UK: Bailed jihad terror suspect flees during Friday prayers

Keystone Kops Alert. I expect that the Keystone quality of this particular story can be attributed to multiculti witlessness, in which authorities assumed that the pious young men wouldn't dream of taking advantage of the opportunity offered by Friday prayers to elude them. To do so, they probably assumed in their befuddled, befogged Openness to Other Cultures, would have been "un-Islamic."

"Bailed terror suspect goes on the run after leaving suicide note," by Richard Edwards and Duncan Gardham for the Telegraph, June 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A terrorist suspect on bail for charges linked to an alleged major suicide plot involving mass casualties has gone on the run, Scotland Yard has disclosed.

The 23-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is understood to have fled during Friday prayers and left a suicide note at his home.

Under strict bail conditions, he was due to report to police at 7am on Friday. It was reported on Friday night that he escaped while at prayers in a mosque near his home, which he was allowed to attend as part of the conditions. His family are said to have contacted police after they found the note.

"Strict bail conditions." Not all that strict, evidently.

Scotland Yard has launched a massive manhunt, amid fears for the man's welfare. Detectives are playing down the suggestion the note implied he was on a suicide mission to target others.

Yeah, that couldn't be.

The suspect was due to stand trial later this year charged with conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit explosions, amongst other alleged offences.

He was given strict bail conditions, which amount to being under house arrest, and would have had his passport confiscated. The exact details of the conditions are unknown because the application was made in secret at court.

House arrest that involved his being able to go to mosque unsupervised?

Police sources said they are "furious" that another terror suspect has gone on the run after being granted bail.

They should be.

They have also faced problems with suspects slipping their control orders and at least three others are being hunted by police having absconded in the past year.

Zeeshan Siddiqui, a former London Underground worker linked to the leader of the July 7 bomb plot, has been missing since September last year.

He disappeared after leaping from the window of West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth, west London, where he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Raised in Hounslow, west London, he once said he planned to run away to join the mujahideen [holy warriors] in Lebanon. He was also said to have been a friend of British suicide bomber Asif Hanif, who blew himself up in Israel in 2003.

One of the most embarrassing examples of terror suspects flouting control orders occurred in May last year.

Three men - all of whom had been placed under control orders - went on the run after failing to report to the authorities....

And yet procedures have still not been toughened up enough to keep this from happening.

Posted by Robert at June 28, 2008 11:30 AM
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