Difference between revisions of "File:Babardocs.pdf"

Template:ITTBadge Template:FileProv This collection of over 100 pages of unsealed court documents and security service records presents the story of Al Qaeda supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar. Babar was born in Pakistan in 1975 but moved to the United States only two years later. He grew up in Queens, NY, and attended the all-male La Salle military boarding school, graduating in the mid 1990s. He attended St. Johns university but dropped out, and in the year 2000 became involved with the New York chapter of Al-Muhajiroun. Al-Muhajiroun are an international Islamist organisation originally founded in Pakistan, but with a major presence in the United States and the United Kingdom. The choice of these three countries, and the ease with which they set up in them, have led many to suspect that the organisation are affiliated with the security services. Most notably, the major figures in the British chapter Abu Hamza, Abu Qatada and Omar Bakri all have reported connections to the British state security services, with the latter two admitting to being informants for MI5. On September 11th 2001, Babar was in New York and witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His mother was a cleaner on the 9th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers, but she managed to escape. It is at this point that Babars story stops making sense. Rather than being angry at the terrorists who had nearly killed his mother, Babar apparently decided to join them. He travelled to Pakistan, and gave two different televised interviews where he promised to kill Americans in Afghanistan, and to kill American soldiers in Pakistan. He made no effort to disguise his identity in these interviews, and though he claimed to have been paid $500 to make these statements, he later admitted that this was untrue. He joined up with Al Muhajiroun in Pakistan and for most of 2002 he worked for the Pakistan Software Export Board, an agency of the Pakistan government. He also became an Al Qaeda facilitator, providing equipment and money and setting up a terrorism training camp in Malakand, in the Afghan-Pak border region. This camp was apparently used by several people from Britain, including Omar Khyam, Salahuddin Amin, Mohammed Siddique Khan and Mohammed Shakil. The former two men were prosecuted and convicted as part of Operation Crevice the British security services investigation into what is commonly known as the fertiliser bomb plot. Mohammed Siddique Khan was the alleged ringleader of the 7/7 bombings, and Shakil was one of three men prosecuted but not convicted of involvement in the 7/7 conspiracy. Also during this period Babar flew in and out of Britain on several occasions, apparently without any difficulties. Babar flew back to the US in early 2004 and not long afterwards he gave himself up to the FBI. Shortly after Babars return to America, eight men were arrested in Britain and Canada and charged with being involved in the fertiliser bomb plot. Ultimately, five men would be convicted in the UK and one in Canada. Two were exonerated. Babar co-operated with the United States authorities and appeared as the prosecutions star witness at both of the Crevice trials, one in the UK and one in Canada. His appearance at the Old Bailey in London took place under heavy protection by the state, with traffic being halted to allow the armed motorcade to deliver him to the courthouse. Nonetheless, there is absolutely no evidence of anyone within Al Qaeda or Al Muhajiroun trying to take revenge against Babar. Babar also testified in the two trials of Mohammed Shakil, Sadeer Saleem and Waheed Ali, accused of carrying out hostile reconnaissance in support of the 7/7 bombing plot. The men were ultimately found innocent, though two were convicted of planning to attend a terrorism training camp. Collectively, those who Babar testified against received sentences of over 100 years in prison. Babar himself, who pleaded guilty to several charges of involvement in terrorism, spent less than five years behind bars. The big question is also the relatively obvious one was Babar a double agent, working for the security services all along? He was educated at a military academy, was involved with an organisation known to have ties to intelligence agencies, and was mysteriously able to travel all over the world for over two years despite having been publicly interviewed about his willingness to commit murder. When he was finally brought to ground, he co-operated instantly and without any resistance. He was ultimately rewarded for his co-operation with a ridiculously short sentence. The documents in this collection shed some light on this key issue.