Three of the four London bombers (L-R) Mohammed Sidique Khan (obscured), Shahzad Tanweer and Germaine Lindsay enter the Underground at King's Cross to make a practice run for the July 7 suicide attacks, on June 28, 2005 in London. (Metropolitan Police via Getty Images)
The claims centre on a surveillance operation by the Security Service.
Last week it was confirmed that £20,000 ($30,700) was given by the charity–which raises £30 million ($46 million) through the telethon every year to benefit children in the UK–to the Leeds Community School in Beeston, Yorkshire, sited behind the Iqra Islamic bookshop.
Both the bookshop and school were registered charities–making them eligible to receive tax-free donations. In their application for charity status, both claimed: “Our aim is the advancement of the Islamic faith”.
But it has emerged that Sidique Khan, the mastermind of the London bombers, and Shehzad Tanweer, who had been one of the bombers, were trustees of both the school and the bookshop. Both men have been identified as having been trained in Pakistan by al-Qaeda.
The two men used the premises to radicalise other Muslims. They used the bookshop and school to hand out DVDs and books to promote terrorism. Both the bookshop and school have since been closed down. But those who went there have remained under MI5 surveillance in one of the largest operations the Security Service has conducted since the London bombings.
The discovery that the respected telethon was duped into handing out money which supported the activities of the London suicide bombers came from an MI5 informer–one of the several the Security Service has recruited since the bombings.
His role gives a fascinating insight into the work of the Watchers Branch, the MI5 department running surveillance operations against unsuspecting terrorists and their locations in Britain.
All its officers are fluent in Arabic and Urdu and a number are English-born Muslims who have recruited the informers.
Working with them are experts from MI5’s Technical Support division. They are skilled in planting a variety of listening devices under a suspect’s car, on the outer wall of his home, at his workplace and inside the mosque he attends for Friday prayers. They have also bugged halal restaurants where a suspect dines.
The bugs are sensitive enough to pick up whispers and have a sufficient range to reach one of the surveillance vans positioned to cast an ultra-sophisticated electronic net over a wide area.
The Watchers also include members of another highly specialised unit created after the London bombings. They are Muslims who volunteered to help infiltrate terrorist cells to provide vital intelligence.
“Nevertheless, to obtain the kind of information required, they could be forced to partake in some act of terrorism”, admitted an MI5 officer.
“If an asset is arrested, he would be extradited from custody. Sometimes this requires the intervention of a Chief Constable of the arresting officers or even the head of the Scotland Yard Anti-Terrorism Command. But it is a priority. The asset’s usefulness would, of course, be over”, he explained.
To maintain a Watcher Team in the field costs an estimated £15,000 ($23,000) a week.
The Leeds surveillance operation had been running for months before it learned of how the telethon had been exploited.
Member of Parliament Patrick Mercer, a Conservative Party expert on counter-terrorism, said: “We must never be complacent about how terrorists operate. Worthy causes like the telethon can be misled by them”.
Defence analyst, Glyn Gaskarth, added: “It beggars belief that a charity paid money without ensuring the beneficiaries did not have extremist links”.
Gordon Thomas is the author of a new edition of Gideon’s Spies: The Inside Story of Israel’s Legendary Secret Service, The Mossad, by JR Books of London and available on Amazon Books.
(C) G-2 Bulletin, Washington D.C., USA, and Gordon Thomas.
