A Change of Guard

សូមស្តាប់វិទ្យុសង្គ្រោះជាតិ Please read more Khmer news and listen to CNRP Radio at National Rescue Party. សូមស្តាប់វីទ្យុខ្មែរប៉ុស្តិ៍/Khmer Post Radio.
Follow Khmerization on Facebook/តាមដានខ្មែរូបនីយកម្មតាម Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/khmerization.khmerican

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Abid Naseer: Student who plotted to blow up Manchester's Arndale Centre jailed for 40 years


Abid Naseer: Student who plotted to blow up Manchester's Arndale Centre jailed for 40 years

Rob Crilly - The Telegraph - 24 November 2015
Abid Naseer

A Pakistani student planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre before his accomplices would target fleeing survivors in suicide bombings, it has been disclosed.

Abid Naseer, 28, was jailed for 40 years in New York on Tuesday after being convicted of an al-Qaeda plot to attack the shopping centre in 2009.

The fanatic was the leader of a terrorist cell that was to target Easter shoppers six years ago with a car bomb and suicide vests.

Following his sentence, police revealed that the car was to be parked just 100 metres from the spot where the IRA detonated a lorry bomb in 1996, injuring more than 200 people and causing enormous damage to the centre.

Accomplices were then to be based on nearby Market Street to detonate suicide bombs as shoppers fled the scene.

Detectives estimated that "hundreds" would have been killed or maimed if the plot had succeeded.
However, its disruption marked a turning point for al-Qaeda which shifted its focus to smaller, less sophisticated plots rather than trying to launch major spectaculars.

Naseer was jailed after the US authorities use laws that allow them to prosecute anyone accused of involvement with a designated terrorist organisation deemed to be acting against American interests, such as al- Qaeda, regardless of where the alleged offences took place.

But the case sparked fierce criticism of the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK after it ruled out bringing charges against Naseer following his arrest in 2009.

It said while evidence against him was admissible it was "very limited", effectively allowing him back on the streets.

He was later issued with a control order and only taken back into custody when the US authorities began extradition proceedings.

After his conviction in March, police and politicians in the UK accused the CPS of putting lives at risk.

The case also raised concerns over the student visa system which Naseer was able to exploit to base himself in the UK.

Naseer was arrested in Manchester in April 2009 but later released, along with nine other suspects, for lack of evidence.

He was held days after sending an email to an account registered in Peshawar, Pakistan, from an internet cafe in Manchester.

"I met with Nadia family and we both parties have agreed to conduct the Nikkah [Muslim marriage contract] after 15th and before 20th of this month," it said.

Police were convinced it was coded language notifying his al-Qaeda handler that the attack was to go ahead over Easter weekend.

But no explosives were ever found at his home and he escaped charges.

He was extradited to stand trial in the US in 2013 accused of being part of a global al-Qaeda conspiracy to attack Western targets.

In March, he was convicted on three charges of providing support to al-Qaeda and plotting to use a destructive device.

Lawyers for the US government told the court in Brooklyn that Naseer was in contact with a courier for al-Qaeda's head of external operations, a figure who was also communicating with three men later convicted of plotting to blow up the New York subway, and three men in Norway convicted of planning an attack on a newspaper in Copenhagen.

They also presented photographs of Tariq ur-Rehman, another man arrested in Britain at the same time as Naseer, posing at the Arndale Centre.

The court heard how documents recovered by US Navy Seals at Osama bin Laden's Pakistani home had described how "brothers" had been sent to Britain.

"The brothers did not face any security problems other than what was mentioned on the news a few days ago about the arrest of several individuals in Britain," it said.

Crucially the document was written just a few days after Naseer and nine other suspects had been arrested in Manchester and Liverpool.

The trial also included the bizarre spectacle of six MI5 surveillance officers wearing wigs and make-up to hide their identities. They described following Naseer as he scouted targets and met his accomplices.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, of the UK's North West Counter Terror Unit, said Naseer's plan to bomb the Arndale Centre in Manchester on the Easter Bank Holiday in 2009 was the third prong of " an international job".

"This has been a long and difficult case which raised a few eyebrows at the time. We made early arrests without knowing what we would find and initially we did not find tons of evidence. But it was too high a risk to leave it any longer," he said.

"It was a safety arrest which is a risky strategy for the police because it is based on intelligence and assessment to protect the public. But it prevented another attack which was clearly being planned.
"It was a relentless investigation over six years but justice has been done. We were always very clear about our assessment of Naseer."

He added:" He is the real deal. Born and bred in Peshawar. He was recruited and trained in Pakistan by Al Quaeda and because he was able to enter the UK he was selected. He spoke reasonable English and was able to come into the UK as a student under the radar."

No comments: