British Military Current Events

[Yrys]

Soldier kidnap plotter given life

A man who planned to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier serving in the British Army has been jailed for life.

Parviz Khan, 37, from Birmingham, who last month admitted the plot and to supplying equipment to the Taleban, was told he must serve at least 14 years. Four other men
have also been convicted of involvement with his terror cell. On Monday, a Leicester Crown Court jury cleared Amjad Mahmood, 32, from Birmingham, of knowing about
the plan but failing to inform authorities.

The security services had placed a bug in Khan's Alum Rock home, and this provided much of the evidence in the case. Sentencing, Mr Justice Henriques said Khan had
extreme Islamist views and was a fanatic. "It's plain that you were absolutely serious and determined to bring this plot to fruition," he said. "This was not only a plot
to kill a soldier but a plot to undermine the morale of the British Army and inhibit recruitment."

Read the bug transcript


Prosecutor Nigel Rumfitt QC told the court Khan was "enraged" by the notion of Muslim soldiers in the British Army. Mr Rumfitt said: "Khan decided to kidnap such
a soldier with the help of drug dealers operating in Birmingham. He would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut
off like a pig." He said this would be filmed and released to cause panic and fear within the British armed forces and the wider public. Khan was claiming benefits
of more than £20,000 a year while organising the plot, saying he was waging "financial war" on the West.

The court also heard that he indoctrinated his three small children with hate, getting one to chant that he hated various figures, including Tony Blair and George Bush.

In November 2006 the security services recorded a conversation Khan had with co-defendant Basiru Gassama. Khan was heard outlining his plan: "We give the
judgment... well then cut it off like you cut a pig, man. "Then you put it on a stick. Then we throw the body, burn it, send the video to the chacha (uncles, a term
for Mujahideen leaders in Afghanistan or Pakistan). "This is what they call you will terrorise them, they will go crazy."

The jury was told that Khan had wanted Gassama, a Gambian national, to help identify the victim of the plot. But when Gassama failed to provide details of a target,
the plan "lay dormant" after July 2006, Mr Rumfitt said, only to be revived in November 2006. The court heard Khan was the hub of the cell which organised four
shipments of equipment to armed groups based in Pakistan and operating against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

'Fanaticism and fantasy'

The men were arrested in a series of high-profile raids in Birmingham at the end of January last year after an investigation led by West Midlands Police Counter-Terrorism
Unit. The officer who led the operation said Khan had been determined to carry out the plot, which he believed had been "at least supported" by al-Qaeda. He would
not say how far the plot was from being carried out when they intervened.

Khan's QC, Michael Wolkind, said in mitigation that his client's plot had been a "mixture of fanaticism and fantasy". Referring to the covert monitoring of Khan, he said:
"If there had been a genuine threat, the buggers would have stopped it much earlier. There was a long way to go." In the wake of the operation, West Midlands Police
and the government had come under fire from some sections of the local community for "persecuting" Muslims.

Assistant Chief Constable of the West Midlands Anil Patani said: "Communities need to realise that there are within our communities people who are prepared to
perpetrate such acts... "Responsible people in our communities need to reflect on what they said before in light of what this case has shown."

The head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, praised the work of the police and the intelligence services, saying their "swift action" had "prevented
a terrorist atrocity on British soil".

Media leaks

Mr Justice Henriques also criticised leaks which led to reports of the plot in the media shortly after the men's arrests, saying they constituted a "very grave
contempt of court". An inquiry by the Metropolitan Police failed to discover the source of the leaks.

Gassama, 30, of Hodge Hill, Birmingham, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to a failure to disclose information about the plot. He was jailed for two years.
He will be released as he has already been in custody for 381 days, but it is recommended he is deported.

Mohammed Irfan, 31, of Ward End, Birmingham and Zahoor Iqbal, 30, of Perry Barr, Birmingham, both pleaded guilty to helping Khan to supply the equipment.
Irfan was jailed for four years and Iqbal for seven years.

Hamid Elasmar, 44, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, who was found guilty of the same charge, was jailed for three years and four months.

Amjad Mahmood, in a statement read by his lawyer, thanked the jury for their hard work and said: "I am not a terrorist, I am a Muslim."

[url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article818216.ece]How plotter brainwashed lad

 

[geo]

14 years?  that'll make him something like 51 when he gets out of jail.
I hope the UK authorities have revoked his citzenship (if he had it)
I wonder what the punishment would be under sharia law for the offences he did committ & the one he was planning to carry out?

Put him on a slow boat to nowhere with only half of the necessary fuel to get there.... Bon Voyage!

 

[baboon6]

This is nothing new. There were lots of commonwealth citizens in the forces when I was there too. I always tried to point out to them that the British were willing to fight to the last Canadian... it was a fairly good wind up

Far more of us South Africans than you Canadians there though mate!

 

[daftandbarmy]

Excellent. That should finally improve the quality of the BBQs, which the British are dismal at.

There was a guy from South Africa at Depot PARA when I was there.  He was a recruit platoon commander and took a large doberman - named 'Kruger' of course - an on all the runs and tabs with the recruits. Anyone who fell out would be assaulted by good old Kruger. We thought this was marveloous, naturally.

And I thought you South Africans didn't have a sense of humour!

 

[geo]

A huge grinning / drooling doberman at your heels... talk about motivation for your morning run!

Eggads... you don't have to run faster than the dog... just faster than the slowest other one in the group

 

[daftandbarmy]

A huge grinning / drooling doberman at your heels... talk about motivation for your morning run!

Eggads... you don't have to run faster than the dog... just faster than the slowest other one in the group

Actually, as I recall, Kruger was a bit of an unguided missile and liked to attack people at the front of the line too. We thought this was a good introduction to life as a PARA... even if you thought you were doing well you could still be dog meat in a heartbeat.

Last one to die is a sissy! 

 

[daftandbarmy]

I'm betting that he did this to stop the Reg from smashing up his pub... probably won't work!

Beer to make Paras emperors

A BRITISH pub has come to the aid of the Paras - by brewing a special beer called "Every Man an Emperor".


The Fox and Fiddler pub in Colchester - where the elite Parachute Regiment is based - launched the specially commissioned beer this week, ahead of the regiment's deployment to Afghanistan in April.


"I just wanted to do a little something myself to send them on their way," the pub's landlord, Jeff Wright, said in a statement distributed by the Ministry of Defence, which has given its full backing to the initiative.


The name "Every Man an Emperor" was taken from a speech that Field Marshall Montgomery made about the Parachute Regiment in 1944 and has since become an unofficial motto of the force. 


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article820247.ece

 

[daftandbarmy]

SAS founder broke into army HQ on crutches to persuade generals they needed crack unit

Extraordinary footage of the only interviews ever given on film by the founders of the Special Air Service, the world's most elite fighting unit, has emerged for the first time.


Colonel David Stirling, the founder of what was to become the SAS, was interviewed with several so-called "Originals" in 1984 but the footage was put in a vault and forgotten.



The previously unseen interviews, recorded at a secret location in a "reunion" dinner, reveal how Stirling's "misfits, rogues and rule-breakers" changed modern warfare forever.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=517254&in_page_id=1770

 

[daftandbarmy]

PWRR in the news... well, at least it's nice to see someone else apart from the Paras accused of war crimes for a change!

THE BBC is to accuse the most highly decorated battalion in the Army of torturing and executing six Iraqi prisoners in cold blood.

The allegations include claims that a 14-year-old boy was garrotted and a man was shot point-blank in the head.

Flagship programme Panorama will claim the prisoners were murdered after being captured during a bloody battle in 2004. The shootout, dubbed the Battle of Danny Boy after a checkpoint where it took place, saw the first bayonet charge in 20 years.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article827280.ece

 

[geo]

Don't know if the allegations have been proven .... but, considering the amount of crap the PWRR went thru in 2004 during their tour of Iraq, it is obvious that an incredible amount of anger was built up by the troops at the pointy end of the stick - fighting an insurection kind of war against AQ.

Don't want to even try to make excuses for them - might not even need to - but, as has been said many times before, war is hell.

 

[Danjanou]

I just finished reading  Rules of Engagement  (2006). ISBN 9780755313754. OCLC 62796448  By Col Tim Collins who commanded 1st Bn the Royal Irish Regiment during the invasion of Iraq. He talks candidly about how he was accused of war crimes including a false claim filed by a US National Guard CIMIC Major who Collins had earlier publically jacked up for being a moron.

He was of course aquitted and succesfully sued a coupkle of British papers for libel for printing the allegations. The most disturbing part was the lack of support he appeared to receive from the MOD during it. They seemed at least from his account, to go out of their way to distance themsleves from him.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I knew Collins pretty well. Being a 'Thick Prot Paddy' as I think I designated him, I bought him a bottle of Bushmills which we emptied on the 12th of July during a course we were on. He's a good egg... and one of the biggest losses to their army in the long term will be him, and those like him, leaving.

I also know his Bde Comd during the 'incident' and am not suprised he was hung out to dry! A good example of why it's important to attack and destroy the worst cases of rampant careerism in any army.

 

[daftandbarmy]

A WORRYING 20,340 servicemen left the Armed Forces last year — in the biggest exodus in modern times.

New MoD figures released yesterday revealed that one NINTH of all soldiers, sailors and airmen signed off in 2007.

Despite pouring millions into recruitment, top brass are still almost 6,000 troops short of what they need to fulfil missions all over the world.

That is ten whole battalions, or more than the entire military garrison in Iraq.

Departing troops have said they are leaving because they are overworked, underpaid and separated from their families for so long.

The worst shortages are in the Army, who are 3,920 soldiers short.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article832565.ece

 

[daftandbarmy]

A TALIBAN chief behind suicide attacks on British troops has been shot dead in a daring operation by elite forces in Afghanistan.

The Special Boat Service ambushed Mullah Abdul Matin as he crossed a desert on a motorbike.


They were dropped into his path by helicopter after a tip-off on his whereabouts. Matin spotted them and opened fire with an AK47 rifle but he was cut down in a hail of bullets.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article830969.ece

 

[geo]

There have been many examples of late where the MOD appears to have left their field commanders "hang out to dry".

Methinks that this instant notification of incidents around the world is creating rampant speculation by the media.  MOD's silence creates the impression that they have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar & speculation then runs rampant.... not a pretty prospect.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Good point. Soldiers also seem more likely to 'go to the media' to air problems these days than 20 years ago. It might have to do with the efforts of the army to attract people by 'guaranteeing' them a fulfilling career and happy family life as part of the military lifestyle. Guess what, people feel they've been lied to when they wind up in the meatgrinder for the third time in two years while wife and kiddies wind up stuck in the army equivalent of a slum.

Way back when, it was pretty clear that the army was for single men with strong backs (and, like me, weak minds). Few promises were ever made to us about how wonderfully enriching it all was for the solider and his family. Personally, based on what I saw going on at the time, I thought that anyone in the infantry with a family was basically insane, and we discouraged soldiers from getting married too young. I worked with several Canadian exchange officers who were astonished at the instability of our lifestyle in general in comparison with Canadian units.

We were there to soldier hard and smash things up, and that's how we expected to be deployed: Maggie's Rottweiler.

Expectations may have changed...

 

[geo]

heh... at one time, judges in the UK would find someone guilty and say..... 3 years in the service or 5 years in jail....

Some choice!  Huh?

 

[daftandbarmy]

I had at least 6 guys like that in my platoon. They were great soldiers!

 

[daftandbarmy]

I bet he would have, if he wasn't hiding under the bed when 1 PARA was doing their thing....

McGuinness: 'I would have killed' 

Soldiers shot 14 people dead in Derry on Bloody Sunday
Martin McGuinness has said he would have killed every British soldier in Londonderry in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, if he had had the opportunity. 

 

[daftandbarmy]

I bet he would have, if he wasn't hiding under the bed when 1 PARA was doing their thing....

McGuinness: 'I would have killed' 

Soldiers shot 14 people dead in Derry on Bloody Sunday
Martin McGuinness has said he would have killed every British soldier in Londonderry in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, if he had had the opportunity. 

and the link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7260541.stm