SUPERGRASS

...An al Qaeda supergrass is to give evidence against hate preacher Abu Hamza and show he was a 'terrorist with a global reach'. British-born Saajid Muhammad Badat will be the star witness when Hamza goes on trial in New York later this year, according to court papers. Badat, who was jailed for plotting to blow up a U.S. passenger jet with shoe bomber Richard Reid and later released for agreeing to become the first terrorist supergrass, has agreed to give evidence via a video link

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THE LETTER B AND THE NUMBER 11

...Terror  suspect Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, known more broadly as Abu Hamza, moved to preclude US prosecutors from referencing Osama Bin Laden or the September 11th terrorist attacks during the course of his upcoming federal trial in New York...

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AND A BIT MORE HAMZA

...According to the indictment, Abu Hamza conspired with others in December 1998 to take a group of Western tourists hostage in Yemen. The indictment explains: “On or about December 28, 1998, the hostage-takers stormed a caravan of sport utility vehicles carrying sixteen Western tourists and took the tourists hostage by use of force.” The Yemeni military then attempted to rescue the hostages, at which point the “hostage takers used the hostages as human shields and attempted to fight off the Yemeni military,” according to the indictment. Four hostages were killed and several wounded in the ensuing combat. The indictment goes on to allege that Hamza conspired with others and provided material support for a “violent jihad training camp” in Oregon. These efforts included, among other things, the stockpiling of weapons and ammunition within the US. The indictment goes on to allege that Abu Hamza’s two co-defendants Oussama Abdullah Kassir and Haroom Rashid Aswat travelled to Bly, Oregon – telling individuals there that “they had been sent there by [Abu Hamza] to train people for jihad and to assess the suitability of the Bly, Oregon property for a Jihad training camp. [Kassir and Aswat] also both told individuals at the property that they supported Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and had received their own jihad training in Afghanistan.” The indictment further alleges in part that Abu Hamza provided and concealed material support and resources to terrorists facilitating violent jihad in Afghanistan, and that Abu Hamza conspired to supply goods and services to the Taliban in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)...

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MORE ATILLA

Atilla talking on Salafimedia about his court case. This is the first time I have seen Atilla preach since Finsbury park. Is this "hate speech"? Tell me. This is media they are controlling themselves through Salafi Media.

ATILLA IS A FUNDAMENTALIST

ATILLA MESSAGE TO OBAMA

'


.. Happy New year one and all. I had no idea Atilla was speaking again, I saw him for the first time since he has been out a coupla weeks back. I went round Hajj's place and we played dominoes.
 ..

ATILLA VIDEO COMING

ROCK ON TOMMY

I thought I would come out of blog retirement to encourage Tommy. I don't know why I like extremists, they are just fascinating. I think its because I used to be a bit of a christian extremist growing up. Knocking on peoples doors telling them about Jesus was scary but there is something about moving with conviction which I have missed, so when I see it in others, especially when it is a controversial direction in the face of the norms of the mainstream alseep culture it interests me.

I never had a look at the EDL, my attempts to engage with the United British Alliance who came down to protest Hamza years before the EDL existed are here. My film with the National front in Bermondsey is here.

 I have always been interested in Tommy because of the way he comes across. I fucking hate all these middle class journos who twist what he says much more than I could ever hate Tommy. Now they are asking if he has changed his racist ways when it was they who continually reported him as racist which he continually denied.  It still goes on with Paxman saying "If the EDL aren't a racist organisation what are they?" They think they are being clever, it just looks pathetic and at worst a fucking denigration of free speech.

Its pretty much the same as how they refused to broadcast Abu Hamza's continual exhortations against terrorism in the UK. I don't see why intelligent journalists do this. Its like reducing real life to their own soap opera. I think if someone is expousing extreme views it is crucial in a world of free speech to report exactly what those fucking views are. Its actually not difficult either. What gives these egomaniac journos the fucking nerve to add their own layer of grease?

Anyway,  I have always disagreed with Tommy about the nature of the threat this country faces but I think Tommy is as genuine now as he has always been. I don't know. Its just little things like when he asked Jon Snow if he was happy he had left the EDL. Also I know personally from the four or five times I have been in solitary doing Vipassna, its just really good for you. 

It is just stupid to expect Tommy to have completely changed his views. He is on a learning curve and having not grown up in a working class community I have no right to comment on where that learning curve might take him but Quilliam seem like a safe set of hands to accompany him in this case.  

He has been able to articulate a lot of white working class resentment which middle class politicians and journos of all persuasions ignore. It exists whether we like it or not, I always thought that the fact these types had moved on from basic racism to "against Islamic  extremism" was a good thing. I wonder now if the people he can relate to have some faith in him he can be of use talking to them where others cant. Whether we might go on some sort of journey together through this doco. I hope so, it is what the very best TV docos are all about.

When I heard the way he spoke about what Quilliam were doing, he sounded genuine and also made me think yeah, hang on- what are they doing? I look forward to the coming doco. Yeah all the Fundamentalist Muslims I filmed laugh at Quilliam. I don't doubt that dislike of them is one of the only things which unites the Islamic community. I have no idea but I think Majid reaching out to Tommy is the best thing he has done and it touched me to hear how he described how it happened, relating to his own experiences with Amnesty international going out on a limb for him while he was in a much nastier jail that Tommy has been in. 

Yeah people can jaw about how he is being "careerist" and that the EDL were a lost cause anyway blah blah blah.  I have seen how peoples egos get over inflated by publicity, it happened to Atilla. It even happened to me when we became news for a short while when squatting, but I don't think it necessarily follows that people who become spokespersons for extreme views are capable of such cynical manouverings a lot of people are accusing Tommy of. Anyway, all the best Tommy. 

from David.

Tommy and Maajid debating around the Breivik incident 
BBC piece
Tommy on Newsnight
South London Anti fascists say bollocks
as does someone in the Guardian
Mehdi Hasan in the Spectator
and someone on Liberal Conspiracy
Liberty GB say 
"people must face the possibility that some Muslims are sincere in their moderation. If they don't, then they may well come across as bigots"
Do you take Tommy Seriously? The most interesting hour of radio I have heard in a long while on  Three Counties Radio

 Tommys old Tw@
 Tommys "new era" tw@
Maajid Nawaz's Tw@ 
 sorry for the tw@ joke I just can't get the hang of twitter but looking at both these twitter feeds it is easy to see the important work both these guys are already involved with. 

ALI BEHESHTI

Very interesting news on the BBC about our old friend Ali Beheshti's turn around. As I have said before he was always one of the friendliest people outside Finsbury park and I was surprised when he was arrested for fire bombing.

I filmed him playing with fire outside the US embassy, he is the guy holding the burning picture of George Bush

THE ANSWER IS -FUCK KNOWS

The Express are trying to link the Boston bombing with Hamza

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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NO ASWAT

European judges have blocked the extradition of terror suspect Haroon Aswat, ruling that sending him to the US would breach his human rights. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that Broadmoor patient Aswat's probable incarceration in a high security prison could "exacerbate his condition of paranoid schizophrenia".
The terror suspect and suspected ally of Abu Hamza is wanted by US prosecutors for allegedly plotting with Hamza to set up a terror training camp in Bly, Oregon.

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Abu Hamza's US trial to start next year

THE terror trial of radical British preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri will start on March 31 next year, the US judge presiding over his case since he was extradited last year says.
Judge Katherine Forrest had initially scheduled the trial for mid-2013, but said the long delay appeared necessary because of the vast amount of discovery material lawyers have to pour over, including many of the sermons Abu Hamza made at mosques in Britain.

and here is an interesting article about the judge, Katherine Forrest

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MESSAGE TO YOU

via Mr Hamza's wife. This wasn't directly to me but I am assuming it is genuine

An Update on my husband Sheikh Abu Hamza 6/01/13
Since my husband sheikh Abu Hamza was extradited from the UK to America on the 5th of October 2012. Since then, my husband has not been allowed to see anyone face to face not even his solicitors.
The times the American government allowed my husband to see his solicitors on a number of occasion. Even then, the visit has been behind a glass window. Not only that, the glass window had a curtain over the glass to prevent my husband from looking at his solicitors face to face...
All this time, he has remained in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in a small room with no window and no sunlight. For one hour, he is allowed to stretch his leg just next to his sell where there is not even enough room to even do that.
It has been three months now since he’s extradition but, he was only allowed to call me once. On a contrary, alhmdulillah I have revived few letters from him. Me and my family also write to him on a regular bases.
Since he’s been there, his hair has not being combed due to a comb not being available for him. He doesn’t even know the direction of the kibla so he prays to a direction by guessing where the kibla is.
The American government knows my husband is disabled!. But when the guards bring food for him, they bring food which is wrapped with plastic. When my husband tries to open it with his teeth, half of the food is spilled all over the floor. Walahi this is an oppression being done to my husband knowing full well that he has no hand. This people who have detained my husband unlawfully do nothing but aggravate the situation and make things difficult for him intentionally. They have stripped his dignity and violated his honour. His faith and religious practices attacked, but Alhmduliullah, Allah is the watcher and the ultimate protector of those who are week and Allah (SWT) does not let the deeds of anyone to be lost. Allah will hold EVERYONE (ALL human beings, without an exception) accountable for their actions on the day of judgement where there is no doubt!
Despite all these, Alhamdulillah my husband sheikh Abu Hamza is happy and is in a good spirit. He knows that this is the path he has chosen and his words are always, “Allah is with me, Allah is with me”
He has said to let all the brothers and sisters who has written letters to him know that, they are always in his special du'aas. He is happy to know that the umma has not forsaken him. He said not to worry, in sha Allah.
It would be nice for the brothers and sisters to write letters to him as much as you can so that he knows his brothers and sisters have not forgotten about him and that he knows he is always in your du'aas.
I can’t stress enough the importance of everyone making du’aa for him, as this is the most powerful weapon we have. He needs our support right now and has a right to our support. So please brothers and sisters, make du’aa and remember the only crime he committed is that he says he believes in Allah. The prison is not the place for him. His place is with His family, especially his children.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
“One who helps a fellow Muslim in removing his (or her) difficulty in this world, Allah will remove the former’s distress on the Day of Judgement. He who helps to remove the hardship of another, will have his difficulties removed by Allah in this world and the hereafter. One who covers the shortcomings of another Muslim will have his faults covered up in this world and the next by Allah. Allah continues to help a servant, so long as he goes on helping his own brother (or sister). Muslim
We will all be called to account and asked what we did for our brothers and sisters that are suffering around us, the least we can do is make du’aa for them.
Barakallahufikum for all those brothers and sisters who have supported my husband for all these years. Your help, love and concern for him has not gone unnoticed. Your reward is with Allah (SWT). I ask Allah, the almighty to give you, the good of this world and the good of the hereafter.. Ameen
Umm Hamza

..

STRONG STUFF

From the Daily Star-

A FORMER MI5 agent who spied on hate preacher Abu Qatada has vowed to bring him to justice at any cost.

Reda Hassaine, 50, tracked Qatada for the security ­services in the 1990s and also helped them snare Abu ­Hamza.

But he claims he was ditched by spooks after his cover was blown when he was beaten up by the extremist’s henchmen in 1999.

The French-Algerian spy last night lifted the lid on his ­mission to “finish” Qatada, 52, which will see him ­publish a dossier of evidence against the extremist in a tell-all book.

Qatada was freed last month after spending six years in custody for being a danger to the public.

He won a long- running battle against deportation to his homeland of Jordan and is now living with his wife and children in West London.

The cleric had been convicted in his absence in Jordan of terrorist offences in 1999.

Mr Hassaine told us: “It is between Reda Hassaine and Abu Qatada.

“This guy has to pay and, thank God, I helped get Abu Hamza sent to jail, probably for the rest of his life.

“But Abu Qatada, he is still here on the streets. The final battle is now the book.

“The British Government will be obliged to start a public ­inquiry regarding all the lost years for my colleagues and ­myself.” He added: “The book will be ­published first in America in ­August around the time of Abu Hamza’s trial.

“Abu Hamza, for me, is finished. But for Abu Qatada it is a ­different story.

“If he was sent (to Jordan) two weeks ago, it would have been finished.

“But this decision keeps me and many other people ­angry about it and ­trying to find what we can do to sort out this big problem of Abu Qatada staying in the UK.

“In other countries it would be a political decision but not in the UK. The Queen wants him to be deported, the Government wants him to be ­deported.”

Mr Hassaine also claimed there had been contact between the Government and ­active ­terrorists.

He called on ministers to come clean over the so-called “covenant of security” – a deal allegedly forged between security services and Islamic extremists in the 1990s in return for Britain being struck off a list of potential ­terror targets...

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DEPORT ONE GET ONE FREE

Abu Qatada is to be freed after winning his latest appeal against extradition, in a major blow to Home Secretary Theresa May. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) decided the radical cleric would not get a fair trial in Jordan because evidence obtained via torture could be used against him. This is despite the Home Secretary securing assurances from the country that this would not happen. Qatada will be released on bail after Home Office lawyers failed to persuade Siac judges he should remain behind bars. They insisted that the Palestinian-born Jordanian cleric, real name Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, poses "an enormous risk to national security". But Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Qatada, declared: "Enough is enough. It has gone on for many years now. There is no prospect of deportation taking place within a reasonable time, in fact there is no prospect at present of deportation at all."

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ITS NOT EASY

Being the son of a famous father obviously-


The son of Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been jailed for 11 years over an armed raid on a Norfolk jewellers. Imran Mostafa, 20, from Slough, was convicted with three London men at Norwich Crown Court in September... ...The court was told Mostafa had been sucked into offending because he had been isolated from mainstream society as parents warned their children to stay away from him. His barrister Roderick Price said: "In his early childhood he had a very good relationship with his father who, at that time, was not in prison. "But attempts to socialise outside his home often failed because of who his father was. Friendships proved difficult because children would be told by their parents not to play with him."...

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BARGAIN IDEA

...His lawyer, Jeremy Schneider, yesterday said there is now a possibility of a 'plea bargain', although Hamza currently denies all charges.
He told The Sun: 'If they offer something agreeable to the defendant and myself, we would accept it.'..

...

KIDNAPPED IN YEMEN

Just finished it, I thought it was going to be good. It was excellent. This obviously contains spoliers, so if you are reading for fun, just buy the book. it is really worth it.

"Corporate American" with a taste for travel off the beaten track gets kidnapped, doesn't take it lying down and in the cross fire of being held as a human shield for not a short time either, she finds a rugged cool headed survivalist in herself and lives to tell the tale. Not only lives, but reappraises her life and follows the story of her kidnap wherever it may lead.

Obviously I was reading it, and if I was a journalist would have read it ages ago for the cross over with this blog. Her meeting with Hamza in Finsbury park is very interesting, she obviously arrived before they closed down the mosque, just before my interest in this story began. I will be very interested to hear her testimony in a New York court, as I will be to hear how much invovlement Hamza had over satellite phone in her kidnap.

The really interesting stuff for me was her encounter with Shahid Butt, and Hamza's sons Mustafa  and Mohssain Ghalian. It seems like she spent about the same amount of time as I did with them but in very different circumstances, as she spoke to them in a Yemeni jail. She seems in no doubt that they were on a mission to bomb British interests in Yemen, although she says that Hamza told her that he didn't know his sons had gone and told her he was angry with them.

She definitely saw a different Shahid Butt than I did, not surprisingly I suppose, but she reads a lot more into Mohssin's reticence than I did. I thought he was just a bit shy and didn't even realise he was part of the group I was being introduced to. I couldn't make any comment about either of them really, or about the merits of British relationships with Yemen whether they are a good thing, a bad thing or if Muslims should be doing something about it. I would imagine if you believed they were a bad thing and you believed in your religion as a Muslim it would feel like it was incumbent about you to do something about it, and according to the CIA training manuals the Encyclopedia of Afghan Jihad is based on, bombing strategic buildings and boats would do the trick, and if you were caught in the process your mates would probably kidnap some Westerners. I know Hamza has preached from the Koran about such things.

Mary Quinn is a great writer about this stuff. I sort of wish she would become a War on Terr-r journalist as she is way better than most of them. She says what she thinks about things no problem but she also tries to understand situations from all perspectives which is the best part of reading her story.


Mary Quin: Woman set to testify against 'terror' preacher Abu Hamza ..

MUSTAFA IN THE USA

Very interesting change of emphasis as Mr H comes to trial in the US

AN Egyptian-born preacher charged in multiple terror plots will be outfitted next week with new prosthetic arms to replace the hooks he used before, his lawyer says.

Mustafa Kamel Mustafa needs all the help he can get while at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan awaiting trial, attorney Jeremy Schneider said after a hearing...

...He has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with some Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and to helping abduct two American tourists and 14 other people in Yemen in 1998...

... Schneider told US District Judge Katherine B. Forrest that Mustafa, 54, "has an extraordinary knowledge and interest in helping with his defence" despite the challenges of being housed in solitary confinement in a prison wing where defendants facing terrorism charges are typically held.
"This defendant is going to get the appropriate resources" necessary for a fair trial, the judge said as she assigned a legal team of at least five people to assist him.
"This is an almost never-ending job," Schneider said as his client looked toward the judge.
"This case occurred approximately 14 years ago covering three continents."
Schneider said researching the case will likely cause the defence team to reach out to Yemen, England and Pakistan to collect evidence.
Prosecutors said 47 boxes of materials were being shipped from England, including computer disks and hard drives.
Outside court, Schneider said Mustafa was "ready, willing and able" to assist in his defence but it was difficult for attorneys to confer with him because the prison forces them to interact with a barrier between them...


...“You’re talking about thousands of documents, you’re talking about [foreign] bureaucracies that I don’t think are going to be friendly to us,” he told U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan federal court on Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors said large volumes of evidence exist in the case, including 47 boxes of material and 700 CDs. They said they are seeking to have some evidence shipped from the U.K...
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9/11 times 1000

You can't fault the enthusiasm but it's probably not going to help his case-

SOMALI militants linked to al-Qaeda have threatened to inflict on the UK a terrorist attack worse than the London bombings of 7 July 2005 for extraditing the Islamist cleric Abu Hamza to the United States.

Al-Shabaab made the threats in a series of messages on Twitter, The Times reports.
One tweet threatened the biggest Islamist terrorist attack yet on Britain: "The nightmare that surreptitiously looms on British shores is bound to eclipse the horrors of 7/7 and 21/7 combined."
Another read: "Britain will pay the heftiest price for its brazen role in the war against Islam and endless brutality against innocent Muslims."
Al-Shabaab also said it would "go to every possible length to attain the freedom of imprisoned Muslim scholars".

more detail here
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