Posted on 10/24/2002 5:12:32 AM PDT by Thane_Banquo
Preparing for Jihad ? in Alabama
Islamic Militant Training Camp Allegedly Operating in Alabama
July 25 ? A training camp linked to Islamic militants has been operating in Alabama, and European law enforcement officials believe Muslim extremists were using it to prepare for a holy war.
British authorities also thought that militants from overseas were training in the United States to take advantage of America's gun laws, sources told ABCNEWS. The looming question for law enforcement is whether there is a connection between the camp and the al Qaeda terror network.
An investigation by Britain's Scotland Yard led to the discovery of the camp in Marion, Ala. The facility is called "Ground Zero USA."
Bullet-riddled police cars and a school bus with mannequin targets are scattered around the property. Inside a huge shed is an equally macabre scene ? shot-up mannequins, male and female, in domestic settings, some with red, blood-like stains on them.
Ground Zero's operators promised state-of-the-art, world-class training in automatic weapons, urban warfare, SWAT tactics and martial arts, supposedly to fight terror attacks.
Marion Police Chief Tony Buford said he became suspicious of the use of police cars and buses as targets.
"It was rumored that the camp here was used as training site for possible people that were sent here to do bodily harm to Americans," Buford told ABCNEWS.
Web Site Provides Terror Link
The suspected terror ties of the Alabama camp were unknown until after Sept. 11, when officials in London arrested an accused al Qaeda supporter, Zain-ul-Albidin
He is charged with operation of a Web site, under the name of Sakina Security, allegedly recruiting Muslims for an Islamic jihad or holy war. He is now on trial in London.
The site, since taken down by British authorities, described what seemed to be the Alabama camp, including live-fire exercises at a state-of-the-art shooting range in the United States ? something that would not be legal in Britain.
"In the United States, it is not illegal for anyone to receive military training, high-grade military training," said Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al Qaeda.
The actual owners of camp, who are also British, say it was used primarily to train law enforcement personnel. Officials consider them unwitting accomplices. The camp owners declined to talk to ABCNEWS.
Scale of Secret Camps Unknown
It is not known how many holy war recruits came through the camp or when. But the FBI is now investigating a number of suspected training camps around the country.
"We know of a number of cases where Islamic terrorists came and training in this country in the early 1990s. It is likely that this scale of training is still continuing," Gunaratna said.
The most radical and belligerent of London's Islamic clerics, Abu Hamza, told ABCNEWS in a phone call that America's laws make such paramilitary training easy, "like a picnic."
British intelligence officials told ABCNEWS they are closely examining alleged ties between Hamza, who is said to have recruited alleged "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui, and Zain-ul-Albidin.
And you know this how?
I can't understand what your point is. Who has said that we should or should not arrest anyone based on their color or affiliation? You stated above that this is just a common criminal...I say Barbra Streisand. This guy is an angry black muslim who is evidently NOI affiliated. This takes it out of the realm of common criminality and places it squarely in the islamofascist post 9-11 worldview.
Get a grip!
However, in fairness, I have to ask this: one of MY measuring sticks for Muslim "loyalty" to the U.S. after 9/11 was enlistments. In 1917, German-Americans enlisted at double the rate of other groups. Likewise in WW II with Italian Americans (Japanese-Americans, due to clearance problems, had a harder time, but still enlisted). Where is the rush of Muslim-Amerians to enlist after 9/11? And, given the Major's comments, would that even be desirable?
Moreover, the EASE with which these people slip into anti-American violence at least SUGGESTS that there is something inherently anti-American about SOME of Islam, no?
What struck me as odd is that in the face of all this evidence (security for NOI, muslim conversion, post 9-11, sympathy for 9-11) you are so quick to say this is a common crime--I believe that that is nonsense.
I disagree annie. it's a religion thing . . . the religion of islam and their american-hating adherents.
Sorry, but their actions were decidedly UN-common. This requires a lot more examination before any definitive pronouncements are made... either way.
Reply #10 on that thread from freeperfromnj was amazingly precognizant:It is not known how many holy war recruits came through the camp or when. But the FBI is now investigating a number of suspected training camps around the country. "We know of a number of cases where Islamic terrorists came and training in this country in the early 1990s. It is likely that this scale of training is still continuing...
I don't think we know half of what's really been going on.
10 posted on 7/25/02 7:49 PM Eastern by freeperfromnj
What your basis for making this statement?
He is charged with operation of a Web site, under the name of Sakina Security, allegedly recruiting Muslims for an Islamic jihad or holy war. He is now on trial in London.
thinden, this is what you brought to light yesterday for me. Thanks.
That's EXACTLY what they are trying to say. Gun + white male = Gun Nut.
Under questioning, Abbasi said Ujaama introduced him to people at Al Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan, "thus enabling Abbasi's matriculation into a terrorism training camp," according to an FBI internal report.
The first arrest in the case came in May, when Osman, 32--who "helped coordinate" the Bly camp, according to the FBI document--was taken into custody as he turned up for his citizenship interview in Seattle with U.S. immigration authorities.
A search of his Tacoma apartment turned up various weapons, military maps and field manuals, "instructions on poisoning water sources," papers by Abu Hamza, "and various other items associated with Islamic radicalism," according to a law enforcement summary. Osman, a Navy reservist, pleaded guilty to a weapon charge and is said to be cooperating, hoping to avoid deportation.
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