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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 1) Al-Qa'eda terror trio linked to London School of 'Extremists' 2) Radical reputation for sit-ins and anarchy 1) Al-Qa'eda terror trio linked to London School of 'Extremists' =========================================== By Rajeev Syal and Chris Hastings (Filed: 27/01/2002) THE London School of Economics, known for its far-Left radicalism in the 1960s, has been host to at least three al-Qa'eda-linked terrorists, The Telegraph has been told. An intelligence report says that the trio studied or lectured at the London University college between 1990 and 1993, when it became a breeding ground for Islamic extremism. The report will concern college authorities, who want to distance the LSE from its image of 30 years ago when it was known as a base for Trotskyist and Maoist students. The three - including one man called Ahmed Omar Sheikh - have been revealed as having links with the LSE in an intelligence file seen by this newspaper and now being studied by police. Omar Sheikh, 28, a former mathematics student at the LSE, is said to have been linked to last week's drive-by shooting in Calcutta that killed five policemen. He has also been named as one of the key financiers of Mohammed Atta, the pilot of one of the jets that hit the World Trade Centre on September 11. Sheikh, who went to a private school in Snaresbrook, east London, became involved with radicals while at the LSE. Friends say that in 1993, while in his second year there, he went to Bosnia on an aid mission, and converted to an extreme form of Islam. He later played a leading role among Kashmiri separatists. Indian police seized him in a 1994 shootout after three British backpackers were kidnapped. He was sprung from jail in 1999 and is now on the run. Another alleged terrorist was arrested in Delhi last month for reported involvement in the recent attack on the Indian parliament. He lectured to Muslim students at the LSE in 1993, according to the report. The third man enrolled on a computer course at the LSE in 1992, say police. They believe that he used his position to recruit members for Jaish-e-Mohammed, a radical Kashmiri separatist group closely associated with al-Qa'eda. LSE authorities recognised that fundamentalist activity was getting out of control in 1995 when extremist groups - who want to see an Islamic state founded in Britain - recruited on campus. The students' union was asked to check the credentials of all members of the campus Islamic society to ensure they were bona fide members. The university threatened to close the society's prayer room unless it took decisive action. An Islamic society official said last week: "There were problems. A number of students were brainwashed by outsiders. They did become very extreme. The matter has now been dealt with." An LSE official said: "There was some activity in the mid-1990s. Together with the students' union we checked that only bona fide students were actually linked to the Islamic society." There was a resurgence of activity two years ago when members of al-Muhajiroun, an extremist group, tried to recruit volunteers at a freshers' fair. They were expelled by security staff. Last week, former students expressed surprise at the rise in Islamic radicalism at the university. Robert Kilroy-Silk, the television presenter and former Labour MP who studied there in the mid-1960s, said: "The LSE is a wonderful place because it brings together different people from across the political, social and religious spectrums. "It is inevitable that some of those people will veer towards the extremes." 2) Radical reputation for sit-ins and anarchy ============================== By Rajeev Syal (Filed: 27/01/2002) THE London School of Economics, nestling behind Aldwych in central London, has a history of attracting and nurturing revolutionary students. Its reputation was earned by middle-class Marxists, Trotskyists and Maoists in 1967 when its students held a series of demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. Soon the radicals grew more demanding. If students objected to a member of staff, they would hold "sit-ins" and boycott lectures for months. On one occasion, the student union declared the university buildings a "socialist republic"; on another, 150 students hoisted an anarchists' black and red flag above a sit-in. An intelligence report from 1968 into student unrest - released recently by the Public Records Office - revealed that the reputation of LSE students was viewed as "frighteningly radical" by their German counterparts. Last year, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, criticised the LSE, accusing it of being a breeding ground for terrorists. He said some students there openly supported and raised money for terrorists groups in Chechnya. His claims were dismissed by college officials who demanded that he supply evidence. The university, set up by the Left-wingers Sydney and Beatrix Webb in 1895, has attracted a wide range of students. Some of those caught up in its radical days, such as Mick Jagger and the Labour Party tycoon Geoffrey Robinson, have since renounced their once-radical behaviour. --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
