'Bin Laden ambassador' seized in London

British police are reported to be holding an Islamic radical described as Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe.

Abu Qatada is said to have been seized in an armed raid at a London council house.

The cleric is accused by police in eight countries of being a key figure in bin Laden's al Qaida network.

He is being held in Belmarsh Prison in south east London, according to The Times.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced that a suspected terrorist is being held, but refused to identify any further details.

Home Office officials are refusing to confirm or deny claims - attributed to "security sources" - that the arrested man is Qatada.

The Times says Qatada was caught in a raid on a council house in Bermondsey, south-east London.

He has been on the run since December, after disappearing hours before the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act came into force, giving the authorities the power to detain foreign nationals suspected of terrorism.

He is alleged to have recruited shoe-bomber Richard Reid and Zacharias Moussaoui, who is being held under suspicion of involvement in planning the September 11 atrocities.

A document was recently published on the Internet under his name justifying the September 11 attacks on moral grounds.

http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,8816,300609,00.html

Sunday, Jul. 07, 2002
Sheltering A Puppet Master?
BY BRUCE CRUMLEY/PARIS

As worldwide investigations into the mysteries of the Sept. 11 terror conspiracy roll on, officials in Europe have pondered an enigma: Where is Abu Qatada? Described by some justice officials as the spiritual leader and possible puppet master of al-Qaeda's European networks, Abu Qatada has been missing since mid-December after British authorities confiscated his passport, froze his assets and ordered him confined to his London home. With Jordan seeking his return to serve a life sentence for terror-related crimes, some observers figured Abu Qatada went underground—and perhaps left Britain—to avoid extradition. But senior European intelligence officials tell TIME that Abu Qatada is tucked away in a safe house in the north of England, where he and his family are being lodged, fed and clothed by British intelligence services. "The deal is that Abu Qatada is deprived of contact with extremists in London and Europe but can't be arrested or expelled because no one officially knows where he is," says the source, whose claims were corroborated by French authorities. "The British win because the last thing they want is a hot potato they can't extradite for fear of al-Qaeda reprisals but whose presence contradicts London's support of the war on terror." British security services officials declined to comment.

—With reporting by Helen Gibson/London

This article provides additional details:

Bin Laden's 'Man in Europe' Captured

By Mike Wendling

CNSNews.com London Bureau Chief

October 25, 2002

London (CNSNews.com) - A man suspected of being one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants has been arrested by British authorities, police said Friday.

Abu Qatada, who has been described as al Qaeda's "ambassador" to Europe, disappeared from his home in west London last year after the government froze his assets and confiscated his passport.

Anti-terror police and intelligence officers raided a house and made an arrest in south London late Wednesday. Home Secretary David Blunkett then released a parliamentary document stating that a foreign national had been arrested under anti-terror legislation passed after Sept. 11.

Home Office officials wouldn't comment further on the arrest Friday, but sources within London's Metropolitan Police indicated that the man captured was Qatada. Radical Muslim groups based in Britain also confirmed Qatada's arrest.

Qatada, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, is thought to have recruited Zacharias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker", and Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" who attempted to blow up an airliner traveling from Paris to Miami last December.

Earlier this week, a document under Qatada's name entitled "The Legal Vision for the Sept. 11 Events" was published on the internet. It praised bin Laden and outlined the "moral" justification for the attacks on New York and Washington.

Second arrest

The 42-year-old cleric preached at a central London mosque and has been sentenced to death in Jordan after being convicted in absentia of conducting a terrorist bombing campaign.

He arrived in Britain in 1993 and claimed political asylum. Qatada was arrested in February 2001 but was released without charge.

He went into hiding last December, shortly before the implementation of U.K. legislation that gives authorities greater power to detain foreign terror suspects.

Before he disappeared, Qatada told the BBC that he believed he was the victim of anti-Muslim sentiment.

"I have said many times that in this country you just wanted a target to shoot at and you wanted someone to talk about and I think I am a very suitable person for this target practice," he said in an interview.

"I am a big target with a big belly. Until now, I have worn Arab dress and I have a beard and it is very easy for them to choose someone like me to shoot at," he said.

He denied connections to terrorism but praised bin Laden.

"Bin Laden was one of those people who witnessed the corruption of our governments and they are corrupt because of their...contacts with the Americans, the British and the Europeans," he said at the time.

Intelligence agencies in the United States and several European countries have suspected Qatada of having direct links to bin Laden and the Sept. 11 plotters.

Baltasar Garzon, a top Spanish judge and terrorism investigator, called Qatada "the spiritual head of the mujahideen in Britain."

In reports earlier this year, European officials expressed frustration at Britain's inability to arrest Qatada. French sources told Time magazine that they believed the cleric was being protected by Britain's MI5 intelligence service in exchange for the Qatada's silence in the Islamic community.

Also on Friday, an appeals court upheld the anti-terror law that Qatada is being held under.

The law allows immigration authorities to indefinitely detain foreign terror suspects who threaten national security but cannot be deported to their home countries. In Qatada's case, British law forbids his deportation or extradition to Jordan because that country has the death penalty.

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