A Republican doing his own personal Jihadiwatch on me calls his blog The Ox rant so I thought I'd better have a look. I've been metasearching Abu Hamza quite frequently over the last few weeks to see if any newspapers were trying to connect him to current events but I missed the article he quotes.
LONDON, July 20 - The police investigating the terrorist bombings here have begun a worldwide hunt for a former aide to one of Britain's most militant Islamic clerics who they believe may have played a key role in the July 7 attacks, according to British, European and American intelligence and law enforcement officials.
The man, identified as Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, originally from Dewsbury in north-central England, was a senior aide to Abu Hamza al-Masri, the blind, one-armed militant cleric who preached at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London until his arrest in April 2004.
this from yesterdays guardian
Security officials in Pakistan were yesterday questioning a British man arrested on suspicion of playing a key role in the 7/7 bombings in which 56 people died.
Haroon Rashid Aswat was carrying a belt packed with explosives, a British passport and a substantial amount of cash when he was seized, according to intelligence sources in the country.
His name is understood to have been passed to Pakistan's security agency, Inter Services Intelligence, by British authorities after it emerged after an examination of the mobile phones used by the four bombers.
UPDATE:
Aswat, 31, is of Indian origin and may not be in Pakistan, according to two intelligence officials in Islamabad and one in the eastern city of Lahore, all speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media and because of the sensitivity of the inquiry.
Two British newspapers - The Times and The Guardian - reported Aswat had been arrested. The New York Times, citing unidentified intelligence and law enforcement officials, reported police have begun a worldwide hunt for Aswat.
"We have no information about Haroon Rashid Aswat. He has not been arrested in Pakistan,'' Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.
The Oregonian:
Three men were in the car he had pulled over that early December morning six years ago. They wore fatigues and trench coats. The driver explained that his passengers didn't speak English. They said they were visiting relatives in tiny Bly.
Smith jotted down their names and wrote out a special report. Eventually, Smith's report found its way to the FBI.
One of the men thought to be in that car was Haroon Rashid Aswat -- now considered by international investigators as a suspect in the July 7 London train bombings. The attacks killed 56 people and injured more than 700.
Aswat and the other men were in Bly to scout a location for a terrorist training camp, according to a law enforcement source and court documents.
4 comments:
See??? this is exactly what I was talking about in my comment below! They might think of you as knowing too much...!!
Oh geeze.
I've spoken to the chief of Police in Finsbury park a number of times. The Police have never spoken to me either unofficially or officialy about the guys actions.
I dont recognise any of the pictures from Finsbury park. I watched Abu Hamza say that the British people should never be a target over and over again so unless his "followers" weren't listening...
I have no idea what Harron Rashid Aswat looks like or if he passed by the mosque. Almost everything I know is on this blog, the things I am keeping back are not terrorist related.
I don't know what is going on but am wondering:
What if your and my government have vilified the wrong Muslims over the last few years?
What if they were desperate to get some action in "The war on Terror" and they put so much pressure on Mr Ujama to plea bargain just because Hamza fitted the bill?
What if the ones who stood in the street declaring that they weren't a threat to British society every week actually weren't?
They were not a sleeper cell, they protested openly and prayed in the street every week.
Now we are in a situation where they actually look moderate would anyone take them seriously?
Are they the ones with the right interpretation of Islam after all, even if I don't like some of it?
has this constant vilification actually played into the hands of those who want to bomb?
I know things seem more exagerated from over there. I have never felt unsafe, or met many Muslims who "hate me" as a kaffir.
They feel sorry for me that I haven't seen the light.
I am more worried about hearing that one of the guys might be conveniently chased down a street and shot in the head by Police.
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