Source: Reuters
British passport photos of an alleged Tel Aviv suicide bomber and his accomplice, staring from newspaper front pages on Thursday, posed an awkward question for Britain — is it becoming a bastion of Muslim militancy? From "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, who tried to down a transatlantic flight with explosives stuffed in his shoes, to the mastermind of the murder of a U.S. journalist in Pakistan, growing numbers of militants have set off from British shores. Israel says the two men it blames for killing three people at a Tel Aviv nightclub on Wednesday entered the country using British passports. "The two terrorists are British nationals," a police spokesman said. Israeli television broadcast images of those passports, bearing the names of Assif Mohammed Hanif, 21, the alleged bomber, and Omar Sharif, 27. Britain said it was working with Israel to establish the identity of the men. Hanif lived in Hounslow, west London, but was studying Arabic at a Damascus university, his brother told Britain's The Sun newspaper. Sharif was born in Derby in central England. If a British link is confirmed, it will reinforce London's growing and unwanted reputation as a safe haven for militants seeking to strike at targets around the world.
| Importing outside Krazed Killers represents a new departure for the Paleostinians. Indications so far have been that they have a plentiful supply of domestically-raised loons. Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades say they were the ones who planned the op, working together, as Dire Revenge™ for the IDF bumping off Mazen Erahpe. Of course, they also say the killer was a Paleo from Tulkarm... |
Several British Muslims went to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan two years ago, fired up by the radical preaching of clerics including Abu Hamza al-Masri, a north London imam who applauded the September 11 attacks in the United States. Egyptian-born Abu Hamza, who brandishes a hook in place of his right hand which he says was blown off when he was in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces, has become one of Britain's most recognisable and controversial figures. He is accused by Yemen of involvement in a 1998 kidnapping of Western tourists. Britain revoked his citizenship last month, part of a crackdown prompted by the September 11 U.S. attacks.
| That's one of them the Brits seem to be cracking down on... |
Anjem Choudhary, British leader of the Islamic militant group al-Muhajiroun, described Hanif as a "martyr" and said British Muslims wanted to support Palestinians "as much as they can". "The feeling for jihad at the current time in light of Iraq and Afghanistan and the continuing intifada in Palestine is very hot within the Muslim community," he told BBC radio. Mainstream Muslim groups in Britain dismiss al-Muhajiroun as unrepresentative and extremist. But its message is not rejected by all — several Britons are still languishing in a U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay for alleged links to Osama bin Laden's militant al Qaeda network.
| I thik they let Hassan Butt out of jug, though. There were warnings on Azzam.com about 18 months ago that Muhajiroun's jihad funnel was a sting. I'd guess that's why the outfit hasn't been busted up yet, but I think any usefulness it had is ended with the latest boom... |
Last year Briton Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who attended an elite London private school, was sentenced to death in Pakistan for the kidnapping and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. In Britain itself, the threat of attack was highlighted by the discovery in January of the lethal poison ricin in a north London flat.
| Omar Sheikh is a giggling psychopath, affiliated with Jaish e-Mohammad, and through them with al-Qaeda. I'm not too sure what he got out of the London School of Economics, except for one of those ties. The ricin plot seems to have been driven by al-Tawhid, an Ansar al-Islam affiliate run by Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, and involved mostly North Africans. It's another al-Qaeda affiliate. So that operation's not really home-grown, except for any involvement by Abu Qatada, who was a buddy of Zarqawi's back in the Olde Countrie... |
Analysts say Britons may continue to pay the price of their relaxed attitude to Muslim dissidents before 2001. "For very many years the United Kingdom accepted people who sought safety in Britain and didn't inquire too much into their background," said security specialist Garth Whitty. Britain had traditionally paid far greater attention to the threat from guerrillas fighting British rule in Northern Ireland. "Other countries have been much harder on Islamic groups and kept a far closer watch," Whitty said. |