MI5 fears silent army of 1,200 Muslims biding its time in the British suburbs

Sean Rayment:

The terrorist threat facing Britain has developed into a "covert conspiracy" involving hundreds of men and women living ordinary lives in the nation's suburbs, security sources have revealed.

Unbeknown to their families and friends, they form a silent 1,200-strong "army" of terrorists. They are believed to be involved in at least 20 major plots that they hope will bring death and destruction to Britain.

The scale of the problem facing the security services is underlined by the fact that MI5, which planned Friday's raid in Forest Gate, east London, has only 2,600 staff - and yet is faced with an increasing workload, including organised crime, in addition to the growing threat from international terrorism.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 20, the two brothers arrested after the dawn raid may, according to MI5, be typical of other young Asian men who have become disaffected with the Western way of life and have been radicalised by militant Islamists who support a global Jihad.

According to neighbours, the brothers underwent a transformation after the September 11 attacks on America in 2001, adopting beards and more traditional Muslim dress. "Lots of young Muslims these days are getting more religious, especially after 9/11," said one neighbour. "It's nothing to be suspicious about."

Schoolfriends of Abdul Kahar last night recalled him as a typical teenager. "Everyone changes," said one friend, who asked not to be named. "He's now deeply religious and prays five times a day."

The brothers regularly attend two local mosques, al Karam Trust on Katherine Road and another in Plashet Grove.

"They have become active in the area in trying to get people to go to the mosques," said Mohammed Akram, the vice-chairman of the Muslim Alliance of Newham. Abdul Kahar has recently been on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Such was the disbelief that these men could be anything but law-abiding citizens, that friends of Abdul Kahar, who was shot in the shoulder when armed police stormed his house early on Friday, turned up at the Royal London Hospital, where he was being treated, to protest their innocence.

It was an MI5 officer working within the organisation's highly-secretive G6 section - which runs agents for the branch that deals with international terrorism - who revealed that one of his sources had claimed to him that two brothers living at 46, Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, were attempting to build a chemical bomb.

The anonymity of the suspects fitted the profile of a new breed of urban terrorists waging war from Britain's drab suburbs. The brothers, who were born in London, come from a family of Bangladeshi origin. Their father, Abul Kalam, 51, is a former chef and builder who is understood to have retired due to a heart problem and their mother, Alif Jan, is a housewife. Abdul Kahar took an IT course but worked at a local Tesco store before starting with the Royal Mail.

The intelligence obtained by MI5 suggested that there might be an attempt to acquire material via the internet which could be used to develop a nerve gas, capable of killing and injuring thousands of people.

The intelligence, which is believed to have come from an agent close to members of a small, radicalised Muslim community in east London, was of such quality that MI5's assistant director for the G-Branch, which deals with the international terrorist threat to Britain, ordered a full-scale surveillance operation.

MI5 agents began monitoring the brothers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while members of the organisation's technical A-Branch obtained the appropriate Home Office approval to arrange telephone taps, monitor emails and plant a range of bugging devices that would allow agents to monitor the suspects' every move.

G6-section is MI5's most secret and sensitive department and is solely responsible for agent-running for G-Branch. Its officers are responsible for recruiting agents from a wide variety of backgrounds, including the Muslim community.

Ever since the September 11 attacks, the Security Service has been desperate to recruit Muslims, not just as members but, more importantly, as agents who would be prepared to covertly report on the activities of "radicalised Muslims".

LONDONISTAN

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