5 charged on terror

[umm hussain]

LONDON (Reuters) - Five men are due to appear in court on Friday charged under anti-terrorism laws after a series of police raids in the central English city of Birmingham last week, British police said.

Detectives arrested nine men on January 31 in what a defense source said was an investigation into a suspected plot to kidnap and possibly kill a British Muslim soldier.

Three men have been released, while another man is still being held for questioning.

"Five men from Birmingham have been charged overnight with offences under the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006," police said in a joint statement with the Crown Prosecution Service. No immediate details of the charges were available.

Police said they would hold a joint news conference with the prosecution service at 0900 GMT to give details of the charges against the men, aged 29, 30, 31, 36 and 43. The names and nationalities of the men have not been released.

Birmingham is Britain's second largest city and one of its most ethnically diverse, with a large Muslim population.

Britain has been on its second highest alert level since four British Muslims killed 52 people on London's transport system in July 2005 in Western Europe's first Islamist suicide bombings.

In London, police said a Muslim man was due to appear in court on Friday charged with encouraging terrorism.

Abu Izzadeen, 31, from east London, shot to prominence last year when he was seen by millions on television heckling British Home Secretary (interior minister) John Reid at a public meeting.

He was arrested on Thursday by officers from the Counter Terrorism Command.
Source
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070209/ts_nm/britain_kidnap_dc

[umm hussain]

Five get life over UK bomb plot

PROFILES OF THE GUILTY
The five men convicted
Omar Khyam, 25
Jawad Akbar, 23
Salahuddin Amin, 32
Waheed Mahmood, 35
Anthony Garcia, 24
Full special report
Five men have been jailed for life for a UK bomb plot linked to al-Qaeda that could have killed hundreds of people.

Jurors in the year-long Old Bailey trial heard of plans to target a shopping centre, nightclub and the gas network with a giant fertiliser bomb.

The judge, Sir Michael Astill, said the men, all British citizens, had "betrayed their country".

It has also been revealed some of the plotters met two of the 7 July London suicide bombers.

Mohammad Sidique Khan was spotted on four occasions in 2004 with at least one of the fertiliser bomb conspirators. At one point MI5 officers followed Khan back to his home in Leeds but no further action was taken.

In the wake of the convictions both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have both called for an independent inquiry into the 7 July link.


IN HIS OWN WORDS
I was requested by Omar Khyam that they wanted to get trained and come back to the UK and do like, you know
Plotter Salahuddin Amin telling police about explosives training
Amin speaks of plot

Send us your comments

The call for an inquiry was echoed by Graham Foulkes, whose son David died in the 7 July attacks. He said an inquiry was needed so "lessons could be learned".

Later, in the House of Commons, the Home Secretary, John Reid, ruled out an inquiry, saying it would divert the efforts of those in the security services who were so busy countering the terrorist threat.

But he said a committee of MPs would analyse the lessons learned from the fertiliser bomb plot trial.

The new director general of MI5, Jonathan Evans, issued a statement in which he denied being "complacent" and added: "The attack on 7 July in London was a terrible event. The sense of disappointment, felt across the service, at not being able to prevent the attack (despite our efforts to prevent all such atrocities) will always be with us."

He added: "The Security Service will never have the capacity to investigate everyone who appears on the periphery of every operation."


This was not a group of youthful idealists. They were trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists who were obviously planning to carry out an attack against the British public
Peter Clarke
The indictment in full
The link to 7 July

Britain's top anti-terrorist policeman, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, said: "This was not a group of youthful idealists. They were trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists who were obviously planning to carry out an attack against the British public."

Police smashed the plot in 2004 after MI5 had watched an Islamist extremist network with links across the world.

The link with 7 July was deliberately kept from the Old Bailey jury for fear of prejudicing their deliberations on the fertiliser bomb plot.

Al-Qaeda link

The fertiliser bomb plot investigation linked back to senior al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan and Afghanistan, including one who was detained by US forces in Iraq at the weekend.

Omar Khyam, 25, from Crawley, West Sussex, was found guilty of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January 2003 and 31 March 2004.

Anthony Garcia and Omar Khyam
Garcia and Khyam pose for the camera while in Pakistan

Also convicted were Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 23, also of Crawley; Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire; Anthony Garcia, 24, of Barkingside, east London.

The judge told them: "You have betrayed this country that has given you every opportunity."

He also warned them: "All of you may never be released. It's not a foregone conclusion."

Two other men, Nabeel Hussain and Shujah Mahmood, were found not guilty.

In one of the largest terrorism trials ever brought before the British courts, the Old Bailey heard the plotters had come together over a number of years.


TARGETS DISCUSSED
Bluewater shopping centre
Utilities network
Ministry of Sound nightclub
Parliament
Football stadium

The men had started out sympathetic to Muslim causes around the world - but the key plotters decided that violence was the answer as they came together for secret military training camps in Pakistan.

Back in Britain, they discussed various schemes, including targeting the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent on a busy Saturday or the Ministry of Sound nightclub in central London.

They also talked of attacking the gas or electricity network and Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament.

Tip-off

The group had bought 600kg of ammonium nitrate from an agricultural merchants and kept it at a storage unit in Hanwell, west London.

This fertiliser was to be the key component in the massive bomb - similar to those used in other terrorism attacks around the world.

Nabeel Hussain with his barrister Michael Mansfield QC
A smiling Nabeel Hussain, who was cleared at the Old Bailey

But unbeknown to the men, some of them were already on MI5's radar while, at the same time, staff at the storage unit tipped off police.

They replaced the ammonium nitrate with a harmless substance and kept the group under surveillance before swooping in a series of raids.

Key witness

The Old Bailey heard the defendants had at least two fellow conspirators.


TRIAL FACTS
3,644 witness statements taken
105 prosecution witnesses
Trial lasted for 13 months
Jury was out for record 27 days

One of them, an American called Mohammed Junaid Babar, admitted his role in the plot after being arrested by the FBI and became a vital prosecution witness.

The other was Mohammed Momin Khawaja, awaiting trial in Canada.

The jury deliberated for 27 days, a record in British criminal history.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said the deal allowing Babar to testify was unprecedented in British courts.

Outside court a solicitor read out a statement on behalf of Nabeel Hussain. He said: " I have always maintained my innocence of the allegations against me. I have never been an extremist or believed in extremism... I am so glad this ordeal is over."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6195914.stm

[ditta]

Asalamu Alykum,

Did anyone see Panorama on BBC 1, was very good and it didnt seem biased. I dont really know what else to say, considering committing suicide is not allowed, i guess they go what they deserved. Apart from Salahuddin Amin, the sister said that he just followed what the pakistani authorities said to him.

Allah (S.W.T) knows best

Alhamdulilah

Wasalam

[Innvertigo]

i'm confused. are you in favor or against these charges? Or is it more of a FYI?

[junaid hasan]

i'm confused. are you in favor or against these charges? Or is it more of a FYI?


i always feel funny when brother innvertigo ask us are we in favor of any topics or against of any topics.

[ditta]

Asalamu Alykum,

Well to be more clear, i am in favour of the charges and sort of a FYI as well. Its wrong what they did, dead wrong, just puts a bad image on muslims, personally. It seems like Bakri brainwashed them. Although i wont be suprised someone says i have been brainwashed by the BBC. Also the way to help would be to try and help the people in need, if there is anyway to get to them. There is many muslim brothers and sisters around the world in need. Killing wont solve a thing. Two wrongs dont make a right.

Wasalam

[Innvertigo]

i always feel funny when brother innvertigo ask us are we in favor of any topics or against of any topics.

Why would you feel funny? I like to know where people stand. I'm not a huge fan of fence-sitters.

[junaid hasan]

Why would you feel funny? I like to know where people stand. I'm not a huge fan of fence-sitters.

brother its will be better for you to learn where the quran stands not the muslims.

because there are a lot of opinions which people have now a days.

so you are where to learn about islam so do it.

because we muslims are also now a days far away from quran.

may be its will put you in mistakes about quran.

[Innvertigo]

brother its will be better for you to learn where the quran stands not the muslims.

because there are a lot of opinions which people have now a days.

so you are where to learn about islam so do it.

because we muslims are also now a days far away from quran.

may be its will put you in mistakes about quran.

I know where the quran sits. The quran is innocent and doesn't advocate bombing, however some on this site seem pretty gray in quite a black and white discussion.

Opinions are our right as people, that's what I love about this and many other countries throught the world.

so you are where to learn about islam so do it.
eh? I don't get it.

I have no mistakes about the quran, my problem tends to be with some people that don't practice what they preach. we call that hypocisy.

[dawood_smriti]

Asalaamalykum,
I do agree with ditta
Allah did tell us to do Jihad(struggle)that can also mean fighting for our rights in some situations, But i dont really think tht Allah wants us to do wht todays so called Mujahideen are doing(like suicide attacks)killing those people who are innocents..I dont say tht everyone is same but many of them are misguided..

The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) has given clear instructions about the behaviour of the Muslim army. He observed:

"Set out for Jihad in the name of Allah and for the sake of Allah. Do not lay hands on the old verging on death, on women, children and babies. Do not steal anything from the booty and collect together all that falls to your lot in the battlefield and do good, for Allah loves the virtuous and the pious."

No offence

wasalaam

[al-fajr]

The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) has given clear instructions about the behaviour of the Muslim army. He observed:

"Set out for Jihad in the name of Allah and for the sake of Allah. Do not lay hands on the old verging on death, on women, children and babes. Do not steal anything from the booty and collect together all that falls to your lot in the battlefield and do good, for Allah loves the virtuous and the pious."[/COLOR]

No offence

why do u think a hadith would cause any offence? it doesnt.

[dawood_smriti]

Asalaamalykum Isra,

I didnt want any bro to be offended, as there are many of us who support this kind of millitancy...

Wasalaam.