A British citizen facing extradition to the US on terrorism charges was found in possession of three-year-old plans to attack US Navy ships in the Gulf, a US lawyer said on Friday.
"The documents went on to describe the battle group's vulnerability to a terrorist attack and provided specific examples of how the ships might be attacked," US lawyer Rosemary Fernandes told a London court.
Police uncovered the documents in a December 2003 raid on 30-year-old Babar Ahmad's house in south London, Fernandes said, outlining the charges at a preliminary extradition hearing.
His court appearance came as 11 other terrorism suspects, collared on Tuesday in one of Britain's biggest anti-terrorist operations since 2001, were being kept in police custody for questioning.
One of the men was identified by Pakistani intelligence officials as Abu Eisa Al-Hindi, accused by both Islamabad and Washington of being a senior Al-Qaeda figure.
Thirteen men in all were apprehended in Tuesday's raids, but one was released the following day while a second man, identified only as K, was let go without charges late Friday.
Ahmad was arrested in a separate operation on Thursday after a US request to extradite him for allegedly using US-based web sites and e-mail to raise money to support terrorist acts in Chechnya and Afghanistan.
Ahmad allegedly had e-mail links to one of the men suspected of planning the Moscow theater siege in October 2002, which led to the deaths of more than 120 hostages. He was also accused of operating a series of web sites supporting Islamic holy war.
Fernandes said Ahmad had been found with documentation on the formation of US ships operating at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, specifically on their movements on April, 29, 2001.
After details of the warrant were read to him, Ahmad was asked if he understood.
"Not really. It's all a bit confusing to me," he replied, before being remanded in custody to appear again at Bow Street Magistrates Court in a week. No application for bail was made.
Speaking later Friday, one of Ahmad's sisters described his arrest and request for extradition as "politically motivated."
"There is no proof of his involvement in terrorism," she said. "It is all lies.
Anti-terrorist officers have been given until August 8 to question the 12 men, aged 19 to 32, who were arrested on Tuesday.
Under Britain's Terrorism Act 2000, police can question terrorist suspects for up to two weeks without charge if granted extensions.
Police have stipulated that Ahmad's arrest was unrelated to Tuesday's anti-terrorist swoop, which involved raids by police in London and three English counties.
Nevertheless, it underscored renewed concerns about the threat posed to British interests by global terrorism, particularly Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
One of the 12 detainees, al-Hindi, has been accused by Pakistan and the US of being a senior Al-Qaeda figure.
Unnamed US officials alleged in the New York Times on Friday that Al-Hindi had directed the surveillance of US financial institutions years ago, an alleged discovery that led last weekend to the Bush administration heightening security alerts.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS