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The Muslim fanatic who brainwashed the 21/7 bomb plotters at secret terror training camps across Britain has been found guilty of soliciting to murder, after a police and MI5 surveillance operation lasting more than two years.
Mohammed Hamid, 50, a potent terrorist recruiter who called himself “Osama bin London”, faces a lengthy jail term after being convicted of grooming gangs of young recruits to kill nonbelievers.
Assisted by Attila Ahmet, the former bodyguard to Abu Hamza al-Masri, the notorious cleric, Hamid aspired to radicalise young men from the London area and send them on terror campaigns in Afghanistan and East Africa. The extent of the conspiracy – and the operation to ensnare the ringleaders and their recruits – can be revealed after reporting restrictions were lifted at the end of a four-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
After deliberating for 22 days the jury found three of Hamid’s followers – Kibley Da Costa, 25, Muhammad al-Figari, 45, and Kader Ahmed, 20 – guilty of attending terror camps in the New Forest and at a Berkshire paintballing centre. Two other members of the gang – Muhammad Kyriacou, 19, and Yassin Mutegombwa, 23 – also admitted attending the camps at a separate court hearing yesterday.

Ahmet, who once boasted of being “the No 1 al-Qaeda in Europe”, pleaded guilty to all three counts of soliciting to murder before the start of the trial.
Mousa Brown, 41, was cleared of providing and receiving weapons training and has been freed from custody.
Theirs were the first prosecutions under new terror legislation that makes it illegal to attend terrorist training, as well as to organise it.
The court heard that Hamid organised outdoor activities including camping and paintballing at remote beauty spots in the Lake District, New Forest, Berkshire, Kent and East Sussex. He claimed that the trips were nothing more than an innocent fun-and-fitness programme. However, covert photographers recorded Hamid and his followers as they carried out mock military training exercises.
His home in East London was bugged. Phone calls, text messages and e-mails were monitored and intercepted before an undercover policeman infiltrated the group for five months. Hamid was secretly recorded boasting that the murder of 52 people on London Transport on July 7, 2005, was “not even breakfast for me”.
Among Hamid’s pupils were the four July 21 failed bombers – Hussain Osman, Ramzi Mohammed, Yassin Omar and Muktar Said Ibrahim, the ringleader – who were later identified as attending the camps in the Lake District in 2004.
Two of the failed bombers – Mohammed and Osman – joined the gang again for a paintballing session at the Springwood Centre, in Tonbridge, Kent, several weeks before attempting to detonate rucksack devices on the London transport network.
A senior antiterrorist source told The Times: “Hamid may not have planned the attacks but he was responsible for the state of mind of the people who carried out 21/7.”
Sentencing the five followers yesterday, Mr Justice Pitchers said that Hamid and Ahmet were “charismatic and powerful figures” in their own different ways. He said: “By voluntarily attending where such training was taking place these defendants gave support, encouragement and, by definition, approval of those who did intend to carry out terrorist acts.
“Even though the camping and paintballing trips were enjoyable, you cannot have been in any doubt from what was said at the meetings and the form of the training that the underlying purpose of the camps was a sinister one.”
Deborah Walsh, deputy head of the Crown Prosecution Service counter-terrorism division, said: “No one should be in any doubt as to how serious Hamid and Ahmet were in encouraging their recruits to inflict casualties on innocent people.”
She also praised the “professionalism and bravery” of the undercover police officer, codenamed Dawood, who infiltrated the group.
Hamid and Ahmet will appear for sentencing on March 7. Their five followers were each jailed for up to four years 11 months. However, some of them could be free in just three months, having already served 17 months in custody.
— Senior police officers had trouble convincing the British public of the scale of the terror threat facing the country because of lies over weapons of mass destruction, Britain’s antiterror chief said yesterday.
Peter Clarke, Assistant Commissioner, Specialist Operations, who retires this week, told the Association of Chief Police Officers counter-terror-ism conference: “When we were saying there is a domestic threat there was a degree of scepticism.”
He added that public reaction had now changed because a series of trials had shown that the threat was real and not made up.
Deadly aims
Transcript of a covert recording in July 2006. Attila Ahmet has been talking to Hamid about his desire to become a suicide bomber:
Hamid You know what happened on the Tubes, right, how many altogether,
four people shaheed [martyred]. Allah wa Allah I have to say this is as
well, but four people got shaheed, right, how many people did they take out?
Ahmet Fifty-two.
Hamid Fifty-two, that’s not even a breakfast for me.
Ahmet I know it’s not.
Hamid That’s not even a breakfast for me, for me in this country, do
you understand me?
Ahmet Hmm.
Hamid . . . Remember this, people, that never get caught, right, don’t
let your ego go forward, let your intelligence go forward for the sake of
Allah, use your hikma [wisdom] and be effective, see how many gets it, see
how many you can take at the same time.
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And what about the BBC's role in this? Nasreen Suleaman, a BBC reporter who took part in the Paintballing documentary, knew of the links to the bombers but "Didn't feel obliged to report it". Surely the BBC must be held to account?
Carl, London ,
They all have mad eyes!
martin, London, UK
One of them asked an undercover police officer for money to attend a training camp? WOW! These guys are real genius's. I don't think M15 will be too worried about these half-cut wanna-be terrorists; they couldn't organise a ramadam in a brewery!
Andrew Duncan, Guildford, UK
Philippe, your inclusion of the phrase "non believers" without inverted commas makes me cringe in horror. I am a believer--but not of Allah...
Paul, Columbia, USA
This report fails to mention a fact which appeared in the Court: this training had been going on for at least 13 years, in other words, well before September 11, 2001 or the freeing of Iraqis from Saddam Hussein's tyranny. As Hassan Butt remarked on July 2, 2007 interview in the Daily Mail: "How we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror was Western foreign policy. By blaming the government, they did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islam's theology." No doubt the apologists and moral equivalencers will come to comment on this article but the fact is Islam, the Koran, the Hadiths, the Sira are what make Moslems terrorists because that is how Islam was spread, in the 7th century and for the past 1400 years.
Drake, london,
I trust that the prison authorities will insist for hygiene purposes that the prisoners will have to shave off those really untidy beards, and also to be placed in a safe part of the prison to protect them from the patriotic prisoners who may have relatives as soldiers in the British forces.
B J Deller, Marbella, Spain
Well your have got your breakfast now mate. It's called porridge.
Roger, Surrey,
Do the men in the first three pictures have their heads on upside-down?
Cyril Franklin, Willenhall,
Im guessin we educated these men,housed these men,
healed these men and supported every member of the
extended family they all have in this country.
It makes me sick to know that in the words of the security
services "they number in there thousands"
john, scotland,
Asco: "There seems to be an awful lot of propaganda coming from our government (surprise!) in respect of these fellas who, let's face it, didn't do terribly well at what they set out to do did they?"
They didn't do terribly well because they were infiltrated. It's easy to say they're just 'socially-marginalised losers ' now they have no chance to prove themselves. How do you know what they would have achieved given time? How about congratulating the police for a good job done instead of spouting the usual tired old liberal left soundbite that it's all government propaganda?
Lin, London, UK
I find the level of proof (or rather, lack of it) required to convict this bunch of school boys extremely worrying. On another of the pages from today's The Times, Aaronovitch tries to convince us that our our DNA is safe in the hands of the police.
If courts are willing to convict fantacists such as this on the basis of what amounts to almost hearsay, then we are all in serious trouble.
Edwin, Bucharest,
That's it, keep your heads in the sand. The tube suicide bombers weren't the types to "have the SAS quaking in their boots" but still managed alright, didn't they? The group that have just been convicted helped train the 21 July would-be murderers - but let's not hold that against them, after all, the whole thing was just a joke wasn't it? And thank heavens we had the BBC on hand to make a side-splitting documentary about the whole thing...
Bob, London,
During the IRA campaign there were successfully campaigns with bombs going off every other week. During this latest campaign of terrorism it seems to be the news stories terrorising us (and getting more media coverage than the IRA did). Apparently our country in in threat more than the IRA days but in terms of causalities anyway this is not the case. In those days we were encourage to go about our normal day to defy them now we are encouraged to be fearful and change our habits. People training in paint ball centres and lyrical terrorists: I've quivering in my boots.
raymond, Liverpool, UK
I pray that The Lord wakens the greater number of Brits up before its too late.
Islam is creeping through all western societies and the creep needs to be stopped.
10% are believed to be militants. This is a fact.
If anything happened to good old UK, there would be almost nothing left ,of any real meaning, in the whole world to look up to.
Graeme Gibson, Sydney, Australia
"the Poles, the Czechs, soldiers from the Commonwealth (Carribean, Canada, Australia etc in which we always seem to forget)" Scott, London, UK.
Some of us have never, nor will ever, forget the sacrifice made by our fellow members of the Commonwealth no matter how many films the Americans make about how they won the war single-handedly.
I find it extremely difficult to take any of these poor sods seriously. Aren't they little more than a bunch of socially-marginalised losers who meet at paintballing centres (I mean come on) and gang together in an effort to take away some of the pain of being, well, socially inadequate? There seems to be an awful lot of propaganda coming from our government (surprise!) in respect of these fellas who, let's face it, didn't do terribly well at what they set out to do did they?
Asco, Saltburn, England
To Heiko Khoo....Perhaps it's time you spent a little more "Quality Time" with you friends...either in Pakistan or in Jail.
Bet my bottom dollar, you also live off benefits and have a Council property too.
Sue, Hanover, Germany
"I dread to think what would have happened between 1939 and 1945 if we had such a liberal immigration policy !!! "
Until quite recently, immigration policies were virtually non-existent.
Are you suggesting that, rather than invading, all the Germans would have just moved to Britain and declared it theirs (see Israel)?
starling, Lancaster,
Soooo, camping and paintballing as training.....
Bet that has the SAS trembling in their boots.
They'll be teaching them macrame next, just in case they run up against the WI on a recon patrol.
Shocker, Cambridge,
What occurs in the Uk will, eventually occur in Canada. Already, the issue of "Sharia Law" has been sent up as a trial balloon here. For now, it isn't happening .What these people want are their own laws. When their laws aren't available, you get "Osama Bin London" and his gang.
Austin, Victoria, B.C. Canada
This is exactly what Britain gets for its weak-kneed apologetic politcally-correct government that panders to every minority group that screams injustice. Just when - when - will ONE politician in the UK have the guts to stand up, say this is wrong, start kicking people out of the country who want to destroy us, and bring some pride in being British. Every elected official in the United Kingdom should hang their heads in shame for lacking the spine to stand up to the evil Islamic fanaticism that is festering amongst us. In the end, Britain will reap a terrible harvest for its lack of action.
Michael Dudley, New York, NY
I happen to know the main accused from Speakers Corner, the phrase "Osama bin London" was a standard joke of a number of speakers at speakers corner, Mohammed did not invent this.
His crime of being "partly responsible for the state of mind of those that did." (carry out bombings) can more readily be ascribed to Tony Blair. I attended many of his meetings at speakers corner which were focused not on recruiting Muslims to Jihad, but on convincing white people that September 11th was, he believed, a plot by the CIA.
Having known the main accused for years I can only say he is a very unlikely character for jihadism, primarily because he carried out pretty much every activity in public and not a single weapon or explosive has been connected to him.
I think we have a miscarriage of justice here. I think you all know such a thing would not be new.
Heiko Khoo, London, UK
One can see the problem in just the first four posts on this article. Britain has been mortally weakened from within by the "leftists" like "Scott from London" who blame Britain first. They think, without foundation, that a borderless world will be their "Utopia". Instead, they are unwittingly moving toward the surrender of Britain to the worldwide caliphate, which is the objective of the terrorists.
David, Minneapolis, Minnesota - USA
I say bring back national conscription for these convicted criminals, and send them out to fight the Taliban. Those who are not willing to fight for Britain shouldn't be allowed to remain here.
Tom Liberal, Lincoln, UK
and a nice looking bunch of boys thet are too. They seem to be well integrated into British society.
GK, Calgary, Canada
what on earth are these savages doing living in my country..look at the hate in their eyes...why do i pay authories to let them live in my beautiful land...they are savages
thomas, london, UK
What are you saying Ian? That Hitler would immigrate to England with his 5 million troops and the odd tank? Claim a council house and then plan the invasion of England from there?
Moreover without immigration in the war, such as the Free French, the Poles, the Czechs, soldiers from the Commonwealth (Carribean, Canada, Australia etc in which we always seem to forget) etc etc etc we probably lost the war before the Americans came in.
Also our 'liberal' immigration policy is hardly liberal let alone fair.
If our society was more inclusive we would probably have less problems with home grown terrorism.
Scott, London, UK
It's hardly surprising that Abu Hamza had a right hand man, he probably had a left-hand man also.
Alan A, Paris, France
When is all this going to end or should I say where is all this going to end ?
I dread to think what would have happened between 1939 and 1945 if we had such a liberal immigration policy !!!
I thought we were also at War now ?!!
Ian Payne, WALSALL,