New al-Qaeda chief threatens Brits with retaliation

Posted on | mei 24, 2011 | No Comments

Over the weekend, United Kingdom military and police forces have increased security measures at various locations after hearing the new al-Qaeda leader Saif al-Adel promise his group would perpetrate terror attacks throughout London to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.

President Barack Obama, who gave the order for a Navy SEAL operation that killed bin Laden, is expected this week in the United Kingdom.

An intelligence source told the Law Enforcement Examiner that a Taliban leader Ehsanullah Ehsan confirmed the newly appointed al-Qaeda commander’s intention of attacking London. Ehsan said that Al-Adel views Britain as Europe’s “backbone” and as such urged Islamic extremists to crush London.

The 59-year-old Saif Al-Adel has been on the FBI’s most-wanted terrorists list for the past 10 years. He is described as an Egyptian national who trained and served in that country’s special forces. He also fought against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

To deal with this latest terror threat, the British Home Office reported that the British Transport Police were planning to allow 100 of its 2,900 officers to carry firearms on London’s trains, stations and urban metros for the first time.

British security officers have not ruled out a Mumbai-style attack, which rocked main railway stations and hotels of the Indian financial capital in November 2008. More than 200 people died and hundreds more were wounded, many of them Europeans and Americans.

This latest threat came just hours after authorities directly linked April 2009’s Manchester “Easter shopping” bomb plot to bin Laden, which came to light as a result of documents seized by Navy SEALs from bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout.

According to British police officials on Friday, MI5 received intelligence from the U.S. intelligence community regarding a suspected Osama bin Laden terrorist attack dubbed the “Easter shopping” terrorist plot. The information is contained in computer files seized by U.S. special forces when they raided bin Laden’s hideout on May 1.

This was first top-secret intelligence to have been passed back from the bin Laden operation that left the terror master dead, a government source told the Law Enforcement Examiner.

The Manchester terrorist cell comprised of radical Islamic immigrants was suspected of plotting to blow up landmarks in the city during the Easter holiday was arrested in 2009. But Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecutors Service lacked sufficient evidence to press charges and the allegations of ill treatment by British interrogators at the time were being made by MPs, lawyers, human rights groups, and news reporters made it difficult to pursue the case.

Last year, when the British government decided to deport the alleged commander of the terrorist plot, the outcry by human rights groups also caused the government officials to back down. Also, the suspected terrorist’s attorney claimed the suspect would be brutalized and tortured if he were to return to Pakistan. However, members of the alleged terrorist cell are believed to have left the United Kingdom for the European mainland.

The intelligence recovered from bin Laden’s hideout is believed valuable in helping to renew intelligence gathering of potentional operations by terror cells located in the U.K. and the European Union.

While the intelligence received by MI5 has not been revealed to the public, some police officials believe it will lead to the apprehension of suspects as well as obtaining evidence which can be used in terrorist prosecutions in the United Kingdom.

AUTHOR: Jim Kouri
URL: http://www.renewamerica.com/
E-MAIL: COPmagazine [at] aol.com

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