Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Chemical war suits in London mosque
The Sunday Times ^ | January 26, 2003 | Hala Jaber and David Leppard

Posted on 01/25/2003 3:55:04 PM PST by MadIvan

DETECTIVES investigating a plot by Islamic terrorists to carry out a chemical weapons attack in Britain have found chemical warfare protection suits at a mosque in north London.

The NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) suits were discovered during a raid by 150 police officers on the Finsbury Park mosque last Monday. Informed sources said the discovery confirmed growing fears by police and MI5 that a chemical attack is being planned by supporters of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda movement in Britain.

Police announced after the raid they had seized a small arsenal of weapons including a stun gun, an imitation firearm and a CS gas canister.

But discovery of the NBC suits has been kept a closely guarded secret known only to a handful of senior officers. Ministers are acutely aware that any suggestion that the mosque may have been involved with chemical weapons could inflame racial tensions. Seven men — six north Africans and one eastern European — were arrested during the raid. Last night two were still being held under the terrorism act.

It is not known how many suits were found at the mosque or their purpose. However, police say there has so far been no evidence found of chemicals or anything that would pose an immediate threat to the public.

The suits are being analysed to see if there are any traces of ricin or other chemicals on them. Scientists at the defence science and technology laboratories at Porton Down are thought to have been consulted.

Police emphasised that the operation was not against the mosque itself or those who regularly attend it to pray.

Reda Husseine, an Algerian journalist once paid by French and British security services to infiltrate the mosque, said he had heard conversations by militants there about the possible use of chemical weapons. He said: “In 1999 and 2000, there were discussions about chemical, biological and even a possible attack with a ‘dirty bomb’ (a crudely constructed device containing uranium). I told British authorities about that. They dismissed it as rubbish.”

The mosque has been used by Abu Hamza, a radical Muslim cleric, to preach holy war against the West. Its visitors have included two would-be suicide bombers. One was Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber”, who tried to blow up a plane using plastic explosives in his shoe in December 2001. A second was Zacarias Moussaoui, the man the FBI claims was to be the 20th hijacker on September 11.

Scotland Yard has said the search of the mosque last week was linked to a raid earlier this month on a flat in Wood Green, north London, where ricin is believed to have been made. Four north Africans have been charged with being concerned in the development or production of chemical weapons.

Police mounted the operations after receiving information on New Year’s Day of a threatened chemical attack in Britain. Officers fear there may be chemical “factories” operating elsewhere in Britain.

Last month a chemical warfare suit was seized after French police arrested four suspects in a Paris suburb. Sources say that raid has helped investigators in Britain begin to unravel a new terrorist network.

A typical NBC suit consists of hooded overalls, protective boots and inner and outer gloves. A cloth outer suit impregnated with carbon and a respirator are designed to protect users from chemical, biological or nuclear fallout.

Scotland Yard said it was “not prepared to discuss” the investigation.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; canthandlethetruth; chemicalwarfare; mosque; warlist
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-114 next last
To: MadIvan
A Big "Religion of Peace" Bump!
61 posted on 01/25/2003 6:41:12 PM PST by carpio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
A former U.N. weapons inspector charged Friday that in the late 1990s French members of the UNSCOM inspection team actually tried to help Iraq conceal evidence of its weapons of mass destruction program.

"They gave them forewarning of the inspection targets," charged Bill Tierney, a former top U.N. weapons inspector, in an interview with radio host Sean Hannity.

62 posted on 01/25/2003 6:50:25 PM PST by concerned about politics (Achievement is politically incorrect.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
Remember, it's a religion of peace. Not bloody likely.

Bump

63 posted on 01/25/2003 6:56:05 PM PST by Samwise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doug from upland
There are 10 of them within 10 miles of me.

We have only one within 20 miles, and when I checked 50 miles, it just posted the same one.
I guess there's something to be said for rural living I guess.

64 posted on 01/25/2003 7:03:42 PM PST by concerned about politics (Achievement is politically incorrect.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: Samwise
It's no accident that the French, along with Germany, have now lined up in opposition to U.S. plans to use military force to neutralize Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction program. Especially since, according to at least one former top Iraqi nuclear scientist, Paris helped Baghdad go nuclear in the first place.

According to Dr. Khidir Hamza, who ran Saddam's nuclear bombmaking program in the early 1990s, Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor was built by the French. When the Israelis determined that the reactor's real purpose was to make nuclear weapons, they destroyed it in a 1981 bombing raid.

"From the moment Osirak was hit we knew we had to try another method to get the bomb," Dr. Hamza told the Washington Times in September 2002.

65 posted on 01/25/2003 7:07:21 PM PST by concerned about politics (Achievement is politically incorrect.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
Rasmussen's data ( poll )also suggest U.N. inspections have convinced more Americans that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Seventy-five percent now believe that Saddam Hussein has nuclear or biological weapons. That figure is up from 69 percent earlier in the month. Only 8 percent think Hussein is telling the truth in declaring he has no such weapons.
66 posted on 01/25/2003 7:20:47 PM PST by concerned about politics (Achievement is politically incorrect.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw; knighthawk; SJackson
Ping list pings.

Holy snikes!
67 posted on 01/25/2003 7:21:41 PM PST by FreedomPoster (This space intentionally blank)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
That mosque should be leveled.
68 posted on 01/25/2003 7:22:39 PM PST by FreedomPoster (This space intentionally blank)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam; MadIvan; Brad C.
"But discovery of the NBC suits has been kept a closely guarded secret known only to a handful of senior officers. Ministers are acutely aware that any suggestion that the mosque may have been involved with chemical weapons could inflame racial tensions." (BTW: doing this violates several articles of the Geneva Convention but hey this is a religion of peaceful assimulation)

This is better understood with "WE ARE BORG. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED." The worries are accurate because if the media got it out to the world the BORG and the BORG CUBE would be destroyed where ever they could be found.
69 posted on 01/25/2003 7:23:22 PM PST by SandRat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
The New York Times has published a full-page advertisement for an Iraqi-based terrorist group that boasts of the support the group has received from 150 members of Congress.

The group, the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, claims to have thousands of armed members based in military camps in Iraq, financed and equipped by Saddam Hussein.

70 posted on 01/25/2003 7:27:49 PM PST by concerned about politics (Achievement is politically incorrect.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
Ministers are acutely aware that any suggestion that the mosque may have been involved with chemical weapons could inflame racial tensions.

Then I suppose the suits were for a tea party? Costume Ball?

71 posted on 01/25/2003 7:29:10 PM PST by DAnconia55 (Let's practice seperation of religion from heads. Muslims, specifically....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan; knighthawk
Seven men — six north Africans and one eastern European — were arrested during the raid. Last night two were still being held under the terrorism act.

Does that mean five of them have been released?

Wasn't there also a BIOHAZARD suit found in the possession of that Islamist Kaplan when he was arrested in Germany?

72 posted on 01/25/2003 7:38:34 PM PST by aristeides
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cultural Jihad; Jhoffa_
ping.
73 posted on 01/25/2003 7:39:14 PM PST by Dec31,1999
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: tortoise
But, if the purpose of the suits is to give the perps confidence while they are carrying out their nefarious deeds, they will serve that purpose as long as the perps think they will work, whether or not in fact they do.
74 posted on 01/25/2003 7:42:04 PM PST by aristeides
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
Ministers are acutely aware that any suggestion that the mosque may have been involved with chemical weapons could inflame racial tensions.

I guess the authorities are concerned citizens are going to storm the mosque with rakes and pitchforks ( they haven't been outlawed have they?)

75 posted on 01/25/2003 7:46:12 PM PST by Vinnie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
Gee...but what aboout that long, whing article about the mean old policemen, charging Gestapo-like into the mosque, and Muslims are victims of terrorism too, and nobody likes us, no one is NICE to us...and I forgot what all else they were whining about; the usual BS.

Tomorrow, I suppose we'll see another whiny editorial about how it isn't MUSLIMS' faults that HAZMAT suits were stashed in THEIR Mosque...which happens to be connected to the ricin investigation.

76 posted on 01/25/2003 7:50:29 PM PST by cake_crumb (Typos are my frends. They follow me wherever I go.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doug from upland
Very intersting to see what is within 10, 20 or 50 miles
77 posted on 01/25/2003 8:05:59 PM PST by NetValue (Orwell was right.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

Comment #78 Removed by Moderator

To: MadIvan
Yet another "example" of Islam - the religion of peace?!
79 posted on 01/25/2003 8:20:13 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
But discovery of the NBC suits has been kept a closely guarded secret known only to a handful of senior officers. Ministers are acutely aware that any suggestion that the mosque may have been involved with chemical weapons could inflame racial tensions

Hmmm ... which race is starting this crap again ???

You don't go to MOPP-4 (Boots, Mask, Gloves and suit) unless you're dealing with a contact agent.

Someone better find the sarin, VX and tabun fast. This is turning into a surrealistic nightmare.

80 posted on 01/25/2003 8:28:05 PM PST by Centurion2000 (The meek shall inherit the Earth. The stars belong to the bold.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-114 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson