Doh !
Posted on 03/03/2005 6:35:23 PM PST by blam
Terror threat from 'very many' Muslim men, says Met chief
By John Steele, Home Affairs Correspondent
(Filed: 04/03/2005)
Britain faces a potential terrorist threat from "very many" Muslim men who returned to Britain after spending time in training camps in Afghanistan, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday.
Sir Ian Blair, whose force, with MI5, leads anti-terrorism work in Britain, was asked if he supported the assertion of the Prime Minister earlier this week that there were "several hundred people in the UK plotting terror attacks".
The commissioner told LBC radio in London: "Yes, I am aware of the fact that there are very many people who came back from the camps in Afghanistan and who are therefore potentially a threat to the United Kingdom.
"And I agree with the Prime Minister's assessment, on that basis, that there are hundreds of people who came back from the camps and are now in the United Kingdom, and that is a very dangerous issue for us all."
Scotland Yard sources made clear Sir Ian was referring to training camps run by al-Qa'eda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which were destroyed in the military campaign by American and British forces after the attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001.
Security chiefs have said privately for some time that the radicalising influence of the "jihadists" who attended the camps and went to Muslim-related conflicts in Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir is at the heart of the threat to Britain.
Saajit Badat, from Gloucester, who admitted plotting to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb, spent time in the camps.
In the radio interview, Sir Ian also supported the comments made earlier this week by Hazel Blears, Home Office minister, that Muslims would be disproportionately affected by anti-terrorist stops and searches by police.
"I think that Hazel is right to say it and I have said something similar in the past," Sir Ian said. "The fact is the terrorism regulations around stop and search do not require individual suspicion, they're much more akin to searches around an airport.
"In this case, while I am very concerned about the Muslim community's sense of belonging, we do have to accept that the events around the Gloucester shoe bomber do show us that there are people within that community who misguidedly, and entirely in conflict with the values of Islam, are prepared to use violence against the United Kingdom.
"Therefore we have to do something with this and I think there would be a much greater outcry if we did absolutely nothing and part of London disappeared in smoke."
At the home affairs select committee on Tuesday, Miss Blears told MPs: "The threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam. It means that some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community. I think that is the reality and I think we should recognise that."
The "disproportionality" argument on anti-terrorism stops and searches, which do not require police suspicion and are aimed in part at disruption, is based on calculations that Asians are stopped in higher numbers than their proportion of the population would merit.
However, Met figures show that the proportion of London stops involving Asian people fell between 2002/3 and 2003/4.
• A court hearing an attempt by the US government to extradite a British man accused of terrorist offences involving American websites inciting the murder of American forces in Afghanistan and urging Muslims to fight a holy war, was adjourned yesterday.
The hearing wants to establish whether there is a "real risk" that Babar Ahmad, 30, from Tooting, south London, could be transferred from US civilian courts to the American military justice system.
His lawyers argued at Bow Street magistrates' court in London that, if he were to be designated an "enemy combatant", he could be held indefinitely without trial in a military prison or put before a military tribunal, in breach of the human rights which underpin extradition law.
Senior District Judge Timothy Workman said the issue was "clearly a matter of considerable concern and must be resolved".
I know how you feel, my friend!
Keep your powder dry.
Here's a thought: Maybe western nations can start to think about limiting immigration from problem countries, to only the women and children.
No men allowed.
Let the male children grow up without the influence of their radical fathers.
It's a thought.
Someone tell me it's wrong. I'd like to know why.
And I don't want to hear how terrible it is to split up families, either, since that's essentially what the Great Society did to black families in the US for 40 or more years.
Shouldnt the Brits have been worried about this for say, the last four years? They did bust that castor seed cell.....
But they havent had any attacks....knock on wood.
Multiculturalism is downfall, bring people in from all over the world with different cultures, values, relgions, and loyalties and it's nothing but disaster and violence.
Same thing happen to Babylon. We never learn.
So the Brits allow profiling of Muslims to prevent terrorism? Makes sense to me.
Doh !
(Okay, okay, so I need a little work on the accent...)
Religion of "peace" Allah Fubar ping!
Nice.
Yeah, that makes sense. And if you're trying to cut down truancy, you're better off if you don't concentrate disproportionately on children. Pull over grown adults during school hours just to make the bedwetters happy.
"entirely in conflict with the values of Islam"
Poor bastard, he has no idea of the type of fight he's in for soon. Damn shame.
"entirely in conflict with the values of Islam"
Poor bastard, he has no idea of the type of fight he's in for soon. Damn shame.
Double post..oh well. It's the truth.
"...misguidedly, and entirely in conflict with the values of Islam, are prepared to use violence against the United Kingdom."
Dead country walking.
It's not the fathers, IT'S THE MOSQUES!
No mosques, no islam, no terrorists, no kidding.
Yes, it's the mosques, it's the imams in those mosques too.
But banning mosques probably won't fly, at least not for a long time.
The west is just not awake enough yet. We're not at the point that we will ban the mosques.
We can't even force the Saudis to stop funding the ones in the US!
OUCH! ROTFL
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