LONDON, 25 April 2008 — The United Kingdom’s war against terror continues unabated with a flurry of activity yesterday. A jury at Kingston Crown Court was shown a disturbing home video of Mohammad Siddique Khan, the alleged ringleader of the 7/7 suicide bombers, bidding farewell to his baby daughter and urging her to follow in his violent footsteps.
The never-seen-before video was shown at the trial of three Leeds men, Waheed Ali, 24, Sadeer Saleem, 27, and Mohammed Shakil, 31, who stand accused of conspiring to cause explosions between 2004 and 2005, and of assisting Mohammad Siddique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermain Lindsay and Hasib Hussain, in what prosecutors say was a reconnaissance mission for the July 7, 2005, attacks on the London transport system, in which 56 people — including the four suicide bombers — died.
The three men are alleged to have scouted for possible bombing targets in London, including the Natural History Museum and the London Eye. Neil Flewitt QC, prosecuting, said although the defendants were not “directly involved in the London bombings,” they “shared the beliefs and objectives of the London bombers” and were willing to assist them in “one particular and important aspect of their preparation.”
In fact, Mohammed Shakil and Waheed Ali even accompanied Mohammad Siddique Khan to Pakistan to allegedly attend a terror training camp. Jurors were also shown footage of the three men accompanying the London bombers on a reconnaissance visit to the capital in early 2005.
The video of Siddique Khan, filmed in November 2004, shows Khan, slightly off camera, cuddling his daughter in his arms and kissing her on the cheeks intermittently, talking to her in a surrealist conversation trying to justify his impending dastardly act of terrorism.
“Sweetheart, not long to go now and I am going to really, really miss you a lot. I’m thinking about it already. Look, I absolutely love you to bits and you have been the happiest thing in my life. You and your Mom, absolutely brilliant. I don’t know what else to say.
“I just wish I could have been part of your life, especially these growing up... These next months, they’re really special with you learning to walk and things. I just so much wanted to be with you, but I have to do this for our future and it will be for the best, Insha Allah, in the long run.
“That’s the most important thing. You make plenty of ‘dua’ for yourself and you’ve got loads of people to look after you and keep an eye on you. But most importantly, I entrust you to Allah and let Allah take care of you. And I’m doing what I’m doing for the sake of Islam, not, you know, it’s not for materialistic or worldly benefits,” stressed Khan.
In another video, recorded in October 2004, Khan introduces his daughter to Waheed Ali and his 7/7 co-bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain. In that video, he is heard saying, “Be strong, learn to fight — fighting is good. Be Mommy’s best friend. Take care of Mommy — you can both do things together, like fighting and stuff.”
The videos were handed over to the police in 2005 by a friend of Hasina Patel, Siddique Khan’s widow, who had given her the tapes.
In another development at the High Court in London yesterday, Justice Collins passed a judgment stating that rules imposed under UN laws to enable the freezing of assets of terror suspects are unlawful because they “bypassed” scrutiny in the House of Commons.
Five men known as A, K, M, Q and G, who are designated terror suspects and suspected of “facilitating acts of terrorism,” but have not been charged on any wrong doing, were denied access to and control of their own property and money in 2007 by the UK Treasury under The Terrorism (UN Measures) Order 2006 and the Al-Qaeda and Taleban (UN Measures) Order 2006, which was adopted under Section 1 of the 1946 UN Act in order to implement resolutions of the UN Security Council.
Justice Collins gave the five men leave to challenge the orders in court and stressed that the 1946 act allows Orders in Council to be used to bring in special powers only where it is “necessary and expedient.” Justice Collins said that asset-freezing orders could be made to comply with UN resolutions but they should have prior parliamentary approval. To date, some 70 terror suspects are currently blacklisted and bank accounts containing about £500,000 have been frozen.
The Orders on the Frozen Assets was one of the key planks of the Labour government’s “financial war on terrorism” and general anti-terror strategy. The Treasury yesterday expressed its disappointment at the ruling and said it would appeal. A Treasury statement said that the UK “asset freezing regime... makes an important contribution to our national security by helping to prevent funds being used for terrorist purposes.” The asset-freezing regime will remain in place pending the result of the appeal.
Lawyers acting for the five men said yesterday that “the ruling has shown that the government is willing to sacrifice the fundamental rights and liberties of its citizens, including the fundamental constitutional right that only Parliament can take away basic freedoms, when they think it convenient to do so. We have the madness of civil servants checking Tesco receipts, a child having to ask for a receipt every time it does a chore by running to the shops for a pint of milk and a neighbor possibly committing a criminal offense by lending a lawnmower.”
On Wednesday, in yet another terror-related court hearing, the four convicted would-be suicide bombers in the failed 21/7 terror attacks on the London transport system in 2005, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussain Osman, lost their appeal in a bid to have their convictions quashed on a technicality. They were each sentenced to life imprisonment (a minimum of 40 years) for the conspiracy to murder and carry out terrorist explosions in London.
