This looks like a pretty stunning failing by the hopeless civil service. Conservative Home reports:
Of the 26 people who said earlier this week that they were interested in attending, eight had Facebook avatars supporting Babar Ahmad, an alleged Al Qaeda operative who Ministers want to extradite to the United States. The Cabinet Office have overall responsibility for the civil service and was thus responsible for the event.
I hear that Theresa May was furious when she found out about it, and that soon after she heard the news it was cancelled forthwith. But it isn’t necessary to believe that Ahmad should be extradited – the case is controversial – to ask: what on earth was going on? How can one part of government be seeking to recruit from a body about which another part has grave concerns?
Here’s the advert:
Hardly “joined up government”.
The Government is correct in its assessment of FOSIS. If anything, it is too generous to it. Over the last three years speakers at its events have included the following:
– Daud Abdullah, the Istanbul declaration signatory and head of hate publisher Middle East Monitor.
– Hamas enthusiast Haitham Al-Haddad. The Gaza war made him happy because “it clearly encouraged Muslims to prepare themselves for jihad, all over the world”.
– Canadian Islamist Muhammad Alshareef, who has said Jews should be hated and shunned. As for gays, Muslims should be “proud” to be called homophobic and need to harass gay rights demonstrators.
– Australian preacher Shady Alsuleiman, a fan of Al Qaeda preacher and recruiter Anwar Al-Awlaki. Alsuleiman calls jihad “the peak of Islam”.
– Moazzam Begg, the Taliban fan who heads the terrorist support group Cageprisoners.
– Abdur Raheem Green, the head of iERA. It is an organisation which specialises in staging extremist conferences, such as this one at the Ibis hotel in southwest London which led to a furore earlier this year. Three of iERA’s foreign advisors have been banned from the UK.
– Uthman Lateef, a gay hating and “don’t help the police” extremist. He appeared at events featuring Anwar Al-Awlaki into 2009, when it was very clear that Awlaki was a leading Al Qaeda operative.
– Creepy Stephen Sizer, the church friend of extremists, including the racists and Hamas supporters of Viva Palestina Malaysia.
– Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi, the supporter of suicide bombings.
– Notorious preacher Riyadh ul-Haq, who hates the West and Jews and supports the Taliban.
One of FOSIS’s latest moves was to stand up for the hate preacher Raed Salah. Whose testimony did it call on in defence of Salah? Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas.
As for Babar Ahmad, this is what the US has accused him of (there’s more here):
It is alleged that Ahmad and Ahsan, through an entity known as “Azzam Publications,” were members of a group that provided material support to the Taliban and the Chechen Mujahideen through various means, including the administration and operation of various web sites promoting violent jihad. The Azzam Publications websites, including, e.g., Azzam.com and Qoqaz.net, were hosted for a period of time through the services of a web-hosting company located in Connecticut. The indictment alleges that the defendants, using both cyberspace and real-world efforts, assisted the Taliban and the Chechen Mujahideen through money laundering, as well as by providing funds, military equipment, communication equipment, lodging, training, expert advice and assistance, facilities, personnel, transportation and other supplies, with the knowledge and intent that such conduct would support the military activities of these and associated groups. The indictment also alleges that, during a search of Ahmad’s residence in the United Kingdom in December 2003, Ahmad was found in the possession of an electronic document containing what were previously classified plans regarding the makeup, advance movements and mission of a United States Naval battle group as it was transiting from California to its deployment in the Middle East. The document discussed the battle group’s perceived vulnerability to terrorist attack.
This is what azzam.com looked like just five days after 9/11. The main headline is “URGENT APPEAL TO DEFEND AFGHANISTAN”. (Click to enlarge.)
FOSIS also did its bit to complicate the police investigation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the undie bomber. Qasim Rafiq of FOSIS was his “close friend” when the pair were at UCL.
Precisely the sort of people you’d want to be recruiting as high ranking fast stream civil servants.
