London, Terror Training Ground?
L O N D O N, Oct. 22 -- Scotland Yard's hunt for suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States has uncovered a dirty secret.
The agency's anti-terrorism task force's efforts have revealed to the public what many in the intelligence community had long suspected: London has become a breeding ground for terrorist sympathizers, if not terrorists themselves.
Dissidents have long taken advantage of the United Kingdom's generous asylum laws to flee their homelands and settle in London.
Alex Standish, editor of Jane's Intelligence Digest, explains that while Britain has tended to offer asylum to "dissidents from countries that can best be described as 'not democratic,' it is fair to say that some perhaps have abused this hospitality and promoted militant activity from London."
Such British hospitality explains how Omar Mahmoud Abu Omar, aka Abu Qatada — dubbed "bin Laden's ambassador to Europe" by British intelligence sources — arrived in the United Kingdom.
Qatada says he fled persecution in his native Jordan, but upon being granted asylum in Britain was charged in absentia with murder and sentenced to death for his involvement in a series of explosions in 1998.
Qatada insists he is merely a cleric, spreading the word of Islam, and that he has been unfairly labeled by the Jordanian, British, and American governments. He lives with his wife and four children in a small home on the outskirts of London. Last week, the government froze his bank account after it was alleged he had some $270,000 in the bank despite collecting welfare benefits. Qatada denied the existence of the funds.
"It's only lie upon lie," he said.
More lies, he says, are allegations he is tied to bin Laden. Despite claims he met with bin Laden in Pakistan in 1989, and that he serves as one of al Qaeda's stooges in Europe, the cleric denies ever meeting America's most-wanted man. But that's not to say he doesn't support him.
"Bin Laden, as far as I know, is a Muslim, and he is seeking to liberate his lands from the invaders, and I see nothing wrong with that. It is the duty of every Muslim to support him."
