Ultra-secret terror cell discovered

g2.wnd.com

**

BREAKING NEWS

Hizb-ut-Tahrir calls for jihad against U.S., but not on watch list
Publishing Date: 13.04.07 09:01
Omar Bakri Mohammed
By F. Michael Maloof A Sunni terrorist organization that extends from Great Britain into Central Asia and that security experts regard as more secretive than al-Qaida is becoming more violent. It is the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, or HT, "Party of Liberation." Founded in Jordan but based in London, the group came to prominence in Britain in the mid-1990s. HT is well known on university campuses and especially targets young Muslims. The National Union of Students in the United Kingdom has barred the Hizb ut-Tahrir, stating that the group is "responsible for supporting terrorism and publishing material that incites racial hatred." Yet, its leadership, organizational structure, methods of recruitment, membership and sources of finance remain unknown. HT also is a networked Islamist organization active in some 40 countries. Hizb-ut-Tahrir recently has targeted Bangladesh where it has developed a considerable support base, and in the Bangladeshi community in Britain. The HT ideology is especially popular with Muslims of Pakistani descent. Their operational methods were imported into Pakistan from Britain by its supporters in the Pakistani community there. Security experts believe HT also has infiltrated into the Pakistani armed forces and security services. Such a development, they say, could prompt a coup in the Pakistani army that could lead to the overthrow of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Just as the Islamic threat looms ever larger in Pakistan, Musharraf in recent days has threatened to disassociate his country from the coalition against terrorism if his commitment and sincerity to the fight is going to be continuously questioned."If we are bluffing each other, if I am bluffing and if ISI (the military's intelligence service) is bluffing, then we must be out of the coalition," Musharraf said. Such a signal reinforces concerns by some security officials that Musharraf is placating the Talaban, which is waging a resurgence in neighboring Afghanistan, should the United States decide to abandon him.
Musharraf's threat to abandon the war on terror comes despite HT's strong support for the Taliban in Afghanistan. These experts also say that HT has become the political wing of al-Qaida although its existence precedes that of al-Qaida. But like al-Qaida, the HT believes in an Islamic caliphate in which Sharia law is supreme. In Great Britain, the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, regarded as one of the most radical groups operating in the world today, was founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed.

Mullah Bakri, a self-described spokesman for al-Qaida's International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, was based in London until he was refused reentry upon visiting Lebanon. In addition, Bakri, who is of Syrian nationality, is a member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, many of whose members were in direct contact with the terrorists who carried out the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Indeed, it was Bakri who gave an interview in October 2000 to an Italian newspaper boasting that al-Qaida was training "kamikazes."

Despite the open nature of the interview, it was ignored by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials prior to the terrorist attack on 9-11. HT rejects Western forms of government, including democracy, calling democracy un-Islamic. HT has operated under the premise that violent struggle is not necessary to resist efforts by the United States and Israel to destroy Islam - until now. A certain violence streak appears to be emerging and could portend more serious consequences for attacks, given their secrecy and the inability of security services to penetrate it. Observers believe that the further away HT operates from its base, the more it becomes involved in violent activities. An indication of its intentions is the fact that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was videotaped severing the heads of hostages in Iraq, once belonged to HT. There are persistent reports that HT was involved in the London terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005. The government of Uzbekistan insists that HT was responsible for attempts on the life of Uzbek President Islam Karimov in 1999. Uzbek authorities also claim that HT instigated the attack on police in Andejan in 2005. HT also is closely linked to the IMU, or Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan which has staged numerous other attacks in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In Russia where the HT is banned, the group is said to have been involved in attacks in the breakaway province of Chechnya.

Although there is no evidence that HT was involved in the two unsuccessful assassination attempts on Pakistani President Musharraf in December 2003, HT has called for "getting rid of such rulers." This is a call similar to one issued in the past by Dr. Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri, the second in command in al-Qaida. Student members of HT also have been accused of organizing violent demonstrations that have taken place in Afghanistan to protest the U.S.-backed Karzi government there. Representatives from Hizb-ut-Tahrir also have discussed a possible alliance with the Shiite Hezbollah group based in Lebanon. Following the war between Hezbollah and Israel last year, HT expressed support for Hezbollah's action against Israel. HT declared support for the "courageous Jihad" of the "party of belief" which "wrote down a glorious page in the history of the Nation," and which "blew up the legend of the unbeatable army" of Israel. According to Ariel Cohen of the Washington-based think-tank Heritage Foundation,HT is an emerging threat to American interests in Central and South Asia and the Middle East. "The Hizb-ut-Tahrir may launch terrorist attacks against U.S. targets and allies, operating either alone or in cooperation with other global terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda," Cohen declared. "A Hizb takeover of any Central Asian state could provide the global radical Islamist movement with a geographic base and access to the expertise and technology to manufacture weapons of mass destruction." Hizb-ut-Tahrir has called for a jihad against the U.S., its allies, and moderate Muslim states. Yet, the United States still has not placed the Hizb-ut-Tahrir on the State Department Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations list.

F. Michael Maloof, a regular G2B contributor, is a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

g2.wnd.com