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From
http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4357814,00.html
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AK-47 training held at London mosque
Terrorism crisis - Observer special
Islam and the West - Observer special
Jason Burke, chief reporter
Sunday February 17, 2002
The Observer
British Islamic extremists have been involved in weapons training
with assault rifles at a mosque in London, intelligence sources have
told The Observer.
The disclosures that hardline Islamists practised with Kalashnikov AK-
47s at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London underline the pivotal
role that Britain has played in the recruitment of volunteers to
fight alongside Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group all over the world.
It will also intensify pressure on the Government to crack down on Islamic militants
using the UK as a base.
MI5 recruited worshippers at Finsbury Park who opposed the hardline stance taken by
controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, who often leads prayers there, and asked them
to help monitor the activities of extremists. Early
last year the agents told their handlers that several groups had been taught to strip
and reassemble Kalashnikovs in the mosque's basement. It was not clear if the guns
were live or deactivated weapons, which can legally
be owned in the UK.
Hamza, the most influential and radical of the prayer leaders at the mosque, said
yesterday that, as far as he knew, no 'harmful' activities had ever taken place there.
However, he admitted that he could not monitor all a
reas of the mosque.
Hamza, who is wanted for alleged terrorist offences in the Yemen, told The Observer
that the mosque may have been the victim of a smear campaign by foreign agents. He
named Algeria and Egypt as two countries particularly
keen to see the mosque shut down. 'They are sending agents to cause us trouble,' he
said.
Last month The Observer revealed that a video showing the execution of Algerian
conscripts by hardline militants had been circulated at the mosque. Hamza denied it
had been used for recruiting purposes.
However, MI5 has been told by their agents that scores of young men were being sent
from the mosque for training at camps in Afghanistan. They reported that consignments
of supplies including radio and telecommunications
equipment were dispatched to Pakistan for eventual distribution in the Afghan training
camps allied to or run by al-Qaeda. They also revealed a complex operation run by some
men attending the mosque to provide volunteers
with false documents. Although the men recruited by MI5 were not directly involved in
the logistics of supplying overseas Mujahideen, the operation was openly talked about
at the mosque.
Several men involved with the al-Qaeda group have already been linked to Finsbury Park
mosque. Feroz Abbassi, a computer engineer from Croydon held by the US in Cuba, was
'indoctrinated' in the mosque, according to his pa
rents. Jerome Courtailler, arrested in Holland for allegedly plotting to blow up the
US embassy in Paris, prayed there as did Djamel Beghal, Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard
Reid, all of whom have been linked to al-Qaeda by
investigators.
Three former MI5 agents interviewed by The Observer said that the mosque's reputation
drew radical Islamists from all over Europe. One recalled white Swedish converts to
Islam who had sought out the mosque because they wa
nt to take part in 'the Jihad'.
'They got false papers from people they met at the mosque and were sent to Afghanistan
via Germany,' one former agent recalled.
Senior officers with two Middle Eastern intelligence agencies based in Peshawar, the
Pakistani frontier city that was until recently a major base for militant volunteers
fighting alongside the Taliban and their al-Qaeda a
llies, said that interviews with Mujahideen arrested by Pakistani authorities over the
last 18 months had revealed that many had received instruction in basic battlefield
first aid from a doctor who ran lessons at the mos
que. They said that consignments of medical supplies, including large quantities of
antibiotics, had been sent from the UK.
Hamza yesterday denied the allegations, saying that the mosque lacked
funds.
The British sources said they had told MI5 that volunteers who had
fought in Afghanistan for the Taliban or for Islamic militants in
Chechnya and Algeria boasted at the mosque of battles they had taken
part in. Many younger worshippers were deeply impressed by the 'war
stories', the men said.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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