This is a cross-post from Paul Stott
On Wednesday the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee published written evidence on its website concerning the case of Babar Ahmad from Tooting, who is awaiting extradition to the United States on terrorist charges which include running the Jihadist website Azzam.com
Babar Ahmad's father has submitted a letter to the Committee in support of his son, who is described as a 'prominent member of Britain's Muslim community'. It is co-signed by what can only be described as a sample of some of the great and the good of UK Islamist and/or Jihadist circles. Politically the statement takes the familar one-dimensional approach in responding to UK Jihadis – ignore their alleged actions and beliefs, and instead focus solely on unfair treatment they may have received. Ahmad has waited a ludicrous amount of time on remand – some six years. His alleged offences were mostly committed in this country (although the letter conveniently ignores the international nature of them, and that they were allegedly made on US based websites) and he was badly beaten up upon arrest.
If convicted, I hope the Territorial Support Group officers who battered Ahmad serve a long time in prison, even if, given the beliefs expressed on azzam.com, he is perhaps a hard person to feel sorry for. A review of the UK's lob-sided extradition agreement with the United States is also long overdue.
It is galling however to see Ahmad's case compared to that of computer hacker Gary McKinnon. Ahmad senior writes to Parliament:
"There cannot be two parallel system's of justice wherby some British citizens facing extradition to the US are afforded rights that others are deprived of, regardless of the seriousness of the allegations. We also note that the Home Secretary has recently frozen the extradition to the US of computer hacker Gary McKinnon (whose case is similar to Babar Ahmad's) and that Prime Minister Cameron has held talks with President Obama regarding that case"
Gary McKinnon suffers from aspergers syndrome, and hacked into Pentagon computers looking for evidence of UFO's. Babar Ahmad allegedly ran one of the most significant Jihadist websites, is accused of money laundering and conspiring to kill Americans. To describe them as 'similar' is ludicrous. Such a line plays well with those pushing theories of Muslim exceptionalism and Islamophobia, but is ridiculous to anyone who takes the trouble to look behind such verbiage.
Gary McKinnon is not therefore Babar Ahmad. Whilst McKinnon was busy looking for little green men, this is how azzam.com responded to the 9/11 attacks. The screenshot below comes from 16 September 2001 (click to enlarge):
