UK: How the terror camp gang were bugged and caught

The Times (UK) ^ | February 26, 2008 | Lucy Bannerman, Sean O’Neill and Michael Evans of The Times

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

(Metropolitan Police/PA)

Mobile phone footage of the group taking part in terror training in the New Forest

So familiar a sight were the Muslim men who came to Baysbrown Farm campsite and pitched tent in the highest field, just below the crags, that the Cumbrian farmer had nicknamed them “my Taleban”.

So harmless and engaging did they seem that BBC producers paid them to go paintballing, filmed them for a series called Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic and regarded their leader, Mohammed Hamid, as “a Cockney comic”.

And so seemingly inept and childish were their efforts at training — crawling through streams, using sticks as pretend guns and staying out all night in the woods — that the police and MI5 surveillance teams must have wondered if the Operation Overramp terror training camps investigation wasn’t a waste of time and resources.

Any doubts about the seriousness of the group gathered around Hamid and Attila Ahmet were to be dispelled, however, in the days after July 21, 2005.

The four men who had attempted to blow themselves up on three Tube trains and a London bus, in imitation of the 7/7 bombers who killed 52 people a fortnight before, had all been on the weekends in the Lake District.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Last sentence from above:

*********************************

Hamid had taken two of the terrorists paintballing on July 3 and texted some on hearing news of the 7/7 attacks with the message: “We fear no one except Allah, we will not change our ways, we are proud to be a Muslim, we will not hide.”

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the Blogosphere (Townhall):

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Trivialising Terror
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:32 AM

**********************EXCERPTS**************************

The convictions in London of would-be terrorists are accompanied by warnings against minimizing the early attempts by terrorists-in-the-making to get organized:

A senior counter-terrorism source said: “There has always been the danger of trivialising what these people were doing. They were engaged in paramilitary training for terrorism, they talked repeatedly of fighting and killing non-believers and they rejected Muslims who did not follow their path.

“They posed a huge danger to young impressionable people who could have been lured into terrorism.”

This sort of trivialising of the threat has happened repeatedly in the U.S. by people intent on making a political case against the Bush Adminstration.

The refusal of the Obama-Pelosi Democrats to reauthorize FISA surveillance authorities is the ultimate trivialization of terror.  The fall campaign will largely turn on whether a majority of Americans are willing to listen to Obama, Pelosi Reid and the rest who want us to believe that the '90s are back, and 9/11 a distant, one-time tragedy.

[colorado tanker]

They’re terrorists, alright. Thank goodness they weren’t very good at it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Or it could be that they were caught before they learned how to do it better.

[Wil H]

The whole terrorist thing is over blown.

It has been reported that 93% of Muslims are peace loving individuals.

That means that there are only 91 MILLION of them that are murderous thugs that want to slit our throats..

Nothing to worry about there...

[dervish]

Thanks. From LGF, there is one in upstate NY

http://www.islam-watch.org/Others/Islamberg-Upstate-New-York.htm

[blam]

"They’re terrorists, alright. Thank goodness they weren’t very good at it."{

A low IQ is required to develop the fanatism required to blow yourself up, IMO.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

LOL. Difficult to argue with those facts, I would think.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

LOL. Difficult to argue with those facts, I would think.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

It is monitored and largely left alone.

Any New York locals game for a field trip?

[colorado tanker]

A low IQ is required to develop the fanaticism required to blow yourself up, IMO.

The smart guys talk a big game, but never seem to strap on the belt, do they?

[Marine_Uncle]

Despite McCain's continue references to the ongoing need to continue keeping America more safe through deferent methods, I sense to many Americans as usual think everything is OK, and nothing bad is going to happen, and will vote for one of the socialist.

[SunkenCiv]

Kill ‘em all.

[Tunehead54]

Belated bump! ;-)