Posted on 05/04/2003 8:47:23 AM PDT by knighthawk
Britain's MI5 knew that the two Britons who carried out a suicide bombing in Israel last week had links to Islamic extremists, but they decided the pair were not potential terrorists, officers of the security service say.
In an MI5 investigation of Islamic terrorism, Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif were identified as part of the hardline al-Muhajiroun movement, but were not put under constant surveillance because they were thought to be on the group's fringes, the officers said.
Last week Hanif, 21, killed himself and three Israelis when he detonated a belt full of explosives in a Tel Aviv bar.
Police are hunting Sharif, 27, who fled when his explosive-packed vest failed to detonate.
Police disclosed that six people arrested under anti-terrorism laws on Friday and Saturday were family members or friends of Sharif. As the investigations continued, another friend of Sharif said he, too, would become a suicide bomber, and he expected similar attacks in Britain. Shakil Mohammed, 31, who grew up in the same neighbourhood as Sharif in the Midlands town of Derby, met him in March. He said: "I would volunteer: more and more people will follow him."
Detectives said that Sharif was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group that seeks to unite all Islamic states under a single regime. It is banned in a number of countries.
MI5 officers said the security service knew for several years that Sharif had attended meetings in Derby of al-Muhajiroun, which advocates the overthrow of Western democracies. Hanif attended meetings of the group in west London. MI5 had also known that Sharif was connected to a mosque where a radical cleric, Abu Hamza, preached until recently.
Evidence gathered during the MI5 investigation in which Sharif's name came to officers' attention led to the arrest in March of eight men in Derby for terrorism offences. They were released and the security service found no evidence Sharif or Hanif were involved in terrorism.
Israel said it would deport peace activists from Gaza and the West Bank after it emerged that Hanif and Sharif posed as such to move freely across heavily guarded checkpoints.
"We have lost patience with the so-called activists," an Israeli official said. "Now we will adopt a zero-tolerance policy."
Britain has demanded an inquiry into the Israeli military's shooting death of a British television cameraman, James Miller, in a Palestinian refugee camp where he was making a documentary on the impact of violence on Palestinian children.
The Telegraph, London and agencies
Good thing they're as incompetent as they are crazy.
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