Abu Qatadah Arrested-- Key Figure in al-Qaeda



The Palestinian cleric Umar Muhammad Abu Umar ("Abu Qatada"), 40, was

arrested in a Wednesday raid on a council house in Bermondsey, south

London. Suspected by many European authorities of being a key figure in

al-Qaeda, he and his family had been missing since last December.



British authorities tracked him down after he published on the internet a treatise

called, "The Legal Vision for the September 11 Events," which attempted to

provide justification for those monstrous attacks.



He had links with Usama Bin Laden, and videos of his sermons were found

in the Hamburg apartment of hijacker Muhammad Atta. The British inability

to find him had provoked strains with France in recent months, and the French

even speculated that MI5 had him in a safe house somewhere.



Jordan also wants to extradite him, for funding terrorism, and he has been

sentenced to death in absentia there (he has Jordanian citizenship).



British courts have ruled that foreigners may be indefinitely held in prison under

the provisions of the new anti-terrorism law. Some 10 Muslim radicals are being

held at the moment, including Abu Qatada.



He has links to the Tawhid organization in Germany, and was implicated in the

funding of a Spanish terrorist cell that has now been broken up. He has given

vicious rulings or fatwas justifying the killing of the wives and children of any

Algerians who oppose the fundamentalists there.



In other words, this is a very dangerous character who appears to have fingers

in several terrorist operations and who has provided material support to them.

I'm glad he's finally in jail.