Al-Qaeda grooming Muslims for Mumbai-style attack in UK

Young British Muslims are being groomed by Al-Qaida for a Mumbai-style attack on targets in Britain, the country's spy agency has warned. Britain's internal intelligence agency MI5 has warned that a new generation of British extremists is being radicalised by Middle East-based Anwar al-Awlaki, who recruited the Detroit plane bomber. They are concerned that Awlaki's followers could unleash a wave of easily planned guerrilla-style terrorist attacks similar to the massacre in Mumbai.

Such small-scale attacks could be carried out cheaply by individuals with little terrorist training and without the need for the support of a large organisation, it said. According to the report, al-Awlaki caught the headlines with one of his statements in March, in which he said, "Isn't it ironic that the two capitals of the war against Islam, Washington DC and London, have also become among the centres of Western Jihad (holy war). Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea."

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32 arrested in hit on major European crime ring

British, Irish and Spanish police launched dawn raids Tuesday in a coordinated hit aimed at smashing a major European guns, drugs and money laundering empire. 32 people were arrested, including the suspected "godfather", in a strike on a crime conspiracy with tentacles stretching across the globe. "The target was a criminal network suspected of trafficking huge quantities of drugs and firearms and of laundering hundreds of millions of pounds in criminal profits," Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said in a statement. The gang's suspected crime lord, a 53-year-old Irish-born British national living in Malaga, was arrested in the southern Spanish coastal resort.

Spanish officers detained him along with family members, other British and Irish nationals and four Spanish lawyers. The 20 suspects arrested in Spain were being questioned in Malaga. Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, speaking to Spanish public television from Warsaw, said the raids focused on a "mafia family" based on the southern Costa del Sol. "It's an operation against well-known mafia operating in different countries which is linked to different killings, as well as a number of crimes from drugs trafficking to people trafficking." About 750 officers were involved in the operation.

In Britain around 230 officers raided homes and businesses, with nine men and two women across southeastern England and the west Midlands arrested and taken for questioning. "The scale of this joint operation by law enforcement agencies from so many countries is an indication of how prolific we think this network was," said SOCA's Trevor Pearce. "Today's arrests will have dealt a major blow to an organised criminal business suspected of supplying drugs and guns to gangs in cities across the UK and Europe.

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Terrorists 'plan attack on Britain with bombs inside their bodies' to foil new airport scanners

Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them. Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines, Underground trains and buses by secreting bombs in bags, shoes or underwear to avoid detection. But an operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time. Security services believe the move has been prompted by the recent introduction at airports of body scanners, which are designed to catch terrorists before they board flights. It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.

The warning comes in the wake of the failed attempt by London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day. One security source said: ‘If the terrorists are talking about this, we need to be ready and do all we can to counter the threat.’ A leading source added that male bombers would have the explosive secreted near their appendix or in their buttocks, while females would have the material placed inside their breasts in the same way as figure-enhancing implants.

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Britain Introduces Measures To Curb Binge Drinking

Bar-going Britons may soon be bidding goodbye to their country's all-you-can-drink deals — as well as some of their more outlandish drinking games. The government said Tuesday it was banning irresponsible promotions and boozy contests such as the "dentist's chair" — where alcohol is poured directly into customers' mouths — in an effort to tackle Britain's binge-drinking problem. The government says the ban will limit binge-drinking, but health experts say the nation's deepening alcohol problem would best be tackled by imposing higher minimum prices on Britain's cheap booze.

The raft of new measures is "better than nothing," according to Carys Davis, spokeswoman for Britain's Alcohol Concern charity. But she said the restrictions "seem tame" compared to what the government could do by ending pricing practices that result in alcohol selling for less than water. Britain's alcohol consumption has risen by 40 percent over the past four decades, although per-capita drinking is still lower than in many other European countries — including Russia, Spain, Germany and France.

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Terrorists smuggle fatwas out of secure prisons

SOME of Britain’s most dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders are promoting jihad from inside high-security prisons by smuggling out propaganda for the internet and finding recruits. In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a think tank funded by the Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping AlQaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

• Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas — religious rulings — on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals.
• Abu Doha — said to be Al-Qaeda’s main recruiter in Europe — has taken courses in Belmarsh prison, south London, enabling him to mentor other inmates.
• Abu Hamza, jailed in 2006 for inciting murder, has preached radical sermons to followers using water pipes in his Belmarsh cell, and Rachid Ramda, the Algerian leader of the Paris Métro bomb plot, led Friday prayers in the same jail.

Like other jailed terrorist leaders, Qatada is meant to be cut off from his supporters outside. Yet it is said that last year, under the noses of warders, Qatada and Adel Abdel Bary, leader of the UK branch of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, were able to smuggle out a series of fatwas legitimising attacks by AlQaeda and endorsing the murder of moderate Muslims.

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Al-Qaeda warns of 'spectacular attacks' on UK

In an astounding revelation, Al-Qaeda extremists have claimed that home-grown terrorists are plotting to attack targets in Britain.

According to reports, in an internet magazine read by thousands of Islamic extremists Al-Qaeda has labeled Britain and Europe as a bigger enemy than the United States.

It further says that the strikes are being planned by terrorists living in Britain and others overseas, and warns of “spectacular attacks”, 'The Sun' reports.

The site is promoted by supporters of deported hate preacher Abdullah al-Faisal who was booted out of Britain after serving a jail sentence for being found guilty of three charges of soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans, and Hindus, and two charges of using threatening words to stir up racial hatred.

"Al-Qaeda warns of 'spectacular attacks' on UK", ExpressIndia.com, 8/17/09.

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Britain Fears Racial Terror Threat

Vikram Dodd

Monday 6 July 2009

Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command fears the extreme right will stage a deadly terrorist attack in Britain to try to stoke racial tensions, the Guardian has learned.

Senior officers fear the attack will be a "spectacular" that is designed to kill people. The counter-terrorism unit has moved officers to beef up its monitoring of the extreme right's potential to stage attacks.

Commander Shaun Sawyer told a meeting of British Muslims concerned about the danger posed to their communities that police were responding to the growing threat.

Sawyer said of the far right: "I fear that they will have a spectacular ... They will carry out an attack that will lead to a loss of life or injury to a community somewhere. They're not choosy about which community." He said the aim of any attack would be to cause a "breakdown in community cohesion".

Sawyer revealed that the Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, had asked the counter-terrorism command, SO15, to examine what the economic downturn would mean for far-right violence. The assessment concluded that it would increase the possibility.

To read the full Guardian article, please click here.

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