Posted on 08/11/2006 9:08:37 AM PDT by knighthawk
A pizza shop owner and a biochemist. An airport worker and the son of a political official. Husbands and fathers. Students as young as 17. Meet the faces of terror. Meet the madmen next door.
Outside the view of friends, family and neighbors, a group of suburban men were allegedly plotting a terror campaign to rival - and even exceed - the bloodshed of 9/11.
But in a series of raids that began before dawn yesterday, British police arrested 24 people - most of them sons of Britain, most of them never suspected of any wrongdoing by their neighbors. Several communities awoke yesterday to the stunning news that a murderous terror plot, with suspected ties to Al Qaeda, was hatched right in their midst.
The Bank of England froze the accounts of 19 of the suspects early today.
Among those taken into custody yesterday were Amjad and Assad Sawar, brothers who ran a car import business.
"They're good mates of mine and Muslims. One has a baby girl and he loves his wife to bits. These guys would never do any terrorism," said a stunned neighbor, Ashiq Rasul.
The two brothers lived quietly in High Wycombe, a commuter town northwest of London, British media said. Nine homes near the Sawar house were evacuated as police searched it and emerged with large boxes filled with confiscated items.
"They are perfect neighbors," said Gerald Stevens, 84.
The Sawar brothers are in their 20s, of Pakistani descent and are big cricket fans. The two had become "very religious" in recent years, neighbors said.
Phil Redfern, who went to school with the pair, said they began to shun mainstream mosques a few years ago and instead frequented a smaller mosque behind a nearby Islamic bookshop.
Another suspect, Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, also of High Wycombe, converted to Islam just six months ago and recently married. He appeared to have settled down after a youth filled with drugs and booze.
"He admitted to me he used to be a naughty boy, smoking spliffs and drinking, but he is all right now. I can't believe this is happening," Shauib Bahatti, whose son went to school with the suspect, told London's Daily Mirror.
Stewart-Whyte lives with his mother, who was away on vacation when the terror squad swept in and hauled him away in handcuffs.
Oliver Savant, a taxi driver and now a suspect in the mass murder plot, was another convert to Islam. He's 25 with a pregnant wife.
"I'm outraged. We're shocked and angry that we're being put through this. He's married, a newlywed expecting a baby. Our parents are traumatized, as you would expect," his brother Adam told the Mirror.
Retired fireman Paul Kleinman, 66, said he's known Savant, of Walthamstow, northeast of London, "since the day he was born.
"He was a very polite young man. Oliver started putting on Muslim robes and growing his beard long a few years back," he told the Daily Mail. Other friends said he had begun to go by the name Ibrahim.
The youngest suspect, Abdul Muneem Patel, was only 17.
Also arrested yesterday were Waheed Zaman, a biochemistry student, and Amin Asmin Tariq, who works at London's Heathrow Airport.
A close family friend told the Daily Mail that Tariq, a security guard, had been arrested in a dawn raid in a quiet residential street in Walthamstow.
The 23-year-old had recently married and had a 3-week-old baby named Axa. He was described by neighbors as the "least religious" of the close-knit Muslim family, the paper said.
Zaman is a well-known political activist and head of the Islam Society at London Metropolitan University, the paper said.
"He loves fish and chips and Liverpool Football Club," Zaman's shocked sister Safeena told The Times of London.
In Walthamstow, Wendy Phillips, 31, said two men were arrested near her home. They had bought a house for cash - unusual in expensive London - and just moved in last month, she said. A "SOLD" sign still stood in front.
"It's scary when it's on your doorstep," Phillips said. "You start wondering who you're living next door to." Neighbors thought two bearded men, possibly from north Africa or Pakistan, lived in the home.
Amar Singh, 17, stood on the corner across the street from the house talking animatedly with friends about the alleged plot.
"I'm shocked," Singh said. "This is usually a quiet area."
Police also arrested more suspects at two other homes in Walthamstow.
Neighbors said one of those man arrested was Usman Saddique, 24, who runs a pizza shop. He was believed to be a childhood friend of Ibrahim Savant.
The 24 suspects arrested so far in the air terror plot were mostly British Muslims of Pakistani descent, officials said yesterday.
"They were in most cases second- and third-generation Kashmiri-Pakistanis," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-L.I.) told the Daily News.
Kashmir is a disputed region bordering Pakistan and India, which both countries have fought over. Al Qaeda has ties to militant Kashmiri separatists and operates training camps there.
"He admitted to me he used to be a naughty boy, smoking spliffs and drinking, but he is all right now."
Apparently he loves the whole world to bits.
"And holy cr@p am I in denial about my faith!"
Seriously, when you look at the universal level of denial in the "Muslim community" it simply can only be accounted for by demon possession.
The two had become "very religious" in recent years, neighbors said.
Oh, you're "shocked and angry." How the hell do you think the loved ones of a few thousand airline passengers would have felt?
My intolerance toward "mainstream" "moderate" Islam is rapidly beginning to harden because of stuff like this. I've always been one of those that thought just a small minority of "radicals" was the problem. Now, I'm not so sure.
}:-)4
"They're good mates of mine and Muslims. One has a baby girl and he loves his wife to bits. These guys would never do any terrorism," said a stunned neighbor, Ashiq Rasul. Time to tap this bloke's phones and watch him real closely!!
'Nice guys' next door plotted horrific attacks.
That's part of the problem, they're not nice guys. Librals want them to be like us, deep down inside the hearts of a terrorist is a nice guy wanting to get out. All we have to do is be nice to him and his nice guy will emerge.
They're not nice guys. They are killers and want to kill everyone and no counter argument is going to get them to change their mind.
Our only option is either to kill all of them or kill enough of them so that the rest give up.
Ping
Weren't similar things said about Ted Bundy?
12 days from apocalypse
By Fiona Hudson in London
THE 24 people accused of plotting despicable mass murder are almost all British citizens who appeared to lead ordinary suburban lives.
A Heathrow airport worker, a cake seller, two cricket-loving brothers and two recent Muslim converts were among the two dozen suspects arrested in a series of dramatic raids across London and Birmingham.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday described as a "chilling new dimension'' the terrorists' plans to use liquid chemical bombs to blow up planes over five US cities.
The arrests came just 12 days before the date of the planned attacks - August 22. A test run was believed to be planned for coming days. Early this morning it was revealed police discovered an airline ticket to fly next Wednesday but its significance was not confirmed.
The youngest of those arrested is just 17 years of age and there were reports a mother of a six-month-old baby was among those questioned.
One of the Muslim converts, Don Stewart-Whyte, 21 - now known as Abdul Waheed - has been described by acquaintances as a recently married mummy's boy. Abdul Waheed, who had been a Christian schoolboy, told friends he decided to follow a new religion six months ago because it "just clicked''.
His widowed mother, a PE teacher, told a neighbour a few months ago her son had found a new faith.
"She was concerned but had accepted it,'' the neighbour said.
The other convert, event manager Oliver Savant, 26 - known as Ibrahim - is also a newlywed, with a baby on the way.
His brother Adam told reporters his sibling was "just a normal Londoner''.
Their long-time neighbour Paul Kleinman, 66, recalled a quiet young boy who used to play soccer and the trumpet before converting to Islam in his teens.
Heathrow security worker Amin Tariq, 23, is believed to be a new dad who had worked at the airport for three years.
Another suspect, biochemistry student Waheed Zaman, 23, is a devout Muslim who was head of his university's Islamic Society.
He was watching television with his sister Safeen when police swooped. She told The Sun newspaper her brother loved fish and chips, and was a Liverpool fan. She said she couldn't understand why police had handcuffed him and taken him away.
US reports suggested two men who run a confectionery factory in Birmingham might be among the plot ringleaders.
The Rauf brothers are understood to run a cake distribution business and own several properties including a house where girls go for Islamic lessons.
Neighbour June Lethbridge, 85, said the family had lived there for 12 years.
"They've always been very pleasant,'' she said.
Brothers Amjad and Assad Sarwar, both in their 20s, were said to be polite and friendly. Amjad reportedly has a child.
Old school friend Phil Redfern said they had recently started attending a new mosque near an Islamic bookshop.
At some of the raided properties, police took away boxes, computers, files and several large sums of cash - including about $400,000 from one property.
Chancellor Gordon Brown moved to freeze the assets of 19 suspects after claims the ringleaders had thousands of pounds in savings accounts.
It is feared the money was transferred from Pakistan to help some of the accused terror cell leaders buy airline tickets vital to the plot.
Under the new terror laws police can hold each of the suspects for up to 28 days.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20095912-5001021,00.html
Right.
I've said for years on FR, upsetting the legion of 'nice guys,' that 'nice guys' are in fact often not very nice at all!
Only if the religion is Islam!!
Very religious Christians and Bhuddists and Hindus don't blow up airplanes! They usually end up doing some good in the community. Very religious Islamists end up blowing thier community to hell!
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