Did Abu Hamza inspire Boston bombers?
THE Boston bombers’ murderous attack on the US city’s marathon may have been inspired by the rantings of extremist preacher Abu Hamza. US intelligence officials suspect Hamza’s widely publicised extradition from Britain to the US last year could have fuelled Tamerlan and Dzhkhor Tsarnaev’s warped jihad campaign.
Last night a senior US intelligence source said: “The most high-profile cleric who has come to the US was Hamza.
“He
made a lot of headlines and this is something they would not have
missed. These types of people always have someone to inspire them and
Hamza fits the bill.
“He may be in prison but if
you listen to the internet chatter there are still a lot of people
talking about Abu Hamza. He is considered very highly.
“These
two got a lot of inspiration from the internet and from reading
material on those who preach hate. We are looking at all paths.”
Hamza, who is being held in a high security jail in New York, had no contact with the brothers.
However, videos
of Hamza are readily available on the internet. Those containing his
more radical sermons calling for a jihad against the west are
distributed among a select group by file sharing.
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