23 May 2002

INSTANT -- 11:30CDT - 23 May 2002

09/11 Hijackers Tied to British Group, Tied to Bin Laden?

According to a report in today's Chicago Tribune, an FBI memo that raised concerns about Middle Eastern men in Phoenix-area flight schools last summer linked several in the group to a London-based radical Islamic organization, sources said, and an intelligence review later tied one of the men directly to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The memo, written by agent Kenneth Williams and e-mailed to the FBI's Washington headquarters on July 10, 2001, noted the connection to Al-Muhajiroun, a London-based group headed by a Syrian-born cleric named Sheik Mohammed Omar Bakri, a government source said. Agent Ken Williams' memo apparently raised concerns about the students' affiliation with Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed's group because the sheik had been involved with a fatwa — an Islamic call to action — that suggested airports as one of several legitimate attack targets in the United States, officials told The Associated Press.  Bakri, also known as Omar Bakri Fostok, has been connected by U.S. and British intelligence to bin Laden and the Britain-based group is dedicated to the establishment of a global Muslim state.

The Emergency Response & Research Institute (ERRI) and EmergencyNet News previously published a fatwa from the leader of Al-Muhajiroun, Sheikh Muhammad Omar Bakri , on 02 October 2000. In this message, Sheik Bakri declared, "The Jihad against the Jews occupying Palestine will continue until they withdraw completely from the whole of Palestine including the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip because any aggression against any Muslim property or land by any Kuffar or non-Muslim forces whether American, British or the Jews of Israeli makes Jihad (i.e. fighting) against them an obligation upon all Muslims." ERRI's Clark Staten said that Al-Muhajiroun (including a Pakistani chapter) may have also had links to the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and the hijacking of IndianAir 814. Citing security concerns, officials at both the FBI and the CIA have declined to publicly discuss the issue.

Additional ERRI Reference: 30 Sep 2000 -- UNITED KINGDOM: Dissident Demonstrate in London; Group Reaffirms Goal of World-Wide Domination

FBI agent linked Arab students training at aviation schools to radical group, bin Laden threat (AP)

Official website -- Al-Muhajiroun: The Voice, the Eyes, and the Ears of the Muslims

(Off-line and photo credit) Time Magazine, June 3, 2002 edition, Pg. 43

ERRI Counter-Terrorism Archive Page

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