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| Britain |
| Police had Hamza 'murder evidence' 7 years ago |
| 2006-02-09 |
| AMERICA will use phone tap evidence gathered by Britain seven years ago to try to jail Abu Hamza al-Masri for life on terrorist offences. Bugged conversations between the radical imam and the leader of a gang that kidnapped 16 Western tourists in Yemen are banned in the British courts. Yet the same wiretap material, amassed by British Intelligence, will be central to the case against Abu Hamza if he is extradited to America, The Times has been told. Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service faced mounting criticism yesterday for delaying action against Abu Hamza, who was jailed for seven years on Tuesday for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. Last night David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, suggested that the police, MI5 and the CPS could have acted earlier to seize the cleric. He claimed that they rejected his warnings because they feared it would trigger a race crisis. Writing in The Sun, Mr Blunkett said: “So much for those in the security services who told me when I was Home Secretary that I was exaggerating the threat and the closure of the Finsbury Park mosque where he preached his evil message would be a ‘massive overreaction’. “There was a deep reluctance to act on the information coming out of Abu Hamza’s own mouth. And some in the police and security services did not want to believe how serious it all was.” Mr Blunkett is understood to have told the police, security chiefs and the CPS that they would have political backing if they raided the mosque and arrested Abu Hamza. The revelation that Britain had detailed evidence alleging Abu Hamza’s direct involvement in terrorist kidnapping and murder, but was prevented from using it, will reignite the debate on intercept evidence. The Times has also been told that Mr Blunkett argued strongly for such evidence to be used in serious cases but was again rebuffed by the security services. Michael Howard, the former Conservative Home Secretary, also told The Times last night that he backed the use of intercept evidence. A senior counterterrorist source told The Times that the phone taps strongly suggested that Abu Hamza was “involved in operational terrorist activity”. But when Britain tried to move against the cleric in the spring of 1999 the case had to be abandoned because the evidence was deemed “inadmissible”. The FBI stepped in and said that if Britain could not use the material, it would. The US indictment against Abu Hamza alleges that he bought and supplied a £2,000 satellite phone for the kidnappers and purchased £500 worth of air time for the device. It also states that Abu Hamza received telephone calls from the gang leader before and during the kidnap drama in which four hostages were shot dead. He is also charged with sending recruits to al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and trying to train terrorists in America. British detectives are still investigating Abu Hamza’s alleged links with other terrorist incidents including the July 7 London bombings. An uncle of one of the 7/7 suicide bombers blamed the cleric for brainwashing his nephew Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who visited Finsbury Park mosque. Bashir Ahmed said: “No child could have thought of doing something like 7/7 by themselves.” British intelligence has admitted eavesdropping on conversations between Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the 7/7 bomb cell. Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, rejected any change to make intercept evidence admissible a year ago. But the Home Office said the issue was kept “under review”. Recordings of Abu Hamza’s conversations with the Yemeni kidnapper in December 1998 were made by experts from GCHQ, the intelligence listening post. They were made available to British security services and police in early 1999. At the same time a dossier on Abu Hamza was sent by the President of Yemen to Tony Blair. Abu Hamza was arrested in March that year and questioned at Charing Cross police station about the kidnapping and killing of the hostages. The former imam of Finsbury Park mosque admitted that he supplied the satellite phone and spoke to the hostage-taker, Abu Hassan. He told the BBC in 2002: “When they phoned they were actually phoning how to release them.” The gang had demanded the release of ten Britons who had been arrested in Yemen on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks. The group, including Abu Hamza’s son and stepson, were sent to Yemen from Finsbury Park mosque. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #11 49 Pan, I am highly flattered that you would print up what is actually just a synthesis of the posts and comments I've read here. But if it encourages your colleagues, who are doing the heavy lifting in this Long War against Islamofascism while I pour tea, to know that even a Midwestern soccermom can see what's been going on, you've my blessing -- although they must promise to ignore typos and the place where I wrote Sunni when I clearly meant Shiite. ;-) And please pass on my gratitude to them all, 'k? (Actually, I only just hold my own in discussions with Mr. Wife -- a great deal of what I know about the great big world out there derives from stories he tells when he gets back home. Besides, what fun is a husband who never even utters a peep?) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-09 19:18 |
| #10 He claimed that they rejected his warnings because they feared it would trigger a race crisis. Hokay, so long as us infidels are the only ones being blown to bits by these twisted f&cks, it's all just ducky. But let a single Muslim so much as peek at an off-color cartoon and everybody's scrambling to make amends. How long does this sh!t have to go on before people realize they're empowering those who wish to be above the rule of law? I want a daily comic strip about Mohammed. I want cocktail napkins printed with these cartoons so I can set my beer on them. I want there to be a continuous stream of this stuff in all non-Muslim nations so they can boycott themselves out of existence. These morons can all trample themselves to death in their fury and ire for all I care. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-09 11:41 |
| #9 TW-I was out yesterday and finally read your post! Your amazing and a wonderful asset to us minions her at RB. I hope you don't mind but I copied it and posted it at the office, credited to you of course. I'll bet Mr. TW holds his tongue before debating you! Thanks |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-02-09 10:30 |
| #8 I wouldn't put any eggs in that basket. We are talking about a trial here, aren't we ? Trial by theater. The American judicial system will remain flawed until jurors are required to pass an IQ test above 110, and attornys have nothing to do with picking jurors. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-02-09 10:29 |
| #7 AMERICA will use phone tap evidence gathered by Britain seven years ago to try to jail Abu Hamza al-Masri for life on terrorist offences. Different countries, different laws. Key is that after the Brits are done with him, America will take her shot -- and the plan here is to put him away for good. So between us we've got him covered. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-09 07:42 |
| #6 Have a look in today's Sun - a list of Imams who'd put Goebbels to shame. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-02-09 04:36 |
| #5 Yes and what about all the other Hamzas that are infesting this country, psyching up the soldiers of Allan for future attacks? Blair said he was going to deport 500 of them, and so far he's on zero. So where did the figure of 500 come from? From MI5? Or did God™ speak to him? |
| Posted by: Bulldog Drummond 2006-02-09 04:33 |
| #4 Whom ever made these stupid decisions back in 1999 should be fired. Blunket is also responsible. Cane his misrable ass. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2006-02-09 04:16 |
| #3 Well said Howard . My forefathers would be turning in their graves right now . |
| Posted by: MacNails 2006-02-09 04:13 |
| #2 Not America's fault at all. It's all our own making, this one. Time to make wire-tap evidence submissible in a UK court methinks. It's nice to know that they didn't arrest him for fear of offending muslim sensibilities and sparking a 'race war' in the UK. Instead, they let him carry on until his ilk murder 50 people on the tube. Fantastic. Ok - here's a test: on Saturday we have a demonstration by muslims in Trafalgar Square about these bloody cartoons. Although I thought the police did the right thing in not making arrests in London last Friday - i.e. let the muslims show themselves up for the fascists they are. This will be an organised meeting with organised speakers in a public place. We have to see decisive action taken against any speaker soliciting murder or inciting hatred. If that means the police have to drag people from the stage then let them do it. Seemingly few in this country appear to see what these fascists are trying to get away with: muslims elevated to a protected status within British society -what next? Beefed-up blasphemy laws as a balm for muslim paranoia? Fridays off for all Muslims? No pork on school menus? A mosque on every corner? It's about time we got the remainder of the Python team to film a life and times of Mohammed. Humourless fuckers. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-02-09 04:07 |
| #1 Sorry about my country should have given him life already |
| Posted by: a 2006-02-09 02:47 |