Babar Ahmad update, from the Washington Times, :
U.S. authorities are seeking to extradite from Britain a 30-year-old British computer specialist accused of running Web sites in this country to promote jihad and funnel cash to terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda.
Babar Ahmad was named in a federal grand jury indictment in August in Bridgeport, Conn., on charges of conspiring to support terrorists, providing material support to terrorist organizations, conspiring to kill, kidnap or injure U.S. citizens, and money laundering….
Extradition papers said Mr. Ahmad, arrested Aug. 5, possessed classified plans describing the movements of a U.S. Navy battle group operating in the Straits of Hormuz in April 2001, along with instructions on how best to attack those vessels with rocket-propelled grenades from small boats. The plans were seized in December by British authorities and later confirmed as authentic by U.S. Navy personnel.
According to an affidavit in the case, Mr. Ahmad communicated with a U.S. Navy enlistee aboard the USS Benfold, a guided missile destroyer, who was said to be “sympathetic to al Qaeda causes.” The sailor tentatively has been identified as Hassan Abujihaad, who served aboard the Benfold in 2000 and 2001.
The sailor voiced what the affidavit said was “strong support” for the mujahedeen, including praise for those who attacked the USS Cole in Yemen killing 17 sailors as “men who have brought honor this week to the ummah [community of Islamic believers] in the lands of Jihad Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, etc.” …
Mr. Ahmad is accused of conspiring with others to use his privately owned Azzam Publications Web sites and e-mail accounts to solicit resources for those involved in a conspiracy to kill people abroad, engaging in illegal financial transactions with the Taliban, Chechen mujahedeen and other terrorists, and providing supplies, money, personnel and weapons to the Taliban, al Qaeda and other terrorists.
One of the Web sites, the affidavit said, included a page describing its purpose as to “propagate the call for jihad, among the Muslims who are sitting down, ignorant of this vital duty.”
What’s that? A vital duty to perform an inner spiritual struggle? What does that have to do with financing the Taliban and Al-Qaeda? Hmmm.