Was '7/7 bombings trainer' intel informant?

[TonyGosling]

The Guardian, 14 February 2011



Freed because he was a US double agent.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/13/jihadi-train-7-7-bomber-freed

Terrorist who trained 7/7 bomber released after five years
A terrorist who was jailed for founding a training camp where the leader of the July 7 London suicide bombers were taught to make bombs has been released from prison after serving less than five years, it was claimed.

Mohammed Junaid Babar
By Nick Collins 6:45AM GMT 14 Feb 2011
American Mohammed Junaid Babar walked free just four and a half years into a sentence that could have lasted as long as 70, prompting claims he may have been acting as an informant.
The decision to sentence him to "time served" due to what a New York judge termed his "exceptional co-operation" dating back to before his arrest led to suggestions Babar could have been helping US authorities even while helping to train the man who led the 2005 attacks on London.
Babar had admitted being a jihadist connected with senior al-Qaeda figures as he pleaded guilty to five counts of terrorism in a New York court in 2004.
He agreed to plead guilty and become a supergrass for the government in exchange for a significantly shortened sentence in a deal with American prosecutors, The Guardian reported.
Babar's release was compared by lawyers acting on behalf of the families of victims to the decision to let Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, leave prison..........
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8322346/Ter rorist-who-trained-77-bomber-released-after-five-years.html

[Prole]

J7: 7/7 Inquests Blog: A cat amongst the [stool] pigeons - Mohammed Junaid Babar

[TonyGosling]

He played his role in backing up the terror training camp narrative.

I expected to see stories like this cropping up at this time as MI5 begin to get involved with the inquest, still no evidence apart from plea bargains and tortured mules that Khan and Tanweer ever actually went to these so called terror camps.

If they did, they may have been double agents as well>

Very convenient timing and diverts any public or victims' families outrage away from MI5 and MI6.

[Prole]

[conspiracy analyst]

Double agent used to mean double if one worked for two countries did it not?

A double agent of one person working for either the CIA or MI5 does not equal a double agent but a single one.

Working for Al CIAda does not equal double either.

Working for the so-called 7/7 bomberd does not equal double either.

The man was a single agent working for the CIA pure and simple so was the 7/7 operation...

[TonyGosling]

Early release of a jihadi turned US supergrass who helped a London bomber has rung alarm bells.

The Babar revelations about Khan are not new, they first surfaced a little over a week after 7/7. Babar is one of the only 'witnesses' that corroborates the official speculation that Khan was trained in bomb making in Pakistan. If indeed he was and it does transpire that Babar was an intel asset as far back as 2003 when Khan was apparently trained at a terror camp in the summer then this of course raises huge questions.

Guardian: 'Babar "began co-operating even before his arrest", has raised the possibility, supported by other circumstantial evidence obtained by the Guardian, that he may have been an informant for the US government before his detention by the FBI in April 2004. -

Jihadi who helped train 7/7 bomber freed by US after just five years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/13/jihadi-train-7-7-bomber-freed

More information in the other Guardian article suggests his 'co-operation' may have gone back as far as 2001.

The al-Qaida supergrass and the 7/7 questions that remain unanswered.
The early release of a jihadi turned US supergrass who helped a London bomber has rung alarm bells. Shiv Malik reports on doubts held by the victims' families
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/14/al-qaida-supergrass-77-questi ons

The press have changed their tune. The majority of the 2005 stories of Babar used much more cautious language when referring to Babar's statements. Years later and the language has morphed from Khan was said to have attended radical religious schools in Pakistan to without question he attended and they were full on terror training camps in Pakistan where he learnt everything he needed to mastermind the 7/7 bombings. Is this a leap in perspective? Why is this guy being regarded as more truthful than ever, especially as it now appears he was a stooge all along?

Guardian: 'An American jihadist who set up the terrorist training camp where the leader of the 2005 London suicide bombers learned how to manufacture explosives has been quietly released after serving only four and a half years of a possible 70-year sentence, a Guardian investigation has learned.' -

Jihadi who helped train 7/7 bomber freed by US after just five years
Exclusive: Release prompts claim Islamist was US informant while assisting London terrorist
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/13/jihadi-train-7-7-bomber-freed

Guardian: 'in summer 2003 set up a training camp in north-west Pakistan that provided lessons in bomb-making to young British jihadis including the leader of the 7 July cell, Mohammed Sidique Khan.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/14/al-qaida-supergrass-77-questi ons

I'm sorry but why is the Guardian reporting this as if it is fact?

Much of 7/7 investigative journalism has been about the shaping of public perception, what happened, through sources in the press and the official narratives. In my view the press have been drip feeding the public with ever more certain versions of the initial iffy narrative, but without the evidence. A fundamental part of the narrative is that Khan and Tanweer were likely trained in how to do bombings when visiting Pakistan.
Now, thanks to the naivety of the mainstream press, Babar's testimony is being publicised in a way that no longer doubts the authenticity of his statements regarding Khan being trained at these supposed terror camps.

Important questions have been posed to the inquest regarding the likely intelligence tracking of Babar and his mysterious ability to fly in and out unhindered.

As they infer in the Guardian and also in many stories back in 2005, the FBI and NYPD apparently had been told about Khan by Babar pre 7/7, but the information was apparently not specific enough. So some of the blame will likely be shared with the Americans in terms of preventability, especially if it is true Babar was indeed working as an informant for them. The blame game and 'lack of proper intelligence sharing' rhetoric may serve to take some heat away from MI5 in the inquest.

With regard to Khan and Tanweer also being informants, this is the opinion of some reputed intelligence analysts and as you say in your article:

How would Khan and Tanweer have known that they were not under investigation given the following facts:

29 March 2004: Momin Khawaja was arrested in Canada in the culmination of what was reported as a “a month long sting operation”

30 March 2004: Eight arrests were made of men who were known to Khan and Tanweer as part of Operation Crevice.

June 2004: news broke that the FBI had been holding Mohammed Junaid Babar in custody in New York since April 2004. It was reported that he was negotiating a plea bargain with the authorities.

A cat amongst the [stool] pigeons - Mohammed Junaid Babar
http://77inquests.blogspot.com/2011/02/cat-amongst-stool-pigeons-moham med.html

Well maybe they felt they didn't need to concern themselves. From speaking to those that have read the ISC reports I'm told that it is inconceivable that MI5 and WYP would not have identified Khan and Tanweer if it is indeed true they were keeping the company we are told that they were. For me that points to either utter incompetence or that Khan and Tanweer were being shielded from investigation.

Anyway, the mainstream media report the testimony of the likes of Babar as if fact - and we have to ask ourselves why?

[TonyGosling]

What Did the US and Britain Know Prior to the July 7 London Bombings?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23243

by Robert Stevens - Global Research, February 16, 2011 - World Socialist Web Site
The release of terrorist Mohammed Junaid Babar, due to “exceptional cooperation” beginning before his arrest, raises the question: How much prior knowledge did the US and British authorities have about the July 7, 2005, terror bombings in London?
Babar was arrested in April 2004 by the FBI and confessed to US prosecutors that he had set up a training camp in northwest Pakistan in 2003. Among those he trained was Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the four suicide bombers who participated in the London Tube and bus bombings that killed 52 people and injured more than 750. It now appears that Babar was a long-term informant, who is being described in the press as a “super-grass”.
Babar told the FBI that he had provided lodgings and transport for nearly a dozen Islamist radicals, training them in how to fire machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, and build homemade bombs. When arrested in 2004, he told US prosecutors that he knew Khan as “Ibrahim”.
The Guardian writes that at that time, “British terrorism investigators showed Babar an unclear surveillance photo of Khan in August 2004, but Babar failed to identify him.” However, Babar claims that, upon seeing images of Khan in newspapers after the July 2005 London bombings, he contacted US authorities straight away. He said, “I told them [the American authorities] that was the person that was Ibrahim. I had mentioned Ibrahim before July 2005” (emphasis added).
In 2004, Babar pleaded guilty in as part of a plea bargain at a New York court to five counts of terrorism and was jailed, with his final sentence being deferred. He admitted to knowing leading figures within the Al Qaeda network and said he had provided them with money and equipment. Babar said he had been involved in running weapons, and the planning of two attempts to assassinate General Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan.
Babar was also given immunity from prosecution in Britain after pleading guilty to the terrorism offences. In 2008, he was granted bail and told by a judge that the offences he admitted to carry a maximum 70-year term. In July 2010, probation services authored a report stating that he should remain in prison for another 30 years.
His release after serving just four-and-a-half years poses the question of whether he was an agent of the US government and a long-time informer, even before the London bombings.
In an exclusive published Monday, the Guardian reported that Babar was released on December 10 of last year by a New York court—six years after his initial arrest and subsequent guilty plea. The Guardian states, “He was released early in a deal with prosecutors for the US attorney’s office,” after he had “agreed to plead guilty and become a government supergrass in return for a drastically reduced sentence.”
The US court document obtained by the newspaper revealed that he was sentenced to “time served” and charged $500 (£310) by the court in a “special assessment” fee. In total, he spent just over four years in some form of prison and more than two years free on bail, the document stated.
The sentencing document that released him contains wording strongly suggesting that Babar was an agent of the US government prior to his April 2004 arrest. Judge Victor Marrero stated that Babar “began co-operating even before his arrest”.
The Guardian reports that the US attorney’s office compiled its own report, known as a 5K1, which was sent to the New York court. An extract of the document read out in court stated, “Over the last six and a half years the level of assistance provided by Babar to both the United States government and foreign governments has been more than substantial. It has been extraordinary.”
The court transcript reveals that the government’s letter stated that since his arrest “the defendant has testified previously at four different trials involving numerous terrorist defendants, three trials in the UK and one in Canada. Both governments and prosecutorial arms of those governments have made clear that they determined that Mr. Babar’s testimony in that case was not only credible, but critical in the ultimate convictions secured in those cases”.
It is now acknowledged by the US government that a man who admitted involvement in terrorist activities, including the UK’s worst mainland terrorist atrocity, and who personally knew one of the London suicide bombers, was providing a “substantial” and “extraordinary” level of assistance “to both the United States government and foreign governments” prior to his April 2004 arrest.

In the aftermath of the July 7 bombings, then-Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the attacks came “out of the blue” and the four bombers—Mohammad Siddique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Germaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain—were “clean skins” with no known links to terrorism. Ministers and senior security officials insisted there was no warning of an imminent attack. Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair told Parliament on July 11, 2005, “I know of no intelligence specific enough” to have prevented the attacks.

These assertions are refuted by the Babar revelations.
A wealth of evidence has come to light, proving that the security services were tracking the movements of the would-be bombers and must have been well aware of the threat they posed. Many of these facts were documented in an Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) investigation into the London bombings, released in May 2009—despite its efforts to a whitewash the failure of MI5 to stop the four suicide-bombers.
It stated that in late March 2003, MI5 received intelligence that Mohammed Quayam Khan, from Luton, was the leader of an “Al-Qaida facilitation network” that provided financial and logistical support to the organisation. MI5 launched an investigation called Operation Crevice, about which it informed the ISC.
In May 2004, a detainee revealed that a man named “Ibrahim” had travelled to Pakistan in 2003 and met the future Crevice group members there. After what has emerged about the role of Babar, the question posed was whether he was the “detainee” named in the ISC report.
On April 12, 2005, following confirmation from another source that “Ibrahim” had been in Pakistan, MI5 launched Operation DO*** (the full name was redacted in the ISC report) to identify him.
The fact that Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer had been known to the intelligence services at least five months before they made their attack was also revealed in the trial of seven men in the “fertiliser bomb plot” trial in London in May 2007. The London court heard that Omar Khyam, described as the “ringleader” of the fertiliser plot, held meetings with Khan and Tanweer on four occasions in 2004. These were recorded by Britain’s MI5 intelligence service.
No one has ever been held responsible for the atrocities that took place. A 2009 trial found three men not guilty of helping to plan the July 7 bombings. Despite a massive police investigation costing some £100 million, they remain the only people to have faced any charges in relation to the London bombings.
A World Socialist Web Site article, dated July 11, 2005, drew attention to an Associated Press report published at 12:16 p.m. on July 7, authored by Amy Teibel in Jerusalem. It stated, “British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday’s explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said.”
This report was taken down within hours, following denials by Israeli officials. Stratfor, which has links to US intelligence and military authorities, also alleged that Israel had given the UK prior warning of an attack on London.
The WSWS also noted “the extraordinary decision by the British authorities to downgrade the official threat level for the country, at a time when it was hosting the G8 summit of major industrial nations.”
In June 2005, MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) downgraded the threat level because it deemed that the risk of an attack was at its lowest point since 9/11. There are seven threat levels, and on July 7, Britain was on “substantial,” which is the fourth level behind “severe general,” “severe specific,” and “imminent.” It had been at the higher level during campaigning in May for the British general election. The article stated, “With up to 4,000 police on duty at any one time in the environs of the summit, held outside Edinburgh, Scotland, the event was at the centre of the biggest security operation in UK history.”
A coroner's inquiry into the bombings in 2005 is being held in London. Barrister on behalf of the bereaved families, Caoilfhionn Gallagher, told the coroner her clients wanted to know that that UK security services “were not aware of any basis for the suggestion that Babar had been an informant for the authorities for any country prior to his detention” in 2004.
Robert Stevens is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Robert Stevens.......

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23243

[Prole]

[TonyGosling]

Read it again.

[Prole]

[Prole]

J7: 7/7 Inquests Blog: McDaid Who?

[Disco_Destroyer]

How does a Hells Angel know this stuff? Has he befriended the fellas?
Or is he illegally snooping at other peoples files?
Trust them bunch of villains to be involved somewhere though

[outsider]