Guess who got arrested yesterday in Britain

posted at 3:49 pm on September 3, 2006 by Allahpundit
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So saith Sky:

The search follows a series of anti-terror raids across London which saw 14 men arrested after months of surveillance by M15 and Scotland Yard.

Among them was Abu Abdullah, an associate of Abu Hamza.

They are suspected of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terror.

Remember him? I almost didn’t cut the clip when CNN interviewed him two weeks ago. “What for?” I thought. “All he is is Hamza’s toady. Is this really newsworthy?”

Londonistan, baby. It’s always newsworthy.

They searched the pig’s home last night. He said last week in an interview with the Times of London that he’d “love” to kill British soldiers in Afghanistan; if that’s what got him pinched, it won’t be long before Azzam Tamimi and Abu Izzadeen say something to end up in the joint with him. Kudos to ToL for turning up the heat with that interview and wondering why he’s being allowed to operate “unchecked.”

If nothing else, his dentition, at least, is classically British:

As for the school, the Independent calls it “Britain’s first home-grown jihad training” facility. The News of the World, which is tabloid-y enough that you should take this with a grain of salt, says the suspects were in the early stages of a plot that would have targeted one or more famous London landmarks, e.g., “Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Canary Wharf or the Arsenal and Chelsea football stadiums.”

More from Sky:

Sky News has learnt that al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have said the school was being used to train terrorists.

And the Yemeni government – which received the same information after arresting five Britons in 1999 – also tipped off British officials.

The school, which according to its headmaster doubles as a kind of hotel for Muslims “wishing to live in a strict Islamic environment,” admitted yesterday that hook-handed lunatic preacher Abu Hamza had stayed there in the past — before he was asked to leave. More specifics from the Guardian:

According to the Guantanamo testimonies, which have been read to The Observer, groups of around 30 of Hamza’s followers were taught to use AK47 rifles and handguns at the camp. On one occasion they were trained to use a mock rocket launcher.

The testimonies also detail how Hamza ran similar training camps in the Brecon Beacons and in Scotland.

The Guardian also says that “[m]any of those attending the camps are thought to belong to radical Muslim societies based on university campuses,” including perhaps three men who attend South Bank University and were arrested at that Chinese restaurant on Friday. The Telegraph noted three weeks ago that college students were also recruited for, and involved in, the airplane plot.

The school has nine students, each of whom pays £1,000 in annual tuition. It’s also “used at weekends as a retreat for Muslim families living in London wanting to escape the capital;” presumably there’s some sort of fee for that, too. The campus is 54 acres, though, and the buildings contain 100 rooms. Exit question: how exactly are they paying their bills?

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