More on Babar Ahmed, who is accused of trying to set up a jihad training camp in Arizona. From the Times Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:
A BRITISH computer expert ran websites raising cash and recruiting fighters for the Taleban and the Chechen Mujahidin, an extradition hearing was told yesterday.
Babar Ahmad allegedly operated websites in the United States that revealed links to Shamil Basayev, the Chechen leader behind the Beslan school attack. There was also advice on smuggling cash to the Taleban, and Muslims were urged to take arms training for a jihad.
Mr Ahmad, 30, of Tooting, South London, is fighting extradition on five charges stretching from 1997 to 2004 alleging that he used websites to incite the murder of US servicemen in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
At the start of a two-day hearing, John Hardy, for the US Government, said that the websites “sought and invited and solicited contributions to terrorist causes in Afghanistan and Chechnya”.
The material inciting murder in both the countries and elsewhere was “established, operated and maintained by this defendant”, he told Tim Workman, the senior district judge at Bow Street Magistrates” Court. Muslims were told that “military training is an Islamic obligation, not an option” and it was suggested that they should get hold of weapons such as AK47s.
One of the websites, named after the spiritual teacher of Osama bin Laden, announced that it had been set up “to propagate the cause of jihad among Muslims who are sitting down ignorant“, Mr Hardy said.
An additional note about Arizona: last night after I spoke, a woman in the audience told me about a friend of hers who has a large place here in Arizona. Beginning over ten years ago, she began to find prayer rugs and Arabic texts on the grounds. This phenomenon, of course, has been widely reported — and this is just another indication of how long jihadists have crossed into the US from Mexico. If Babar Ahmed had been successful, they wouldn’t have had to travel far to get to a training camp.