Britain has been radicals' refuge

October 29, 2001|By Stephen J. Hedges, Tribune staff reporter.

LONDON — In Egypt, Yasser al-Sirri is a wanted man, convicted in absentia for a terrorist bombing plot that inadvertently killed a 12-year-old girl.

In Britain for the past eight years, he has found freedom and safety. And, despite the death sentence hanging over him, he has been anything but anonymous.

Al-Sirri, 38, founded the Islamic Observation Center and fashioned himself as a supporter of master terrorist Osama bin Laden. His statements, pamphlets and press releases, though, always fell within Britain's right to free speech. Even after Sept. 11, when al-Sirri posted bin Laden's threats of further attacks on his Web site, he drew little attention.

But his protected life in Britain changed last week.

London police arrested al-Sirri on Tuesday during a dawn raid on his apartment and nearby office. Police say there is evidence that al-Sirri helped arrange press credentials for two bin Laden operatives, who, posing as a television crew, assassinated Gen. Ahmed Shah Massood, the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, on Sept. 1, just days before terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Al-Sirri's arrest may signal the beginning of the British government's promised crackdown on known or suspected terrorists. But it also highlights a troubling contradiction in England: While no one has been a stronger supporter of the U.S.-led war on terrorism than Prime Minister Tony Blair, his nation has for years been a haven for the very extremists Blair now so forcefully condemns.

"London has eclipsed Paris as a natural mode for preaching to Arabs with propaganda," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "It is a financial recruitment ground, and a good ground to recruit operatives. It provides the milieu for extremism."

A combination of complex asylum and extradition laws and, critics say, a lack of investigative zeal, has made England an attractive middle ground for extremist movements abroad.

Good intentions

Until recently, Britain granted asylum to many immigrants who claimed they would be persecuted if they are turned back to their home countries. That practice, although carried out with good intentions, has allowed dozens of wanted or suspected terrorists operating in places such as Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen to gain permanent residency in England.

Some of those who gain entry, people such as al-Sirri, are wanted for suspected crimes abroad. In al-Sirri's case, Britain didn't know about the allegations when it let him in. Wresting these suspects out of Britain has become a complex, years-long legal exercise. At least nine countries are trying to win the extradition of terrorist suspects living in Britain, according to a report by the French National Assembly.

That includes the U.S., which for three years has argued for the return of three suspects in the 1998 bombing by bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization of two U.S. Embassies in Africa. Two other fugitives wanted on charges of involvement in a plot to explode bombs in the U.S. during millennium celebrations are being held in Britain, months, perhaps years, away from extradition.

Because of America's use of the death penalty, defense lawyers have argued that British judges should not send defendants to the U.S.

Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism unit has had poor luck making cases that expose larger networks. The arrests of 11 suspected terrorists in February, for instance, resulted in only two being held. Another recent case that targeted credit card and ID fraud that police believed were the work of Muslim extremists fell apart when a key police informant balked at testifying for fear of retribution.

Since Sept. 11, Scotland Yard has been asked by the FBI to track down 24 people it suspects may be part of Al Qaeda in Britain, though none is believed to be directly involved in the hijacking plot. Police did arrest an Algerian pilot, Lotfi Raissi, on charges of helping train some of the hijackers.

But cooperation between Britain and other countries in fighting terrorism is not the norm, some critics say.

French deride `Londonistan'

The French report takes British banks to task for failing to help foreign governments in money laundering investigations. Prosecutors and legislators there have derisively referred to "Londonistan" as a place where terrorists are safe from the law's reach.

"Great Britain does not cooperate with European countries and offers a totally unacceptable haven for criminal funds," Arnaud Montebourg, a French legislator, said upon publication of the report.

At the heart of Britain's Muslim militancy are London's three radical clerics: Sheik Mohammed Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza al-Masri and Abu Qatada. Each fled the Middle East because of his radical views. Two of them--Hamza and Qatada--are wanted by other countries for suspected terrorist activity. All three live under protective asylum in Britain.