Extremists allowed to leave UK to ease home terror threat
Islamist Londoner, 22, convicted of planning knife attack inspired by Lee Rigby killing
POLICE are allowing known extremists on their watch to leave the UK because they pose more of a risk by staying in Britain, it can be disclosed today.
Security officers and MI5 continually judge whether it is safer to let someone go, in what they call the “home and away debate”.
While no extremists have ever knowingly been allowed to leave for Syria or other war zones, a senior counter-terrorism officer signalled that some have gone to other countries.
The “home and away” dilemma emerged after an Islamist became the first person to be convicted of plotting an attack in the UK after being prevented from travelling to Syria.
Nadir Syed planned to kill police and soldiers in an Isilinspired car and knife attack on Remembrance Sunday last year.
He was found guilty following a six-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Syed, 22, from west London, was stopped from travelling to Syria to join Isil in April last year due to bail conditions.
A senior counter-terrorism officer said: “He was effectively landlocked. This is quite a critical issue and is a dilemma for us in terms of taking passports off extremists. If they want to carry out a terrorist attack they are constrained to carry it out here.
“It is one of those risk factors when we take passports off people. Are we making the risk of them carrying out a terrorist attack here higher?”
ISLAMIST terrorist Nadir Syed plotted a beheading on Remembrance Day after becoming obsessed with the July 7 and 9/11 atrocities and Lee Rigby’s killers.
The 22-year-old had the pin code “77911” for his mobile phone and described Michael Adebolajo, one of the murderers of Fusilier Rigby, as a “diamond geezer”.
He planned to attack a Remembrance Day event because he “hated his country” and “despised” the poppy appeal, senior officers said.
In a home-made video he is seen stamping on a poppy while a voice says “may the poppy go to hell”.
He was inspired by a “truly chilling” Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fatwa issued weeks before his arrest ordering followers to murder soldiers and police wherever they were. Police also found images of police community support officers on his phone. He also used the name “John” online in reference to the Isil murderer “Jihadi John”.
Syed, of Southall, west London, had wanted to travel to Syria to join Isil but was prevented from doing so because of a travel ban relating to a public order incident. He turned his focus instead on launching a UK attack.
A senior counter-terrorism officer said of Syed and his alleged accomplices: “They hated the country they were brought up in, they hated the police and hated soldiers and completely despised the Remembrance Day parade as well and all related remembrance activities.
“We believe we stopped an attack happening in the UK aimed at soldiers and police officers. Had it been successful we would have seen death and a horrific terrorism attack on a scale, sadly, worse than Drummer Lee Rigby.”
Syed was arrested on Nov 6 last year, days before the annual Remembrance Day commemorations.
Police moved in after he bought an 11in Victorinox knife in Ealing, west London, moments after he had left a court having been handed an Asbo for a previous public order offence.
Police found gruesome Isil propaganda on his mobile phone glorifying the beheading of Westerners, as well as the homemade video of him stamping on a poppy. In heavily encrypted online conversations, he had praised the actions of Adebolajo and his fellow killer Michael Adebowale.
He was also inspired by a fatwa issued by the Isil fanatic Abu Muhammad al-Adnani on Sept 21 last year that called for attacks against the West.
Within days of the statement there was a lone wolf attack on police officers in New York and further attacks followed in Canada, Australia, Belgium and France.
The message differed from previous calls to arms in that it specifically mentioned police, soldiers and intelligence officers as targets.
Max Hill QC, prosecuting, said the fatwa had encouraged Syed and had urged followers to rise up against Westerners and “rig the roads with explo- sives for them. Attack their bases. Raid their homes. Cut off their heads.”
Another passage read: “Strike their police, security and intelligence members as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves.”
Mr Hill told Woolwich Crown Court: “This fatwa, and the worldwide attacks that followed, inspired the defendant to plan his own attack in this country, emulating the attack on Lee Rigby.”
Syed was born in Barking, east London, and lived for a while in Pakistan before the family settled in Southall. Once fond of rapping and drinking alcohol, he embraced religion in 2012 and began attending local mosques.
The following summer he met an extremist who swapped numbers and invited him to attend lectures to “enhance my knowledge of the faith”.
He also had connections with the banned Al-Muhajiroun group.
Syed denied preparing an act of terror but was convicted by a jury who found he had secured weapons and planned in the months leading up to his arrest to attack people using knives. He will be sentenced at a later date.
The jury failed to agree verdicts on his cousin Yousaf Syed, 20, and Saudi Arabia-born Haseeb Hamayoon, 28, for preparing terrorist acts between Sept 20 and Nov 7 last year. Hamayoon, who claimed to be a chef, said he had knives for legitimate reasons, while Yousaf Syed dismissed online comments on Isil as “sick jokes”. They will face a retrial in the new year.