Downloading al-Qaeda terror guide 'will lead to arrest and prosecution'

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Downloading al-Qaeda terror guide 'will lead to arrest and prosecution'

Downloading Inspire has led to more than 20 prosecutions in Britain in the

past 18 months

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article3757618.ece

 

Sean O'Neill Crime and Security Editor

Last updated at 12:01AM, May 7 2013

 

Security agencies and police are adopting a zero-tolerance approach in

investigations into the distribution of al-Qaeda's online magazine Inspire

after its emergence as a common thread in a series of terrorism plots.

 

While it is virtually impossible to halt its distribution, intelligence

agencies and police are devoting more resources to tracking who is

downloading and accessing it.

 

Downloading Inspire has led to more than 20 people being arrested and

prosecuted in Britain in the past 18 months. The Boston Marathon bombers

also used the magazine's bombmaking instructions.

 

Many of those detained have been found to have studied the magazine's simple

guide - "How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom" - and tried to put

them into practice. But a senior anti-terrorism police officer warned that

simply possessing Inspire - with its guides to making pipe bombs, pressure

cooker devices and crude firework and nail bombs - would lead to arrest and

charge.

 

"There is no question that Inspire has been operationally supportive to

terrorist plots," Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, head of the West

Midlands counter-terrorism unit, said.

 

"If people are accessing it then there is a concern and a risk and we will

prosecute because we know the ideas and methods in the magazine are being

used. Section 58 of the Terrorism Act prohibits possession of something

useful to a terrorist so, irrespective of motive, in the UK people are being

convicted for having Inspire."

 

Ruksana Begum, 22, was jailed for a year last year for having the magazine

on a memory card despite the courts accepting that she was not involved in

terrorism and had accessed it to try to understand why her brothers had

become involved with a jihadi cell.

 

Mr Beale said the magazine had become increasingly influential among

would-be bombers. Irfan Nasser, jailed for life last month for plotting

suicide bombings to rival 7/7, used its bombmaking instructions, as did

members of another Birmingham gang who made nail bombs to attack an English

Defence League rally.

 

Terrorist suspects from London, Luton and other cities had also downloaded

the magazine, as had two men who arrived in Britain from Germany hoping to

find a contact who could send them to jihad overseas. It has also been found

in the possession of a youth who had no terrorism connections who was

arrested for plotting to blow up a school.

 

Mr Beale said: "Its influence derives from three factors. It is written in

English and doesn't depend on an understanding of Arabic, appealing directly

to Westerners. Secondly, it tries to look modern, glossy and attractive -

like a Western magazine. Yet it is still heavy with references to the

al-Qaeda narrative of events and religious texts."

 

There have been ten issues since July 2010. Produced by al-Qaeda in Yemen,

it is "landed" on selected jihadi websites and forums and spreads almost

uncontrollably from there. The magazine was initially produced by the US

radicals Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. After their deaths in a 2011 drone

strike, analysts say the quality of the English used in the magazine has

declined.

 

Mr Beale warned that the battle to halt the publication's spread and

influence would be hampered by the withdrawal of the Communications Data

Bill, which would have given police powers to collect information about the

internet communications of terror suspects.

 

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