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Posted on 11/28/2001 10:42:40 PM PST by MadIvan

A LONDON-based Muslim cleric who has been alleged to be Osama bin Laden’s “European ambassador” was told yesterday that he had no right to receive income support. Abu Qatada, who in February was found to have £180,000 in cash hidden in his home, took the Government to court to try to reverse a decision to halt his welfare payments of £213 a month. The action was paid for by legal aid.

He claimed that he, his pregnant wife and four children had been left destitute when payments were stopped last month after he was named by the UN as a terrorist suspect belonging to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

Judge Baltasar Garzón, who is questioning al-Qaeda suspects in Spain, has described him as the “spiritual head of the Mujahidin in Britain”.

In the High Court in London yesterday Mr Justice Collins dismissed the cleric’s claim and said the measures against suspected terrorists had to be harsh to be effective.

Costs were awarded against Mr Qatada but as he is on legal aid the estimated £5,000 bill will be met from the public purse. Mr Qatada plans to take his case to the Court of Appeal, which will also be paid for by legal aid.

In February police raided his home in Acton, West London, and found £180,000 cash in sterling, German marks, US dollars and Spanish pesetas. He refused to say where he got it from, but this month, when he tried to get welfare payments reinstated, he claimed that he had been holding it for a prayer group and that it was against Islamic principles to put it in a British bank. He did not say who donated it, who was in the prayer group or why the money was in a range of currencies.

He was also discovered to have two British high street bank accounts which held almost £1,900. These accounts were frozen as part of the crackdown on terrorism and he is now being investigated for suspected benefit fraud.

Mr Qatada, 41, who went to the court under the name Omar Mohammed Othman, one of several names he uses, denies any involvement in terrorism. He came into Britain on false papers in 1993 and he was granted refugee status and temporary leave to stay after claiming he faced religious persecution in Jordan.

He was sentenced to death in his absence by the Jordanian courts for his role in a series of bomb attacks, one of which killed a 12-year-old girl.

The cleric, born in Bethlehem, was not in court yesterday but in a statement presented to the judge said: “I do not have enough money to buy food and necessities for my family. We are destitute. I cannot buy toiletries or cleaning materials for my home. I cannot provide enough food for my pregnant wife who has become very depressed.”

Stephen Knafler, his counsel, said the decision to halt his income support was an irrational and disproportionate response to the terrorist threat. His client was likely to lose his home because his housing benefit had also been stopped.

However, the judge said the Government had acted correctly in suspending payments but that did not mean Mr Qatada and his family should starve or become homeless. Under the “law of humanity” the State was obliged to ensure they had “the bare necessities of life”. If the family lost their home, they could apply to the local authority for housing.

Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, halted the income support payments after a European Union order for all funding of al-Qaeda suspects to cease. The order also means that the cleric cannot work.

This article highlights what a bunch of hypocrites these bastards are. They say we are all evil and corrupt and then try to turn our generosity to feed their coffers so they can kill us. I am glad his payments stopped - we should extradite him to Jordan and have his head cut off.

Let's face it - Britain and America have a similar problem: we are simply too nice.

Regards, Ivan

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be." - Winston Churchill, 1940

This then, my lords and gentlemen, is the message which we send forth today to all states and nations, bound or free, to all the men in all the lands who care for freedom's cause. To our Allies and well-wishers in Europe, to our American friends and helpers drawing ever closer in their might across the ocean, this is the message-lift up your hearts, all will come right. Out of depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind. - Winston Churchill, 1941

"What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible that they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?" - Winston Churchill, 1941

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