Of course, we have this from human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar: “None of the people on this list are terrorists. They are ordinary people who are being persecuted.” Once again, it would be more credible if Muslim activists could admit to the existence of at least one Islamic terrorist somewhere in the world. Otherwise, this sort of thing just becomes part of the background noise whenever arrests or law-enforcement efforts are made. From The Scotsman, with thanks to Teri:
BRITISH security services have compiled a ‘hit-list’ of 20 al-Qaeda terrorist suspects who are living in Scotland and said to be connected with a plot to unleash mass murder on the streets of the UK.
The dossier, compiled by MI5 and Special Branch, contains the names of more than 80 alleged extremists across Britain whom security services allege were involved in a plan to kill, using the deadly poison ricin.
The 20 suspects living north of the Border are all Muslims and based in the Central Belt. Some are said to be British citizens.
Nine of them are Algerians arrested and then cleared of terror-related charges following a massive police operation in Edinburgh in 2002. However, the identities of the 11 remaining suspects are known only to the security services….
Human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, of Glasgow-based Beltrami Berlow solicitors, is representing some of the nine Algerians who were cleared of terror charges last year.
One of them, asylum seeker Hakim Ziem – believed to be number eight on the list – was yesterday arrested and taken to Dungavel detention centre on immigration charges.
Anwar says he now faces certain death because of his inclusion in the list, and has lodged a fresh asylum claim. He said: “None of the people on this list are terrorists. They are ordinary people who are being persecuted. The fact Ziem has not been convicted would be an irrelevance to the Algerian authorities. His arrest would be sufficient to warrant their attention. Torture and violence are committed in their battle against terrorism. This would apply to Hakim Ziem….”