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MARCH 2006 : (UK : LeT's MOHAMMED AJMAL KHAN IS SENTENCED TO 9 YRS) A Pakistan-trained terrorist, described as global quartermaster for the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, has been sentenced to nine years in prison after he admitted to charges of conspiring to provide funds for terrorist activity. Mohammed Ajmal Khan, 31, who trained in Pakistan and travelled widely in furtherance of terrorist aims, had made available a significant source of funds from an "unidentified but undeniably terrorist-related source," Justice Fulford said in his judgement on Friday.
The Coventry-based Khan allegedly used millions of pounds raised by supporters in the UK to purchase Kevlar body armour, firearms and hi-tech surveillance equipment which were funnelled to rebels in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir.
The judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court called on the UK government to urgently consider introducing greater sentencing powers. The maximum sentence for the charge is 14 years in prison, which had to be reduced because of Khan's guilty plea.
Khan admitted to charges of conspiring to provide money and property to terrorists for four years from March 2001. He also admitted to directing a terrorist organisation and the membership of LeT, outlawed under the Terrorism Act 2000. Firzana Khan, 41, a housewife from Coventry, has also admitted her involvement in the conspiracy. She is yet to be sentenced.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis told the court that Khan held an influential position in the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said the organisation was closely affiliated to the Al-Qaeda and was involved in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.-------LeT terrorist imprisoned for 9 years in UK, Hindustan Times ^ | March 18 2006 | Press Trust of India

JULY 2006 : (BOMBAY, INDIA : BOMBAY TRAIN BOMBINGS - See LASHKAR E TAIBA) LET was also accused in the Bombay train bombings in India last month. It has significant resources in Pakistan, Britain, and elsewhere. ------ "Don't LET Up: The transatlantic air plot and the problem of British Islam," Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, Aug 10/06

AUGUST 2006 : (LONDON AIRLINER PLOT / TRANSATLANTIC PLOT-FOILED; LINKED TO HAFIZ MOHAMMAD SAEED, FOUNDER OF LeT - See LeT, GSPC, RASHID RAUF, ASSASSINATION PLOT AGAINST PAKISTANI LEADER MUSHARRAF) News from Pakistan itself indicates the main trail from there to Heathrow. British and Pakistani sources linked the plan [2006 LondonAirlinePlot] to the Pakistani government's house arrest of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of the armed paramilitary movement Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET, or Army of the Righteous). LET, which is designated a terrorist organization by the State Department, is an ally of al Qaeda and is present wherever Pakistani Sunnis congregate and violence is hatched. ------ "Don't LET Up: The transatlantic air plot and the problem of British Islam," Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, Aug 10/06
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[See London Airline Plot] Pakistani security sources said yesterday that al-Qaida's "number three" was behind the alleged plot to blow up several transatlantic flights leaving the UK. They also suggested Britain wanted to allow the plotters to try a dry run, without explosives, so as to gather more evidence, but was persuaded to intervene earlier by US and Pakistani authorities.
British detectives are in Islamabad working with the Pakistani security services with regard to Rashid Rauf, the Briton held in connection with the alleged plot. No decision has been made as to whether he will be extradited to Britain.
Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who after Osama bin Laden and the Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, is suspected of being al-Qaida's third in command, has been named by Pakistani security sources as the main planner of the alleged plot, according to Dawn, a daily newspaper. He has also been accused of being in a plot to assassinate Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, and was arrested last year and turned over to the US.
--------------(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ..."Pakistan says al-Qaida link to plot found ... number three identified as main planner," by Duncan Campbell in Islamabad, The Guardian (UK), August 17, 2006, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1685028/posts

JULY 2006 : (BOMBAY, INDIA : BOMBAY TRAIN BOMBINGS - See LASHKAR E TAIBA) LET was also accused in the Bombay train bombings in India... ------ "Don't LET Up: The transatlantic air plot and the problem of British Islam," Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, Aug 10/06

AUGUST 8, 2006 : (ADEL TEBOURSKI IS DEPORTED FROM FRANCE TO TUNISIA -- see SEPT 9, 2001 ASSASSINATION OF AFGHAN N ALLIANCE LEADER MASSOUD) France has deported a Tunisian man to his homeland despite protests that he could face torture there. Adel Tebourski, 42, was put on an Air France flight back to Tunisia on Monday, officials said. Tebourski had served a jail sentence in France after being convicted of helping the killers of Afghan resistance leader Ahmed Shah Masood in 2001. The French authorities described Tebourski as a serious threat to national security.
French campaigners have said he could be tortured in Tunisia, and the UN torture committee last month called on Paris to suspend his deportation, the French news agency AFP reports. A court in Paris handed Tebourski a six-year jail term in 2005 for offering logistical support to the killers of Masood.
During the trial, Tebourski admitted he was a member of an Islamist cell linked to one of the Tunisian killers. Three other men were sentenced to between two and seven years by the Paris court.
Masood, a leading general in Afghanistan's anti-Taleban Northern Alliance, was blown up in 2001 by two Tunisian men posing as journalists. The death of the man revered as the "Lion of the Panjshir Valley" stunned the country's then rebel forces, who were soon called to fight alongside US troops in a campaign against the Taleban in late 2001.-------France deports convicted (islamist) Tunisian BBC News ^ | 08/08/2006

AUGUST 2006 : (REPORT : LONDON AIRLINE PLOT WAS BEING FINANCED BY A CHARITY THAT IS THE SUCCESSOR TO THE OUTLAWED LASHKAR E TOIBA [LeT] -- See OCT 2005 EARTHQUAKE) A Pakistani charity that received 10 million dollars from Britain for earthquake relief last year helped finance the alleged bomb plot to blow up US-bound passenger jets, The Washington Post said. "The innocent Pakistani souls in Britain who contributed so generously for the victims of the earthquake didn't know that their money would actually be used for one of the biggest terrorist operations," a Pakistani intelligence official told the daily.
The charity was not mentioned by name, but the official said the funds traced to it helped investigators uncover the alleged plot British authorities thwarted last week and which US officials have tentantively linked to Al-Qaeda.
Another senior Pakistani intelligence official said the charity had received some five million pounds (10 million dollars) from Britain, but that less than half was used for relief operations in the October earthquake that killed 73,000 people. "British intelligence smelled foul play the moment the transfer was made in December last year," said the senior official, who like his colleague asked not to be identified due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
The New York Times on Monday said the British authorities were investigating whether the Jamaat-ud-Dawa Charity, active in the mosques of Britain's largest cities, had provided money to some of the 23 suspects under arrest for the foiled bomb plot.
The charity, according to Pakistani and US officials cited by the Times, is believed to be the successor of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant group which the Pakistani government banned in 2002.
A British terrorism expert consulted by The Washington Post said the chaos that followed the devastating earthquake in northern Pakistan last year allowed Pakistani intelligence agents to learn more about the militant groups operating in the area. A spokesman for Jamaat-Ud-Dawa reached by the Post denied any funding by his group of the bomb plot in Britain, insisting that the group condemned terrorism and that it was not under investigation by the Pakistani government.--- Pakistani charity funded airline bomb plot: report (update)," AFP via Yahoo ^ | 8/15/2006 Posted on 08/15/2006 3:11:39 AM PDT by markomalley