Author: Nicholas Hellen
Publication: The Sunday Times,
UK
Date: March 10, 2002
A Muslim fundamentalist who claims
to have fought for Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation in
Afghanistan has slipped unnoticed back into Britain.
The 22-year-old described how, after
nine weeks at war against the allies, he had flown home to his native Manchester
to resume his previous life. He was put in contact with the paper through
a Taliban sympathiser in Pakistan.
During a four-hour interview conducted
near the centre of the city, he appeared untroubled by the prospect of
arrest as he spoke of his activities in Afghanistan. His composure only
slipped as he posed briefly for pictures.
"A lot of Muslims in Britain support
what I have done," he said. "I don't fear that my family or neighbours
will turn me in to the authorities."
The man who used the assumed name
of Abdullah, said he still regards himself as an Al-Qaeda agent and described
how, despite long periods on the front line, he had avoided the fate of
the five British captives held at Camp X-Ray.
He claimed he found it straightforward
to cross the border back into Pakistan, and that he flew into Manchester
on January 3 without attracting any special attention.
Abdullah said an "identity crisis"
at the age of 18 led him to embark on his double life. "Like almost all
Pakistanis, I was told to respect Islam, British culture and the Pakistani
way of life, but it reached a stage where the tensions between the three
became too much," he said. "I just smiled if someone called me a Paki,
but if someone offends my religion, I take action."
He portrayed his parents as conformists
who preferred to compromise their Muslim faith rather than draw attention
to themselves. "My father won't even demand that his work allocates a prayer
room."
Abdullah wore a light T-shirt during
the interview on a cold afternoon in Manchester last week, emphasising
his muscular physique. He said he was first introduced to fundamentalist
preaching by his friend Hassan Butt, a well-known agitator who has established
links to the Tipton Muslims now held in Cuba.
At the age of 19, Abdullah joined
a group of 10 extremists who went on extended endurance training in the
Lake District, Scotland and on the Brecon Beacons. They were taught navigation
and survival techniques, marched with 70Ib packs and learned how to load
and maintain firearms.
On one of their training weekends
in the Lake District, their incongruous appearance caught the eye of an
observant policeman, he claimed. "On a day of sleet and rain, one of our
cars broke down and the police came by and asked us what we were doing
"With our beards and some of us
in combat fatigues, we looked like typical terrorists. One of our three
instructors, a black man who told us he had been in the Royal Marines,
handled it by telling them we were on a weekend camping trip."
He dropped out of university and,
although he was newly married, he claims that on July 16, 2001, he flew
to Lahore, Pakistan, to join a training camp for extremists. "I told my
wife I had to go on a trip and she didn't try to stop me," he said.
It was here, at a secluded camp
between Lahore and Islamabad, that Abdullah claims he first came into contact
with Al-Qaeda and an Arab trainer known as Hamid Ullah.
He claimed that he impressed his
handlers with his coolness under pressure. "Few people can continue to
think clearly in a crisis, but I can," he said. He returned to Britain
in late August and says he was "happy" to see thousands of people perish
in the World Trade Center. "Muslims are killed everywhere through American
foreign policy," he said.
Before returning to Pakistan on
September 29 he told his wife his real motives. "She said she was happy
for me to go and see me die as a Muslim," he claimed.
According to his account, he crossed
into Afghanistan in early October in a group of 12, including two other
Britons, through the Malakand border area north of Peshawar. "We crossed
over the border in daylight carrying tents, ammunition, rifles and grenades.
I was meticulous.
"I brought proper boots from the
UK, I wasn't going to wear slippers into battle like some of the Taliban.
We walked about 20 miles.
"We were taken to pick-up trucks
and drove for about eight hours. When we were eventually brought to Kabul
we were taken to a safe-house and given briefings. There weren't any computer-based
presentations, but it was done professionally, they knew what they were
doing."
He described long stints of guard
duty, patrolling the roads north of Kabul for up to 20 hours a day during
the American bombing of Taliban positions. The patrols, he said, were broken
up by skirmishes with Northern Alliance supporters.
He became animated as he described
an alleged incident during the retreat to Kandahar in which he and a group
of fellow Al-Qaeda fighters engaged in a gunfight with six Americans as
they drove through a gully. He also claimed his group caused damage to
three American helicopters.
Abdullah claimed he is now part
of a 10-man Al-Qaeda cell in Britain. He said he remained committed to
Bin Laden's cause and would not hesitate to destroy non-civilian targets
in the UK.
A spokesman for the Home Office
said that under the Terrorism Act 2000 it was an offence to indicate support
for a proscribed organisation such as Al-Qaeda and added: "We are monitoring
a number of people and organisations."
