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08-02-2006 Scotsman Secret terror hoard in jailed cleric's mosque By Gethin Chamberlain Chief News Correspondent DETECTIVES investigating the radical Islamic preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri uncovered evidence that Islamic terrorists are operating training camps inside the UK, it emerged yesterday. As Hamza was jailed for seven years for inciting the murder of Jews and unbelievers, police revealed they had recovered gas masks, chemical, biological and nuclear protective suits, blank passports, hunting knives and blank-firing weapons from the London mosque where he preached. They said they believed the materials were intended for use in training camps in the UK. Previous inquiries have focused on recruits travelling to al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where three of the Britons who carried out the suicide bomb attacks on London's transport system on 7 July last year are thought to have spent time. Hamza will face extradition to the United States on a series of terror charges when he is eventually released. The US accuses him of having links to high ranking Taleban and al-Qaeda figures and of helping young recruits to travel to the terror network's training camps in Afghanistan. The 47-year-old Egyptian-born preacher was convicted on 11 counts including soliciting murder, stirring up racial hatred and possessing a training manual "of use to terrorists". The judge, Mr Justice Hughes, ordered him to serve all 11 sentences concurrently, the longest of which was seven years. "He was directly and deliberately stirring up hatred against Jewish people and encouraging murder of those he referred to as non-believers," the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement afterwards. "Not only did he repeatedly advocate that Muslims should kill non-believers, he set out to persuade his listeners that it was part of their religious duty to do so," it said. Downing Street later said the conviction strengthened the case for further legislation. Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "What it shows is that the original decision to prosecute was the right one and that should give the public some assurance about the government's determination to uphold the law in this matter. "We are putting forward further proposals which will come to parliament next week and we hope we attract as much support as possible." Hamza's lawyer, Muddassar Arani, said he would appeal: "He feels that he is a prisoner of faith and this is a slow martyrdom for him," she said. Security sources now say that Hamza was a key figure in the global jihadi movement in the late 1990s and early part of this decade, with an extensive sphere of influence. When police first raided his home in 1999, they found inside what was later described in court as a "terrorism manual" containing a dedication to Osama bin Laden, sections on explosives and handguns, recipes for poisons, information on how to carry out an assassination and suggested targets such as skyscrapers, the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. They took it away, with tapes of some of his speeches, but later returned it. Hamza had been interviewed regularly by the British security services since 1997 and would continue to talk to them until 2000. He later recalled that they seemed more interested in protecting his freedom of speech than prosecuting him for encouraging terrorism. It was only three years after the attacks of 11 September 2001 that anyone decided the manual might be significant. By then the Finsbury Park mosque in north London had been raided as part of an investigation into a plot to manufacture ricin. Inside the mosque, police discovered materials they suspected were intended for use in British terrorist training camps. In 2004, Hamza's home in west London was raided again by police executing an extradition warrant on behalf of US authorities who wanted him on 11 charges, including kidnapping and plotting to set up camps. It was only then that they reconsidered the significance of the 10 volumes of the Encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad (one was missing) which had originally been seized. Hamza and the mosque, they concluded, were at the centre of a spider's web of terrorist activity stretching around the world. As the investigation continued, they unearthed more evidence to suggest the mosque had been a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism in the six years Hamza had been in control. As its central figure, he had a powerful influence on those who passed through its doors. They included 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, shoe-bomber Richard Reid, Omar Sharif, who planned to take part in an attack on an Israeli bar in 2003, Jordanian cleric Abu Qatada, said by Britain to have been the spiritual inspiration for 9/11, and Frenchman Jamal Zougam, one of the prime suspects accused of plotting the Madrid train bombings. Kamel Bourgass, convicted over the 2003 ricin plot, stayed at the mosque and copies of "recipes" on making ricin were made on a photocopier there. The head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, Peter Clarke, said: " It was almost like a honey pot for extremists. It had a reputation not just across this country but Europe and beyond as a place that extremists could gather and feel comfortable. It could almost have been described as a safe haven." It was during a raid on the mosque by about 150 officers in January 2003 that police recovered the items that led them to believe terrorist training camps were operating in Britain. "The suspicion of the anti-terrorist branch was that this was probably material used in training camps in the UK," one police source said. "We've never been able to pinpoint their locations, who was running them or what sort of activities were going on." Hamza has become something of a hate figure among those perturbed by a perceived rise in Islamic fundamentalism in the UK. His appearance - he lost both hands and an eye in Afghanistan and wears a hook on his right arm - has inspired uncomplimentary headlines. Yet his persuasive oratory and virulent anti-western rants inspired scores of impressionable young Muslims and he became a magnet for radicals worldwide. At one private meeting in east London he called on the audience to sacrifice itself. "We ask Muslims to do that, to be capable to do that, to be capable to bleed the enemies of Allah anywhere, by any means," he told them. "You can't do it by nuclear weapon, you do it by the kitchen knife, no other solution. You cannot do it by chemical weapons, you have to do it by mice poison. Like you imagine you have one small knife and you have a big animal in front of you. "The size of the knife - you cannot slaughter him with this. You have to stab him here and there until he bleeds to death. Then you can cut up the meat as you like to, or leave it to the maggots. This is the first stage of jihad." Passing sentence yesterday, Mr Justice Hughes said Hamza had used his authority to encourage his audiences to believe they had a "duty" to murder. He had "helped to create an atmosphere in which to kill has become regarded by some as not only a legitimate course but a moral and religious duty in pursuit of perceived justice. "No-one can say now what damage your words may have caused - no-one can say whether any of your audiences, present or wider, acted on your words. "I am satisfied that you are and were a person whose views and the manner of expression of those views created a real danger to the lives of innocent people in different parts of the world."
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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