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Intel - Terrorism
Al-Muhajiroun

"In God we trust.
All others we monitor."

Now leading the Finsbury Park mosque is another militant Muslim, Abu Abdullah, who said in an interview, "People see us as extremists because we don't compromise the religion of Allah."

• Omar Bakri Muhammad

• Bar in Tel Aviv
• Shoe Bombing
• London 7/7 Bombings
• London 7/21 Bombings
• Glasgow Airport Attacks

• London, England (formerly)
• New York (Queensborough Community College)
• Syria

• Website www.mujahiroun.com (now defunct, but available in archive.org)
• Website www.IslamBase.co.uk
• Abu Saliah frequently spoke at al-Muhajiroun meetings
• Claimed to be spokesman for Osama bin Laden in Britain

• Omar Bakri (founder)
• Abu Hamza (might not technically be a member, but a very close associate, since incarcerated)
• Abu Saliah
• Muhammad Junaid Babar
• Abdul Rahman Saleem [Abu Yahya]
• Adeel Shahid [leader in Pakistan]
• Amer Mirza

• Anjem Choudhury
• Hassan Butt [left organization, now opposes jihad]
• Sajeel Shahid [leader in Pakistan] [aka Abu Ibrahim]
• Zacarias Mustapha Soubra, a Lebanese student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Bakri named Soubra the al Muhajiroun "leader" in Arizona
• Sulayman Keeler

• Richard Reid (shoe bomber #1) [Abu Hamza's group]
• Sajid Badat (shoe bomber #2) [Abu Hamza's group]
• Anthony Garcia (Crawley fertilizer bomber)
• Asif Hanif ("Mike's Place" Tel Aviv bar terrorist who detonated)
• Bilal Muhammad in 2001 blew himself up in an attack on an Indian barracks in Srinagar, Kashmir
• Jawad Akbar
• Khazi Rahman (bought uzi machine guns in London)

• Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan
• Muhammad Omar Khyam (Crawley fertilizer bomber)
• Muhammad Siddeque Khan (Crawley fertilizer bomber)
• Omar Sharif ("Mike's Place" Tel Aviv bar terrorist who failed)
• Omar Saeed Sheikh (Daniel Pearl killer, London School of Economics)
• Salihooddan Amin (Crawley fertilizer bomber)
• Shazad Tanweer
• Zacarias Moussaoui
• Zeeshan Siddiqui

• Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer bombs
  Fertilizer kept in a self-storage facility

• Seven days after the September 11 attacks Bakri issued a fatwa (religious ruling) containing a death threat against President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.
• Last week, in an address to the nation about the London bombings, Musharraf referred to it with indignation. "There are extremist organisations in the United Kingdom Hizb ut- Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun who operate with full impunity," he said. "They had the audacity to pass an edict against my life . . . I know that they also give sermons of hate, anger and violence. Therefore I would like to say that there is a lot to be done by Pakistan and may I suggest that there is a lot to be done in England also."

• He then moved to Jeddah and formally launched Al-Muhajiroun on March 3, 1983.

• In 1987, these encounters led him to a critical experience: he met Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, the founder of the Afghan Mujahideen and mentor to both Ayman Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, while undertaking the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Shortly afterwards, he packed his belongings into a crate marked for Afghanistan and, according to his evidence at his trial, "went there intending never to return".

• The “Blind Sheikh,” Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman, visits London and gives several talks there to recruit fighters for the war in Afghanistan.
• The talks are attended by future extremist leader Abu Hamza al-Masri.

John Major

• Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, a leading Islamist radical based in London, calls for the assassination of British Prime Minister John Major. Bakri says that Major is “a legitimate target; if anyone gets the opportunity to assassinate him, I don’t think they should save it. It is our Islamic duty and we will celebrate his death.”

• The kidnapping of 16 western tourists in Abyan on 28 December 1998 and an alleged bomb plot in Aden have both been linked to the Supporters of Shariah (SOS)
• According to the group's literature, SOS was formed in 1994, bringing together Muslims who had been working "under many other names in various parts of the world". It claims to have supported both mujahideen and refugees and Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kashmir, "as well as the frontline soldiers".

• It aims "to remove the oppression created by man-made laws, so that the whole of mankind can enjoy the freedom, purity and justice of living under Allah's laws - the Shari'ah."
• Over Christmas 1998, from December 24 to 26, SOS held its fourth Islamic Camp at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London. The list of activities included "military training for brothers". A picture of a hand grenade appeared on the publicity material. Admission was £20, with reduced prices for children and families.

• Extremist imam Abu Hamza al-Masri makes three trips to Bosnia to meet the mujahideen there.
• Before leaving Britain, where he lives, he changes his name and travels on a passport in his new name, as he is worried about surveillance by the security services.

• He cannot actually fight, due to injuries suffered in Afghanistan, but, after entering the country with a relief convoy, Abu Hamza spends time with groups of radical fighters, in particular those from Algeria.

• Hamza claims it was during a demining project that he lost his hands and one of his eyes. It had long been rumored that he had been injured when a bomb he had been making had exploded. The rumor was confirmed in 2006 by Omar Nasiri, a Moroccan Islamist who became a spy for western intelligence. At the Darunta training camp in Afghanistan, which was blown up by US forces on October 12, 2001, Nasiri attended a lesson in explosives manufacture. The tutor, Assad Allah, recounted how one former student had allowed his recipe for nitroglycerine to overheat.

• Instead of plunging the mixture into an adjacent sink full of ice, the student had carried it outside. It blew up, ripping off the student's hands and blinding him in one eye. When asked if the student survived, Assad Allah said: "Yes. He lives in London now, and preaches in the mosques. His name is Abu Hamza." Al Qaeda sent Nasiri to London, where he met Hamza. When he mentioned the nitroglycerine incident to Hamza, the preacher whispered: "Brother, please don't share that story with anyone."

• One of these groups is the radical political party Hizb ut-Tahrir ("the Party of Liberation") also known as Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami ("the Islamic Party of Liberation"), which reportedly has secret cells of members in 40 countries.

• Although outlawed in Russia, Germany and many other nations, it remains a legal political party in the United Kingdom. The Sheikh has said he resigned from this party on January 16, 1996 over a theological issue.

• Special Branch, the intelligence-gathering arm of Scotland Yard had been talking to Abu Hamza since early 1997, when he was still preaching in Luton.
• In the classified records of the meetings he is referred to by the codename "damson berry".
• As he had duped the mosque trustees and the immigration authorities before, Abu Hamza was happily pulling the wool over the eyes of the spies with a sham show of cooperation. (The Suicide Factory, p. 143)

• ...he particularly liked to tell tales about Omar Bakri Mohammed's al-Muhajiroun organization.
• But "damson berry" is also said to have given concrete information to police which led to the detention of two terrorist informants. (The Suicide Factory, p. 144)

• According to Abu Hamza himself, MI5 first contacted him in 1997 shortly after extremists massacred 68 tourists at Luxor, Egypt.
• These meetings continued for some years, he told the Old Bailey, and included a warning that he was "walking a tightrope".

• In an interview with the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on August 22, 1998, Omar Bakri Muhammad was asked why the Islamic groups never attacked Britain.

• He replied, “I work here in accordance with the covenant of peace which I made with the British government when I got [political] asylum... We respect the terms of this bond as Allah orders us to do.”

• From about 23 December 1998 until 29 December 1998 Hamza and others plotted to take hostages in an attack in Yemen.
• According to the indictment, Hamza provided a satellite phone to the leader of a faction of the Islamic Army of Aden, and other co-conspirators, in a hostage-taking plot.
• Four hostages - three Britons and an Australian - were killed.
• The indictment alleges that Hamza received three calls from that phone to his home on 27 December, one day before the terrorists stormed a caravan of vehicles carrying 16 tourists, including two Americans, taking them hostage.

• The indictment further alleges that Hamza spoke to the co-conspirators after the attack, agreed to act as an intermediary for them, and ordered 500 British pounds worth of additional airtime for the satellite phone being used by the terrorists.
• The remaining counts deal with Hamza's involvement in a kidnapping situation in Yemen, initiated by Abu Hassan, founder of the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan.
• In an earlier trial in Zinjibar, southern Yemen, Abu al-Hassan and two accomplices were convicted of the kidnappings on May 5, 1999, with all three given a death sentence. One of these later had his death sentence commuted to an eight year jail term. The day after the death sentences were announced, Abu Hamza was quoted as saying that anyone who executed the convicted kidnappers would become a "legitimate target" (for killing).

James Ujaama

• The indictment further alleges that Hamza conspired with others in October 1999, and provided support to create a training camp for violent jihad in Bly, Oregon.
• The indictment alleges that on or about 25 October 1999 a co-conspirator communicated to Hamza that co-conspirators were stockpiling weapons and ammunition in the United States.
• It is also alleged that around the same time, Hamza received a proposal by fax regarding the creation of the Bly jihad training camp.
• In Seattle, a Muslim convert with ties to al-Masri received two years in prison after pleading guilty to aiding the Taliban.
• The man, James Ujaama, 38, who was arrested in July 2002, was indicted on two charges: conspiring to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly and using a firearm to further the conspiracy.
• James Ujaama had spent time at Abu Hamza's Finsbury Park Mosque in 1999. During his stay in Britain, he had also designed and maintained the website of Hamza's Islamist group, the "Supporters of Shariah." This website was used to promote anti-Western messages. Ujaama has a daughter by his Somali-born wife.
• Prosecutors let him plead guilty in exchange for his cooperation in terrorism investigations. In particular, they wanted to hear what he knew about al-Masri, whose Web site Ujaama once ran.
• Ashcroft said at a news conference that, among other evidence linking al-Masri to the plot, investigators had obtained a fax from co-conspirators in the United States to the cleric proposing creation of the camp.
• Ujaama also admitted that between June 2000 and December 19, 2001, he had attempted to raise funds for, and to provide assistance to, terrorists in Afghanistan.

• Eight of the eleven counts of the US extradition order against Hamza refer to his involvement with Ujaama and others in the setting up of a training camp at Dog Cry Ranch in Bly, a hamlet 50 miles east of Klamath Falls in Klamath County, Oregon.
• Earnest James Ujaama, who went under the alias of "Bilal Ahmed", Abu Samayya, and Abdul Qaadir, was born Earnest James Thompson in Denver, Colorado, in 1966. His family moved to Seattle, Washington state, when he was five years old. He attended Ingraham High School in North Seattle. While still a student, Ujaama displayed entrepreneurial spirit, running a home-maintenance business. Aged 20, he worked with his younger brother Jon (Mustafa) in a business which sent its profits to children in Ethiopia.
• James Ujaama became strongly involved with Dar-us-Salaam mosque at 2211 Union Street, Seattle. This had started its existence in the early 1990s as the Yasin mosque, based at a small shop-front in East Cherry Street.
• The Dar-us-Salaam mosque - since closed down - prided itself on taking young black people with prostitution and drug habits to come to the mosque and "reform" themselves. Despite this, the mosque's leadership was not as upright as it claimed. Mustafa Ujaama stated: "The FBI had been on us since '95, when we hooked up with Imam Jamil [Al-Amin]." This individual was the former Black Panther H. Rap Brown. It is alleged that the Ujaamas' father had ties with the Black Panthers.

Mohammed Mustafa Kamel, son of Abu
Hamza, arrested at age 17

• But it was in 1999 that Abu Hamza and Finsbury Park Mosque came to national prominence.
• Scotland Yard questioned the cleric on suspicion of alleged bomb plots in Yemen. While Abu Hamza was released, his son, Mohammed Mustafa Kamel, was jailed in Yemen for three years for involvement in an alleged campaign of violence.

• Abu Hamza was held for several days before being released without charge. Abu Hamza has always maintained his innocence.
• Abu Hamza's stepson Musin Ghailan (then aged 18) received a seven year sentence.

Finsbury Park Mosque

• The indictment also charges Hamza with material support violations for facilitating violent jihad in Afghanistan.
• The indictment alleges that one of Hamza's co-conspirators, a US citizen, travelled from London to New York and raised money for Hamza's mosque.
• Those funds were deposited into a mosque account that was later used to fund the travel - at the request of Hamza - of two co-conspirators to Afghanistan.
• Later, in March or April of 2001, the indictment alleges Hamza sent directions to one of these co-conspirators to seek out a "front-line commander" at a training camp for violent jihad in Afghanistan.

• Finally, the indictment alleges that Hamza conspired to supply goods and services to the Taleban.
• It is alleged that from about the Spring of 2000 until 6 September 2001, Hamza posted messages on the Supporters of Sharia website, urging his followers to donate money, goods, and services to Taleban-sponsored programs in Taleban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.

• Bilal Muhammad in 2001 blew himself up in an attack on an Indian barracks in Srinagar, Kashmir.

Abdul Rahman Saleem: Four years

• Abdul Rahman Saleem, also known as Abu Yahya, is a British Islamic activist, born around 1975. He is a former Al Muhajiroun spokesman, a former member of the Saved Sect, and was a prominent member of al-Maddad, an organization that claims to have sent dozens of British Muslims to fight in Chechnya and elsewhere. In August 2001, he went to secret camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan and trained in the use of guns and explosives.

• Wiki
• Most of his spare time was spent helping al-Muhajiroun and Mr Yahya said that it was natural for Saleem to fight in Afghanistan against the American attack: "It did not surprise me that he went to fight with the Taliban. We see it as a divine obligation to help.

President Pervez Musharraf

• Seven days after the September 11 attacks Bakri issued a fatwa (religious ruling) containing a death threat against President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.

• Last week, in an address to the nation about the London bombings, Musharraf referred to it with indignation. "There are extremist organisations in the United Kingdom Hizb ut- Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun who operate with full impunity," he said. "They had the audacity to pass an edict against my life . . . I know that they also give sermons of hate, anger and violence. Therefore I would like to say that there is a lot to be done by Pakistan and may I suggest that there is a lot to be done in England also."

• Seven days after the September 11 attacks Bakri issued a fatwa (religious ruling) containing a death threat against President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.
• Last week, in an address to the nation about the London bombings, Musharraf referred to it with indignation. "There are extremist organisations in the United Kingdom Hizb ut- Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun who operate with full impunity," he said. "They had the audacity to pass an edict against my life . . . I know that they also give sermons of hate, anger and violence. Therefore I would like to say that there is a lot to be done by Pakistan and may I suggest that there is a lot to be done in England also."

   

Shoe Bomber Richard Reid

• The British shoe bomber Richard Reid, 28, was seen at several al-Muhajiroun meetings in Ilford.

Failed "Shoe Bomber" Sajid Badat

• Badat aborted his mission, arrested and jailed.

Journalist Daniel Pearl

• Omar Saeed Sheikh murdered Daniel Pearl

• British Islamic extremists have been involved in weapons training with assault rifles, specifically Kalashnikov AK-47s, at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London.
• The Observer reported that this revelation underlines "the pivotal role that Britain has played in the recruitment of volunteers to fight alongside Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group all over the world." 
• Intelligence agents reported that "several groups had been taught to strip and reassemble Kalashnikovs in the mosque's basement". 
• MI5 has been told by their agents that scores of young men were being sent from the mosque for training at camps in Afghanistan. 

• They reported that consignments of supplies including radio and telecommunications equipment were dispatched to Pakistan for eventual distribution in the Afghan training camps allied to or run by al-Qaeda. 
• They also revealed a complex operation run by some men attending the mosque to provide volunteers with false documents. 
• Although the men recruited by MI5 were not directly involved in the logistics of supplying overseas Mujahideen, the operation was openly talked about at the mosque.

• At Finsbury Park mosque hundreds of worshippers from scores of countries came to pray. 
• In the lobby two vendors sold militant literature and videos with titles like 'Jihad in Afghanistan' and 'Terror in Chechnya'.

• Cassettes of Islamic militant scholar Ahmed Deedat bore titles like 'Why Islam is the dominant religion' and 'The War Against Rushdie' and there were several hundred cassettes of speeches given by Abu Hamza on sale for £1.50 each.

• One year after the attacks on New York and Washington, the flyer distributed by al-Muhajiroun around London read: September 11th 2001, a Towering Day in World History (with an illustration of the New York Towers to emphasize the pun).

Kamel Bourgass

• Kamel Bourgass from Algeria, who had stayed at the mosque and had used mosque facilities to reproduce his recipes for poisons. Killer of a British policeman, Bourgass had intended to plant toxins at the Heathrow Express rail link.
• The security services were increasingly gathering intelligence on what was happening inside. Terrorism suspects had passed through the building while its office was being used to disseminate information to a network.
• On 20 January 2003, police raided the building as part of a major investigation into an alleged plot to produce ricin poison. They sealed the mosque and handed it back to the trustees.

• Finsbury Park Mosque was shut down by its trustees after a police anti-terrorist raid in January 2003. The next month, al-Masri was banned from preaching there by a government body because his "extreme and political" statements conflicted with the mosque's charitable status.
• Since then, he has led Friday prayers on the street outside, under the watch of police.

• Faisal, who was convicted on 24 February 2003 (later sentenced to nine years' jail, reduced on appeal to seven), for three charges of racial incitement and three of "soliciting murder" of Jews, Americans and Hindus, did live in east London, in Stratford.

• Home Minister David Blunkett revoked the Imam's citizenship in April 2003.

• Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, where Hamza had preached, had a cache of starting pistols, a stun gun, forged passports and forged driving licenses, which were concealed behind a ceiling tile.
• These items had been discovered during a raid by police in 2003, but details had been suppressed until after the trial.

• Police came underfire when they swarmed one mosque with search warrants in hand. To their credit they uncovered a cache of weapons, forged identity documents and recipes for chemical weapons such as the highly dangerous Ricin; all of it hidden in the mosque.
• The stash of equipment included chemical warfare protection suits, or NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) suits, as they are technically known. British detectives believe the equipment and weapons were being used in terror training camps located somewhere within the United Kingdom.

Mike's Place Bar in Tel Aviv

• Asif Hanif ("Mike's Place" Tel Aviv bar terrorist who detonated)
• Omar Sharif ("Mike's Place" Tel Aviv bar terrorist who failed)

• This was followed the next year with The Magnificent 19 (referring to the number of suicide attackers involved in the deed--their portraits helpfully displayed to make the point of a “gallery of heroes”).

• Babar, who also lived in Queens, pleaded guilty to supplying military equipment and working to aid a 2004 failed bomb plot in London. He became a star witness for the U.S. and British authorities – testifying against would-be London bombers. He testified he had met with high-ranking al Qaeda leaders and had supplied members of a training camp with aluminum powder – and that he attempted to purchase ammonium nitrate for training camp operatives.

• Wiki

Crawley Fertilizer Bombing cell

• Anthony Garcia (Crawley fertilizer bomber)
• Muhammad Omar Khyam (Crawley fertilizer bomber)
• Muhammad Siddeque Khan (Crawley fertilizer bomber)
• Salihooddan Amin (Crawley fertilizer bomber)

• Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer bombs.
• Fertilizer kept in a self-storage facility.

Statement by John Ashcroft, on Abu Hamza's arrest

• Arrested May 27, 2004 by Metropolitan Police of New Scotland Yard, at the request of the United States,
• He is being held on terrorism charges filed in the United States.
• Hamza faces charges of conspiracy to take hostages and hostage-taking in connection with an attack in Yemen in December 1998. The hostage-taking resulted in the death of four hostages.

• Abu Hamza is currently in Belmarsh prison in Britain, and has been fighting an 11-count US extradition request which had been issued against him on May 27, 2004. On February 7, 2006, Abu Hamza was sentenced to seven years' jail for soliciting murder. He had also been found guilty of possessing a terror manual - the Encyclopedia of Afghani Jihad.

• In August 2004, Babar agreed to cooperate with US authorities. He admitted helping to set up a jihad camp, and smuggling funds and military supplies to a senior Al Qaeda leader.
• Queens computer programmer Muhammad Junaid Babar, who was arrested in 2004 after he was nabbed delivering night-vision goggles, sleeping bags, ponchos and waterproof socks to training camps in Pakistan.

•  
• Wiki

• In 2004 Bakri disbanded Al-Muhajiroun, saying that "all Muslims should unite together against a hostile West," although increasing pressure from UK authorities is thought to be a leading contributory factor.

• Bakri said a "pact" between the British government and Muslims had been "violated," blaming this breakdown on the decision to send British forces to join the US-led intervention in Iraq.

• Charity "Al-Falah Educational Trust" by Muhammad Hussain Hamid "Osama bin London"

• Set up the Baysbrown Farm training camp in 2004 by Muhammad Hussain Hamid "Osama bin London"

• In August 2004, Babar agreed to cooperate with US authorities. He admitted helping to set up a jihad camp, and smuggling funds and military supplies to a senior Al Qaeda leader.

• Wiki

• On October 3, 2004, The Observer revealed that 46-year-old Kamel Rabat Bouralha attended the mosque.
• Bouralha, with UK citizens Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia, were loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. 
• Basayev has boasted of training the men who took control of the school in Beslan, Russia and wired it with explosives.

• Investigators believe that the three men, all Algerian-born, traveled to Chechnya from London to take part in fighting there in 2001. 
• Like Bouralha, they are believed to have attended Finsbury Park mosque and to have joined the network of groups loyal to Basayev on arrival in Chechnya.

• Training camp at East Sussex school called "Jameah Islameah" school by Muhammad Hussain Hamid "Osama bin London"

• "This man and his followers were damaging the community and the reputation of Islam. Ordinary Muslims were afraid to come here. The mosque can hold 1,000 people but only ever had about 80." The locks have now been changed.
• Abdel Shaheed, chairman of trustees appointed to turn the mosque round, added: "We'll make sure it's open to everyone. We want to close this unfortunate chapter."

• Formerly called the Finsbury Park Mosque, since February 2005 the mosque has been renamed to the North London Central Mosque..

Arrested jihadi Kazi Rahman

• Kazi Rahman is in jail. A senior figure in the East London cell, he was arrested in 2005 in a British police sting after trying to buy weaponry, including rockets to shoot down airliners.
• This was one of the most successful follow-up operations to the fertiliser bomb plot. 

• When Bakri finally commented publicly on the bomb attacks, he condemned the deaths of “innocents”. But this was not quite the remorse it seemed...In the preamble to the sermon he referred to the bombers as the “fantastic four”. He explained that his lament for the “innocent” applied only to Muslims. It was a linguistic sleight of hand which he summarised as: “Yes I condemn killing any innocent people, but not any kuffar.”

• On August 6, 2005 Bakri left the United Kingdom following stories that the UK Government were planning to investigate certain Muslim clerics under little-used treason laws.

• He was banned from returning by British Home Secretary Charles Clarke stating that Bakri's presence in Britain was "not conducive to the public good."
• He subsequently took up residence in Lebanon.

• "I believe the whole of Britain has become Dar al-Harb (land of war). The kuffar (non-believer) has no sanctity for their own life or property."
• He said Muslims should join the jihad "wherever you are" and told a woman she was allowed to do a suicide bombing.

• Keeler held a press conference in London on 18 November 2005, formally 'launching' Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah.

• In July 2006 he tried to leave Lebanon on a Royal Navy vessel evacuating British citizens, but was turned away.

• In July 2006 he tried to leave Lebanon on a Royal Navy vessel evacuating British citizens, but was turned away.