The Al Qaeda Factor: Plots Against the West

Chapter 3: Operation Overt (United Kingdom-United States, 2006)

C h a p t e r 3 Operation Overt (United Kingdom–United States, 2006) operation overt, the August 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, was a conspiracy to detonate liquid explosives carried onboard several airliners traveling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada. Twenty-five suspects were taken into custody in and around London on the night of August 9, 2006; eleven were charged with terrorism-related offenses.1 The Reactionary/Islamist Scene The origins of the rejectionist Islamic environment in Britain were outlined in Chapter 2. The message created there resonated in the indigenous British Muslim population, which had failed to assimilate into British society, was at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, and thus gravitated to these “radicalizers.”2 One scene in the U.K. that appealed to this population and manifested itself through the growing participation of British residents in “reactionary Islamic and Islamist movements.” These included Salafis, Deobandis, Tablighi Jamaat, Hizb ut Tahrir, and Al Muhajiroun, all which nominally seek to re-create the utopia of the Caliphate and stand against the democratic order. These groups appealed to the second- and third-generation British Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent who were university students and sought channels through which they could put into practice Operation Overt (United Kingdom–United States, 2006) 37 their activist ideas, redress perceived grievances, and explore their Islamic heritage. Coupled with the high-profile extremist clerics who had established centers of operation and founded their own radical groups in the U.K., significant numbers of British Muslims were drawn to either actively or passively support jihad abroad. This population, which was dominated by British Muslims of Pakistani heritage (primarily from Kashmir), was sympathetic to the ongoing armed struggles involving Muslims in Bosnia, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and especially Kashmir and thus was vulnerable to polarization . Having relatives in conflict zones enabled travel, further radicalization , and training. Involvement in the extended al Muhajiroun network was a common experience among many of the British Muslims and preceded their ultimate participation in a number of the most serious al Qaeda plots that would emerge from this U.K. rejectionist Islamist scene.3 Most of the active and passive core of plotters (Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar, Tanvir Hussain, Arafat Khan, Waheed Zaman, Ibrahim Savant, and Umar Islam) emerged from overlapping networks of Tablighi Jamaat membership , politically active university students, and an Islamic charity whose offices were across the street (Chatsworth Road) from Mohammed Hamid’s bookstore, which was also known as “Osama bin London’s book shop.” Hamid would be convicted in 2008 of organizing terrorism training camps for British residents in the Lake District of the U.K. Past attendees of these camps included some of the conspirators in Operation Vivace—the July 21, 2005, London bomb plot—including the ringleader, Muktar Ibrahim (see Chapter 8). Gravitating to Reactionary Islam Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar, and Waheed Zaman, among others in the cluster, had been Tabligh Jamaat followers. A number of members of the group regularly attended mosques in their neighborhoods that subscribed to that movement’s fundamentalist ideology. Tablighi Jamaat is an Islamic missionary group that rejects secular society and advocates strict adherence to an Islamic dress code and lifestyle. French intelligence has described the group as an “antechamber to terrorism,” but it really serves more as a “gateway ideology” for some individuals who may adopt a more militant, violent, and extremist interpretation of Islam.4 A number of members of the cluster, including Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar, and Waheed Zaman, regularly 38 Al Qaeda“Command and Control”Plots visited the same neighborhood mosque on Queen’s Road in Walthamstow in East London. This location, Masjid-e-Umer, was regularly visited by members of Tablighi Jamaat and thus this interpretation of Islam had a strong influence there.5 Sarwar and Umar Islam (Brian Young) worshiped at the Muslim Education Centre in Totteridge Drive, which was founded when the sternly traditional Markaz ud-Dawa movement moved into town. The center, a charity, proclaims its mission as advancing Islam according to the “interpretation and accepted view of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaa-ah.” Web sites linked to this movement emphasize a rejection of Western values and distrust of democracy. Ideologically, this movement is quite close to Salafism and Wahhabism, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba group is a terrorist offshoot from the movement.6 Politicization of Beliefs Disagreement with the wars...