The notorious former imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque, Abu Hamza al Masri has finally been charged with 16 offences.
"Mr Abu Hamza now faces 10 charges of soliciting to murder under section four of the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861.
Four charges were brought of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to stir up racial hatred"
"Lastly, Mr Abu Hamza faces one count of having threatening, abusive or insulting audio and video recordings"
However, only one minor charge is actually related to terrorism
"He is accused under section 58 of the Terrorism Act of possessing a document which contained information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism"
Section 58 'Collection of information' of the Terrorism Act 2000, is so widely drawn that you could, at the whim of the authorities, be charged under it for possessing a telephone directory or many openly available books or magazines, or photographs of public buildings etc.
"(3) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that he had a reasonable excuse for his action or possession"
Abu Hamza seems to be a hateful man but there is obviously no proof that he is or was a key member of the Al Quaeda logistics chain, like the USA authorities are trying to paint him as.
Where are the charges involving supply of money, or weapons, or terrorist training, or direction of terrorism, or even membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation ?
The United Kingdom charges take precedence over any extradition attempt by the USA, for crimes mostly alleged to have taken place in the Yemen. The terrorist leader with whom Abu Hamza was in contact with via satellite phone, was executed several years ago by the Yemenis, and so is not available to testify against Abu Hamza. Other charges on the USA indictment, based on testimony of a Guantanamo Bay detainee, who could easily be discredited as a witness who has been totured or having been encouraged to alter his testimony in the hope of pleasing his captors, seem to be equally hard to prove e.g. what USA or UK law actually defines or forbids "violent jihad" as a separate crime ?
It will be quite a surprise if any of the "soliciting to murder" or "racial hatred" charges are actually as a result of Abu Hamza's utterances directed against specific individuals.
Where are the people who are alleged to have been "solicited to murder" sombody ? Will there actually be witnesses appearing in person against Abu Hamza, or will the only evidence be video and tape recordings, which can, of course be faked or edited so easily. ?
How reliable can any such witnesses actually be, given the role of the "undercover" reporter who claims to have infiltrated the Finsbury Park mosque and obtained videos and documents, whilst it was under Abu Hamza's control. This needs to be examined carefully, in case the whole prosecution collapses for similar reasons to recent notorious News of the World "stings" i.e. the payment of witnesses/agent provocateurs.
It seems that there are people who are making money out of the Abu Hamza story e.g. the author of the book "Terror Tracker: an odyssey into pure fear" Neil Doyle, undercover investigator Glen Jenvey who allegedly infiltrated the Abu Hamza's entourage on behalf of Doyle, and video publisher Johnathan Galt who seems to be making the videos of Abu Hamza's "sermons" available.
Given the hype that this book has generated amongst various newspapers and TV programmes in the UK and the USA, we hope that none of the charges being brought against Abu Hamza are the result of tainted "evidence" produced or illegally obtained by these people. Even Abu Hamza's "sermons" are protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 .
Even if they are just amateur meddlers, or unscrupulous "journalists" trying to make money, Abu Hamza's legal defence team are likely to portray their activities as part of a state sponsored conspiracy against him.
Hello "spy blog",
Nothing in your analysis is true. Let's set the record straight.
Abu Hamza sent us the videos free and clear. You said: 'Abu Hamza's "sermons" are protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988'. Not if Hamza sent us the videos of his own free will -- he wanted us to use the videos and audios to convert other terrorists to his cause. However, we sent the videos to the FBI and the news media, resulting in the conviction of James Ujaama (who said he never knew Hamza under oath) but when the court showed Ujaama in one of the videos we obtained from Hamza, Ujaama was unpleasantly surprised when the video showed him sitting next to Hamza in a conference. This resulted in Ujaama's conviction before a U.S. Federal Court for perjury.
Hamza thought we were evil shiites like he was. We fooled Hamza for over 8 months with our fake website: www.islamic-news.co.uk
You said:
"It seems that there are people who are making money out of the Abu Hamza story ... and the video publisher Johnathan Galt who seems to be making the videos of Abu Hamza's "sermons" available."
Nope, not true, I have yet to see a single pence out of all of this, I'm doing this all for the love of humanity -- so you can't accuse me of making any money off of this whole affair. I hope one day to get Neil Doyle to buy me a pint or two in a pub -- but Neil will attest that it hasn't happened yet.
"Abu Hamza's legal defence team are likely to portray their activities as part of a state sponsored conspiracy against him." -- Nope, isn't true either. I personally am not part of any state -- and no state has ever sponsored me.
The truth is, Abu Hamza sent us the videos! He thought we were one of his terrorist buddies! Abu Hamza is a racist, hateful, evil person. We took him in by using words as hateful and as stupid and evil as his own. Glen Jenvey and I cut/pasted the words off of a hateful Kashmiri website. After several months Hamza was convinced we were real and sent us a pile of video and audio tapes containing intimate details of his hateful sermons:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/730132/posts
The rest is history.
Regards,
-- Johnathan R. Galt.
.
Thanks for the extra details Johnathan.
The impression given by the blurb for Neil Doyle's book (which definately is making money out of the affair, even if you are not) and on his website, was that the Finsbury Park Mosque, whilst it was under the control of Abu Hamza, was *physically* infiltrated by an "undercover reporter", who then "obtained" videos and audio tapes. Some of the contents of such videos or tapes could be protected under copyright and free speech and freedom of religon conventions.
If you are saying that this "undercover investigation" never actually involved physical meetings with Abu Hamza, but was conducted remotely, then that clears up one of the obvious problems with such claims.
However, from an evidential point of view, this surely must be open to legal challenge in a UK court, where US style "entrapment" is illegal, for very good reasons.
How can you actually prove that it was Abu Hamza himself who sent you the videos and tapes ? Why wouldn't Abu Hamza's defence team simply deny that he sent you anything, and that anything that was sent could have been edited out of context ?
It does not matter if you or your friends are actually working for the state authorities or not, the fact that you have muddied the waters of any genuine investigation will only help Abu Hamza to walk free from court.
It is to be hoped that the charges which have finally brought against Abu Hamza in the UK are based on more actual evidence than the dubious USA extradition indictment.
It true al-qaeda have give video's over to me that will put abu hamza and other's in jail and it's true i work for a intelligence service.i have for 20 years been one of the top spies in subject to do with terror for a number of country's.the plot for sept 11th is all on film.the british police are not fan's as it was done all under their nose's i'm a expert like johnathan r galt is.
Just one point Hamza was never an official imam of the mosque he and his extremists bullied their way in he never had a an official office at the Finsbury Park mosque.
The way mosques work is that they are open to the public and regretabbly that can be abused, extremists tried the same thing at a mosque in Wimbledon but with Police help they were prevented from taking over.
in fact it was not neil doyle who led to operation to get video's and information out of finsbury park mosque ,but glen jenvey working for the intelligence services of a common wealth country. the british are not that clever.http://www.glen-jenvey.com
Date: Thursday Dec. 1 2005
Contact: Jeremy Reynalds
Tel: (505) 877-6967, or (505) 400- 7145
Learn more about Joy Junction
on the World Wide Web at: www.joyjunction.org
Joy Junction Director Jeremy Reynalds' New Book Chronicles His Fight Against On Line Terrorism
Available for Pre-Order
Long- time Albuquerque resident Jeremy Reynalds is best known for his work with Joy Junction (www.joyjunction.org), the shelter for homeless families he founded in 1986 and continues to direct. However, there's another side of Reynalds that is not quite as well known – as a terrorist hunter.
For the last three years, Reynalds has investigating a number of Islamic terrorist web sites, many of which are hosted by American Internet Service Providers.
Reynalds said, "Some people wonder what the director of a homeless shelter is doing trying to apprehend radical Islamic terrorists. That's an easy question to answer. Above anything else, Joy Junction is a faith based ministry which shows the love of Jesus Christ in spiritual and practical ways to the many homeless women and families who come to us looking for help. Unless we start taking the fundamentalist Islamic agenda seriously and realizing that its ultimate goal is to impose shariah (Islamic) law over the entire world, we'll be in trouble. We won't be able to have faith based ministries like Joy Junction – they'll be illegal. People need to understand what's going on here."
Reynalds' work has been profiled on CNN's "Anderson Cooper Show" and Fox News "The O Reilly Factor."
Reynalds' new book, chronicling his exploits fighting the online jihad, and titled "War on the Web," will be released in April 2006 by World Ahead Publishing. However, copies may be pre-ordered by going to Amazon www.amazon.com/gp/product/0974670170/qid=1133393692/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/002-2508074-1802416?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Reynalds said, "Tracking terrorism on line began as a hobby for me. Now it has become a passion. I am excited that people will finally be able to see how proficient terrorists have become at using the Internet for their evil purposes. I pray that many people will buy this book and that the Lord will use it to awaken people before it's too late."
Reynalds said that pre-ordering a book can be very important to its success, and he hopes that people will do so by going to www.amazon.com/gp/product/0974670170/qid=1133393692/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/002-2508074-1802416?s=books&v=glance&n=283155.
Reynalds has an earned Ph.D. in intercultural education, an undergraduate degree with a focus on journalism and a master's degree in communication.
You cannot be serious with this book by Reynalds.
Perhaps someone ought to tell the Lord that military occupation accounts for the lion's share of suicide bombing. If the baby jesus was even a little bit proactive, he would get to work on that and there would be no need to track anybody.