Jihad-training site: apparently, UK police closed it, arrested instructor.

[Xeni Jardin]

None of the wire stories I saw before this 8AM Reuters piece today
(below) indicated clearly who shut the site down, or specified that the
site closure occurred in conjunction with the instructor's arrest and
detention. The later AP story dated 3:33 today further specifies that
the arrested instructor is one London resident by the name of Sulayman
Balal Zainulabidin. --XJ

-----Original Message-----



UK Shuts Down 'Ultimate Jihad Experience' on Web
October 4, 2001 7:59 am EST
url (will wrap)< http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011004/wr/
attack_britain_jihad_dc_1.html >

UK Shuts Down 'Ultimate Jihad Experience' on Web
By Karen Matusic

LONDON (Reuters) - A Web site offering young Muslims the chance to learn
all about explosives and the ``art of bone breaking'' was shut down this
week under a new British crackdown on Islamic extremists.

Police sources told Reuters Thursday that the closure of the
London-based Sakina Securities Web site (www.sakina.fsbusiness.co.uk)
followed the arrest Monday of one of its instructors on terrorism
charges.

The 43-year-old alleged Sakina instructor -- police refuse to name
him -- is one of two men being held on terrorism charges in Britain as
it tightens the net on militants.

Britain's clampdown follows the September 11 hijack attacks on the
United States. Some of the 19 alleged hijackers are said to have passed
through Britain in the months before the attacks.

Sakina, which bills itself as an international security firm, claims to
have sent fighters to Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Chechnya
(news - web sites).

The Web site said Sakina ``prides itself on high-risk jobs in the former
Soviet Union and in the civil war arenas of the world'' and prepared
Muslims to ``defend themselves'' by training them in self-defense and
outdoor survival strategies.

``Islam is not an aggressive belief but we have the right and the
obligation to defend ourselves,'' founder Mohammed Jameel told Reuters
in 1999. ``We are not going to escalate violence because we're
restricted in what we do by Islamic law.''

Virtual violence was another matter.

Describing its course as the ``ultimate jihad experience,'' the site
offered participants the chance to shoot off 3,000 live rounds at a U.S.
firing range, ``improvise explosive devices'' or learn all about bone
crushing.

Jameel was not available for comment Thursday. No one answered the phone
at Sakina's London office.

CRACKDOWN

The shutdown is the latest sign of a clampdown on militancy in Britain,
long criticized as a haven for Islamic extremists.

Along with the Sakina instructor, police have detained Algerian pilot
Lotfi Raissi, who is accused by the FBI (news - web sites) of teaching
the hijackers to fly the planes which crashed into U.S. landmarks last
month.

Raissi, due to appear in a London court Friday, is expected to be
questioned soon by FBI agents in Britain.

Another Algerian, arrested in central England in connection with planned
terror attacks in France and Belgium, was extradited to France last
week.

All those arrested were charged under new anti-terrorism laws that came
into effect in February, making it an offence to incite anyone to commit
an act of terrorism, including murder, or to support anyone who
committed a terrorism act.

A suspect in an alleged plot to blow up the U.S. embassy in Paris told
French investigators he recruited several militants at British mosques.

Britain has stepped up its monitoring of the activities of outspoken
self-styled Islamic clerics like Syrian-born Sheikh Omar Barki Mohammed
who issued a fatwa, or religious edict, ordering the death of Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf has supported the United States in its campaign to force
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to hand over Osama bin Laden (news - web
sites), Washington's prime suspect in last month's attacks.