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| Britain |
| More Details About the Accusations Against Abu Hamza |
| 2004-06-03 |
| From Guardian Unlimited .... Abu Hamza was not a well-known figure in ’Londonistan’ in the early Nineties but his ousting of the moderate leaders of Finsbury Park mosque, once a community project sponsored by the Prince of Wales, gave him a base to work from. After consolidating his hold on the 2,000-capacity religious centre - and its funds - Abu Hamza began preaching his violent brand of Islam. Abu Hamza was first thrust into the public spotlight in December 1998, when five young British Muslims were arrested on terrorist charges in Yemen, where the authorities were fighting a long and deadly war against Islamic militants. Among them was Abu Hamza’s son Mohammed Mustafa and his stepson Mohsin Ghalain. According to the Yemeni authorities, the British men were apprehended when they made the simple tourist error of driving ’the British way’ - clockwise - around a traffic island late at night. The driver refused to stop when challenged but later crashed into another car. In the wreckage Yemeni authorities claimed they found arms and explosives. It was alleged that the group were members of Supporters of Sharia, an organisation run by Abu Hamza from the Finsbury Park mosque, and were planning to bomb British targets in Yemen. Supporters of Sharia videos were found in the hotel room used by the men in Yemen. They confessed to their involvement, but later said their statements had been extracted under torture, which is used systematically in Yemeni jails. Abu Hamza’s connection to the events in Yemen, first reported in The Observer, marked his transformation to a player, albeit still low-level, on the international stage of the world ’jihad’. The American authorities accuse Abu Hamza of direct involvement in the kidnapping of 16 Western tourists in Yemen on 28 December, 1998, a few days after the arrest of the British men. It ended in a bloody shootout between the kidnappers and the Yemeni authorities in which three Britons and an Australian were killed. Investigators believed that the bombing plot and the kidnapping were both organised by Sheikh Abul Hassan Mehdar, the leader of the Islamic Army of Abyan, an associate of Abu Hamza’s from Afghanistan. The grand jury indictment against Abu Hamza reveals details of intercepted satellite phone conversations between the London-based cleric and Yemen. Abu Hamza has never denied his friendship with the Yemeni sheikh, later executed, and told The Observer at the time that he was trying to use his influence to avoid bloodshed. US prosecutors will claim that Abu Hamza supplied the satellite phone the kidnappers used, and spoke to them before and during the kidnap itself and advised on the hostage-taking. It will be difficult for Abu Hamza to dissociate himself from the Islamic Army of Abyan and its leader, who he saw as a hero of the Islamic struggle. At the time it was suggested that the hostages were taken in order to obtain the release of Abu Hamza’s sons and the other British detainees as a personal favour. British police arrested Abu Hamza in 1999 in connection with the kidnapping, but there was insufficient evidence for a prosecution. Five years on, the Americans clearly disagree. From 1999, Abu Hamza was watched carefully. An Algerian living in London was recruited by MI5 and sent into the mosque to report on the activities of Abu Hamza and the men who were gathering around him. Last week the agent told The Observer he was ’overjoyed’ at the arrest. But the security services preferred to keep tabs on Abu Hamza rather than arrest him. This was partly because they did not believe he was dangerous and partly to keep the militants in one place where surveillance was easier. They also lacked legal powers to secure a conviction. But 11 September changed all that. As investigators reconstructed the al-Qaeda networks behind the attacks in New York and Washington, they discovered a series of connections that ran through Finsbury Park. Zacarias Moussaoui, a French Algerian who has been charged with being part of the team that hijacked the planes which hit the twin towers (the authorities say he was arrested on other charges before he could join the hijackers on the planes), had worshipped there. So had Richard Reid, the British-born convert to Islam who tried to blow himself up on a transatlantic jet in December 2001, and Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian-born former professional footballer and drug addict who was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Belgian court for plotting to blow himself up outside the American embassy in Paris. Many of the Britons who ended up in Guantanamo Bay were found to have spent time at the mosque - as had a series of other militants picked up around the world. The American indictment alleges further activities at the mosque. Much of the material it contains is based on the testimony of James Ujaama, a one-time associate of Abu Hamza who was ’turned’ by an American policeman. Ujaama, whose 20 years’ sentence was cut to two years as an incentive to give evidence against Abu Hamza, was released the day Abu Hamza was arrested. Ujaama speaks of volunteers packed off to Afghanistan to undergo military training. ... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #1 Abu Hamza began preaching his violent brand of Islam. I wasn't aware that there was any other brand of Islam. Thanks for the clarification... |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-06-03 12:35:29 PM |