London 'an al-Qaida intelligence centre'

Guardian/UK ^ | 6/26/02 | Nick Hopkins, crime correspondent

[kattracks]

Scotland Yard admitted yesterday it had "growing, darkening" concerns over the unwitting part the UK played in the development of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.

Assistant commissioner David Veness, head of special operations at the Metropolitan police, said that there was now evidence to show that Britain had been a base for terrorist communications, recruitment, propaganda and logistical support, and that the activity dated to the mid-1990s.

He said the Met wanted to trace a number of people who had gone missing after leaving Britain for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months and years before September 11.

But he insisted there was still no evidence to show the plot to attack the US last year was hatched or supported from Britain.

Mr Veness said, though, that the post-September 11 investigation - the biggest in the Met's history - had uncovered several worrying themes about al-Qaida.

"Emerging themes" included the financing of the terrorist group, the procurement of equipment, the supply of people from the UK to al-Qaida bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and communications between extremists.

"London, above all other UK cities, had been a focus of communication activity for al-Qaida," he said.

Last year, anti-terrorist police and security services warned that up to 200 British-based supporters of Osama bin Laden could pose a significant threat to the UK if they answered a call to arms. Mr Veness indicated that this figure had increased but he refused to say by how much.

He insisted that the concern about al-Qaida's development here had not made the UK more of a hub than France, Germany, Spain or Italy.

Scotland Yard is still more concerned about individual terrorist sleepers operating in the UK than the activities of fundamentalists like Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad.

[aristeides]

He said the Met wanted to trace a number of people who had gone missing after leaving Britain for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months and years before September 11.

I wonder how the instructions to leave the country were communicated to them.

[CJ Wolf]

perhaps Like this guy speaking freely at londons speakers corner in 1998?

[Dialup Llama]

Again the west must import its terrorists. The simple way to stop this is some form of reasonable immigration control. But no. The govt intellectuals and change agents would rather accept the deaths of thousands than stop these people at the border. It is a sign of sickness that a society cannot raise the simplest of defenses without controversy.

Looks like the UK needs the Dutch solution. Vote for more right wingers.

[Dialup Llama]

>Scotland Yard is still more concerned about individual terrorist sleepers operating in the UK than the activities of fundamentalists like Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad.

I may not be a Sherlock Holmes, but even Watson could realize there is a connection between the two.

[gaspar]

I hope someone tells Veness that the first organization devoted to the overthrow of the Saudi family and which had a direct relationship with OBL arrived in Britain in 1993. The Al Qaida office opened a year later. They sent out thousands of faxes every year from London and used the Muslim Student Association of the United States (at Ohio State U.) as one conduit to the mujahideen. Could it be that Scotland Yard under the Blair government was as politically correct as the FBI under Clinton?

[DTA]

Of course it was. Company and the "Firm" helped OBL to establish European springboard in Bosnia.

[aristeides]

John Major and the Tories were in power in 1993-4. This policy would appear bipartisan, I would guess because of the importance of petrodollars for the City of London.

[mikeIII]

I am glad you posted that picture. This kind of organized propoganda is NOT what the Speaker's Corner was intended for! It's another instance of the misuse and exploitation of the freedoms and liberties by the Islamists.

[CJ Wolf]

I took that picture a few days after we had tried to bomb afghanistan in response to the embassy bombings. They were in full swing and it was obvious they didn't act too nice to westerners.

[lepton]

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