Web giants ‘give terror thugs a place to hide’
BRITISH jihadi Omar Hussain called for knife attacks on our soil in a sickening rant just months before the Westminster atrocity.
The Islamic State fanatic, who now calls himself Abu Sa’eed Al-Britani, uses the secure messaging service Telegram to speak to other extremists.
He said: “They could buy a knife and stab a kafir [non-believer] in his guts or slit his throat.” The fiend also ordered fellow fanatics to “rise my brother and make the kafir pay”.
Hussain, a former Morrisons security guard from High Wycombe, Bucks, had also told militants to beat up and rob drunken revellers out celebrating in the run-up to Christmas so that they could buy knives.
Police are probing whether Khalid Masood’s car rampage and stabbing of PC Keith Palmer on Wednesday was inspired by online propaganda from IS – which claims he was a “soldier”.
Almost 100 women linked hands across Westminster Bridge yesterday as they staged a five-minute silent vigil for Masood’s victims. The gesture came as a man of 30 was arrested at an address in Birmingham on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.
He was the 12th person held in the aftermath of the bloodbath, in which four people, including PC Palmer, were killed. Eight people have been released, while a 58-year-old man remained in custody last night and two more have been released on bail.
One line of inquiry is whether 52-year-old Masood, who was shot dead by police, had links to Islamic extremists living in Luton while he was based there between 2009 and 2011. He moved to the town with his oldest daughter, now 24, who he had converted to Islam. His daughter Teegan, 18, stood up to him and refused to convert.
Figures active in Luton at the time include hate preacher Anjem Choudary, who is now in jail. Security services are also set to probe possible links between Masood and four members of a terror cell jailed in 2013 for trying to blow up a Territorial Army base in Luton.
Professor Anthony Glees, from Buckingham University, said the UK’s main security fear should be that “tens of thousands” of Masoods could be waiting in the wings here.
And there was heightened security at Wembley for England’s World Cup qualifier clash against Lithuania yesterday. Counter-terrorism police searched a property in Birmingham over the weekend where friends of Masood lived, close to one of his previous addresses. They were seen removing bags of evidence yesterday and officers described the house in Bredon Croft, Hockley, as “a scene”. Neighbour Sabrina Hussain, 52, said daughter Sky, eight, was pals with Masood’s youngest daughter Mariam – but she would never let her go to his home as he gave her “the creeps.” She said: “I’m still having sleepless nights. It’s just terrifying my daughter was anywhere near that person.”