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| Britain |
| Leaked dossier reveals the scope of UK al-Qaeda threat |
| 2005-07-10 |
| AL-QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle-class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal. A network of âextremist recruitersâ is circulating on campuses targeting people with âtechnical and professional qualificationsâ, particularly engineering and IT degrees. Yesterday it emerged that last weekâs London bombings were a sophisticated attack with all the devices detonating on the Underground within 50 seconds of each other. The police believe those behind the outrage may be home-grown British terrorists with no criminal backgrounds and possessing technical expertise. A joint Home Office and Foreign Office dossier â Young Muslims and Extremism â prepared for the prime minister last year, said Britain might now be harbouring thousands of Al-Qaeda sympathisers. Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police chief, revealed separately last night that up to 3,000 British-born or British-based people had passed through Osama Bin Ladenâs training camps. The Whitehall dossier, ordered by Tony Blair following last yearâs train bombings in Madrid, says: âExtremists are known to target schools and colleges where young people may be very inquisitive but less challenging and more susceptible to extremist reasoning/ arguments.â The confidential assessment, covering more than 100 pages of letters, papers and other documents, forms the basis of the governmentâs counter-terrorism strategy, codenamed Operation Contest. It paints a chilling picture of the scale of the task in tackling terrorism. Drawing on information from MI5, it concludes: âIntelligence indicates that the number of British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity, whether at home or abroad or supporting such activity, is extremely small and estimated at less than 1%.â This equates to fewer than 16,000 potential terrorists and supporters out of a Muslim population of almost 1.6m. The dossier also estimates that 10,000 have attended extremist conferences. The security services believe that the number who are prepared to commit terrorist attacks may run into hundreds. Most of the Al-Qaeda recruits tend to be loners âattracted to university clubs based on ethnicity or religionâ because of âdisillusionment with their current existenceâ. British-based terrorists are made up of different ethnic groups, according to the documents. âThey range from foreign nationals now naturalised and resident in the UK, arriving mainly from north Africa and the Middle East, to second and third generation British citizens whose forebears mainly originate from Pakistan or Kashmir. âIn addition . . . a significant number come from liberal, non-religious Muslim backgrounds or (are) only converted to Islam in adulthood. These converts include white British nationals and those of West Indian extraction.â The Iraq war is identified by the dossier as a key cause of young Britons turning to terrorism. The analysis says: âIt seems that a particularly strong cause of disillusionment among Muslims, including young Muslims, is a perceived âdouble standardâ in the foreign policy of western governments, in particular Britain and the US. âThe perception is that passive âoppressionâ, as demonstrated in British foreign policy, eg non-action on Kashmir and Chechnya, has given way to âactive oppressionâ. The war on terror, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, are all seen by a section of British Muslims as having been acts against Islam.â In an interview yesterday, Blair denied that the London terrorist attacks were a direct result of British involvement in the Iraq war. He said Russia had suffered terrorism with the Beslan school massacre despite its opposition to the war, and terrorists were planning further attacks on Spain even after the pro-war government was voted out. âSeptember 11 happened before Iraq, before Afghanistan, before any of these issues and that was the worst terrorist atrocity of all,â he said. However, the analysis prepared for Blair identified Iraq as a ârecruiting sergeantâ for extremism. The Sunday Times has learnt that Britain is negotiating with Australia to hand over military command of southern Iraq to release British troops for redeployment in Afghanistan. The plan behind Operation Contest has been to win over Muslim âhearts and mindsâ with policy initiatives including anti-religious discrimination laws. A meeting of Contest officials this week is expected to consider a radical overhaul of the strategy following the London attacks. Stevens said last night at least eight attacks aimed at civilian targets on the British mainland had been foiled in the past five years and that none had been planned by the same gang. The former Scotland Yard chief, who retired earlier this year, said that on one weekend more than 1,000 undercover officers had been deployed, monitoring a group of suspected terrorists. He said that he believed last weekâs attackers were almost certainly British-born, âbrought up here and totally aware of British life and valuesâ. âThereâs a sufficient number of people in this country willing to be Islamic terrorists that they donât have to be drafted in from abroad,â he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #10 maybe if we want to get at the roots of terrorism, we should start by ripping them out the roots here, instead of pouring water on them and watching to see how big they can grow. sigh |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-07-10 18:51 |
| #9 I have a problem that they knew who but did little but watch them spread their roots and grow. But then I guess I've only said that only about three million, four hundred and fifty seven times. I guess I just hope maybe somebody will hear my tiny little voice calling in the wilderness. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-07-10 18:39 |
| #8 I wonder if the analyst bothered to send it to Tony Blair at all or whether it was leaked to the press straight away. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-10 17:36 |
| #7 .com, I have been reading the book, The Interragators this weekend at my folk's house. It is a first hand account of the army interragation shops in Kandahar and Bagram. They ran several ruses during their questioning that were interesting as possible real policies. At one point the interragators upset the detainees with a rumour that a law was being passed that would allow the US or UK governemnt to expel the families of terrorrists to their country of origin. This was most upsetting to the prisonners from North Africa. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-10 17:35 |
| #6 trailing wife: I think you've gotten to a key aspect of the situation. Paleo sympathy is localized to a specific location, with definable issues. AQ sympathy is generalized and pervasive geographically, and the issues are amorphous, having to do with the persecution of muslims/war against islam, the desire to restore the caliphate and the elimination of all nonbelievers. It's a slippery slope to go from one to the other. And it's an especially easy one for muslims, given that their religion is based on followership and not reasoned debate and exploration of ideas. Can't question the infinite wisdom of the imams. If only the european petrowhores had condemned pali terror. If only the arab states did too. But then, we'd live in a very different world, wouldn't we? |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-07-10 14:08 |
| #5 A network of âextremist recruitersâ is circulating on campuses... Well, then thank God the moderate muslims are turning these guys over to authorities! What? They're not? Oh. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-07-10 12:36 |
| #4 What is that saying -- something about being balanced between hope and fear? I hope you are wrong, .com, but I fear me you are very, very right. And it would be awfully easy to go from PLO sympathizer to AQ sympathizer, which would deepen the pool the terrorists swim in considerably, dammit! I would very much like to know how many over there have now realized the folly of that particular attitude, just as I would like to know if that little excitement in London changed any minds on this side of the pond. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-07-10 06:00 |
| #3 A joint Home Office and Foreign Office dossier â Young Muslims and Extremism â prepared for the prime minister last year, said Britain might now be harbouring thousands of Al-Qaeda sympathisers. As you sow, so shall you reap. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-07-10 04:15 |
| #2 I expect to get some slams for what I'm thinking, but hey, who cares, eh? Just be werdz, after all... I believe the UK campaign is just warming up. This will just bring more of the nascent / timid loonies out, those wanting to become "somebody" and issue silly statements and play jihadi. I expect more hits and soon. I also expect this will make wannabee jihadis in other Western countries jealous - just look at all that juicy media coverage. Gotta be a big draw for those inclined to join this sort of shit in the first place. Yeah, I expect many of the homegrown types to come out of the woodwork - everywhere they exist in numbers and have resources. Plenty to go around. Yeah, I know it was fiction, but what was the line by the crazy Irishman in Braveheart? "God tells me he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're fucked." I think the sentiment applies to all (countries) in the West - who delay getting down and dirty. Burning down a moskkk isn't the answer. Those unwilling to show their bellies, Zappie style, will have to get ugly - starting with the imams. Dead is good. Deported can be good, if their home country also want a piece and is willing to go the distance. Jail just don't cut it - recall Lynne Stewart and Abdul Rahman. It's clearly get serious or else time. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-07-10 03:50 |
| #1 1% this off by a bit I would venture. 5% to 10% spreading thier infection to all those around them. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0â Doom 2005-07-10 01:08 |