Filed under: Free Rad!cals | Tags: al muhajiroun, converts, Germany, Pakistan, radicalization, terrorism, UK
My latest over at FreeRad!cals, this one looking at a couple of convert stories which caught my eye. Khalid Kelly is the most fascinating, as I really wonder whether he is what he says he is, or whether this is bluster.
Crazy Convert Capers
Filed under: Europe, Radicalisation
Two stories surfaced over last weekend which I have only now gotten around to processing properly – first is the case of Jan Schneider, the latest convert linked to the infamous Sauerland group that has the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) on high alert, and second is the case of Khalid Kelly, former head of Al Muhajiroun in Ireland (or at least one of its more prominent activists) who has now surfaced in the Swat valley.
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Another piece looking in greater detail at the Isa Ibrahim case – am hoping to build this all into something bigger looking at lone wolf terrorism in the UK. Any thoughts or comments or pointers very welcome.
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35341
Britain Jails “Lone Wolf” Terrorist Isa Ibrahim
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 23
July 30, 2009
Category: Terrorism Monitor, Home Page, Terrorism, Europe
By: Raffaello Pantucci
A jury at Winchester Crown Court in the U.K. returned a guilty verdict on July 17 in the case against “lone wolf” terrorist Andrew “Isa” Ibrahim, a 20 year-old British citizen accused of plotting a suicide bombing at a mall in Bristol, a large city west of London. Accused of “making an explosive substance with intent,” “preparation of a terrorist act” and having already pled guilty to “making an explosive substance,” Ibrahim was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 10 years of incarceration (Crown Prosecution Service News, July 17; Bristol Evening News, July 17).
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Been away for a while somewhere I cannot access this, so have been remiss in posting. I have also been working on some longer pieces that means that they are still out for soundings and have not yet actually been published yet. One has through my Institute, but will have to tell you to write to me if you want to see it, and I can send over a copy.
Amusingly, I see that my Qatada piece attracted a lot of hits in the wake of the Law Lords decision on him, maybe this hints that I should do something longer again about his situation. Anyway, in the meantime, here is my latest for Jamestown, it looks at the case of Christian Ganczarski the German-Polish convert who was jailed recently in France.
Polish-Born Muslim Convert Sentenced for Leading Role in Tunisian Synagogue Bombing
A French court has sentenced Christian Ganczarski, a Polish-born German national and convert to Islam, to 18 years in prison for his role in the 2002 bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia. Though Ganczarski has been under suspicion for years, it was only the recent intervention of a shadowy Paris-based counterterrorism center that allowed the long-time al-Qaeda associate to be brought to trial.
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A new piece for the New Statesman which starts to explore converts, a project I have been trying to find time to work on myself separately. This is an off-shoot of a bigger thing looking at the phenomenon of converts in UK plots. Any thoughts or reactions on this topic, or pointers to others working on it would be very interesting and welcome.
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/11/islamic-reilly-cases-found
Loners to wannabe terrorists
Published 26 November 2008
In two separate cases, white British loners found acceptance online among Islamic extremists and then attempted to detonate bombs.
A block of flats in Plymouth where Nicky Reilly was thought to have lived.Presiding Justice Calvert-Smith declared that a twelve month delay on sentencing requested by the defence in the sad case of wannabe suicide bomber Nicky Reilly would not be acceptable last Friday. For many, the conclusion in this case seems to be that it was a one-off situation where extremists took advantage of a person suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome who had a mental age of 10. But while Reilly’s case is the most prominent to have reached the public imagination, thanks to the advanced nature of his plot, there are similarities to be found in other cases in the year preceding Reilly’s attempt.
My latest for HSToday’s website. The converts aspect is a theme i am currently expanding further in a bigger project, and any thoughts or ideas or pointers for others doing such work would be greatly appreciated. In fact, any comment or thoughts generally would of course be appreciated. One small prob, this has possibly the worst picture of me in circulation on it.
http://hstoday.us/content/view/3838/152/
Lone Jihadists: The New Face of UK Terror?
Monday, 16 June 2008
‘Is this the new face of terror that we can expect?‘
To surprisingly little fanfare, Britain recently faced a number of close-call domestic home-grown terrorist plots. First there was the case of Andrew Ibrahim, a 19 year old convert to Islam who was arrested on April 17 in possession of a suicide belt after a two week investigation set off by an intelligence tip-off. Then, just over a month later on May 23 in the western British city of Exeter, Nicky Reilly (aka, Mohammed Rasheed) attempted to detonate a series of bombs in a restaurant.
