar's testimony is expected to last for a month. - - - On the web: Read the entire prepared text of the Crown's opening statement. www.ottawacitizen.com © The Ottawa Citizen 2006 Copyright © 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. http://cryptome.org/babar-names.htm |
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The Guardian: Higher: Call to arms: A growing number of students are being recruited on British campuses by Islamic extremists - and end up on the world's frontlines Guardian, The (London, England) - May 16, 2000 Author: ABUL TAHER Three students from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, withdrew from their studies last February to train abroad and eventually engage in "jihad" - the holy war. They are the latest in an increasing number of British Muslim students who have been recruited from campuses by extremist Islamic parties to train abroad and fight in regions like Kosovo, Chechnya and Kashmir. Such recruitment, which has been going on for more than a decade, has attracted a large number of students over the years, some of whom have actually fought in different war zones and died. Students as young as 16 are known to have been recruited for military training abroad, often without their parents knowing anything about it. The Queen Mary students, two of whom were studying computer science and the other engineering, were recruited by the extremist party Al- Muhajiroun , which is active in British campuses throughout the country, and which has been banned by several universities for its extreme views. The founder of Al- Muhajiroun , Sheikh Omar Bakri-Muhammad, based in London, personally arranged the recruitment of the three students through his contacts in Britain and abroad. Sheikh Bakri-Muhammad, who founded the party in Saudi Arabia in 1983, says it is the duty of all Muslims to engage in jihad. He said: "I believe in the divine cause for Muslims to struggle." Al- Muhajiroun , which has a network of centres around the world, is divided into two wings, said Sheik Bakri. "There is the Da'wah (propagation) network, and there is the Jihad Network," he added. It is the Jihad Network of the party that recruits people for military campaigns, while the Da'wah wing "spreads the word of Islam" through lectures, conferences, stalls and leaflets. ... Abdul Rehman Salim, the president of the Society of Muslim Students..... ... |
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| Abu Yaya is another operative of Sakina [Security Services]. On 26 June 2000 he gave an interview on the "Today" programme on Radio 4 in which he explained that he had just returned from Kashmir having spent four months on military training where he learned everything necessary, including making bombs, using artillery and a Kalashnikov and how to mount an ambush. He cropped up after 11 September as a spokesperson for al-Muhajiroun. |
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| 17 Oct 2001 : Column: 1236W Al Muhijiroon Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what action he proposes to take concerning recent statements issued by Al Muhijiroon members (a) Shah Jalal Hussain, (b) Omar Brooks, © Abu Yahya and (d) Zahir Khan; [7640] (2) if he will investigate the links between Abu Hamza and the Aden Abyan Islamic Army; and if he will make a statement; [7638] (3) if he will make a statement concerning the activities of the Takfir wal-Hijra organisation at the North London Central Mosque; and if he will make a statement; [7637] (4) if he will investigate the links between Abu Hamza and Rachid Ramda, awaiting extradition to France since 1995; and if he will make a statement; [7639] (5) if he will investigate the links between Sakina Security Services Ltd., Al Muhijiroon and Supporters of Sharia; and if he will make a statement; [7572] (6) if he will investigate the nature of training courses offered at North London Central Mosque, Finsbury Park; and if he will make a statement; [7542] (7) if he will make a statement concerning the activities of Yasser-Al-Siri; [7634] (8) if he will make a statement on the activities of Supporters of Sharia since 11 September; [7565] (9) if he will investigate whether Al Muhijiroon members have acted in contravention of the proscription of Hamas, Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad; and if he will make a statement; [7631] (10) if he will investigate the links between Al Muhijiroon and Hamas and Hezbollah; and if he will make a statement; [7544] (11) if he will make a statement concerning the statements issued by and actions of Abu Hamza since 11 September; [7543] (12) if he will make a statement on investigations into the activities of Al Muhijiroon; [7939] (13) what assessment he has made of recent statements issued on behalf of Sakina Security Services Ltd.; and if he will make a statement; [7547] (14) what action he proposes to take concerning the fatwa issued by Omar Bakri Mohammed against the President of Pakistan; and if he will make a statement; [7671] (15) if he will investigate the links between Abu Hamza and Ahmed Begal, recently arrested in Dubai; and if he will make a statement; [7636] (16) if he will make a statement about the activities of Al Muhijiroon since 11 September; [7568] (17) if he will investigate the activities of Muhammed Jamed with reference to Sakina Security and Al Muhijiroon; and if he will make a statement. [7632] Mr. Blunkett: I have been in close touch with the relevant policing and anti-terrorist units, and with the Attorney-General, in tracking the work undertaken in surveilling, monitoring and evaluating evidence which might be used in any prosecution. As my hon. Friend knows, the detailed operational functions lie with the police and intelligence services, and decisions on prosecutions with the Crown Prosecution Service. We have made it clear that those who step over the line will be prosecuted. |
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FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN 'Stool pigeons' key in war on terror 'They cause doubt. If one of their members is caught, who will be named?' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: April 16, 2008 11:30 pm Eastern LONDON – The high level of frustration expressed by British intelligence officials over their government's failure so far to win parliamentary support to extend the time terrorists can be held without charges from 28 to 42 days could be solved, according to America's top counter-terrorist officer, says a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. At a closed conference in London last week FBI chief Robert Mueller III warned that Britain's detention laws had created "a dark hole of intelligence" which was having a global effect. The solution, he said, was "plea-bargaining -- offering a deal in exchange for a sentence cut." Mueller said the frustration of MI5 and MI6 due to the restrictions on how they can obtain "vital information" from suspects was seriously hampering the war on terror. The conference was attended by Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5, and John Scarlett, the chief of MI6, along with senior members of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist command. Members of Europe's intelligence services also listened to Mueller say it was essential for Britain's security services to be allowed plea-bargaining. "This system is widely used by the FBI and allows us to offer suspects much lighter court sentences in return for revealing everything they know about other members of their organization and its international links," said Mueller. Mueller, a tall, greying 63-year-old, was made FBI chief a week before the 9/11 attacks. "The information British suspects have must have a direct bearing on the terrorist threat the country faces. Some of that information, I am certain, relates to Muslim terror links with Pakistan," he said. "Under our system suspects are bound, when they agree to plea bargaining, to sign a rigid contract. If it later emerges they have been holding back information, the contract is cancelled," said Mueller. He cited one case which had dramatic results. Mohammed Babar, a Pakistani American, was captured by the FBI and admitted plotting bomb attacks in New York [ :blink: - most stories on this subject tell that it was Babar's assassination attempt(s) on President Musharraf of Pakistan and/or Babar's importing of night goggles/sleeping bags etc. etc. to Pakistan - at least get the story straight!]. In his plea-bargain, Babar provided evidence that led to Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist command arresting seven men in Surrey who were hiding explosives in a garage. They planned to use them to blow up a major shopping mall and a popular London nightclub. All are now serving long prison sentences. [Operation Crevice - but the British Story was that the UK Crevice gang were arrested at the end of March 2004, whereas Mohammed Junaid Babar was arrested in New York in April 2004, but his arrest was not made public until June 2004 - so Babar's evidence DID NOT LEAD to the Crevice gang ARRESTS, but to their PROSECUTION ] "Babar is a product of our plea-bargaining system. He saw the advantage of turning stool pigeon to reduce his sentence," said Mueller. Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is the premium, online intelligence news source [ :D ]edited and published by the founder of WND. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61801 |
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Khawaja trial witness recounts his radicalization COLIN FREEZE Globe and Mail Update June 23, 2008 at 3:51 PM EDT OTTAWA — A star witness in a terrorism trial has told a Canadian court he was inspired to try to join al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan even though his mother was nearly killed in the 9/11 terror attack in New York City. Mohammed Junaid Babar, a 33-year-old, Brooklyn-raised convicted terrorist, made a surprise appearance as the first-day witness in the trial against Canadian terrorism suspect Mohammed Momin Khawaja. It's expected Mr. Babar will testify that he met Mr. Khawaja in Pakistan and facilitated his entry to a training camp. Mr. Khawaja, 29, is the first man charged under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act. His trial began Monday in Ottawa under heightened security. Mr. Babar's testimony in Canada follows similar evidence he gave two years ago in the UK as part of a plea bargain agreement to reduce his eventual U.S. Jail sentence. Recounting his strange radicalization Mr. Babar, a university dropout and former security guard, described how he was increasingly drawn to joining an armed jihad by the time 9/11 occurred. "My mother worked at the World Trade Centre," he said, explaining she had made it out that morning before the towers crumbled. Despite the fact that terrorists had almost killed his mother, "about six or seven days (after 9/11) that's when I decided it was time to go to Afghanistan and fight," he said. Mr. Babar testified he wanted to fight on the side of Taliban and al-Qaeda. He said he was driven by the belief that all the other Islamic countries in the Middle East were ruled by corrupt governments that deserved to be overthrown by force so as to install Islamic rule. Mr. Babar testified he fell in with an extremist outfit known as al-Muhajaroon, which had only a handful of members in New York and Pakistan, but hundreds in the United Kingdom. The organization helped him install himself in Pakistan in 2001-2002, he has testified. It was in Pakistan where he began meeting members of the British cell that Mr. Khawaja allegedly joined later. Crown prosecutor David McKercher spent nearly 90 minutes laying out the bomb-building, terrorist-training and terrorist-financing charges against Mr. Khawaja earlier Monday. In broad strokes, the Crown alleges Mr. Khawaja was involved in a trans-Atlantic terrorism conspiracy, meeting a group of fellow extremists in London in 2002 before learning how to fire AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades at a Pakistan training camp in 2003. He also allegedly constructed a detonation device he called the “high-fi Digimonster” which was seized from his Ottawa home in 2004. “The result would be massive destruction and loss of life,” Mr. McKercher told the court, explaining the Digimonster was intended to spark simultaneous explosions around London, including possible attacks on a shopping centre, a night club and a power grid. Not only did the RCMP seize the Digimonster, Mr. McKercher said, but tests revealed precisely how it was outfitted with signal jammers and encryption codes to prevent a premature explosion. Mr. McKercher added the device was supposed to work on the 916.84 megahertz frequency, indicative of the prosecutor's keen eye for detail. Rifles, money and government credentials The Crown's opening statement suggests agents watched or listened to just about every significant conversation or meeting Mr. Khawaja had in the six month run-up to his March 2004 arrest. According to the Crown, the Digimonster was seized from Mr. Khawaja's brother's room in the family home. Three rifles –including one with a bayonet – were seized from the suspect's own bedroom along with $10,300 under a mattress, the Crown said. Mr. Khwaja worked as a computer contractor at Canada's department of Foreign Affairs at the time of his arrest and Mr. McKercher suggested the suspect used his DFAIT credentials for terrorist activities. The prosecutor told the court Mr. Khawaja sent e-mails about his detonator project to London co-conspirators through a DFAIT computer, that he showed UK customs agents his DFAIT pass when he entered the UK, and that he suggested to his conspirators he could use DFAITs internal shipping services to send goods to the mujahedeen in Pakistan. Mr. Khawaja, beardless and with long wet hair parted in the middle, simply pleaded “not guilty” in a soft-spoken voice to each of the seven terrorism charges he faces. The defence has not signalled how it will attempt to rebut these allegations. Four years of official silence ends The prosecution's opening statement ended more than four years of official silence from federal government authorities on the case, marking the first time evidence in the case has ever been openly discussed. Prosecutors have deferred to a court-ordered publication ban for years, and although the trial is only beginning now, the Khawaja case has already served to highlight a number of cumbersome Canadian criminal-justice procedures. To protect Mr. Khawaja's right to a fair trial, his lawyers requested the gag order immediately after his March, 2004, arrest. Challenges of the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act and later attempts to see secret documents consumed all the court time since 2004. Some experts looking at the Khawaja case and others like it say that regardless of the rights of the accused, society should have the right to know the blow-by-blow of the allegations much sooner. “The gag orders imposed on the media and authorities by the judiciary in [Commonwealth] countries prevent the authorities from informing the Muslim community about the scope of the terrorist threat because the evidence against the suspects cannot be disclosed until the trials are over,” writes Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former CIA case officer in an influential new book, Leaderless Jihad. Mr. Sageman says the London plot that Mr. Khawaja is alleged to have been involved in stands as a clear example of an emerging “homegrown” threat, and authorities should reconsider a host of practises – including court-imposed pretrial gag orders – to better challenge an extremist narrative that seduces Westerners into joining armed jihad. “The gag orders have contributed to broad public and especially Muslim skepticism and suspicion about” terrorism cases, Mr. Sageman writes. “The idea that the public can suspend judgment about such dramatic events as arrests and wait for three or four years to discover the evidence runs against human nature. “The public will fill in the gaps in its knowledge and this can potentially turn against the authorities.” Even among Commonwealth countries, Canada is particularly prone to protracted pretrial debates that lengthen gag orders on the evidence. For example, haggling over document disclosure can serve to delay a trial for years – as happened in the case of Mr. Khawaja. Comparatively, U.S. cases are more efficient. “In the US, criminal defendants have a slightly narrower constitutional right to disclosure,” Wake University law professor Robert M. Chesney, a specialist in terrorism law, wrote in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. “Prosecutors must disclose that which reasonably could be used as exculpatory, not just relevant” as is the case in Canada. State secrecy In Canada, state secrecy matters are also decided by Federal Court judges who aren't involved in the actual trial, thus creating a bottleneck in the process. U.S. trial judges are one-stop shops, as they are given the scope to determine which documents are secret and which are not. “Let's say you have a qualifying document that should be disclosed but that the government wants to keep secret. [The U.S. Classified Information Procedures Act] allows the government to apply to the trial judge with that argument,” Mr. Chesney wrote. “The judge will determine first whether the document really is disclosable, and if so, whether there is any way to craft a compromise or substitute that would disclose the key substance without undue harm to classified info. “That usually resolves the matter.” The disclosure issues that delayed the Khawaja trial threaten to delay the trial of a group of Toronto-area suspects arrested in 2006. One peripheral suspect – legally considered a youth – is currently on trial having had relatively few pretrial legal issues. But 10 adult accused remain mired in the early stages of preliminary wrangling. One suspect has recently penned an open letter from prison complaining he is not getting adequate disclosure. Still, the Khawaja matter remains the first test case of the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act. Although the Canadian gag order has always remained in place, a parallel British trial that led to the convictions of five U.K. conspirators has revealed pretty much the entire case against Mr. Khawaja. None of the British court evidence has been subject to a publication ban in Canada and much of it was repeated in court Monday. Because Mr. Khawaja has opted for a judge-alone trial, there is no jury prejudice that can result from publishing the information. The defence's challenge will be threefold: Rebut the evidence of items the RCMP says it seized in Ottawa; rebut the conversations and e-mails British agents secretly recorded, and rebut the evidence of a U.S. witness, a one-time co-conspirator with whom the FBI convinced to work for them. The seizures It's alleged that Mr. Khawaja built a remote control device for the British cell that wanted to detonate a bomb in central London. An RCMP officer flew to England two years ago to testify that he found circuitry in Mr. Khawaja's residence – actually his bedroom in his parents' house in Orleans, Ont. – that indicated the initiator worked at a range of up to 300 metres in an open environment. The evidence was also that police teams discovered guns, knives, circuit boards, computer chips and literature with titles like ‘Terrorism and Self Sufficiency,” ‘Defence of The Muslim Lands,' ‘The Religion And Doctrine of Jihad,' and ‘CIA Special Operations and Equipment' U.K. Crown Prosecutor Mark Heywood gave more details of items seized from Mr. Khawaja's house: “A long rifle gun, 7.62 calibre weapon was found in a gun box in the bedroom, under the bed. There was also a second 7.62 calibre rifle in the same place. Both were not loaded but the box contained ammunition. A third long gun was also found under the bed as well as a gun cleaning kit and a box of 7.62 cartridges. “On a shelf was found five books including ‘CIA Special Operations and Equipment' and a military manual. On another shelf was a combat knife. On a computer desk was a box which contained computer parts. Electrical wires and components were found in a plastic tray type box.” Mr. Heywood continued continued: “A white box also contained computer parts on the main desk top. Also on the desk top were books entitled ‘The Art of War', ‘On Guerilla Warfare' and ‘Defence of the Muslim Lands.” The intercepts The British evidence was that authorities intercepted Mr. Khawaja's e-mails to the British group, wherein he updated them almost monthly on the progress of his remote control device, prior to visiting London to show them pictures. For example in December 2003, Mr. Khawaja is alleged to have e-mailed the U.K. ringleader. He reportedly wrote, “We finished designing the baby, now we just gotta put things together and test out next week or two. If all goes well I'll come down and show you the baby.” Then in January Mr. Khawaja allegedly wrote another e-mail, according to the British evidence: “Praise the most high, we got the devices working. I am gonna try and get a booking asap to come over and see you.” In February, Mr. Khawaja allegedly asked if he should “parcel it over,” according to the British Crown: “I just want to do a demo of it and show you how it works and stuff, its range. So we gotta find a way to get it into the UK. Maybe I can courier it over...” But the U.K. evidence suggested those plans were dispensed with. In another e-mail from Canada, Mr. Khawaja allegeldy wrote: “I think it will be too dangerous to mail or send anything ... You know these kuffs [short for kuffar, or unbelievers] are tight these days.” British authorities testified their eyes and ears were trained on Mr. Khawaja for the entirety of his three-day trip to London later that month. Both Mr. Khawaja and the British group were rounded up in sweeps at the end of March. The witness But all eyes Monday were on the well-guarded prosecution witness Mr. Babar, who arrived in Canada courtesy of the FBI. Mr. Babar was arrested in his native Brooklyn a few days after the London and Ottawa sweeps. While the dubious interrogation practices of other U.S. intelligence agencies are very much under scrutiny these days – the CIA is under investigation for its use of waterboarding while the Pentagon is under fire for setting up Guantanamo Bay – what has been overshadowed is the FBI's effective use of more conventional U.S. laws and interrogation practices. When the soft spoken Mr. Babar testified in London, he told the British court that black suited agents surrounded him on a street in his neighbourhood and brought him to a hotel. He stayed in the suite for several days as he was given the option of co-operating, in order to reduce his jail sentence. He testified that he agonized over the decision until he recalled a haddith, or Islamic proverb, about one of the first martyrs of the religion. Mr. Babar testified that it reminded him that God forgives those who are made to say things after being captured by the enemy. So he told about the backdrop to the bomb plot, how he allegedly met Mr. Khawaja and the British suspects in Pakistan about a year before the arrests. Mr. Babar testified he was already in Lahore when he was told to smooth a Canadian's entrance to a Pakistani training camp. “What up bro, listen my name is Kashif... send me your flight information because I will be picking you up from the airport,” his e-mail said. The response, allegedly from Mr. Khawaja, was “Alright bro, arriving on Thursday July 15 at 3pm at Islamabad airport.” Later that month, Mr. Khawaja allegedly attended a training camp in Pakistan. According to Mr. Babar's testimony the Canadian told him how he fired a rocket launcher for the first time – and smiled, saying how he very much wanted to do it again. source:Globe & Mail, canada |
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| A CALL TO FIGHT Muslim warrior says NYC is home By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff, 11/6/2001 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - He grew up in New York, he says, listening to Whitney Houston, riding the roller coasters at Great Adventure, and, until recently, working as a Java programmer at a dot-com company in midtown Manhattan. But sometime after Sept. 11, Mohammad Junaid says, he decided to leave his $70,000-a-year job and join the Taliban's holy war against the United States in hopes that he can someday help establish a new state based on Islamic law. Junaid, 26, who says he's the grandson of Pakistani immigrants, has a teddy-bear face and a ready smile. He can't help grinning when he thinks about the New York Yankees' come-from-behind victories last week in the World Series, which, he said, he followed with great interest as he awaited a call from Mullah Mohammed Omar to cross the border and join in the Taliban's battle. But his loyalties, he says, are clear; if he runs into an American soldier in Afghanistan, even a fellow New Yorker from his old high school in the Bronx, he will not hesitate to shoot him. ''No problem,'' he says, ''because why is he there? To negotiate? Or to kill Muslims?'' Junaid's mission is made more notable by what he says is one additional fact: that his mother, a secretary, was on the 9th floor of the World Trade Center when it was attacked. She escaped. Much of Junaid's story is impossible to confirm, because - fearful, he says, that he'd endanger family and friends - he refuses to give out details of his life, such as where he went to school and worked, or his address. He even declined to say whether the name he gave was his legal one (and checks of various New York City public records for a Mohammad Junaid produced no verifying information). All that was certain was that the young man who goes by Mohammad Junaid was in Islamabad last week awaiting the call to join the Taliban. With him were two Britons who identified themselves as Hassan Butt, 21, and Abdul Monim, 25. All said they were members of Al-Muhajiroun, a London-based international Islamic organization that claims to have recruited hundreds of foreigners to help overthrow Pakistan's pro-US military government and, if called, fight alongside the Taliban. Muslim groups, such as the Muslim Parliament in Britain, have condemned the organization and said it is exaggerating its number of recruits. One Londoner, Abu Mindar, 26, told the Times of London last week that Muhajiroun brought him first to Lahore, then to Afghanistan, and that he ended up in a firefight with no training and shortly thereafter deserted. But Junaid was game nonetheless. ''I'm not against the American people. But there is hatred toward the US government and the US military because their policies are killing Muslims,'' Junaid said, citing US military support of Israel, sanctions against Iraq, and now, civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Wearing metal-rimmed glasses and the white tunic and pants favored by Pakistani workers, Junaid refused to say whether he had any military training or whether he had been involved in any fighting. ''That has no relevance,'' he said. He and his companions were cautious about interview conditions. The three insisted they were being followed by Pakistani intelligence agents, at one point fleeing down a back stairway and through a hotel kitchen. They were not forthcoming on details - though Junaid's outer-borough accent did make him a passable New Yorker. He described what he said was his education at a New York college and his work as an Islamic organizer in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens. Particularly when out of Butt's earshot, he spoke articulately about Islam, about Muslim issues around the world, and about his own political transformation. ''I'm not a New Yorker,'' he said. ''I'm a Muslim.'' In high school in the Bronx, he said, some students called him ''towelhead'' and ''Hindu.'' But it wasn't until college that his life began to center on injustices against Muslims. He joined Islamic student organizations and started following a stricter interpretation of the religion. On the morning of Sept. 11, he says, he was at home when someone called him to say a plane had hit the World Trade Center. He waited a few nervous hours to hear from his mother. Once he knew she was safe, he said, ''I knew what was going to be next.'' He says he bought a one-way ticket to Lahore. He claims his family knows and approves of his plan. For now, he says, he is organizing a political cell in Peshawar, and planning to support protests against General Pervez Musharraf's government. After that, he will do whatever the Taliban need. ''If Mullah Omar calls,'' he said, ''I'm ready.'' This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 11/6/2001. Source Source (copy) |
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| 22/04/2006 COLIN FREEZE AND GREG MCARTHUR Globe and Mail Update London and New York — In a room at the end of the fifth-floor hallway of a luxury hotel, four FBI agents hunkered down with a 29-year-old Islamic terrorist named Mohammad Junaid Babar. He was allowed to order food and watch television, but these were not easy days. The curtains were drawn. He was under constant supervision. He had been asked to make a critical decision. It was April 6, 2004, and the police and the terrorist were in the Embassy Suites Hotel in lower Manhattan. The building is more frequently used by tourists and corporate clients such as IBM and Merrill Lynch who negotiate contracts and strategize in the hotel's expansive conference rooms. But the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation opted to use Room 538 — a 10-metre by 15-metre space — to make a deal with different consequences. This was the interrogation that would sever friendships and help authorities dissect a bombing conspiracy that had been uncovered in Britain. It would also bolster the evidence against Momin Khawaja, then a 24-year-old computer programmer from Ottawa and the first man to be charged under Canada's anti-terrorism legislation. Inside the confines of Room 538, the agents started pressing Mr. Babar to give evidence against Mr. Khawaja and the other accused, a court has heard. “I don't know if it was because I was tortured by my thoughts or in custody, but I had many nights where I couldn't sleep,” Mr. Babar, a native New Yorker, would later testify. He had been devoted to his militant version of Islam and his Muslim brothers, and now he was being severely tested. To make his decision, he turned to the life of the Prophet Mohammed. When Mr. Babar made his first public appearance as an aspiring Islamic warrior, he picked the perfect venue. In November of 2001, the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad was a holding pen for the world's press. Dozens of reporters were holed up there, awaiting permission to enter Afghanistan to cover the U.S. invasion. Every morning they were greeted in the lobby by potential translators, fixers and Pakistanis trying to pitch them stories. Mr. Babar and his friends joined the flock, saying they were members of a group called Al-Muhajiroun, a British-based organization of militant Muslims who were calling for a global Islamic revolution. He said he was from New York and had flown to Pakistan shortly after the attacks on his hometown — to help fight U.S. soldiers. “I will kill every American that I see in Afghanistan. If I see them in Pakistan, I will kill every American soldier I can in Pakistan,” he told a British television news reporter. “It's time to prove my loyalty to the Muslims of Afghanistan.” The press was skeptical. Anne Barnard of The Boston Globe wondered about this bearded young man in glasses. He knew the subway route to Yankee Stadium, and even said his own mother had fled from the north tower of the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks. “He seemed like the kind of kid who would have never been in a schoolyard fist fight,” she recalled. “I kept asking him: ‘Have you ever fired a gun? Have you ever hit a guy?' “He seemed like a guy who was trying to prove his manhood or something.” Just to be safe, before she wrote a story about her encounter, one of her colleagues checked public records for the man. None was found, because Mr. Babar had given her a false name. He dropped his last name, and called himself Mohammad Junaid. His story seemed impossible. Mr. Babar even told her he was going to start his own terrorist training camp. Then the Taliban was ousted faster than Mr. Babar expected and he never made it into Afghanistan. But he was serious and he kept his word on the training. Mr. Babar found a wife and settled in Lahore, but often travelled to Britain. His anger toward the Western incursions into Muslim lands persisted. During his trips, and on the Internet, he sought out others — usually Western Muslims like himself — who felt the same way. In his backyard, he and a close circle of intimates from Britain began conducting small-scale bomb experiments, detonating spice jars full of ammonium nitrate fertilizer — but only when his wife was away. They decided that if they wanted to be full-blown jihadis, they had better get serious. A core group of six Britons and Mr. Babar made their way to a training camp in the mountains of Malakand, near the Afghan border, Mr. Babar would later testify. As they travelled, they pretended to be secular Western tourists who wanted to take a peek at Pakistan's glaciers. No public praying was allowed on the journey. Everyone was to stay clean shaven. They took a lot of pictures along the way. During one trek to the 3,050-metre peak, one warrior faltered because he had no mountain boots — only Nikes without laces. Another got food poisoning and became notorious for hogging the bathroom at pit stops. It has come out in court that another was given a nickname by his impatient peers: “Abu Finish-up!” Still, at the end of the journey, Kalashnikov rifles awaited on a mountain top. Mr. Babar says that jihadis-in-training took target practice with cans, and learned how to assemble and disassemble their rifles. A lucky few even got to fire the rocket launcher, Mr. Babar would later testify. Others experimented with fertilizer bombs. Mr. Babar left jihad training early — he had to see the birth of his child. But he would later testify that the Britons at the camp gave him another task — to get in touch with a Canadian who also wanted to train. “What up bro, listen my name is Kashif,” Mr. Babar, using a pseudonym, wrote in an e-mail that was later displayed in court. “[The group leader] is away for a little while and won't be back for a couple of weeks. He told me to e-mail you and arrange everything with you. “Send me your flight information because I will be picking you up from the airport. . . . I will be wearing green trousers, a blue Diadora T-shirt and blue Nike sneakers.” The response came quickly. “Alright bro, arriving on Thursday July 15 at 3 p.m. at Islamabad airport.” British prosecutors say the e-mail was sent by Mr. Khawaja, a Canadian newcomer who would become a close confidante of Mr. Babar.Mr. Khawaja had grown up in suburban Ottawa, playing street hockey with his brothers and praying in a mosque across the street from a Tim Hortons. The son of Pakistani immigrants, his day job was to fix computers for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs. But his true passions were Islam and the Internet. He picked up a lot of his ideas and friends on-line. British prosecutors say he blogged about his “radical approach to Islam” and met likeminded people through instant-messaging programs. After landing in Pakistan, he met one in person. “He made jokes. He was amusing,” Mr. Babar would later testify. Mr. Babar described Mr. Khawaja as a smart, enthusiastic young man, even if he lacked discretion. “He had a long beard,” Mr. Babar would later say in court. “We asked him to remove it or trim it down for security reasons.” “He did bring money with him; he brought Canadian dollars and some U.K. pounds. It was maybe in total not more than £1,800,” Mr. Babar would later testify. “Half of the money was supposed to be going to al-Qaeda for their operations.” It has come out in a British courtroom that soon after his arrival, Mr. Khawaja asked Mr. Babar to act as a guest at an important dinner date. Mr. Khawaja had arranged an encounter with a prospective bride he met on the Internet and Mr. Babar was introduced to the woman, Zeba Khan, as Mr. Khawaja's friend from New York. Mr. Babar was gregarious, Ms. Khan said. He talked and talked, and said some things that seemed a little farfetched. “He thought that the moonwalk was a Western conspiracy,” Ms. Khan told The Globe and Mail. “It takes a special kind of perception of the world to doubt what's a basic and indisputable fact in modern history.” Shortly after, Mr. Babar smoothed the Canadian's entry to the Malakand training camp, Mr. Babar has testified. While they did not travel together, he has testified that his new friend returned excited. “He said that he had fired a rocket launcher at the camp,” Mr. Babar would testify. “He was very enthusiastic about the training camp.” After Mr. Khawaja went back to Canada, he kept in touch with his new friends via e-mail. The trip had only served to stoke his fervour, according to e-mails later presented in court by British authorities. They suggest Mr. Khawaja wanted help making jihadist videotapes from footage they shot of the training camp. “Tell [Mr. Babar] to parcel the video from the summer. I can put something together here,” one said. Prosecutors also say Mr. Khawaja identified an associate who wanted to perform a suicide bombing against Jews — derogatorily referred to as “Yahoodi.” “When I was in Pakistan me and [Mr. Babar] talked about Immy, what's he going to do there. We have a suggestion for a one-way operation to the most high, maybe in Yahoodi land,” the e-mail said. Many of these communications were secretive. In fact, no e-mails were actually sent from one Yahoo account registered to the username Pleasure_of_Allah. British prosecutors say only a few people, including Mr. Khawaja and Mr. Babar, knew the password. They used it to log in, write drafts and save them, leaving them in a folder for the next person to read. That way, the e-mails never travelled and nobody could intercept the messages. A few months later, prosecutors say, Mr. Khawaja left another message: “Nigga, praise the most high we get the device working.” The training-camp cohorts of Mr. Babar didn't know it, but weeks after their return to Britain from Pakistan, they were placed under 24-hour surveillance. The police were videotaping them coming and going from their homes. Police also hacked into the e-mail accounts and discovered some bizarre messages — notes sent between sympathizers of Osama bin Laden that appeared more like fans of gangsta rappers. “Wots up nigga,” began one representative e-mail. “Ok Nigga, we can get the device,” another message said. The police installed a bug in the group leader's Suzuki SUV. This helped Scotland Yard watch — and listen — when he picked up a friend at Heathrow Airport who had arrived on an Air Canada flight around midnight. Scotland Yard officers say the passenger was Momin Khawaja, and they hadn't seen him before that juncture. Who was this young Canadian, one officer recalls wondering, and why was he in Britain for only three days? Prosecutors now say that in the car ride, the group leader urged Mr. Khawaja to be professional and secretive, before they went to an Internet café together. Authorities say they looked at pictures of detonators that Mr. Khawaja had been secretly building in his family home in Ottawa. This was regarded as an alarming development by police, who had already discovered 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in a storage shed. The fertilizer represented about a quarter of the material used to raze a government building in Oklahoma City, killing more than 160 people. The detonators, coupled with the fertilizer and a sparking substance like aluminum powder, was capable of killing many innocent people. The police sneaked into the shed and replaced the chemical with an inert substance. After Mr. Khawaja returned home, police say they heard the rest of the group mention potential targets: shopping centres, power stations, nightclubs. The time to act had come. In March of 2004, Mounties in tactical uniforms stormed past a white picket fence and battered down the door of the Khawaja family home in suburban Ottawa, finding only Mr. Khawaja's relatives. The suspect wasn't there, but they did seize electrical equipment — now being described in Britain as equipment meant to detonate a bomb by remote control. RCMP officers found Mr. Khawaja at Foreign Affairs fixing computers. He was arrested and charged. Hours after Mr. Khawaja's detention, hundreds of officers raided addresses across Britain. Scotland Yard announced they had arrested more than a half-dozen suspects and had foiled a major bombing conspiracy. Having amassed incriminating e-mails, phone conversations and bomb materials, all the pieces of the puzzle were coming together for investigators. But one piece was still missing.Mr. Babar had returned to New York, and on the morning of April 6, he was headed to a taxi-driving course. It was six days after the raids in Canada and Britain, and he suspected police might be on the lookout for him. When four men in suits approached, he wasn't surprised, he would later testify. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office in New York say they can't comment on anything to do with Mr. Babar's case, including why they waited six days after the raids to nab him, or why they chose to take him a hotel. But for some reason, they escorted him to the suite with a view of the Hudson River. One agent sat next to him and the other three sat across from him in chairs. They started asking him about highly secretive information — things he knew about code words and money drops — and realized they were onto him. He was being asked to become a government witness. He had a lot to consider: his loyalty to his friends, his wife in Pakistan. He thought of his newborn baby and the prospect of spending decades in jail. In the end, he says he thought mostly of an Islamic parable. As the story goes, a man came to the Prophet Mohammed, weeping. He told him that heathens had captured him, tortured him and made him renounce Islam. He felt horrible. The Prophet told the man not to worry, because it doesn't matter what you say; the measure of a Muslim is what's in his heart. “It was the only quote I had in my head,” Mr. Babar would later explain. Only four hours after being arrested, he waived his Miranda rights — something he would do every afternoon for the next four days — and started to talk.For the past few weeks, the mornings have been routine outside the Old Bailey courthouse in London: a siren pierces the air and a helicopter's rotor whirs overhead. Tactical police officers on foot yell at passersby to go away. It's all one big effort to create a “sterile area” for the arrival of the star, terrorist witness. Mohammad Junaid Babar is led from a police van and into a courtroom guarded by officers toting submachine guns with scopes. He is escorted past the glares of his seven former friends: Omar Khyam, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar, Waheed Mahmood, Shujah Mahmood, Salahuddin Amin and Nabeel Hussain. During three days of testimony in early April, he looked at them only once. Twelve jurors have listened as he is branded a liar, a sellout and even a “rat” by a phalanx of wigged and robed defence lawyers. They've wondered aloud to reporters about Mr. Babar's credibility and the circumstances that led him to a hotel room in New York. “How can somebody just be picked up off the street who's so committed, and yet so easily fall under the spell of the FBI? There's something more to it — there's something more to it than that,” Imran Khan, a defence lawyer for one of the accused Britons, told The Globe and Mail. Mr. Babar has admitted he told some lies to the FBI initially. But when he realized they knew too much, he gave in to their demands. He signed a co-operation agreement and pleaded guilty to being an al-Qaeda member. Now, the jail time he'll serve in the United States will be determined by the help he gives to his former sworn enemies. “You've co-operated with Canadian authorities, which are prosecuting Momin Khawaja?” one lawyer recently asked him in court. “Yes.” “What you are doing is betraying one of your friends, yes?” “Yes.” “It's also a betrayal of your cause, yes?” “Yes.” “You're prepared to betray your friends and your cause?” “Yes.” Mr. Khawaja's trial is scheduled to begin in early January in Ottawa, where his lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, says he is preparing for Mr. Babar to testify. SOURCE: The Globe & Mail cageprisoners |
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| Between April 10, 2004 and July 7, 2005: Informant Tells FBI Head 7/7 London Bomber Is ‘Trouble’ and ‘Should Be Checked Out,’ Possibly Identifies Him from Photo In early April 2004, an al-Qaeda operative named Mohammed Junaid Babar is arrested in the US and tells the FBI all he knows about his militant associates and activities in return for a lighter sentence (see March 2004). Babar knows the head suicide bomber in the 7/7 London bombings, Mohammad Sidique Khan. In fact, he and Khan attended an al-Qaeda training camp together in the summer of 2003 (see July-September 2003). However, Babar only knows Khan by his alias “Ibrahim,” as operatives usually use an alias for security purposes. There are conflicting accounts as to what the British intelligence agency MI5 tells the FBI about Khan and what the FBI tells MI5 about him, and why knowledge of him does not stop the 7/7 bombings. "Trouble" and "Should Be Checked Out" - According to the Independent, Babar tells the FBI some time before the 7/7 bombings that “Ibrahim” is “trouble” and “should be checked out.” He knows that “Ibrahim” has learned how to use weapons and explosives in a training camp and had plans to return to Pakistan to attend another training camp. [Independent, 4/30/2007] Khan in Database - According to Newsweek, at some point before the 7/7 bombings, British officials send US intelligence agencies a database on about 2,000 people identified as contacts to a group of men arrested in March 2004 as part of a fertilizer bomb plot in Britain. The main plotters were arrested just days before Babar was, and he knows all of them. US officials later tell Newsweek that this database contains “sketchy” information about Khan and another 7/7 bombing suspect. [Newsweek, 6/21/2006] Not Recognized in Photos - The London Times reports that a batch of surveillance photos are sent to the US to be viewed by Babar. But MI5 judges the quality of the two pictures they have of Khan (a black and white closed-circuit television image and a covertly taken color photo) too poor to be included. However, Scotland Yard does send pictures of Khan, and Babar fails to recognize him. [London Times, 5/1/2007] Recognized in Photos - However, an Associated Press story claims that Babar does recognize Khan “from a blurred surveillance photograph” and also warns that Khan has sought meetings with al-Qaeda leaders. [Associated Press, 4/30/2007] Photos Kept from Inquiry - It emerges that an official investigation into the 7/7 bombings by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) was only shown one surveillance photo of Khan. However, MI5 in fact had at least six photos of him. [Daily Mail, 5/2/2007] Photo Identification Still Unresolved - In 2008, Babar will mention in court that he did tell the FBI about “Ibrahim” roughly a year before the July 2005 7/7 bombings. He told the FBI in detail how “Ibrahim” attended a training camp in Pakistan, and even appeared in a video promoting jihad in Britain with his face covered. However, Babar does not mention identifying him (or failing to identify him) in a photograph before the 7/7 bombings. [London Times, 4/19/2008] Khan and Babar were also monitored meeting with each other in England in 2003 (see 2003). Entity Tags: Mohammad Sidique Khan, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mohammed Junaid Babar, UK Security Service (MI5) Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline |
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| HE WENT TO MY SCHOOL By MARC EPSTEIN May 2, 2007 LONG before he joined al Qaeda, Mohammed Junaid Babar was a sometime student at Jamaica High School, where I work. About 18 months ago, a reporter called the school, looking to do a story on Babar. But it turned out (happily, for school pride) that Babar never graduated from Jamaica HS. Indeed, according to the teachers I talked to, he hardly attended any of his classes - just another of the faceless, tragic thousands who pass through our schools learning nothing. Intrigued, I looked into his life in New York. Babar had been in this country since he was 2. His family had assimilated to the point where, when they saw the need to to straighten him out, they sent him to a Catholic military academy, LaSalle. He later went to a Catholic university, St. Johns. But it didn't take. The fact that he headed to Pakistan shortly after 9/11, meaning to go to Afghanistan and kill American troops, is bad enough. What makes it worse is that Babar's mother worked in the World Trade Center and escaped with her life when the towers collapsed. What went wrong? Outside of Jamaica HS sits a bronze war memorial listing nearly 200 names from America's "melting pot": Amendoro, Salinsky, De Torre, Czyzyk, Kelly, Keppelman and so forth. They all died for our country in the "good war." But today we have Babar, who told a jury that the Taliban established the most perfect Islamic state on the planet. In our "post-patriotic age," President Bush went to extraordinary lengths after 9/11 to ensure that there would be no repetition of FDR's internment camps for Japanese-Americans or outbreaks of vigilante justice. Here in New York, a couple of years after the terrorist attacks, the city Department of Education sent out a pamphlet for parents on how to discuss 9/11 with their children. It makes not one mention what had actually occurred on that day. How can so many Mohammed Babars exist in this sea of multicultural tolerance? I asked my students last year if they could explain Mohammed Babar. One insightful young man observed, "He finally found something that he was good at." He had, indeed. Within a couple of years after joining al Qaeda, he had managed to enmesh himself in some of the most heinous terrorist plots to unfold post-9/11. How can a tolerant society produce a Babar? To paraphrase Chesterton, the problem isn't that you believe in nothing, it's that you can wind up believing in anything. Marc Epstein teaches at Jamaica HS in Queens. |
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| Alleged 9/11 Mastermind Linked to Hamburg CellAlthough Mohammed was little known to the public until this week, officials said he has now been tied to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, a foiled 1995 attempt to bomb 12 U.S. airliners over the Pacific, the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Washington area. "He is the Forrest Gump of Al Qaeda," a Bush administration official said. "He has more of a presence in some of their plots than we had previously known." |
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| List of Confessions All of these plots can also be referred to as 'Second Oplan Bojinka'. * The February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City * A failed "shoe bomber" operation * The October 2002 attack in Kuwait * The nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia * A plan for a "second wave" of attacks on major U.S. landmarks to be set in the spring or summer of 2002 after the 9/11 attacks, which includes more hijackings of commercial airlines and having them flown into various buildings in the U.S. including the Library Tower in Los Angeles, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Columbia Center in Seattle and the Empire State Building in New York * Plots to attack oil tankers and U.S. naval ships in the Straits of Hormuz, the Straits of Gibraltar and in Singapore * A plan to blow up the Panama Canal * Plans to assassinate Jimmy Carter * A plot to blow up suspension bridges in New York City * A plan to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago with burning fuel trucks * Plans to "destroy" Heathrow Airport, Canary Wharf and Big Ben in London * A planned attack on "many" nightclubs in Thailand * A plot targeting the New York Stock Exchange and other U.S. financial targets * A plan to destroy buildings in Eilat, Israel * Plans to destroy U.S. embassies in Indonesia, Australia and Japan in 2002. * Plots to destroy Israeli embassies in India, Azerbaijan, the Philippines and Australia * Surveying and financing an attack on an Israeli El-Al flight from Bangkok * Sending several "mujahideen" into Israel to survey "strategic targets" with the intention of attacking them * The November 2002 suicide bombing of a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya * The failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger jet leaving Mombasa airport in Kenya * Plans to attack U.S. targets in South Korea * Providing financial support for a plan to attack U.S., British and Jewish targets in Turkey * Surveillance of U.S. nuclear power plants in order to attack them * A plot to attack NATO's headquarters in Europe * Planning and surveillance in a 1995 plan (the "Bojinka Operation") to bomb 12 American passenger jets * The planned assassination attempt against then-U.S. President Bill Clinton during a mid-1990s trip to the Philippines. * "Shared responsibility" for a plot to kill Pope John Paul II * Plans to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf * An attempt to attack a U.S. oil company in Sumatra, Indonesia, "owned by the Jewish former [U.S.] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger" * The beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl |
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| OFFICE - All staff From: Subject: 0600 Media Brief Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 6:27:48 AM GMT MEDIA BRIEFING 0600 Edition - Wednesday 21st June 2006 FOREIGN & DEFENCE … Al-Qaeda in US US al-Qaeda operative Mohammed Junaid Babar, who was associate of Mohammed Sidique Khan, was recruited at New York Masjid Fatima Islamic Centre mosque that UK militants helped to run .. investigators reportedly found Khan made calls to mosque & NYPD confirm still trying to trace identities of UK Muslims (Ti) … - ends - Media Monitor Press Office Foreign & Commonwealth Office |
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| Monday, September 01, 2008 QUEENS MOSQUE, MASJID AL-FATIMA, CONTINUES AS A MEETING PLACE FOR ISLAMIC RADICALS AND LINKS TO ABDUL TAWALA ALISHTARI ARRESTED SUPPORT OF TERROSIM |
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| PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR BILL WARNER TKAES RICHARD WATSON AND BBC NEWS CREW TO MASJID AL-FATIMA MOSQUE IN QUEENS NY lINKS ALMUHAJIROUN TERROR GROUP. Hizb ut-Tahrir America May Be Ready for Its Public Debut Tuesday 18 November 2008 Counterterrorism Blog By Madeleine Gruen; (HTA) may perceive itself as ready to emerge from the shadows in USA (finally admitting it's existance after it was exposed back October 2005 Queens NY). |
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| THE COURT: Mr. Babar, I would like you to tell me in your own words what you did in connection with the crimes which you're entering a plea of guilty. Please state when the crimes occurred, where, what happened, and what your involvement in the crimes was. Please begin with the crimes set forth in count one of the information. THE DEFENDANT: Starting the summer of ' 0 3 , your Honor, summer of ' 0 3 , I -- that's when I first started providing, you know, funding, material support to A1 Qaeda, you lmow, for the war in Afghanistan. And from summer ' 0 3 to about March of '04 I provided night vision goggles, sleeping bags, water proof socks, water proof ponchos, and money to a high ranking A1 Qaeda official in South Waziristan. In summer of ' 0 3 , I handed off to someone else, you know, to send it to South Waziristan. Then in January and February '04, I went myself, personally, to South Waziristan and handed over money to, and supplies to a high ranking A1 Qaeda official. THE COURT: All right. Mr. Babar, when you engaged in these activities, was there an agreement or some form of understanding that you entered into for the purpose of those activities? THE DEFENDANT: Excuse me? I don't understand. THE COURT: Was there an agreement between you and other persons? THE DEFENDANT: Yeah. THE COURT: For the purposes of the activities that you've indicated? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: Did you become a member of that agreement or understanding, conspiracy, with knowledge of its illegal activity? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. MS. BAIIONI: May I interrupt, your Honor? THE COURT: Yes, Miss Baroni. MS. BARONI: Thank you, your Honor. If you could also allocute the defendant, A, what he did with the other people; and, B, what he -- what his lcnowledge was that these, this material support or resources was going to be used for. THE COURT: We'll get to that. Mr. Babar, you indicated that you became a member of an agreement or understanding with others, and that you became a member with knowledge of its illegal objective. Can you indicate what your agreement, as you understood it, provided as a purpose of the agreement and your role and that of other persons in the agreement? THE DEFENDANT: The agreement that I with others was, A, was, you know, concerning people was, A, to provide funding that would -- then I would then transport, you know, to, you know, to South Waziristan, A1 Qaeda, and also to provide supplies, you lcnow, you know, when I would give them a list of anything that I needed, and they would provide the supplies that I would need that I would then pass over in South Waziristan. THE COURT: And you knew, Mr. Babar, the identity of the organization that was involved in the activities that you've indicated? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: And did you know the organization was a terrorist organization? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: All right. Miss Baroni, are there any questions from the government concerning the sufficiency of the allocution with respect to the elements of count one? MS. BARONI: Yes, your Honor. If you could allocute the defendant on what he believed the material support or resources was going to be used for. THE COURT: All right. Mr. Babar, the government has asked for clarification, elaboration of your knowledge of the intended use of the material support that you've indicated was involved as part of the agreement. THE DEFENDANT: I just -- I understood that the money and supplies that I had given to a1 Qaeda was supposed to be used in Afghanistan, you know, against U.S. or International, International Forces or against the Northern Alliance. THE COURT: All right. Mr. Babar, with regard to the elements of count two of the information, can you again indicate in your own words what you did in that connection? If the activities are the same that you've thus just related, you can just summarize. THE DEFENDANT: Yeah. The activities are basically the same. It was the same. We got together with a couple of people to provide funding and to provide supplies for A1 Qaeda, and we knew what the supplies where, the supplies and weapons were going -- what they were going to be used for, and we know who they were going to, and that's what we did. We got together with people, tried to raise money and supplies and tried to give them to high ranking a1 Qaeda official to be used with the ongoing war inside of Afghanistan. THE COURT: And you actually provided these items, material support as defined in the summary the Court gave before? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: Miss Baroni, does the government have any questions concerning the sufficiency of the allocution with respect to count two? MS. BARONI: Your Honor, I think coupled with his allocution on count one, it's sufficient. THE COURT: All right, thank you. Mr. Babar, would you indicate in your own words what you did in connection with count -- the elements contained in count three of the information? THE DEFENDANT: Count three, one of the things that we did was I set up a jihad training camp where those who wanted to go into Afghanistan where they could learn how to use weapons, and also, you know, any explosive devices that they wanted to test out over there. And I also provided lodging and transportation in Pakistan for them, and I transported them to and from the training camp. At the same time, I was aware that some of the people who attended the jihad training camp had ideas about, youknow, plotting against some targets in the United Kingdom, and I provided some of the materials, like I mentioned, aluminum nitrate, ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder for them in the use of explosive devices that was then tested out at the training camp. THE COURT: All right. And in connection with the crimes charged in count three, Mr. Babar, if you would just again confirm that you knew that there was an agreement or understanding for the purposes that you indicated? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: Did you become a member of that agreement or conspiracy with knowledge of its illegal objectives? THE DEFENDANT : Yes. THE COURT: And did you provide or conceal the nature of the location or sources of the material support or resources that you've just indicated? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: And you actually provided or concealed the provision of material support, knowing or intending that the support or resources were to be used in preparation for or carrying out the use or attempted use of weapons of mass destruction outside the United States? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: All right. Miss Baroni, does the government have any questions concerning the sufficiency of the allocution with respect to the elements of count three? MS. BARONI: Yes, your Honor. If you could just allocute the defendant that the aluminum powder that he purchased, and the ammonium nitrate that he intended to purchase, his understanding was that at the time that they would be used in explosive devices in a plot in the United Kingdom. THE COURT: All right. Mr. Babar, the government has asked for a clarification and elaboration of the materials that you purchased for the purposes of this activity in the United Kingdom. Would you elaborate? THE DEFENDANT: As far as the aluminum powder goes, I knew purchasing aluminum powder, what it was going to be used for, and they had told me, you know, what it would be used for, explosive device, and they wanted to, you know, plot or target some targets in the UK, and I knew purchase of aluminum powder, that's what I was purchasing it for. And the ammonium nitrate was the same thing. Although I never purchased it, I tried to get it, but at that time I couldn't get it. So I was able to get the aluminum powder, which I then passed along to them, which I knew where it was going to, what it was going to be used for, eventually. THE COURT: All right. MS. BARONI: Also, your Honor, if your Honor can allocute the defendant on the timeframe of the conspiracy. THE COURT: Yes. Mr. Babar, can you indicate the time when these activities occurred with respect to count three? THE DEFENDANT: It started about the spring -- this is the spring and the summer of ' 0 3 . THE COURT: And where did they start? THE DEFENDANT: Excuse me? THE COURT: Where did this occur? THE DEFENDANT: In Pakistan. MS. BARONI: And how long, if your Honor can allocute him -- it began in the spring of '03 three, but how long did the conspiracy -- THE COURT: Until when did it go, Mr. Babar? THE DEFENDANT: Excuse me? THE COURT: Until when did this -- THE DEFENDANT: Oh. THE COURT: -- activity continue? THE DEFENDANT: Up to March of '04. THE COURT: All right. If we may move to the elements of the charges contained in count four in the information, would you indicate what your involvement was in those activities? To the extent they're the same, you may so indicate. THE DEFENDANT: Count four is the same as count three and I -- it's the same. You know, they wanted to set up a jihad training camp, and I provided -- I, you know, provided the area and the weapons for them where they can get the training, and also provided some of the materials like aluminum powder and ammonium nitrate for the explosive devices that were used at the training camp. Also same thing, also I purchased aluminum powder, ammonium nitrate knowing it was going to be eventually be used -- well, not the nitrate, the aluminum powder I purchased with the knowledge that it was going to be used for a plot somewhere in the UK, and the ammonium nitrate which I tried to purchase but wasn't able to. THE COURT: And these activities took place in the same timeframe you've indicated earlier? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: And in the same places? THE DEFENDFNT: Yes. THE COURT: All right. Miss Baroni, does the government have any further questions concerning the sufficiency of the allocution with respect to the elements of Count Four? MS. BARONI: Again, I thinlc coupled with his allocution on count three, since it's the same count, it's sufficient, except for one fact which I think has been established. But during this part of the plea proceeding it's required that the defendant obviously is a U.S. citizen for counts one through four and five, so if your Honor could allocute the defendant on that also. THE COURT: All right. The defendant has previously indicated that he is a United States citizen. All right, Mr. Babar, with respect to the count five, would you indicate your involvement? THE DEFENDANT: Count five is the same as count one and two. I tried to raise money with other people, money and gear which I mentioned before, like night vision goggles, sleeping bags, water proof socks, water proof ponchos and other military gear to then pass it onto a high ranking a1 Qaeda official in South Waziristan. And the timeframe is same with the spring, summer of '03, up to '04, March of '04. And it was sometimes I passed it along to someone else. And in the beginning of '04 I personally went to South Waziristan and I gave money and gear, the gear I just mentioned, to a high ranking a1 Qaeda official, which I knew was going to be used in the ongoing war in Afghanistan against U.S. and International forces and Northern Alliance in military operations. THE COURT: And when you did these activities, you did so knowingly and willfully? THE DEFENDANT : Yes. THE COURT: And you knew that the goods, the funds were to be provided for the benefit of A1 Qaeda? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: All. right. Miss Baroni, does the government have any questions concerning the sufficiency of the allocution with respect to the elements of count five? MS. BARONI: No, your Honor. I thinlc that is sufficient, given 'chat the elements are similar to one and two. If I just may go back to an issue that relates to one, two and five. If you could allocute the defendant on his understanding of his knowledge that the kind of terrorist activity that A1 Qaeda was involved with at the time that he was providing support. THE COURT: All right. Thank you. Mr. Babar, the government has asked for clarification of your understanding of the kinds of activities that A1 Qaeda was involved in at the time that you were providing this material support that you indicated. THE DEFENDANT: I understood that it was involved in ongoing military operations within Afghanistan, and also that A1 Qaeda was involved in military organizations outside of Afghanistan, namely, bombings and highjackings and kidnappings outside of Afghanistan, so that's what I understood that A1 Qaeda was involved in, those kinds of military operations. THE COURT: All right. Mr. Babar , when you engaged in these activities, did you know that what you were doing was wrong and illegal? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: All right. Miss Baroni, would you indicate the evidence that the government would bring against this defendant should this matter go to trial? MS. BARONI: Yes, your Honor. Your Honor, the government would, with respect to count one and two, and five, your Honor, the government would prove through witness testimony, through documentary evidence and other physical evidence that this defendant met with a high ranking leader of A1 Qaeda on several occasions in early 2004. That he provided him with money and military equipment from the end of 2003 through the early 2004 on several different occasions; that he knew these items were going to Al Qaeda; he knew that A1 Qaeda was, in fact, involved in terrorist activities, and that he had intended to provide these items knowing that it would be used in the fight against U.S. troops and other western troops in Afghanistan. The government would further prove that the defendant is a U.S. citizen, obviously, with respect to counts one, two and five. With respect to counts three and four, the government would prove that this defendant worked with other associates, other individuals to plan a bombing plot in the United Kingdom from approximately December of 2002 until approximately March of 2004; that he arranged a jihad training camp where members of this conspiracy would receive training in military skills, explosives and weaponry. That lasted for approximately three or four weeks in July of 2003. The Government would further prove that the defendant provided lodging and transportation to the members of the other members of the conspiracy, before and after their attendance at the training camp. The government would further prove that the defendant purchased and attempted to purchase the aluminum powder and ammonium nitrate that he knew would be used in explosive devices in the bombing plot in the United Kingdom, and that he did this throughout from December 2002 through March of 2004. THE COURT: All right, thank you. Mr. Babar, having heard the government indicate the evidence that it would bring against you, if this matter were to go to trial, do you agree with what the government has said? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: Now, Mr. Babar, having heard me inform you of your rights of a trial and the consequences of your pleading guilty, and of the maximum sentence that you would face, and of the civil rights that you would lose, how do you now plead to the charges contained in information, guilty or not guilty? THE DEFENDANT: Guilty. THE COURT: Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: Are you pleading guilty voluntarily and of your own free will? THE DEFENDANT: Yes. THE COURT: Because you aclmowledge that you're guilty as charged in the information, because you know your rights and you are waiving them, because your plea is entered knowingly and voluntarily and is supported by an independent basis in fact, containing each of the essential elements of the offenses, I accept your guilty plea and adjudge you guilty of the offense to which you've just pleaded. The Probation Officer will next prepare a presentence report to assist the Court in sentencing you. You will be interviewed by the Probation Officer. It is important that the information you give to the Probation Officer be truthful and accurate. The report is important in my decision as to what your sentence will be. You and your attorney have a right and will have an opportunity to examine the report to challenge or comment point to speak on your behalf before sentencing. Does the government propose a sentencing date? MS. BARONI: Your Honor, the government would request a control date, I guess six months. THE COURT: All right, six months control date. THE DEPUTY CLERK: Friday, December 3rd at 10:OO a.m. or November? Keep it December 3rd. |
| CODE |
| http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/853.pdf |
| QUOTE |
| MOHAMMED JUNAID BABAR, the defendant, and others known and unknown, at least one of whom was first brought to and arrested in the Southern District of New York, unlawfully and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together |
| CODE |
| http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/421.pdf |
| QUOTE (Bridget @ Jun 21 2009, 01:53 AM) |
| Who was brought to and arrested in New York in connection with these two (it isn't each other as Babar's indictment is dated June 3rd 2004 and Hashmi's 24th May 2006.) |
| QUOTE (Bridget @ Jun 21 2009, 12:53 AM) |
Who was brought to and arrested in New York in connection with these two (it isn't each other as Babar's indictment is dated June 3rd 2004 and Hashmi's 24th May 2006.) |
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| From at least in or about January 2004 up to and including May 2006, in an offense begun out of the jurisdiction of any partlcular state or district of the United States |
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| http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/200.pdf http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/507.pdf http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/171.pdf |
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| Import of Improvised Explosives Training equipment from US: UK and Canada looking for Pakistani link to 7/7 By Maqbool Ahmed KARACHI: A six-member team of British and Canadian explosives experts is arriving in Islamabad in the last week of this month in connection with the investigations of a network of British and Canadian nationals of Pakistani origin which is believed to have imported “Improvised Explosives Training” equipment from the United States in June 2003, sources in the interior and foreign ministries told the Daily Times on Tuesday. The equipment was sent as personal baggage through Overseas Couriers and was seized by Pakistani authorities. Sources said Canadian authorities eventually knew about the network when they checked the computer hardware of a Pakistani-Canadian, Momin Khawaja, containing the information about export of the training equipment, during a routine search. Sources said in Pakistan the importer was Junaid Baber, who had fled the US after 9/11. According to a preliminary report of the investigations jointly conducted by Canadian and British authorities and sent to Islamabad, Junaid Baber, Momin Khawaja and Haroon Rasheed Aswad, a suspect in London bomb blasts, had met in London some time in February 2004. The report said Junaid Baber stayed at the office of Al Mahajroon, the Islamist organisation recently outlawed in Britain, in Lahore for more than a month after arriving in Pakistan. Then he moved to an apartment at Abrar Centre on Wahdat Road in Muslim Town, Lahore. Junaid Baber stayed till December 2001 and then bought an apartment in Eden Heights on Jail Road. He also worked for the Pakistan Software Export Board from April 2002 to December 2002 and during this period he remained in touch with Momin Khawaja through the Internet using various Internet cafés, one of them the report identifies as Cyber Vision in Barkat Market. In early 2003, according to the report, Junaid Baber approached a local importer and exporter, Akram Khan, as a buyer of some old containers and also requested him to bring back some of his personal belongings from the US. The shipment (supposedly containing Junaid Baber’s belongings) in the shape of a briefcase was received through Overseas Couriers in June 2003 and was seized by Pakistani customs authorities on suspicion Source |
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| Insider 12/27/04: 'Bin Laden' Backs Al Zarqawi The Insider: Daily Investigative Report By THE ABCNEWS INVESTIGATIVE UNIT Dec. 27 2004 Al Qaeda Prisoner 'Helped Investigators Track Down Suspects' Al Qaeda's telecommunications engineer Mohammed Naeem Nur Khan, who was arrested this summer, provided information that helped intelligence services catch cells around the world, according to Sejeel Shahed aka Abu Ibrahim the former head of the fundamentalist group "Al Muhajerun" in Pakistan. In an interview with Asharq Al Awsat, Shahed, who was in prison with Nour Khan in Lahore, claims that the latter was the one who told them about the whereabouts of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. He says Nour Khan also led the British authorities to a cell in Britain, resulting in the arrest of 13 men in London, including Babar Ahmed, a relative of Nour Khan. He also told officials about another relative of his living in NY called Jenid Babar, 29, who was later arrested. Shahed says Nour Khan was the only prisoner who was allowed to have a laptop and he was often taken by Pakistani intelligence officials for interrogations. He claims they later found out that he was telling the officials about what's going on inside the prison. Shahed was released from prison and is now in London. He denies having any relations with al Qaeda. (Asharq Al Awsat) Source |
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| Al Qaeda Suspect Released in Pakistan: Lawyers 21/08/2007 ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan has quietly released an al Qaeda suspect said to have provided information that helped reveal plans for attacks on British and U.S. targets three years ago, lawyers for the suspect and the government said on Tuesday. Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan was arrested in July 2004, and was described by intelligence officials as an al Qaeda computer expert whose information led to the arrest of terrorism suspects in Britain and Pakistan. Deputy Attorney General Naheeda Mehboob Ilahi said Khan had been released, but said she had no further information. Khan's lawyer, Babar Awan also, said his client was back with the family in the city of Karachi. "I checked with the family and they said, 'yes'," Awan said. He said he did not know when Khan was released. Khan, who was in his mid 20s at the time of his arrest in the city of Lahore, was a computer expert suspected of acting as an al Qaeda e-mail postman, passing coded messages between members. Pakistan kept his arrest secret and an intelligence official said Khan had been cooperating with agents, continuing to pass and receive messages from his contacts after his arrest. But the sting operation had to be quickly wound up after Khan's name appeared in media reports weeks after his arrest. British police captured 12 al Qaeda suspects in London apparently on information gleaned from the computer wizard. A senior Pakistani government official had said at that time maps of London's Heathrow airport were found on Khan's computers, which also provided data that led to terror alerts in U.S. cities. Khan was never charged during his three years of detention, his lawyer said. The release comes as Pakistan is under mounting pressure from the United States to do more to tackle al Qaeda militants and their Taliban supporters in tribal lands along the Afghan border. Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the rugged region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Source |
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| http://www.mercurynews.com/natbreakingnews/ci_12890952?nclick_check=1 |
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| Feds: US man gave al-Qaida NYC subway information By TOM HAYS and DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writers Posted: 07/22/2009 10:20:06 AM PDT Updated: 07/22/2009 09:11:06 PM PDT NEW YORK—An American man charged with giving al-Qaida information on the New York transit system and attacking a U.S. military base in Afghanistan has been a secret witness in the fight against terror here and overseas, authorities revealed Wednesday. His revelations have given counterterrorism investigators a rare look at the day-to-day operations of al-Qaida—from meetings of top terror officials to training with explosives—in the lawless region bordering Pakistan, which the U.S. military has struggled to penetrate, people familiar with the case said. Court papers unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn identified the defendant as Bryant Neal Vinas, nicknamed "Ibrahim" or "Bashir al-Ameriki," who grew up on Long Island. His identity had been kept secret since his indictment late last year. Court papers show he pleaded guilty in January in a sealed courtroom in Brooklyn and remains in U.S. custody in New York. Federal prosecutors refused to discuss Vinas' background Wednesday, and no court appearances were scheduled. But a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case, said Vinas provided critical information that led to a security alert about the New York City subway system last year. Authorities issued an alert around Thanksgiving last year saying the FBI had received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system around the holidays. The origin of that report, the official said, was Vinas. The official described Vinas as a militant convert who was captured last year in Pakistan. Prosecutors charged Vinas in a rocket attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in September 2008. Court papers allege he also gave "expert advice and assistance ... on the New York transit system and Long Island Railroad." The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a statement Wednesday that there was never an imminent threat to the system. "As part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the MTA has been in constant communication with local and federal authorities as the investigation involving Bryant Neal Vinas developed," the statement said. People familiar with the case say Vinas told counterterrorism investigators that he met senior al-Qaida members while staying at a network of hideouts on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where he trained from about March 2008 to August 2008. Vinas named several of the terror group's officials and described their activities, including rocket and mortar strikes against U.S. forces in the area, said the people, who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose details of his statements. Vinas also revealed discussions among terrorists about potential civilian targets in Europe and described training in weapons and explosives, they said. Vinas received "military-style training" from al-Qaida, according to court papers. Also, a defense attorney in a terrorism case in Belgium said prosecutors there traveled to New York earlier this year to interview Vinas. The lawyer, Christophe Marchand, said Vinas had provided a statement against the French and Belgium defendants charged with going to Pakistan to volunteer to fight with al-Qaida. Marchand denied his client was a terrorist or knew Vinas. "He never talked about meeting an American—never," the lawyer said. Vinas' attorney, Len Kamdang, wouldn't comment, other than requesting "the public withhold judgment in this case until all of the facts become available." A woman who answered a family phone number found in public records said she was the Vinas' mother and had not seen her son since he moved out 10 years ago at age 18. "He's a stranger to me," she said before hanging up without giving her name. There was no answer at the door at a family address, a two-story home with a manicured lawn and landscaping on a cul-de-sac in Patchogue, about 55 miles east of Manhattan. Vinas' Peruvian-born father, Juan Vinas, told Newsday in a recent interview that federal agents had interviewed him. He said he didn't know where his son was. "The FBI asked me all kinds of questions about him, but they don't tell me nothing," he said. The president of the Islamic Association of Long Island, a mosque in nearby Selden, said he recalled a "very quiet, polite, smiley" young Hispanic man called Ibrahim, who was a frequent but unassuming presence at the mosque for about a year, starting roughly 2 1/2 years ago. He turned up four to five times a week for services but never participated in any social activities at the mosque, said president Nayyar Imam. He said Ibrahim apparently converted to Islam and changed his name before he began coming to the mosque. "He's the last person in the mosque you would think about" getting involved in terrorism, Imam said. In sealing the courtroom for the January guilty plea, a judge said that a public plea could harm a confidential investigation involving national security. The Vinas case is a rare instance of an American al-Qaida recruit cooperating with Western authorities. In 2004, Mohammed Junaid Babar, of Queens, admitted that he had traveled to the province of Waziristan to supply cash and military equipment to the terror network. Babar, who hasn't been sentenced, became a witness against three British Muslims eventually cleared of charges they scouted out potential targets on behalf of suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters on London's transit system in 2005. ——— Barrett reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press writers Adam Goldman, Frank Eltman, Jennifer Peltz and AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report. |
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| Around March I left this flat to go to Junaid Babar’s house in Lahore. I stayed here for a few weeks. I was introduced to Sujeels Madrassa which was being built. I stayed here from around March to June 2003. I first met Junaid in Crawley mosque in December 2002. I was staying in the mosque for a 10 day period and Junaid only stayed for one day. I knew he was going back to Pakistan because he told me that he was married and his pregnant wife was waiting for him. When I was in Pakistan I bumped into Junaid again and he offered to let me stay with him as long as I paid his rent for him. He seemed very money orientated. He took my passport. He wanted to sell it and split the money. I did not like this. I did not get on very well with him. He had a depraved character. He would often get angry about being reminded to pray. Then from June 2003 to December 2003 I was living in a village called Gurkoi in the district Dir Malakant Province in the North West Frontier Province. |
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| A few months after September 11, he was introduced to Waheed Mahmood as a contact who could get fighters into Afghanistan. In 2002, Babar travelled to Britain to raise money for jihad in Afghanistan and met some of the fertiliser bomb plotters, including Omar Khyam and Anthony Garcia. Describing the meeting with Khyam, at a mosque in Crawley, West Sussex, he said: "He had a long beard. He was wearing a black robe. We just exchanged greetings." |
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| Mr Mahmood had acted as a "contact" for men coming to Pakistan who were looking to receive training to fight in Afghanistan, Babar alleged. Babar told the court that Mr Mahmood had used various aliases including Jabed, Jab and Ismael. Babar said he first became aware of him in late 2001, because his flatmate in Pakistan - a man named Asim - had identified him as his "contact". Asked what he meant by contact, Babar said: "If you wanted to go somewhere or wanted something, to go to Afghanistan or to receive some sort of training, you needed to contact someone who will lead you to your goal." Asim had come to Pakistan from east London, but he also had "strong ties" with the "Crawley group", Babar told the court. Asim had wanted to go to Afghanistan for jihad, it was alleged. He and Babar had lived together in a flat in Lahore and were joined by others from the "east London group" of which Asim was part. |
