Terror Charges for British Computer Whiz

A British computer specialist was indicted Wednesday on charges he used U.S.-based Web sites to recruit al-Qaida, Taliban and Chechen fighters and outfit them with gas masks, night-vision goggles and camouflage gear.

Babar Ahmad, 30, was arrested in London in August and has been held there for extradition to the United States. Wednesday's indictment accuses him of supporting terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and laundering money.

Ahmad allegedly ran several sites, including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to promote holy war and funnel money to terrorists.

The Web site allegedly encouraged people to train in street combat, land mine operations and sniper combat. Financial donors were told to smuggle cash into Pakistan and pass it to the Taliban's consul general, investigators said.

"If you're supporting the Taliban and the Taliban is killing American soldiers, we're alleging you're conspiring to kill American citizens abroad," Connecticut U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said.

Investigators said Ahmad also obtained classified military documents describing the movements and formations of a Navy battle group. He was exchanging e-mails with an enlisted man aboard the USS Benfold, a Navy destroyer, authorities said.

Authorities have not identified the man, who investigators said was sympathetic to the jihad cause.

The Navy documents described the Benfold's vulnerabilities to attacks by small boats, prosecutors said in court papers.

The charges were filed in Connecticut because Ahmad allegedly used an Internet service provider in the state to host one of his sites.

Babar is also charged with maintaining e-mail contact with a Chechen rebel leader. Chechen rebels and their supporters have been blamed or taken responsibility for several terrorist acts in Russia, including a hostage-taking at a school last month.

Babar said little during his August court appearance in London. When asked if he understood the charges against him, he replied: "Not really. It's all a bit confusing to me."

There was no answer late Wednesday at the London office of Muddassar Arani, one of Ahmad's lawyers.

One of the cached letters.

LETTER TO ALL FROM BABAR AHMAD 24th August 2004
18 days since detained.

Bismillahir rahman ir-raheem

To all those who have written to me:

Dear brothers, sisters, friends and well-wishers,

Assalaamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

I want to begin be thanking you all for the many, many (over 150) letters
that I have received since the beginning of my political imprisonment. I
have received letters, cards, encouraging words and articles and hand-made
cars by children. Every single one of the letters has made a difference in
its own way and I regularly go through and re-read some of the letters and
share parts of them with other Muslim political prisoners here. It has been
especially encouraging to receive letters from people I do not know or who
have never seen me. This, insha-Allah, is a good sign that recent events
have had a positive impact on the community.

Allah says in Surah al-Anfal (8:30), "And they plot and plan. And Allah too
plots and plans. But the best of planners is Allah."

I was imprisoned in order to be made an example, to strike terror and fear
into the hearts of the docile, sleeping Muslim community. However, as it
appears, the following good has already arisen from my imprisonment, which
is conclusive proof that Allah is the Best of planners:
The Muslim community has been jolted, shocked and awoken from its slumber
into a state of action, protesting, complaining, campaigning, writing,
telephoning and praying.

The previously isolated Muslim community has joined stronger ties with
sympathetic non-Muslim pressure groups, activists and well-wishers

Ordinary, non-practising Muslims have been woken up and are now becoming
stronger and better Muslims, in huge numbers.

People who previously could never have been imagined to campaign, have
started to become active and have realised that if they fail to act now,
then tomorrow it will be their houses that are raided, their sons assaulted,
abused and arrested, and their livelihoods damaged.

The Muslim community has closed ranks, united and told the authorities that
we have stopped cooperating with you until you put an end to your terror,
violence and abuse of laws and human rights against Muslims

Finally, the "British Muslim" myth has been destroyed as the Muslims with
British passports have realised that their passport and citizenship is
useless, like it was useless to me, and that only Allah is on their side to
help and protect them, like He, insha-Allah, is on my side to help and
protect me. The British passport does not mean anything as long as you are a
practising Muslim. Even if you are a white, English, revert/convert to
Islam, you are a foreigner in this country as long as you remain a
practising Muslim.

Therefore, in a matter of a few weeks, Allah has caused a change that no
amount of study circles, talks, lectures, camps and conferences could have
achieved, even over a few years. As one political prisoner here said:

"The time has arrived to forget your differences, overlook each others
mistakes and unite to confront the common terror threat facing us all.

"At the same time, do not let the authorities provoke you into carrying out
hasty, rash actions. Muslim communities uniting and becoming better and
stronger Muslims will deal a bigger blow to the oppressors than a hundred
"terror" attacks. Leave the authorities to do all the terrorising of Muslims
as this will only serve to benefit the Muslim communities, in both short and
long terms.

"Every Muslim that is unjustly imprisoned by the proponents of democracy,
freedom and human rights will remain a thorn in the sides of hypocrites and
political cretins until they are released.

"The choice you have now is to either stand up and speak now, to ensure your
survival; or to wait until your own doors are kicked in, your Qurans are
thrown on the floor, you are put onto the floor into prostration position
and your religion mocked and your womenfolk arrested as well as the men."

I would like to thank again everyone that who has given support to my family
and continues to do so, displaying the true spirit of brotherhood and unity.
Moral and emotional support is more important than many people realise, it
does and has made a difference to my family.

Finally I would like to say that I have found the Promise of my Lord to be
true. Have you also found the Promise of your Lord to be true? The promise
that I have found to be true is the one in the Quran 33:22. What promise
have you found to be true?

May Allah unite the believers and protect them from the evil plots of the
mischievous and devious two-faced devils. May He hasten the release of the
Muslim Political Prisoners, wherever they may be. Ameen

Assalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

British Political Prisoner Babar Ahmad MX5383
HMP Woodhill,
Tattenhoe Street,
Milton Keynes,
Bucks MK4 4DA

'Many a big deed becomes small due to its intention, & many a small deed
becomes big due to its intention......' (Abdullah ibn Mubarak)

From some site called nukefreezone.com, a comment from a poster- stating more or less the obvious:

dal Again »
August 07, 2004
Azzam.com webmaster arrested
Babar Ahmad, one of the webmasters of Azzam.com, has been arrested for soliciting funds to support terrorism. Found with him was information about vulnerabilities in a US carrier group, provided by a US sailor, so we can expect someone to visit a brig real soon now.

There's also a personal connection here. Back in the day when I would try to talk some sense into the lunatics at Indymedia, they would often present Azzam as the legitimate alternative to Western news services. It immediately raised numerous red flags -- the site was worse than Fox claims al-Jazeera to be, much worse -- and a little Googling found that it shared the name of Abdullah Azzam (alt link) (alt link), the mentor to Osama bin Laden and other terrorists who was assassinated in 1989. I figured it was a great place for the FBI to track people declaring their support for waging war against the US and forgot about it. It's a surprise to see Azzam in the news after not hearing of it for so long, but not a surprise to see the circumstances.

A word of warning: As I recall, at one time Azzam claimed to be the most read Arab news site in the world, even one of the top websites in the world, with millions of visitors a day. Apparently, this stuff sells.

Terror Web

Azzam is one of the most important Jehadi sites. Abdullah Azzam was the 'spiritual' mentor of bin Laden. and a founder of Al-Qaeda.

The Institute for Counter Terrorism in Israel reports: "Above all is the web site of the main ideological direction of the global Jihad – http://www.azzam.com.

I think the most important point is that the source is Azzam.com -- and it is served up from Houston Texas by Everyone's Internet -- also home of several other neonazi and terrorist sites such as the Al-Qassam Martyrs Brigade, Military Wing of Hamas, stormfront.org, and the Texas Knights of the Klu Klux Klan. Someone in the management of EV1.NET must not like Jews very much for them to go out of their way to protect these hate sites.

However, Azzam.com is just redirecting the domain to the 'mothership' where the content is really hosted:

Waaqiah.com at Vibus Limited, Belfast North Ireland.

17 posted on 10/24/02 7:47 PM Pacific by JohnathanRGalt

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