"All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances; each man in his time plays many parts."
"Dealing with Islamist extremism, the messages are more complex, the constituencies we would aim at are more difficult to identify, and greater damage could be done to the overall effort if links back to UK or US sources were revealed."- William Ehrman
Director General (Defence & Intelligence), FCO
The stage for the the war on terror was once again set in that most unlikely of places, East London.
East London's Forest Gate recently featured in the news, as part of the global anti-Islamic witchhunt, when 250 of Reid's armed State bootboys raided the home of Abul Kahar Kalam and Abul Koyair Kalam, 'accidentally' shooting Abul Kahar Kalam in the chest while doing so. The raid had been instigated by 'intelligence' which even the 'torturers-R-US' 'intelligence' services in the United Mistakes of America would have discounted, owing to it having been passed by a mentally challenged MI5 informant with an IQ of just 69.
Both of the Kalam brothers have since been released without charge.
Today Leyton, less than a mile from the Forest Gate shooting, played host to the British Home Secretary, Dr John Reid, who made an appearance in order to 'challenge British Muslims to come forward with information about suspected terrorists', urging parents to "look for the tell-tale signs" of radicalisation in their children. Brainwashing against brainwashing.
Half way through Herr Dr Reid's speech and faux appeal - right on cue - a British Muslim, Trevor Brooks, now known as Abu Izzadeen - yet another in the long line of British converts to Islam that always rear their heads for the odd press and photo call - interrupted the Home Secretary with a tirade in defence of the over 1,000 Muslims that have been rounded up by the state.
That Izzadeen even managed to find and attend the invite-only event at all, much less subvert Reid's 'security' as someone associated with two banned organisations, and interrupt it in such a manner, was rather an impressive feat being, as the event was reported to be by the Press Association, "at a secret location in Leyton".
"How dare you come to a Muslim area when over 1,000 Muslims have been arrested?" Izzadeen said to Reid. "You are an enemy of Islam and Muslims, you are a tyrant. Shame on all of us for sitting down and listening to him."
For the record, of the over 1,000 Muslims that have been rounded up by the state, the majority are released without charge and, of those that are charged with anything at all, the charges are for petty crimes entirely unrelated to terrorism. The release without charge of innocent Muslims, however, is not something that receives much, if any, media coverage at all, especially in the face of such 'radical' outbursts as that by Brooks today.
Izzadeen continued with accusations against the Government of 'state terrorism' which, given the overt examples such as the illegality of the invasion of Iraq and the ongoing butchery of Iraqi civilians, in conjunction with the calls from wide cross sections of the community, including the likes of Military Families Against the War, for Tony Blair to stand trial for his war crimes at the International Criminal Court, are accusations that could be said to be not entirely unfounded, nor without considerable evidence to support an easy and successful prosecution.
Following his outburst, Izzadeen was ejected from the venue by the world's smallest policeman, but not before being allowed to utter some choice words in front of the assembled crowd, cameras and microphones, thereby making sure that everyone received the full weight of the not-quite-so subliminal messages being conveyed.
Trevor Brooks aka Abu Izzadeen
Izzadeen just happened to be the latest leader of a group proscribed by The State, Al Ghurabaa (the strangers), an offshoot of another previously banned group, Al Mujahiroun, as led by Omar Bakri – the 'Islamic' radical who fled Britain after his work here was done, and just prior to being arrested. Quite how Omar Bakri might have known he was about to be arrested and quite how he made it out of the country despite the imminent arrest from which he was fleeing, is left as an exercise for the reader to fathom.
Abu Izzadeen was born in Hackney, East London, to a family originally from Jamaica, as Trevor Brooks, a communication engineer by profession, who converted to Islam at the age of 17. His conversion to Islam was influenced by his brother Abu Abdul Rahman, another convert to Islam.
Abu Izzadeen, or Trevor Brooks if you prefer, is no stranger to controversy. Shortly after the London bombings, Brooks told BBC2's Newsnight programme that the bombings were "mujahideen activity" which would make people "wake up and smell the coffee." On the surface, his comments were sensational, unfounded and controversial. Beneath the surface, however, it would appear there is more truth to his allegations of the 'mujahideen activity' behind the London bombings than the controversy they provoked might suggest.
Afghanistan, the CIA and the London Bombings
On 17 January 1999, the Guardian published an article by Jason Burke in Peshawar, entitled, 'Frankenstein the CIA created'. The article was subtitled, 'Mujahideen trained and funded by the US are among its deadliest foes, reports'. The article cited the estimations of American officials that, "from 1985 to 1992, 12,500 foreigners were trained in bomb-making, sabotage and urban guerrilla warfare in Afghan camps the CIA helped to set up", and that $500 million poured into Afghanistan, directly from the CIA.
Two years later, in December 2001, Scottish born James McLintock, dubbed the 'Tartan Taliban', was arrested while trying to cross illegally from Pakistan to Afghanistan under the guise of being an 'aid worker'. At the time both Scotland Yard and Britain's Foreign Office declined to comment on McLintock's arrest but confirmed that anti-terrorist officers had flown out to Pakistan.
Confirmation of McLintock's arrest and detainment came instead from the concern of a Scottish Nationalist MP, Mike Weir, who wrote to the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, about the issue and who said of McLintock, "He has been held in Pakistan for almost a month and we're still not sure what, if anything, he's been charged with or what is to happen to him."
Regional home secretary for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, Javed Iqbal also confirmed the story of McLintock's arrest and was quoted as saying: "We have not ruled out a link between this man and other al-Qaeda suspects. We are not happy with his story. Even if he has committed no other offence, it is a serious matter to cross the border at a no-entry point. He may be tried or deported."
Further confirmation of the arrest came from his wife, Shaffia McLintock, who eventually spoke publicly about her husband's plight. She described his arrest as a "huge mistake" and criticised the lack of action from the UK government to have him released.
James McLintock aka Mohammad Yacoub aka the 'Tartan Taliban' and 7/7
The 41-year-old Scot was born to two University of Dundee lecturers. His mother taught maths and his father was a chemistry lecturer, chemistry being a particularly useful skill in bomb-making. McLintock also speaks several languages including Arabic, Pashtu and Urdu although how, when and where he acquired such versatile linguistic skills is unknown.
The young James McLintock was raised as a Catholic and developed an interest in Islam while at university. He grew a beard, donned traditional Muslim clothing, dropped out of his university course in Zoology and began attending mosques in Dundee. So great was his apparent commitment to Islam, McLintock went on to fight against the Communists in Afghanistan with the CIA trained, armed and funded - to the tune of $500 million - mujahideen.
In the mid-1990s, James McLintock had moved to Bradford and in June 1995 married a Muslim woman, Shaffia Begum, now Shaffia McLintock, having taken McLintock's non-Islamic name, perhaps indicating the level of McLintock's committment to his new-found 'Islamic' persona. By 2000, McLintock was working at "Rays of Truth", an Islamic bookshop in Leeds, where one of his colleagues was Martin “Abdullah” McDaid, a fellow Muslim convert and former UK Special Forces operative who served in the elitest of British regiments, the Special Boat Service.
Martin "Abdullah" McDaid would later go on to work 'several hours a week' at the Iqra Islamic bookshop in Beeston, Leeds, at which it is alleged at least some of the alleged perpetrators of the London bombings were radicalised by extremist propaganda. This Jihadi material and 'extremist propaganda' was not produced by either McDaid, or McLintock, nor even by a British convert to Islam, but instead by a white, British former Hells Angel by the name of Martin Gilbertson.
When the Sunday Times approached Martin "Abdullah" McDaid about Mohammed Yacoub's involvement with the Iqra bookshop shortly after 7/7, McDaid responded with typical radical convert-to-Islam aplomb, “Whether he was at the Iqra bookstore or not is none of your business — you should fear Allah.”
Little has since been heard regarding the activities of James "Mohammed Yacoub" McLintock, but, given his history of fighting for the mujahideen, illegal border crossings, his connections to the Rays of Truth bookshop in the run up to the Bradford race riots of 7/7/2001, and his involvement with the government-funded Iqra bookshop that the alleged London bombers are meant to have attended, Abu Izzadeen's comments about 7/7 demonstrating 'mujahideen activity' appear to have rather more foundation in reality than anyone might have suspected.
Dr John Reid, Abu Izzadeen, 7/7 and "mujahideen activity"
Dr John Reid's appearance at the 'secret location' at which he patronised Muslims today, Izzadeen's amazing discovery of, and interruption at, the 'secret location', after circumventing the invite-only and on-site security, in conjunction with his outspoken comments about the 'mujahideen activity' that facilitated the planning and execution of the London bombings have indeed led a great number of people 'to wake up and smell' something.
The smell, however, is not of coffee, but rather the putrid stench of the now blown cover of radical conversions to Islam behind which British ex-special forces, ex-anti-terror operatives and CIA-trained militia-men have hidden themselves from public view.
At least some of William Ehrman's much feared 'links back to UK or US sources were revealed' and they provide, in part, the explanation for Abu Izzadeen's post-7/7 comments about the 'mujahideen activity' of the London bombings of 7 July 2005.