APN / IPS : Teenage Terror Plot or Wild Imagination?

APN : Teenage Terror Plot or Wild Imagination?

IPS : Teenage Terror Plot or Wild Imagination?

Matthew Cardinale | August 21, 2009

ATLANTA, Georgia, Aug 21 (IPS) - Following a seven-day trial, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, was convicted in a U.S. federal court earlier this month on several counts of providing material support to terrorists and the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET), a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

However, activists and the Sadequee family say that Shifa - Sadequee's nickname - was just a teenager with a vivid imagination who had no real intention of harming the U.S.

In addition to chatting online with friends about "jihad" in radical online forums, Sadequee made amateur videotapes of dozens of Washington, DC-area landmarks.

According to the Justice Department, Sadequee later sent several of the clips to Younis Tsouli, a propagandist and recruiter for al Qaeda in Iraq, and to Aabid Hussein Khan, a facilitator for LET and the Palestinian terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM). Tsouli and Khan have since been convicted of terrorism-related offences in Britain.

Authorities say Sadequee sent an email expressing interest in joining the Taliban in 2001, and he later met with other suspected terrorists, including Syed Harris Ahmed, a former Georgia Tech University student who faces a 15-year-prison sentence.

They charge that Sadequee and Ahmed traveled to Toronto in March 2005 and met with others, including Fahim Ahmed, one of the "Toronto 18" suspects now awaiting a terrorism trial in Canada, to discuss joining LET, allegedly in order to prepare for a violent jihad in the U.S. or abroad.

Sadequee went to Bangladesh in August 2005. Authorities say he continued to communicate with Syed Ahmed as well as other suspected terrorists, including Mirsad Bektasevic, a Balkan-born Swede who was convicted in Bosnia in 2007 of planning to blow up a European target.

Sadaquee was arrested in Bangladesh, according to the Justice Department. However, advocates and relatives say he was kidnapped and tortured, and that he served three years in prison with no trial until this month.

"He faces charges that rely on scant evidence of teenagers chatting back and forth, plans for a website that included translations of previously published scholarly texts, and photos of buildings that were never disseminated or posted," the Free Shifa Committee said in a statement.

Sadequee faces sentencing in October 2009 and could get up to 60 years in federal prison, followed by a term of supervised release up to life, and a one million dollar fine.

"Shifa's statement and cross-examination of the witness, Omar Kamal, asserted that the young men wrote emails, participated in online chats, and visited websites from the ages of 15-19 as a way to make sense of their faith," the statement from Free Shifa said.

"In no way did their activities show the formation of a plan with a defined who, where, when, and what. Shifa said in the opening statements, 'We said a lot about a lot of things,' but 'empty talk' did not amount to conspiracy to provide material support in the form of 'personnel' to terrorist organisations," the group said.

"Sadequee opened with a challenge to the government's limited understanding of the term 'jihad' asserting that the correct interpretation of the term includes details of Islamic law, religious guidelines, and does not mean violence or war. He also presented a challenge to the notion that he and other young men committed 'conspiracy' citing the dictionary that conspiracy includes a plan," Free Shifa said.

"After 9/11 the U.S. government was ready with hundreds of pages of how they were gonna change the law to make it work for them and start a war on terror that had no definitions and no definable end," Stephanie Guilloud, an activist with Project South, said in a video posted on the website, Youtube.

"Eight years later, we're here at a case in Georgia of a 15-year-old who was so angry at that point he didn't know what he do. So he started to find other Islam folks, other folks in his community and his religion to understand what his responsibility was," Guilloud said.

"He's been inside for three years in solitary confinement. The government has pulled out all the stops in the law and in this legal strategy. They have kept and suppressed all evidence of how he was kidnapped in Bangladesh illegally, kidnapped and brought over to this country in order to charge him with these counts," Guilloud said.

"The LET... one of the terrorist organisations that they're accusing him of beginning to intend to start becoming a part of, didn't even exist at the time and also was not registered in the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organisation until... two weeks after Shifa was arrested," Guilloud said.

"These facts are being denied by a Bush-era, Bush-appointed judge... who's running this legal strategy, and suppressing more evidence of even how did they get all this evidence? One of the FBI agents testified today that she wrote emails to Shifa pretending to be his friend so they could trap him into saying whatever, whatever they wanted to charge him with," Guilloud added.

But the U.S. government insisted it is necessary to fight terrorism by preventing would-be terrorists from taking action, and they did not address the claims made by Free Shifa nor Project South in their statement.

"This case [is] a sobering reminder that terrorism and its supporters are not confined to distant battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan," the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia David E. Nahmias said in a statement.

"As recent events further demonstrate, there are still some American citizens willing to take up arms against the United States... In the face of this clear threat, federal law enforcement must and will remain vigilant, seeking to disrupt future terrorist networks before a timer is ticking or a trigger is pulled," he said.

"As we move further away from the tragic events of Sep. 11, 2001, there also seems to be a growing public perception that such conduct is harmless, especially since no bombs were exploded and no one was killed," said Atlanta FBI Special Agent in Charge Gregory Jones.

"This defendant, like many others we have investigated, tried to argue that his criminal conduct and activities were protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The FBI does not buy that argument and today the jury agreed," he said on Aug. 12.

SJ Mercury : Pakistan militants strengthen in heartland

Pakistan militants strengthen in heartland

By CHRIS BRUMMITT | Associated Press Writer | March 23, 2009

BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan — The compound bore no sign. Residents referred to it simply as the school for "jihadi fighters," speaking in awe of the expensive horses stabled within its high walls—and the extremists who rode them bareback in the dusty fields around it. In classrooms nearby, teachers drilled boys as young as 8 in an uncompromising brand of Islam that called for holy war against enemies of the faith. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Dar-ul-uloom Madina school, they rocked back and forth as they recited sections of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

Both facilities are run by an al-Qaida-linked terror network, Jaish-e-Mohammed, in the heart of Pakistan, hundreds of miles from the Afghan border that is the global focus of the fight against terrorism. Their existence raises questions about the government's pledge to crack down on terror groups accused of high-profile attacks in Pakistan and India, and ties to global terror plots.

Authorities say militant groups in Punjab are increasingly sending out fighters to Afghanistan and the border region, adding teeth to an insurgency spreading across Pakistan that has stirred fears about the country's stability and the safety of its nuclear weapons.

The horse-riding facility, discovered by The Associated Press during a visit to this impoverished region where miles of dusty, wind-swept desert spread out in all directions, had never before been seen by journalists.

There, would-be jihadi fighters practice martial arts, archery and horse-riding skills and get religious instruction, according to a former member of Jaish-e-Mohammed, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified by ex-comrades or authorities.

Horse-riding is considered by many extremists to be especially merit-worthy because the pursuit is referenced in Islamic teachings on jihad.

Pakistan has seen a string of attacks, including the ambush this month of Sri Lankan cricket players in the Punjab capital, Lahore, and a truce with extremists in Swat less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad, that have heightened alarm in Washington and other Western capitals that the country is slipping into chaos.

Amid the near daily onslaught of violence, the country's president and opposition leader have been locked in a bitter political dispute that has exposed the weakness of the civilian government less than a year after it took over following years of military rule by Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan outlawed Jaish in 2001, but has done little to enforce the ban, partly out of fear of a backlash but also because it and other groups in Punjab were created by the powerful intelligence agencies as a proxy force in Afghanistan and Kashmir, a territory disputed with rival India.

"You can say Jaish is running its business as usual," said Mohammed Amir Rana, from Pakistan's Institute for Peace Studies, which tracks militant groups. "The military wants to keep alive its strategic options in Kashmir. The trouble is you cannot restrict the militants to one area. You cannot keep control of them."

Apart from the martial arts and horse riding center, Jaish militants openly operate two imposing boarding schools in Bahawalpur, a dusty town of 500,000 people. Food, lodging and tuition are free for their 500 students, paid for by donations from sympathizers across the country.

A top police officer said the schools and other hard-line establishments in the area were used to recruit teens and young men for jihadi activities in Pakistan's northwest or in Afghanistan. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A guard wielding an automatic weapon stood at the gate of the Usman-o-Ali school and turned a visiting AP team away. But the head teacher at nearby Dar-ul-uloom Madina school allowed the group a tour and an interview.

Ataur Rehman said none of the students were allowed to be recruited for jihad while studying there, but added that he could not stop them joining up after they graduated.

"We have made it clear: our focus is teaching, teaching and teaching," he said in his damp threadbare office as a student served sweet, milky tea and biscuits. "But if someone does something independently, we cannot be held responsible."

In classrooms, students ranging in age from 8 to their mid-20s sat shoulder-to-shoulder along wooden planks as they chanted Quranic verses; one of the youngest boys broke off briefly from his studies and grinned at a visiting reporter.

In the kitchen, men stirred huge pots of chicken curry, washed potatoes and made fresh bread. Outside, workers mixed cement for a new cafeteria and dormitory.

The walled complex with the horse stables was on the outskirts of town, and from the road, laborers could be seen working on a building toward the rear of the compound.

Home to more than half of Pakistan's 160 million people, Punjab's large cities are centers of wealth and political power, but in towns like Bahawalpur, poverty is widespread.

Last year, the governor of Pakistan's border region warned that insurgent commanders and suicide bombers were increasingly coming from Punjab. Afghan police officers also say Punjabi fighters are becoming common there.

"Pakistani citizens, and especially Punjabis, are the Taliban trainers in the area for bomb-making," said Asadullah Sherzad, police chief in Afghanistan's insurgency-wracked Helmand province, adding there are around 100 Punjabis at any one time in that area of Afghanistan.

A police officer in Bahawalpur said Jaish members were not believed to be training with weapons in the town's schools and other facilities, adding that law enforcement agencies had infiltrated the group. He spoke on condition of anonymity because sections of the government and security agencies disagreed on the need to crack down on the group.

Jaish is believed to have been formed in 2000 by hard-line cleric Masood Azhar after he was freed from an Indian prison in exchange for passengers on a hijacked Indian Airlines flight that landed in Taliban-controlled southern Afghanistan the same year.

Azhar was born in Bahawalpur, though the government says his current whereabouts are not known. A small stall outside the Usman-o-Ali school sells his speeches and writings.

"When my brother's blood is shed in Afghanistan, when he is a victim of bombs, then does America expect us to offer it flowers?" he proclaims in a recording of an undated speech. "America you should listen... We will not let you live in peace so long as we are alive."

In 2007, British militant suspect Rashid Rauf was seized at the Usman-o-Ali school on suspicion of links to a failed plot to blow up jetliners over the Atlantic in 2007. Rauf, who escaped Pakistani custody and was reported to have been killed last year in a U.S. missile strike close to the border, is related by marriage to Azhar.

Jaish members and leaders are also suspected in the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002, and in a bombing the same year in the city that killed 11 French engineers.

Jaish and other groups still recruit in villages in southern Punjab, according to the ex-Jaish member and another former militant who fought in Afghanistan.

The Usman-o-Ali school "requires each student to attend some sort of jihad training or practice each year," the ex-Jaish operative said, adding that the hot months of June and July were the prime recruiting period.

————

Associated Press writers Asif Shahzad and Rahim Faiz contributed to this report from Bahawalpur.

Sunday Mercury : Was Birmingham-born militant Rashid Rauf behind Mumbai attack?

Was Birmingham-born militant Rashid Rauf behind Mumbai attack?

By Ben Goldby | November 29, 2008

INTELLIGENCE bosses are set to launch a probe into suspected links between Birmingham-born militant Rashid Rauf and last week’s terror attack in Mumbai.

Security forces in India will examine connections between two Islamist Kashmiri groups thought to be behind the Mumbai assault, which has claimed almost 200 lives, and Rauf, who was known to be a member of both terror groups.

Rauf, 27, from Ward End, Birmingham –an Al Qaeda suspect said to be the “key player” behind the alleged liquid bomb plot to blow up transatlantic airliners – was killed in a missile strike last Saturday in North Western Pakistan by an unmanned US drone.

Sources have now revealed that he was planning a major attack at the time of his death, and that the Mumbai murders show all the hallmarks of one of Rauf’s “terror spectacular” plots.

The Indian Mujahidin, which carried out a blast in Delhi in September and warned that they would strike next in Mumbai, is understood to have been behind this week’s terror outrage.

The group is made up of several different militant organisations, the most dangerous of which are the Pakistani-based Kashmiri “freedom” movements Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM).

Rauf was known to have strong links to both organisations.

He married a relative of JEM’s founder and worked with LET to train British jihadis who travelled to Pakistan. London 7/7 bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Siddique Khan both studied at an LET madrassa near Lahore in 2004.

Last night, a terror expert told the Sunday Mercury: “It is understood that this attack in Mumbai is the work of the Indian Mujahidin, based on plans and support from Kashmiri groups based in Pakistan.

“The planning seems to have been done by an Islamist militant group called Lashkar-e-Toiba and they have close links to other Kashmiri fighters including Jaish-e-Mohammed.

“In Rashid Rauf we have a man who dreamed up an alleged plot to blow up 10 transatlantic planes. We know he plotted spectacular attacks and we know that we was planning a terror operation when he was killed.

“This attack in Mumbai, with the synchronised terror strikes in multiple locations, is certainly consistent with his approach to militant tactics.”

Rauf fled to the tribal areas of North Western Pakistan in April, 2002 as West Midlands Police tried to question him over the death of his uncle Mohammed Saeed in Alum Rock.

The former Washwood Heath High School pupil sought sanctuary in his family’s ancestral village of Haveli Bagal after he was named as the prime suspect in his uncle’s murder.

He married a relative of JEM founder and spiritual leader Maulana Masood Azhar in 2003 and turned to radical Islam.

Intelligence reports say he took an active role in planning terror attacks and was the alleged ringleader of the liquid bomb plot to blow up 10 jetliners over the Atlantic Ocean.

In August 2006, as spooks were monitoring the alleged airline bomb plot, Rauf, who was under surveillance by both British and Pakistani secret services, was connected by officers to LET and Al Qaeda and was known to be transferring cash and instructions to members in the UK.

Although charges over the transatlantic plot were later dropped against Rauf, the CIA continued to track his activities and he was held by Pakistani police as detectives back in Birmingham sought his extradition over his uncle’s murder.

But in December 2007 Rauf gave guards the slip at a roadside Mosque after a hearing in Islamabad, and is believed to have fled back to the lawless tribal regions of North Western Pakistan.

At the time of his death Rauf was meeting with Egyptian extremist and senior Al Qaeda field commander Abu Zubair al-Masri in the tribal heartland of Waziristan.

Indian investigators will now probe the significance of that meeting, thought to have been a “council of war” to discuss jihadi attacks against western targets, and examine connections between LET, JEM and the Mumbai attacks.

Officials in London have insisted that there is no evidence yet that Britons have taken part in the planning or execution of the Mumbai assault, although they cannot rule it out.

Around 30 counter terrorism officers from the Met Police have now been sent to India to help with the investigation.

Telegraph : London airline bomb plot suspect escapes

London airline bomb plot suspect escapes

By Massoud Ansari and Miles Erwin | December 16, 2007

A key suspect in last year's alleged plot to bomb aircraft flying from Heathrow airport has staged a dramatic escape from custody in Pakistan.

Rashid Rauf, 26, a British national who used to live in Birmingham, escaped from Pakistani authorities after appearing before a judge in an Islamabad court. He could have faced extradition to Britain within weeks.

Khalid Pervez, a city police official, said that Rauf managed to open his handcuffs and evade police guards taking him back to Adiala prison in the nearby city of Rawalpindi.

Sources said that 12 policemen were being questioned and two had been accused of assisting the escape. "We do not know how he escaped. But we do know he has escaped and the two policemen have been taken into custody for negligence," said Mr Pervez.

Pakistani authorities confirmed that a manhunt had begun, with raids being carried out in an attempt to bring Rauf, regarded as a major suspect in the bombings, back into custody.

"Rashid Rauf escaped from police custody and we are making every possible effort to re-arrest him," said Brigadier Javed Cheema, the interior ministry spokesman.

The police chief of Islamabad, Shahid Nadeem Baluch, said: "The hunt is on to track him down. We have conducted some raids but so far there hasn't been any breakthrough."

Rauf is thought to have escaped at around 3pm (10am British time). His lawyer, Hashmat Habib, said, however, that his client had disappeared from police custody under "mysterious circumstances." Mr Habib added: "Police took my client from Adiala jail Saturday afternoon for a court appearance in nearby Islamabad and now they say he's escaped. It comes at a time when the British government is trying to extradite him. And it all looks very suspicious to me."

Rauf was arrested in Pakistan in August last year along with seven other suspects, after a tip-off from British intelligence, over alleged attempts to blow up 10 transatlantic jets.

Police believe that the plan was for different passengers to carry peroxide-based liquid explosive in drinks containers and detonators disguised as electronic devices and combine them on board. The arrests sparked a security alert and mass flight cancellations as well as restrictions on carry-on luggage.

A dual citizen of Britain and Pakistan, Rauf is married to a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the head and founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamist militant group in Pakistan that has been linked to al-Qaeda. Azhar has lived in Bhawalpur, a city in eastern Pakistan where Rauf had also settled.

The Pakistani interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, has called Rauf "an al-Qaeda operative with linkages in Afghanistan", but the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi found no evidence that he had been involved in terrorist activities. His charges were downgraded to forgery and possession of explosives.

He is understood to have left Birmingham following the stabbing of his uncle, Mohammed Saeed, 54, near his home in Alum Rock in April 2002.

Britain has been seeking his extradition in relation to the murder, which has not been solved. It was reported last week that British officials had been engaged in secret negotiations with Pakistan to have Rauf handed over.

There is no extradition treaty and the Pakistani authorities were said to have requested a prisoner swap for two suspects arrested in Britain - Faiz Baluch, 25, and Hyrbyair Marri, 39.

They were arrested last week and jointly charged under the Terrorism Act with inciting terrorism and murder in Pakistan and of having links to an international terrorist group. Both claim they are peaceful activists calling for the independence of Baluchistan, a troubled province of Pakistan. The prisoner swap claims were denied by British authorities.

At the time of Rauf's arrest, Pakistan said he was a major suspect in the terrorism plot, but three days ago a Pakistani anti-terrorism court dropped the terrorism charges and held him only for allegedly possessing bomb-making equipment and living in Pakistan without appropriate documents.

That judgment was suspended on appeal and he faces the terrorism charges until his case is heard again on January 15. He was to have remained in custody until January 19.

Pakistani authorities have been accused of torturing Rauf to elicit more information. Mr Habib said his client had been falsely implicated and would prove his innocence.

News of Rauf's escape came as a surprise to his family in Birmingham. "I don't know anything - I'm shocked," said his father, Abdul Rauf.

A Pakistani security official said Rauf's frequent use of text messages to Britain led to his arrest outside an internet shop in Zhob, in the border region of Baluchistan.