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Introduction – Nov 30, 2019

Two years prior to the latest terror attack on London Bridge another terror attack had taken place at the very same site. In both cases, Muslim extremists were involved. One of culprits in the first attack, Khuram Butt had even been under active investigation by MI5 at the time after his family voiced concerns over his radicalisation.
In the aftermath of the first attack, MI5 was accused of a “damming list of failures“.
Usman KhanNow two years later “Muslim extremists” have again targeted the very same site. What’s more the prime suspect in the latest attack had been involved in an earlier terror plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange. That plan was allegedly thwarted by MI5 and Usman Kahn was jailed in 2012 for his involvement.
That wasn’t the end of Khan’s involvement in radical Islam, however. Whilst in jail he had reportedly asked for help to be free from its influence but according to his solicitor, none was forthcoming. So naturally, upon his release it was only a matter of time before Khan fell under its malign influence.
Khan was released from jail on licence in 2018, half way through a 16-year sentence. He was reportedly wearing an electronic tag at the time of the attack. Only just as Khuram Butt had evaded scrutiny while preparing to bomb the London Stock Exchange, Usman Khan’s preparations for the latest terror attack seem to have been missed.
Or were they? One has to ask because there are so many oversights, missed opportunities and coincidences that one has to wonder if whole War on Terror isn’t a carefully orchestrated drama using crisis actors, false flags and fall guys? All of which are being used to create the illusion of conflict. With a few real outrages, that the authorities have prior knowledge of, just to add some verisimilitude to the proceedings.
Was this latest London Bridge attack just the latest in a series carefully concocted ‘events’? Ed.

London Bridge attacker had asked for help to deradicalise – lawyer

Vikram Dodd – Nov 30, 2019

The London Bridge attacker had asked for help to be deradicalised while he was in prison, but none was forthcoming, his solicitor has claimed.

Vajahat Sharif told the Guardian Usman Khan had come to realise that violent extremism was wrong and accepted his understanding of Islam was deficient.

Khan was one of nine members of an al-Qaida-inspired terrorist group convicted in 2012 of plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange and build a terrorist training camp in Pakistan that was disrupted by MI5 and the police. He was also a supporter of al-Muhijaroun, the extremist group with which scores of terrorists were involved. However, Sharif said Khan became disillusioned with the group after his imprisonment, and that extremists may have targeted him to be “re-groomed” after release from jail, with devastating consequences.

He said Khan first mentioned wanting to be free of Islamist extremism after his conviction in 2012, and then repeatedly throughout his time in jail, last mentioning it in 2018 before his release.

“He requested intervention by a deradicaliser when he was in prison,” Sharif said. “The only option was the probation service and they cannot deal with these offenders. He asked me on the phone to get assistance from a specific deradicaliser.

“He asked [me] once or twice before he was released in 2018. Probation do a good job with conventional offenders but they can’t deal with ideological offenders.”

Khan, 28, killed two people and injured three others before being shot dead by police during a stabbing rampage at London Bridge on Friday afternoon. After his conviction in 2012 he was given an indeterminate jail sentence, with a minimum term of eight years. On appeal in 2013, it was replaced with a 16-year, fixed-term sentence and an extended period on licence.

Sharif said Khan, whom he last spoke to in March, was released to a bail hostel from where he had to report to a police station every day, had interactions with the probation service and had to wear a tag.

“In prison he begin to realise his Islamic thinking was not correct; he accepted that. He criticised the al-Qaida ideology and violent extremism. He did recognise that his Islamic understanding was incomplete. A lot of these characters pick and choose from different sermons, it’s like an echo chamber.”

Sharif said the policy for terrorist prisoners needed to change to boost efforts to turn them away from supporting ideologies that incite violence: “There is a flaw in the policy. You should have substantial ideological evaluation of these individuals before they are released on licence.”

Sharif said Khan appeared to be rehabilitated and was a model prisoner during his time in HMP Whitemoor: “He was having a go at Isis before his release. I’ve no idea what happened after his release, that is what is shocking. Maybe he was not ideologically robust enough to resist the radicalising groomers – I thought he was a reformed character.”

He said that when Khan was arrested in 2010 he supported al-Muhijaroun, but “by the end he was disillusioned with them”.

“His parents are thoroughly decent, hard-working people, first-generation migrants from Pakistan. His family were at a loss when he was arrested and charged.”

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