www.observer.co.uk/islam/story/0,1442,640288,00.html -> observer.guardian.co.uk/islam/story/0,1442,640288,00.html
In one direction the trail is a conduit for volunteers and money - both heading for Islamist rebels fighting a brutal war against Algeria's government. In the other direction flow political refugees, communiqus boasting of the numbers of 'infidels' murdered each month and, towards the end of last year, a single smuggled video. Rumours of the video had been circulating for several weeks. There was even talk about it in the bazaars of war-wracked cities in eastern Afghanistan. It was reputed to be of appalling violence - and one of the most effective recruiting tools ever used by a terrorist group. The Observer obtained the video last week from a contact within the British Muslim community. According to the badly printed cover, the video, simply entitled 'Algeria', had been prepared by the 'publicity service (audiovisual section) of the Groupe Salafiste pour Prdication et Combat (Salafist Group for Preaching and Fighting or GSPC)' - the most radical of the Islamic terrorist groups who have been fighting the Algerian government for more than 10 years. The feared GSPC is one of the groups that has refused a recent government amnesty and truce. It is also closely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation and is thought to have been set up by some of his closest lieutenants using the Saudi-born dissident's money. According to security sources, the first copy of the GSPC video arrived in the UK just a few days before the 11 September attacks. Since then, bootleg copies have been passed around Britain's extremists who have been anxious to play it to potential recruits. Screenings have been arranged both in private homes and, often after prayers, in mosques. Many showings have been timed so that young people, students and schoolchildren, can attend. Several are alleged to have taken place in Finsbury Park mosque in north London where the radical cleric Abu Hamza often leads prayers. There are fears that the video could have been used to indoctrinate vulnerable young men who have come to the mosque seeking spiritual guidance following 11 September. Abbasi's mother, Juma, last week accused Abu Hamza of brainwashing her son after he had sought spiritual guidance from him 18 months ago. Last week at the mosque, where worshippers once included Zacarias Moussaoui, the suspected twentieth hijacker, and Djamel Beghal, believed to have been bin Laden's European operations director, The Observer was able to buy videos showing shocking footage from Afghanistan and Bosnia. One video called The Mirror of the Jihad showed Taliban forces in Afghanistan decapitating Northern Alliance soldiers with knives. It was distributed by an Islamic organisation based in Paddington, London. Another video, shot in Bosnia, advocated a 'jihad to wipe out atheism'. Extremists are increasingly using videos as a means to drum up support and publicise their cause. Last year an al-Qaeda video prepared by Osama bin Laden's group in Afghanistan showing militants training cut with pictures of Israeli soldiers firing on rioting teenagers in Gaza and the West Bank was circulated between radicals worshipping at the Finsbury Park mosque. In the video, bin Laden referred to 'spectacular events to come'. But none of the videos was as shocking - and as potentially dangerous - as that obtained by The Observer . The whole Islamic world should rise up to fight all the sick unbelievers. From the bushes beside a remote mountain road, guerrillas watch the approach of a government convoy. There is a huge explosion as the trucks hit a bomb, and prolonged firing. When the militants get to the scene of the blast they find carnage. Another lies on the ground with his brains, on which the camera lingers, spread around his shattered skull. Then there is excited shouting as the militants notice that one soldier is still alive. A militant calmly bends down and runs a knife across the wounded conscript's throat. The images of the blood pumping from his severed carotid artery is shown five times during the video. A GSPC leader is shown planning an attack and explaining his tactics to his troops. His men are shown marching through the dusty scrubland of the Algerian hills. Others are shown baking bread, making clothes or dividing weapons and ammunitions seized from the dead government troops. They are show conducting a bizarre ritual: lining up to be blessed by a comrade dressed in black and representing the 'angel of death'. Another attack is shown: an ambush in which 12 government conscripts - ordinary young men doing their national service - are killed and eight injured. The dogtags and identity papers of the dead are held up to the camera. However, although the Algerian ambassador made a formal complaint to the Foreign Office, MI5 and the police are not believed to have seized any copies of the tape or arrested any of those involved in its distribution - despite their identities being widely known. It is thought that the same tape has been copied and distributed in France - where there is a large Algerian community, elsewhere in Europe and throughout the Middle East. Algerian security services have been liasing closely with their British counterparts. They told The Observer that the GSPC video has been smuggled in and distributed by a group of Islamic activists based in west and south London who have been living in the UK for several years. The Algerian sources also revealed that there are more than 200 individuals in the UK who are linked to terrorist activities in Algeria alone. Some are merely sympathisers or political activists, but the list includes dozens of men implicated in the murders of policemen, soldiers, government officials and innocent civilians. Many have followed the typical path of Islamic radicals: spending years in Afghanistan during the war against the Soviets before returning to their home countries to lead extremist Muslim movements. They come to Britain to flee the resultant government crackdowns. British police are keen to interview Jordanian-born Abu Qatada, a senior cleric at the Rossmore Road mosque near Baker Street in London. Qatada was top of a list of suspects handed to the Home Secretary by the intelligence services before Christmas to be detained under new internment legislation. According to one eyewitness, com muniqus from the GSPC and other groups acclaiming the deaths of government troops in militant operations in Algeria were, at least until recently, frequently posted on the noticeboard at the Rossmore Road mosque. British police, who have raided Qatada's West Acton home, are not the only security agency hoping to trace the cleric. The Americans have named him as a terrorist suspect and Jordanian police have alleged his involvement in an abortive attempt to blow up hotels and other tourist sites on Millennium eve. The disclosure that the new Algerian tape, which is illegal in the UK, was circulated with such ease will increase concern about Britain's seeming inability to round up terror suspects here. Last week, investigators in Spain said they had discovered that two suspected al-Qaeda members arrested in Barcelona were in close contact with other members of the group in Britain. Court documents show that Najib Chaib, a Spaniard of Moroccan origin who was arrested eight days ago in Barcelona, made several visits to London where he met Qatada, who was described by Spanish judge Baltazar Garzn as 'the spiritual leader of Mujahideen across Europe'. Arab veterans of the Afghan war in London say that, after being granted asylum in the UK in 1993, Qatada became a magnet for leading dissidents on the run from the Middle East and Pakistan. Fighters from conflicts in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt and Palestine flocked to his Islamic centre in White City. In Hamburg, videos of Qatada's lectures were found in the flat used by Mohamed Atta, who led the terrorist attacks on America. Other Islamic tracts written by Qatada were found by The Observer among the effects of fleeing al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan. On Friday at Finsbury Park mosque hundreds of worshippers from scores of countries came to pray. In the lobby two vendors sold militant literature and videos with ti...
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