Kamel Bourgass, who is expected to spend at least 30 years in prison for the ricin conspiracy and the murder of Detective Constable Stephen Oake, was part of a worldwide cell headed by the notorious Abu Doha.
Bourgass was just one of the fanatics recruited, inspired and guided by Doha, 39, who is also known as Dr Haider, the Doctor, Rachid, Amar Makhlulif and Didier Ajuelos.
Others included Ahmed Ressam, jailed in the United States over a planned millennium bomb attack on Los Angeles airport, and Nizar Trabelsi, in prison in Belgium for plotting to blow up a Nato airbase.
It was highly classified documents related to Ressam and his plot that Sandy Berger admitted to stealing and destroying.
The Times goes on and gives us this little nugget.
But the thwarting of the ricin plot was a major success and since then the bulk of terror threats in Britain have come from different cells, often of Asian or domestic origin.
And then there is this:
With his camp established, Doha stationed himself in North London amid the growing Algerian population fleeing the bitter conflict in their homeland. The Finsbury Park mosque was a focal point for the community.
Interesting how often the Finsbury Mosque figures in terrorists attacks around the world. It's also interesting to note that many Mosques in many countries have been associated with terrorism but, strangely in Britain, only one Mosque has that association. Or does it? Germany just raided 31 mosques and arrested 7 terrorists. You'll never see that in Britain as the government adopts Islamic law in an attempt to appease Muslims and garner their support for next months elections. Is it possible, that while in Mosques all around the world, money is raised to fund terrorism, terrorists hatch their plots and hate is preached against the west, only one Mosque in Britain is involved in such activities? I doubt it. And the Times article seems to bear that out.
“He had a wide range of extremist Islamic contacts inside and outside the United Kingdom, including links to individuals involved in terrorist operations,” he said. “He was involved in a number of extremist agendas.
“By being in the United Kingdom, he had brought cohesion to Algerian extremists based here and he had strengthened the existing links with individuals associated with the terrorist training facilities in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.”
I heard an interview on the radio yesterday with convicted Muslim terrorist Kamel Bourgass lawyer in which he downplayed the al Qaeda threat. A caller phoned in to say he believed al Qaeda as a body did not exist and all this talk of terror was dreamed up by Bush and Blair to get re-elected. The Times article shows how vast the conspiracy was and Britian's central role in it.
Ressam had been refused refugee status in Montreal and was the subject of an immigration arrest warrant. Facing a 130-year jail term in the US he agreed to co-operate with the FBI and provided invaluable intelligence.
In December 2000 German police raided a flat in Frankfurt and found bomb-making equipment. Four men were arrested. They also discovered a recent video of the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, with a commentary describing the crowds as “enemies of God”.
The German authorities had acted after a tip-off from British Intelligence which had intercepted a phone call between one of the men and Doha. [Doha was living in the UK]
Four men, three of whom had lived in Britain, were jailed by a German court for the plot in March 2003.
Doha himself was arrested at Heathrow airport in February 2001 attempting to board a flight to Saudi Arabia with a false passport. A search of his London home recovered false passports and diagrams for bombs similar to those found in Ressam’s possession.
There are others.
In July 2001 Djamel Beghal, who had lived in Leicester, was arrested in Dubai and allegedly admitted a plot to attack the US Embassy in Paris. He is in prison in France.
The Times explains why some, like the caller who claimed al Qaeda did not exist, think the government fabricated al Qaeda's existence.
Such is the nature of the al-Qaeda phenomenon — with its activists trained to be freelance, self-sufficient operators — that his network continued without him. Rabah Kadre, known as Toufiq, took command.
Britain tried to crack down but the liberals cried foul.
In December 2001 emergency powers were introduced to detain foreign terror suspects without trial.
Many of those rounded up were associates of Doha. They are now free under the terms of terrorist control orders. Almost a year later the network suffered another blow when its new head, Kadre, was arrested in London. Police believe that he had come to activate the ricin plot. Two months later the poisons conspiracy was smashed and Bourgass was arrested.
There is no doubt other plots are being hatched and the terrorist only have to be right once while the police have to be right 100% of the time. The Scotsman reports on the scope of the problem.
Lord Stevens, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, recently warned that up to 200 graduates of al-Qaeda’s Afghan camps might still be in the country, and a police source admitted: "It’s a large network, and I think it would be foolhardy to say we have damaged it beyond repair."
But it is not just terrorists coming from abroad that are causing concern. Security services say the next wave will come in the form of young, home-grown radicals who feel alienated by the country in which they are living - and there are a number of trials of UK citizens pending.
Meanwhile Britain adopts Islamic law, the Mosques are no go areas and the plotting continues. With the UK elections less than three weeks away, I picked Friday, the 29th of April as a likely date for a terrorist attack. I hope I'm wrong.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment