21st Century Wire says…
According to London’s counter-terrorism unit, Khalid Masood the man named in the Westminster Bridge and Parliament Square attacks has no ties to terror and “no extremist tendencies.”
QUESTION: If the English teaching Masood didn’t have ties to ISIS or al-Qaeda and wasn’t believed to have extremist tendencies – then why did British security services take a keen interest in him as they had previously declared?
In less than a week, there have already been a number of twists and turns in the London attack story, as the main suspect Masood, was presumed to have been radicalized. This element went unquestioned and was parroted as fact by major media outlets throughout the world before a full investigation and forensic review was completed.
As a result of this mainstream fake news meme, reactionary pundits became inflamed, particularly with European far right reactionaries and also on US talk radio, all declaring in chorus that London ‘another ISIS attack’ in the West – thus further increasing racial and ethnic tensions in the West. And yet, no cries of ‘fake news’ by the establishment politicians, media and academia.
Once again, I think it’s important to reiterate that in the days leading up to the London attacks, Met Police rehearsed a ‘terrifyingly realistic‘ drill on the River Thames prior to yet another known wolf attack taking place in Europe.
Throughout the course of this week-long investigation into the London attacks, based on available evidence of the events, there are a number of anomalies associated with this latest high-profile case, such as eye-witness testimony of multiple suspects, British-born attacker Masood (aka Adrian Russell Ajao and Adrian Elms) already being well-known to the UK’s counter-intelligence security agency MI5 and some of those who knew the attacker professionally have presented a much different picture of Masood.
Let’s not forget that Met Police commissioner, Craig Mackey, witnessed the attack on Parliament Square that killed Pc Keith Palmer. What are the chances?
The Guardian reported the following:
“Farasat Latif, a director at language school Elas UK where Masood worked between 2010 and summer 2012, said he knew Masood as a charming, friendly and professional employee who was open about getting his life back on track after a violent past.”
“Latif, a trustee of Luton Islamic Centre, said that during the time Masood worked with him, Latif was involved in confrontations with members of the radical Islamist group al Muhajiroun, on occasion driving them away from the street stalls they set up in Bury Park.”
The introduction of the banned terror group al Muhajiroun (in any aspect of this story) also tied to 7/7 bombings and MI5, raises some intriguing questions – something we discussed in our last London attack report.
On another note, a British woman fighting ISIS in Syria, has claimed that she and her family have become ‘targeted’ by MI5. Here’s a passage from RT:
“The first British female fighter to join the battle against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria says UK intelligence agency MI5 is targeting her family, who are now “afraid for their own safety.”
“Kimberley Taylor, 27, has been fighting alongside the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), an all-female affiliate of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), in Syrian Kurdistan. She is part of the ‘Rojava revolution’, a left-wing Kurdish movement in northern Syria.”
Both stories although unrelated on the surface, cast a spotlight on MI5 operations.
All of this has taken place during a massive uptick of Western allied involvement in the Syrian conflict.
More from The Guardian below…
(Image Source: ctvnews)
Westminster attacker Khalid Masood had interest in jihad, say police
Alice Ross
The Guardian
Scotland Yard says it has yet to find evidence linking Masood, who killed four people in London, with Islamic State.
Khalid Masood, the Westminster attacker, had a clear interest in jihad and his methods echoed the rhetoric of Islamic State leaders, Scotland Yard has said.
Six days into the investigation, the Metropolitan police’s deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu, who is also senior national coordinator for UK counter-terrorism policing, said there was no evidence that Masood had discussed the planning of his attack with others.
But he made clear that the attacker’s communications on 22 March – when he drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and fatally stabbed a police officer guarding the Palace of Westminster, killing four people in total – are the main line of enquiry.
Masood’s phone was reported to have connected with the encrypted messaging app WhatsApp just before the attack.
The Met’s comments came as Masood’s mother, Janet Ajao, broke her silence, saying she was “shocked, saddened and numbed by the actions my son has taken that have killed and injured innocent people in Westminster”.
Masood was shot dead by a protection officer in the courtyard of the Palace of Westminster. His attack claimed the lives of PC Keith Palmer, Kurt Cochran, an American tourist, Aysha Frade, an administrator at a London sixth form college, and Leslie Rhodes, a 75-year-old window cleaner.
Since the attack, Ajao, 69, has been living under armed police guard in west Wales where she runs a craft business.
“Since discovering that it was my son who was responsible, I have shed many tears for the people caught up in this horrendous incident,” she said. “I wish to make it absolutely clear, so there can be no doubt, I do not condone his actions or support the beliefs he held that led to him committing this atrocity.”
In a public appeal for people who were in contact with Masood to give evidence, Basu said: “If you heard from him on 22 March, please come forward now. The information you have may prove important to establishing his state of mind.
“His attack method appears to be based on low sophistication, low tech, low cost techniques copied from other attacks, and echoes the rhetoric of Islamic State leaders in terms of methodology and attacking police and civilians but, at this stage, I have no evidence he discussed this with others.
Read more from The Guardian here
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