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BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Thursday the man claiming to be the new al-Qaida in Iraq leader is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said al-Masri apparently is the same person that al-Qaida in Iraq identified in a Web posting last week as its new leader — Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, a nom de guerre. Al-Muhajer claimed to have succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike, and vowed to avenge him in threatening Web statements...

London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Al Qaeda in Iraq’s new leader is more violent than his predecessor, warned an Egyptian Islamist on Monday. Following the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi and five others after two 500-pound bombs were dropped in a US air raid on a safe house near the restive northern Iraqi city of Baquba on Wednesday, al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers appointed Abu Hamza al Muhajir (the immigrant) as its new leader. An Islamist leader told Asharq al Awsat on Monday, on condition of anonymity, that Abu Hamza is renowned for his knowledge of Shariaa and...

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq said in a Web statement posted Monday that a militant named Abu Hamza al-Muhajer was the group's new leader. Al-Muhajer succeeds Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed Wednesday by a U.S. airstrike on his hideout northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The successor's name — a pseudonym, as most militants are known by — was not immediately known and did not appear to be on any U.S. lists of terrorists with rewards on their heads. The name al-Muhajer, Arabic for "immigrant," suggested he was not Iraqi. Al-Muhajer is a common alias among Islamic militants, referring to...

In the wake of the terrible terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Britain drafted UN resolution 1373 which called on all governments to "Deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support or commit terrorist acts, or who provide safe havens; and to prevent those who finance, plan, facilitate or commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories for those purposes against other states." That elementary measure was also a piece of blatant hypocrisy from the British government. For at least a decade, and possibly much longer, it had been covert British policy to provide, in Britain, a safe haven...

The Times February 09, 2006 Police had Hamza 'murder evidence' 7 years ago By Sean O’Neill, Daniel McGrory and Philip Webster Phone-tap record inadmissable in UK will be used by Americans Listen to Hamza (clip1) Listen to Hamza (clip2) 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...

Christian Europe is at risk of becoming Eurabia, outbred and overtaken by Islamic immigration, and a crucial battleground on the clash of civilizations that seems to be under way. [...] This alarmist view is fueled by three dangerous and misleading myths [...] that there is any such phenomenon as European Islam[;] that the native Europeans have been so sapped of their reproductive vigor that the higher birth rates of the Muslim immigrants threaten to replace traditionally Christian Europe[;] that this great wave of immigration is necessarily an ominous challenge to Christian Europe...

LONDON - A British jury convicted radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri on Tuesday of fomenting racial hatred and inciting his followers to kill non-Muslims. Al-Masri, 47, the former imam at London's Finsbury Park mosque, also was convicted of possessing a terrorist document and threatening or abusive recordings. Al-Masri, Britain's best-known Islamist orator, could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison. The jury of seven men and five women found al-Masri guilty on seven of nine charges of soliciting murder. He also was convicted on two of four charges of stirring racial hatred. Though asked to stand for the...

Here are two items on different topics related by their common absurdity.Reuters is reporting that some of the ransom money paid for the German government for the release of Susan Osthoff (the archaeologist who was kidnapped by Iraqi militants and later released in exchange for Mohammad Ali Hammadi, the man who killed Navy diver Robert Stethem in a hijacked TWA flight) was found on her effects. (Hat tip: Davids Medienkritik) BERLIN (Reuters) - Part of the ransom money alleged to have been paid by the German government to win the freedom of Iraq hostage Susanne Osthoff last month was found...

Hamza denounces racism on the stand . Alleged race hate cleric Abu Hamza has denied inciting violence against non-Muslims, saying "racism is one of the greatest sins".

SUICIDE bombing is a legitimate tool of war, regarded by religious scholars as “the highest form of martyrdom”, Abu Hamza al-Masri told an Old Bailey jury yesterday. The radical Muslim cleric, who is facing charges of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred, said that he condoned suicide attacks if they were the only way that Muslims had of defending themselves. Abu Hamza sought to explain remarks that he had made in a video of a lecture delivered in Luton in 1997. Asked, during his second day of evidence, about the legitimacy of “martyrdom operations”, he said: “If it is the...

COPIES of the Koran were handed to the jurors in the Abu Hamza trial yesterday as his defence argued that some of the cleric’s “offensive” statements were drawn directly from Islam’s holy book. Edward Fitzgerald, QC, for the defence, said that Abu Hamza’s interpretation of the Koran was that it imposed an obligation on Muslims to do jihad and fight in the defence of their religion. He said that the Crown case against the former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque was “simplistic in the extreme”. He added: “It is said he was preaching murder, but he was actually preaching from...

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Muslim fanatic Abu Hamza had a hate list of the enemies of Islam, with the Jews and Christians listed at number two and three, the Old Bailey Heard today (tues). The former Imam of Finsbury Park Mosque said claimed Jews were the sons of monkeys and their influence was growing daily by invading the minds of Muslims through television, radio and literature. The list of hate was revealed in a 90 minute long audio tape anti-Semitic rant entitled 'Enemies of Islam II', recorded sometime in 1998 or 1999, which was played to the court. Egyptian-born...

"Jews know how to control people. This is how they know how to control our leaders," he said in a sermon, played on videotape to the Old Bailey jury. He also criticised the "dogs of the West" for not condemning Israel. The 47-year-old, from west London, denies 15 charges, including soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. 'No peace treaty' Jurors on the fourth day of Mr Abu Hamza's trial heard him tell a crowd: "Now all these dogs of the West they have to go now, none of them have condemned what Israel has done to the Muslims and the...

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, most senior figure to go on trial in Britain on charges of incitement to murder, made calls for world dominated by caliph sitting in White House, prosecutor says Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri wanted a caliph sitting in the White House and said Hitler was sent into the world because Jews were blasphemous and dirty, a London court heard on Wednesday. Hamza, 47, is the most high-profile figure to go on trial in Britain on charges of incitement to murder and stirring up racial hatred since the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New...

LONDON (AFP) - Abu Hamza al-Masri, the one-eyed, hook-handed Islamist cleric, appeared before London's main criminal court charged with soliciting the murder of Jews and non-Muslims and other alleged crimes. Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London, faces a total of 15 charges, including nine of "soliciting to murder" and four of using language aimed at stirring up racial hatred. One of the charges is under the Terrorism Act 2000, accusing him of possessing a document, "The Encyclopaedia of the Afghani Jihad", which contained information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing...

RADICAL cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri goes on trial in London today on 16 charges of stirring up racial hatred and urging the killing of non-Muslims. Hamza, who is also wanted by the US, will be the most high-profile figure to be tried in Britain charged with such offences since the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York. The Egyptian-born cleric faces 10 charges of using public meetings to incite his followers to kill non-Muslims. Four of the charges say he urged the killing of Jews. He is also accused of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to...

IN TODAY'S SUN Hamza £25k kitchen stink Behind bars ... Abu Hamza     By ANTHONY FRANCE HOOK-handed cleric Abu Hamza’s council house is getting a £25,000 makeover at taxpayers’ expense — while he is in jail awaiting trial on terror charges. A plush kitchen and bathroom have been installed — and the Muslim dad of eight’s five-bed home in Shepherd’s Bush, West London, has been redecorated.   http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,31-2005390613,00.html Home truths MANY people in this country have to work hard for long hours to keep a roof over their heads and clothes on their kids’ backs. Not so Abu Hamza....

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza is covered from head to foot in scabs because he has an ailment that makes his skin bleed. Inmates at top-security Belmarsh prison in south London were already up in arms about the stink Hamza is causing - by refusing to take showers. Now the Islamic fundamentalist, who used to preach at London's Finsbury Park Mosque, is leaving a trail of "white pellets" behind him as they fall from the scabs. A prison nurse has apparently been applying ointment but with little success. A prison insider said today: "Hamza has been...

A suspected suicide bomber in the London attacks revered Osama bin Laden and was upset over the deaths of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir, a newspaper in Pakistan reported today. A day earlier, a Pakistan intelligence official said an “important” man suspected of links with the London attacks had been arrested in the eastern city of Lahore. The official did not name the suspect, nor provide details of his alleged role in the bombings. Authorities are investigating whether the suspects received training or other assistance from militants in Pakistan. The English-language Dawn newspaper quoted an uncle of Shahzad Tanweer,...

Federal inmate James Ujaama, the former Seattle man who pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban, has been moved to New York to testify before a grand jury investigating a militant London cleric believed to be a top al-Qaida recruiter. Ujaama, 37, is the key witness in a criminal case federal prosecutors are building against Abu Hamza al-Masri, a former imam at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, said federal law-enforcement sources who agreed to speak only if they were not identified. A federal grand jury in Manhattan is investigating Abu Hamza's alleged efforts to help Ujaama and others set up...