LONDON, June 18, 2008
U.K. Judge Frees Radical Preacher On Bail
Government Officials, Terror Experts Worry Over Abu Qatada's Heavily-Monitored Release
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This image made public by the British Prison Service shows Abu Qatada, one of Britain's highest-profile Islamic extremists, who was released on bail from a British prison on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. (AP Photo/ H.M. Prison Service)
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Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Tuesday the government will protect national security and public safety despite the unwanted release of Abu Qatada, which is an embarrassing setback for the government's anti-terror campaign.
"I am extremely disappointed that the courts have granted Abu Qatada bail, albeit with very strict conditions," she said, pledging to try and overturn a decision in April that prevented the British government from deporting the terror suspect back to Jordan, where he has been convicted of terror attacks dating back to 1998.
She said that decision, which set in motion Abu Qatada's release on bail, would be appealed in the House of Lords, Britain's highest court. The Court of Appeal ruled in April that Qatada and other suspects could not be deported to Jordan because they might have been tried on evidence obtained during torture.
Qatada is has already been convicted in absentia in his home country on terrorism charges. All European Countries are bound by laws forbidding the prosecution of individuals based on evidence obtained by torture.
Jordanian officials insist they adhere to the same standards, and are pursuing Qatada's extradition to face justice there.
Several hours after Judge John Mitting ruled that Abu Qatada must be freed within 24 hours, police said he was released from Long Lartin Prison in central England on Tuesday night.
Thus far Abu Qatada, 47, has defied British efforts to deport him or keep him in prison, but he will remain under extremely heavy surveillance as he returns to his residence and may have his bail revoked if he violates the terms of his release, officials said.
British government officials maintain Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian, had ties to convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid and to Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged and convicted in the United States for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Authorities accused him of raising large amounts of money for extremist networks in Britain and abroad and of having provided spiritual guidance and comfort to extremists planning lethal terror attacks.
Judge Baltasar Garzon, a prominent Spanish judge who has prosecuted a number of terror cases, has accused Abu Qatada of being bin Laden's European representative. Others have said he acted as the al Qaeda leader's banker in the years before the 9/11 attacks brought increased scrutiny of the financial networks used by extremists to move money throughout the world.
Abu Qatada's freedom of movement and his ability to communicate with the outside world will be severely limited by harsh conditions imposed by Mitting in Tuesday's eight-page ruling.
In effect, Abu Qatada will live under constant police surveillance and is expected to be monitored at all times.
He will be confined to his home 22 hours per day, and on the two hours when he is allowed to leave his house he will have to stay within a small area defined by the court.
He will be fitted with an electronic monitoring device so police can track his movements at all times, and he will not be allowed to have any computers, mobile phones or Internet connections within his home.
Quote
Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies
Police will have the right to search the home and its premises at any point and will be free to photograph Abu Qatada at any time. In addition, he will not be allowed to have visitors at his home, except for his wife, children, a doctor, a lawyer, and other children under 10 years of age unless senior government officials give advance permission.Will there be security checks on his wife and kids, coming and going? I doubt there would be.
Magnus Ranstorp,Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies
When he is outside the home, he will not be allowed to have any meetings, and he is specifically barred from having any direct or indirect contact with a large number of terror suspects, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy, the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Once he is freed, Abu Qatada will have to surrender his passport and he will be limited to having one bank account and one conventional telephone line in his house. No data storage machines or fax machines will be allowed in his home.
He is explicitly barred from attending any mosque, and will not be allowed to give lectures or lead prayers or provide religious instruction, except to his wife and children. He also is not allowed to publish any statement that has not been approved in advance by British officials.
The long list of restrictions will greatly limit Abu Qatada's operational capacity, but there may be some loopholes that allow him to send and receive messages, said Magnus Ranstorp, research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defense College.
"Will there be security checks on his wife and kids, coming and going?" he said. "I doubt there would be. These are theoretical ways he could circumvent the restrictions and get messages in and out."
Ranstorp said the British government would likely try to catch Abu Qatada breaking the extremely strict bail conditions so they could seek a hearing that could land the preacher in prison again.
"They will be ready to pounce so they can get him back in jail," said Ranstorp. "The restrictions show what a dangerous man he is. He played a role as a magnet for radicals in London, and he had a lot of reach, not just in Britain, but representing al Qaeda internationally. He was always in the shadows."
Abu Qatada was a source of concern to British police long before the 9/11 attacks because of his convictions in Jordan and his links to al Qaeda.
Despite heavy surveillance of his apartment in West London, he managed to go underground in December, 2001, shortly before the government enacted anti-terror laws that allowed suspects to be held without facing formal charges or a trial.
He was tracked down in south London and taken to Belmarsh Prison in October 2002, but was freed on bail for several months in 2005 before he was taken back into custody for possible extradition to Jordan.
A judicial spokesman who asked not to be identified because of government policy said that if Abu Qatada breaks any of the bail conditions he would be brought before the judge and possibly have his bail revoked.
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[My Comment does not imply that I agree with the judge''s decision]
I reread it but do not understand what you are referring to. I am only acquainted with American laws.
HELL HIS KENYAN FAMILY AND TRIBE ARE FASCIST NAZI TERRORISLAMIST JIHADISTS,,,
Obama Sides With Radical Islamists
The magnitude of difference between the two candidates running in our presidential election could not be more stark! After reading the statements of both Obama and McCain regarding the horrible Supreme Court 5-4 decision to allow Gitmo detainees the right to be tried in civilian courts, we can clearly see what a flawed, unfortunate, and terrible direction Obama would take this country if [God forbid!!]elected in November.
Obama''s statement:
Barack Obama statement on the Supreme Court''s 5-4 decision today extending civilian legal protections to terrorist suspects held in Guantanamo Bay:
Um...er...earth to Obama? Foreign terrorists caught in battle against our forces during war have never been eligible for "habeas corpus"! They are not covered by the Constitution of the United States of America. So...what "rule of law" are you referring to?
http://talkwisdom.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-sides-with-radical-islamists.html
HELL HIS KENYAN FAMILY AND TRIBE ARE FASCIST NAZI TERRORISLAMIST JIHADISTS,,,
Obama''s Cousin Charged With Ethnic Cleansing
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-obamas-cousin-charged-with-ethnic.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7192958.stm
Obama''s relative linked to Ethnic Cleansing in Kenya
http://libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com/2008/02/obamas-relative-linked-to-ethnic.html
Signs in Kenya That Killings Were Planned
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1957451/posts
Ten Obvious Reasons Why Islam is NOT a Religion of Peace
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/Top-10-Reasons.htm
Kenya Muslim Violence Pictorial *Warning Graphic*
Africa, Kenya, Muslims%u2026nothing more needs to be said%u2026
http://patdollard.com/2008/01/kenya-muslim-violence-pictorial-warning-graphic/
The Kenyan jihad
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/433766/the-kenyan-jihad.thtml
nothing new,,, more radical muslims ethnically cleansing non-muslims
19 Burned to Death in Violence in Kenya
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1960644/posts
HELL HIS KENYAN FAMILY AND TRIBE ARE FASCIST NAZI TERRORISLAMIST JIHADISTS,,,
will hussein stop his radical muslim luo tribe relatives from slaughtering non-muslims???
apparently not,,,
U.S. Troops to African "hotspot"?
Obama Jr. Says ''Not Yet''
http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan08/obama_lou%20tribe.htm
Just one day before the Jan. 3, 2008 Iowa caucus, Sen. Barack Hussein Obama Jr. (D-Ill.), who is aiming to be America''''s first African-American president, found himself taping a message from Iowa to Kenya for broadcast on the Voice of America.
Kenya, the homeland Obama Jr''s family''s Luo tribe, burst into post-election violence after Raila Odinga, a fiery Luo tribe opposition leader and Kenya presidential candidate, alleged the Dec. 27 voting that re-elected President Mwai Kibaki of the Kikuyu tribe was rigged
More than 360 people were killed and over 250,000 displaced provoking a humanitarian crisis in a country previously considered a stable pillar in east Africa.