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| Britain |
| Captain Hook set up UK training camps run by ex-British soldiers |
| 2006-02-12 |
| Former British soldiers taught Abu Hamza's followers to use guns at a camp in Wales as part of an ad hoc terror training network set up by the jailed cleric, according to US intelligence agencies. But the British security services were either unconcerned or ignorant about Hamza's activities, despite warnings that he was considered a risk from foreign governments and intelligence agencies as early as 1995. Evidence collected by the American agencies shows that, as early as 1997, Hamza was organising terror camps in the Brecon Beacons, at an old monastery in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and in Scotland, suggesting that he ran a far more extensive training network than has been officially acknowledged until now. The revelation that Hamza, who was sentenced last week to seven years in prison for soliciting murder and preaching racial hatred, was organising terrorist training camps across Britain almost a decade ago will further embarrass the police and security services. Transcripts of interviews conducted with suspected al-Qaeda terrorists held by America in Guantánamo Bay reveal that the British ex-soldiers, some of whom fought in Bosnia, were recruited to train about 10 of Hamza's followers at the Brecon Beacons camp for three weeks in 1998. The former troops taught them to strip and clean weapons and gave them endurance training and lessons in surveillance techniques. The training camps in Tunbridge Wells, at which no ex-soldiers were present, were held in 1997 and 1998 and were attended by about 30 people who were trained to use AK47 rifles, hand guns and a mock rocket launcher. The value of testimonies provided by Guantánamo detainees is contested by human rights lawyers. But the descriptions of what happened at the camps - unlike other allegations levelled by US intelligence agencies - has been corroborated by several witnesses. The training sessions, attended by men, women and children, were advertised at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, where Hamza had preached until he was removed in 2003 after a police raid on the mosque revealed a small arsenal including blank-firing pistols, a stun gun, gas masks and knives. The sessions included lectures, prayers and debates on the jihad, or holy war. Hamza is understood to have attended several of them, although he was at the camps only for a few hours at a time. The Observer has learnt that two foreign governments - Egypt and Yemen - sought Hamza's extradition from Britain in the Nineties. The Egyptian authorities asked for Hamza and several other suspects in 1995 to face terror charges there, but the British government refused. 'We tried hard to explain to both the British authorities and to other European countries that this is not a situation where they should be guaranteeing a safe haven to these people,' a spokesman for the Egyptian embassy said. In 1999, the Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, wrote to Tony Blair requesting Hamza's extradition. US authorities allege Hamza provided a satellite phone and money to terrorists holding hostages in Yemen that year and spoke to them several times. One of those hostages, Laurence Whitehouse, whose wife had been killed during a botched rescue attempt, called yesterday for the government to reveal any links between the kidnappers and Hamza. Nazir Ahmed, a leading member of the British Muslim community and a Labour peer, told The Observer he was dismayed the government had not taken action against Hamza sooner. He had raised concerns about Hamza with the government in 2003, assuring the then Home Secretary David Blunkett that 'Muslim people in Britain would be glad to see the back of Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri [the militant cleric now exiled in Lebanon]'. Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, north London, said evidence he had taken to authorities was dismissed as not strong enough, yet a lot of it later emerged at Hamza's trial. 'There is a case for the [House of Commons] intelligence and security committee to see what lessons should be learned,' he added. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Let him stay longer in British prison. I can live with that. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-12 15:35 |
| #2 Anything they dredge up will be used to keep from having to deal with extradition to the USA. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2006-02-12 05:21 |
| #1 So, if they ginned up new charges for running terrorist training camps and such, it would add, what, 30 Pfeh. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-02-12 04:20 |