TERROR SUSPECTS SAFE IN BRITAIN
(Article from Daily Mail by Michael Seamark and Ben Taylor October 19th 2001)
£180,000 in bank but Ben Laden clerics lived on benefits
One is said to be a key agent in the Osama Ben Laden terror network, while the other (picture later) acts as his mouthpiece in the West.
Both enjoy living in the safety and freedom of Britain, happy to claim thousands of pounds in benefits from a country they pray will fall to Islamic militants.
Sheik Abu Qatada, 40, who has £180,000 in his bank account has live on benefits in London since claiming political asylum in 1993, which was later granted
The Moslem cleric has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Jordan in his abscence for alleged involvement in a series of explosions.
Investigatiors there believe Qatada, dubbed "Bin Laden's roving ambassador in Europe" helped plan and finance attacks from a semi-detached house funded by the British taxpayer.
The Treasury froze his assets after Qatada appeared on an American list of those suspected of "committing or providing material in support of terrosism"
Security sources revealed there was £180,000 in the London base bank account. As a result, Qatada's benefit cheques - thought to be several hundred pounds a month - have stopped.
Yasser Al Siri, 38, has been convicted in Egypt for a car bombing which killed a 12 year old girl and was implicated in last month's murder of the Taliban's ,main opposition leader.
He arrived in Britain eight years ago and applied for asylum. He lives in a former council flat in Maida Vale, North London, and has claimed thousands in benefits in his time here.
Yesterday he was broadcasting Bin Laden propaganda from the North London-based Islamic Observation Centre.
It sent out a statement it received from one of Bin Laden's key lieutenants, threatening that American troops would suffer the same fate in Afghanistan as they did in Somalia - where bodies of dead soldiers were sragged through the streets. Al-Siri refused to say how he received the statement from Mohamed Atef, the military commander of Al Qaeda and on the FBI's list of the 22 most wanted terrorists.
The news that he is spreading Bin Laden's twisted messages from London increased pressure on Home Secretary David Blunkett - who has promised emergency anti-terror laws he says will provide stronger powers to remove terrorists from Britain.
Tory home affairs spokesman Oliver Letwin said "This sort of case points up the absurdity of a situation in which British Home Secretary can be aware that somebody, who is a foreign national and who is living in this country, constitutes a threat to national security but can't deport that person - and indeed can't prevent such a person entering in the first place"
 |
Last night the Home
Office refused to comment on Al-Siri but said "We are actively
monitoring a number of individuals and their organisations."
Al-Siri escaped from Egypt shortly after a bomb attack in Cairo in 1993. Schoolgirl Shimaa Halim died during th attempt to kill the then Egyptian prime minister. Al-Siri was later sentenced to death for her murder in his abscence. |
I BELIEVE IN JIHAD
Egyptian officials also claim Al-Siri helped train 36 militants who were arrested in 1995 for planning suicide attacks on ministers, journalists, politicians and policemen.
They say he is one of three men living in Britain who were senior figures in guerilla organisations which have killed dozens of tourists.
All attempts in Egypt to have him extradited have filed, with successive British goverments citing insufficient evidence.
Last month, a Daily Mail investigation revealed how he played a key role in helping two killers posing as journalists to obtain Afghan visas.
Days before the September attacks, the pair got into the country and blew up Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the anti=Taliban forces, in a killing linked to Osama Bin Laden. Special Branch Officers questiones Al-Siri the day after th Mail revalations.
During Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's visit to Egypt three weeks ago. Britain was accused of hypocrisy over Al_Siri and told that asheltering terrorists is "outrageous."
Al_Siri, who maintains his innocence over the bomb attack that killed a schoolgirl, claims to be a peaceful dissident.
He refused to comment yesterday about the threatening statement from Stef, named last month by Tony Blair as a key associate of Bin Laden.
Sheikh Abu Qatada was more forthcoming. Yesterday speaking through an interpreter at his home in Acton, West London, the father of four denied having £180,000 in the bank.
"I have no connection with any groups listed by the Treasury and have only got £624 in the bank" he said "Tony Blair is a liar. Its fabricated" He claimed he had been targeted by Jordan because he criticised his homeland for pandering to the West.
Yesterday he said "I feel secure here - more here than any other country"
Qatada claims Osama Bin Laden had nothing to do with the terrorist atrocities last month in New York and Washington and denied ever meeting him.
But he added "I believe in jihad (holy war) to gain freedom."
Jordinain courts have convicted the cleric, also known as Omah Abu Omar, on terrorism charges in his abscence. He has been found guilty of helping plan bombings in 1998.
A group of 13 extremists were arrested in Jordan last year, suspected of planning terrorists attacks there to coincide with the millennium. Qatada is also a key figure in the plot.
Ameican officials describe him as a senior Bin Laden agent who has coordinated the movement of men, money and arms to Islamic wars, including the rebellion aganst Russian rule in Chechnua.
Qatada denies any involvement in he Jordinian bombings, claiming his convictions are "lies by a military court"
PLUS
FBI gives the Yard 24 names to check out
(by Stephen Wright Chief Crime Correspondent)
Scotland Yard is investigating 24 terrorist suspects whose names were given to them yesterday.
Detective Superintendent John Bunn of the anti-terrorist branch said "a couple of dozen names have been put forward.
He stressed they are not necessarily uspects in the September 11th attacks, but were the subject of "preliminary inquiries". Of the 24, three are "very good suspects" he said "and two are already in custody today. Lofti Raissi, 27, is awaiting extradition to the US and is alleged to have taught four od the suicide hijackers to fly.
Habib Zacaris Moussaoui, 33, is alleged to have been the 20th hi-jacker and is already in custody in America. A woman who went on the run from his flat in Brixton, South London, is not being treated as a suspect, although detectives still want to talk to her.
A third man is believed to have been involved in the preparation of the attacks.
The Saudi-born father of four, who has not been named, lives in Birmingham and is studying for s PhD. He was arrested last month but rleased without charge.
Since September 11th there have been more than 2,000 calls to Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist hotline.
Most have been of limited help, but police are still keen to hear from people who may be able to provide them with information.
Four Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for bombing US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 were sentenced to life imprisonment with parole yesterday.
The bombers appeared in a New York's heavily-guarded Federal Court, just quarter of a mile from the destroyed World Trade Centre.
Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al'Owhli, 24, and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed 28, had escaped the death penalty for their part in the bombings, which killed 224 people.
Mohamed Sadeek Odea, 36, was given eight consecutive life sentences plus 40 years extra imprisonment.
Wadi El-Hage. 41, was given a life sentence for setting up the Kenyan cell.///cutting ends
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