Posted on 08/30/2002 9:24:15 AM PDT by MadIvan
An Arab man accused of trying to hijack a Londonbound plane with 189 people on board has links with supporters of Osama bin Laden, it emerged today.
The 29-year-old Tunisian-born man is being questioned by Swedish police after he was caught with a loaded pistol in his hand luggage as he tried to board a Ryanair flight from Stockholm Vasteras airport to Stansted.
He was one of a 20-strong party on their way to an Islamic festival in Birmingham for followers of Salafi - a fundamentalist sect whose teachings are popular with Bin Laden's terror group al Qaeda.
All the al Qaeda suspects held in Europe last year were Salafi followers. Shoebomber Richard Reid, the Brixton man who attempted to blow up a Boston-bound airliner, was also a follower.
British security experts today flew out to Sweden to help question the latest suspect. American John Walker Lindh, who was caught fighting with the Taliban after converting to Islam, is known to have studied Salafi.
Scotland Yard said anti-terrorist and Special Branch detectives were liaising closely with Swedish police and forces in Essex and the West Midlands.
The loaded gun was found in a washbag in the hand luggage of the man as he passed through a checkpoint to board Flight FR685 to Stansted.
People on board the Boeing 737-800 told today how heavily-armed police suddenly surrounded the group, who were dressed in traditional Arab clothing, and handcuffed them at gunpoint.
Passenger Elin Dermeborg, 27, a Swedish social worker visiting a friend in the UK, said: "We all got on the plane, then the crew came around and said 'We have got a group of people on the flight we don't feel secure with'.
"There was a group of about 20 Somalians, some were wearing Muslim clothing, and they said they were on their way to an Islamic meeting in the UK.
"Everyone had to get off the plane and one of the Somalians, a guy wearing a red T-shirt, was arrested by the police. They handcuffed him and took him away.
"We were told by the airport staff he was trying to get a gun on the plane. Everyone was very calm, no one panicked."
Police drove the men away from the airport in coaches. Some were made to kneel with their hands behind their heads as officers stood over them. The handgun was detected by a security scanner.
The remaining passengers were taken off the plane and photographed by security men. The plane was delayed for more than six hours.
The latest incident comes as a draft report prepared by UN experts warned the world that Bin Laden's al Qaeda network is "alive and well".
Security sources in London said: " There are already widespread fears that supporters of Bin Laden may try to commit a new atrocity to coincide with the anniversary of 11 September. This incident has illustrated the need for constant vigilance and as a result our state of alert has been heightened even further."
Chief Inspector Anders Freyksell of Vasteras police said: "The gun was a small pistol loaded with three or four bullets."
Police spokesman Ulf Palm added: "We believe he was going to hijack the plane." Mr Palm said the man was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm. The suspect was said today to have a criminal record in Sweden for violence and theft.
The man is a Swedish national but was originally from Tunisia. Some of the Arab group had already boarded the plane yesterday afternoon when the weapon was found.
When questioned the suspect told them he did not know anything about the gun in his bag. The man told Swedish police he was on his way to the conference in Birmingham.
The conference - which attracts up to 3,000 Muslims from across Europe - is organised by Salafi.com, an Islamic online book shop. One of the key aims of the conference is to try to dispel the notion of links between Islam and terrorism.
We're in this together, even on a very practical level like that.
Fine. Then cut my logic in half and I do exclude the UK from this:
The subtext of what the Euros, the Continentals, are saying is, "Al Qaeda and militant Islam. Don't hit Europe. We are against the reckless George Bush waging war against Iraq. We admit millions of Muslim immigrants. Osama and associates, surely this must count for something!!!"
Thank you, I consulted my intelligence and didn't understand hardly any of this, except that the author is against the Salafi. :)
Yeah, the Swedes were trying their own new weapon against Islamic proselytism: tryign to turn them into gays. Way to go swedes, your secret weapon does not work... eh eh eh.
LOL, most of it is...except for the part about attracting people who already have particular tendencies and giving them a convenient outlet and justification for those tendencies.
As for me, when I read the part in your post about 3,000 of these phychos all packed together in a group, the first thing that ran through my head was......hmmmmm....PERFECT, AND JUST ABOUT THE RIGHT NUMBER TOO!!
I didn't understand most of it either...I used to think it was a languistic thing, until I picked up some of the Arabic language....now I know that it's just their way of double talking until the listeners' eyes are glazed over with total incomprehension while convincing them, in effect, that "MY jihad is better than THEIR jihad." (same message...different messenger)
Might you have meant "pathologically"?
But what exactly in this story supports the title, "Hijack link to bin Laden."
The best I can see is that they are all adherents to this Salafi "religious sect." My Venn diagram of terrorists and non-terrorists doesn't tell me that all folks in this Salafi group are therefore "Linked" to Mr. Terrorist himself.
Is this flimsy link the absolute best our intrepid intelligence services can come up with?
I remember seeing Big Ben when I was in London, as well as the other famous sites in Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Piccadilly, etc, etc. Yank though I am, I would be REALLY angry if they destroyed Big Ben or Westminster Abbey, etc. as well!!! Here on our side of the pond, there has been word for a long time that the muslim savages want to destroy the Statue of Liberty, too!!!!
I believe that "Salafi" is just another name for "Wahhabi", the brand of islamofascism eminating from Saudi Arabia.
They should just round up all the miscreants attending that terrorist "conference" and dump them in Ashcanistan! Come to think of it, that would be a good place to dump other supremacist muslims who are where they don't belong, such as those in the US, Kosovo, Bosnia, etc.!!!
Only if the Northern Alliance gets to punish them. I understand justice is quite swift in those parts.
Regards, Ivan
Perhaps. If so, the most likely target would be Britain, which backed the US war on terror 100% (Thank you Mr. Blair...I really respect you for that.) while the rest of EUroweenie land was saying..."but people might get KILLED", and "It's the fault of the vast, oppressive, pan-zionist conspiracy and we should try to feel the pain of the oppressed Arabs."
I imagine that, because the Brits are showing a spine, the psychos'll carry a grudge for that.
I'm with you 100%, and know the US will stand with Britain if anything like that happens. I've heard that about the Statue of Liberty too...I've often wondered why they didn't hit it. The only possibilities I can come up with are A:) It WAS a target, but one of the planes which hit the Towers missed it and picked up the easiest secondary, or B:) They were afraid to try, because engineer binOpiumLaden wasn't sure how much damage would be done to the copper statue. After all, he says himself how he understimated the damage that would be caused to the WTC.
"I believe that "Salafi" is just another name for "Wahhabi", the brand of islamofascism eminating from Saudi Arabia"
Yep.
I've wanted bin Laden dead for a long time - ever since it became clear he was responsible for the embassy bombings and the USS Cole. A real president would have had his head severed from his shoulders and stuck it on a spike on the White House lawn.
At the time, however, you had a President who was too busy perusing the personnel files and glossy 8 x 10 photos of the interns in his employ.
Best Regards, Ivan
The problem was that we didn't have a president at the time; not for eight years. We had an emptionally stunted frat boy playing Emperor of the US in the Oval Office, and being serviced by his sex slaves.
Well that was what I was implying, but I was being polite. ;)
Best Regards, Ivan
Can you please include our "Nation of Islam" militants?
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