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Michael Adebowale.

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Compare and contrast these two very different court drawings of Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebowale

MICHAEL Adebowale is the second man accused of murdering Lee Rigby in Woolwich. He is the other man, the bit part who stood around as Michael Adebolajo boasted about his alleged crime. Adebowale has appeared in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He confirmed his name, age and address. He did not stand. He was carrying a visible limp. He is accused of murder and of possessing a 9.4mm KNIL Model 91 revolver “to cause persons to believe that unlawful violence would be used”.

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Posted: 30th, May 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)


Lee Rigby news round-up: Did Greenwich council pay for his killers to be radicalised?

LEE Rigby, the man hacked to death in Woolwich – known universally on the TV news as “Drummer Lee Rigby” – is on the front pages. So too are his allged murderers Michael Adebojalo and Michael Adebowale.

Lee Rigby

 

The News Round-up:

The Mail cheers for David Cameron:

David Cameron is planning new powers to muzzle Islamic hate preachers accused of provoking terrorist outrages such as the killing of soldier Lee Rigby. The Prime Minister wants to stop extremist clerics using schools, colleges, prisons and mosques to spread their ‘poison’ and is to head a new Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation Task Force (TERFOR) made up of senior Ministers, MI5, police and moderate religious leaders.

The high-powered group will study a number of measures, including banning extremist clerics from being given public platforms to incite students, prisoners and other followers – and forcing mosque leaders to answer for ‘hate preachers’…

It will also urge Muslim ‘whistleblowers’ to report clerics who act as terrorist apologists to the police.

They already do.

A few facts:

The move comes as:

It was revealed that Woolwich suspect Michael Adebolajo was known to MI5 after being held over terror charges in Kenya and deported to the UK.

The Mail on Sunday has been told that Adebolajo was offered cash by MI5 to work for them – then sought legal help to ‘get them off his back’ after refusing to do so.

Cleric Omar Bakri described Adebolajo as a ‘hero’ for remaining at the murder scene.

Two-thirds of Britons backed a clampdown on hate preachers in a Mail on Sunday poll, which also found strong voter support for the way Mr Cameron reacted to the horrific incident.

The Sun disagrees.

Crisis? I’m off to Ibiza

Britain on terror alert, cops raid suspects, but PM jets out for hols

And:

A poll today reveals voters lack confidence in Mr Cameron’s handling of terrorism. It shows 47 per cent believe he is ineffective while 41 give him their backing.

Labour MP Hazel Blear blames the Government for stopping extra payments to areas with more than 5% Muslim populations. She says in the Guardian:

“I am very worried that over the last couple of years, the communities department, which works very closely with local authorities, has abandoned this territory.

“Now the main thrust is with the police. They do a fantastic job but they are dealing with people who are already crossing that line. Counter-extremism isn’t just about tackling the people you already know are radicalised. It is about trying to work with local communities before they get to that point so that good decent people in the community can protect young people from being groomed and getting these ideas in the first place and much of what was done in the Prevent programme was about empowering women, young people.

“The police have their own intelligence on the ground and they have neighbourhood policing. They are out and about in the community but in a way it is one side of the picture. Local authority, school governors, people in community groups will have their information as well. The difficulty is when that information is then portrayed as spying on people.”

Hazel, the kids use the internet and TV news. The nutjobs’ community is not the other Muslims in the UK, it’s the other Muslims in the Taliban.

Jamie Doward (Guardian):

Michael Adebolajo

It was 2007 and Adebolajo was protesting outside Paddington Green police station in west London over the arrest of a fellow Muslim radical. Stern-faced but restrained, he appeared a study of peaceful radical protest. Adebolajo, 28, cut a similar figure when he and his friend Michael Adebowale, 22, were preaching in Woolwich High Street earlier this month. Indeed, of all the disturbing questions that have emerged following the horror of last week, one is particularly troubling. How could two men go from ranting outside pound shops to facing charges of murder and the attempted beheading of a soldier?

He talks of gangs, chaotic lives and exposure to militant Islam. But yis; all guesswork. Why does a man hack a man to death in the street? Maybe he’s insane?

The Muslims:

Nearly two-thirds of people believe there will be a ‘clash of civilisations’ between British Muslims and white Britons in the wake of the murder of a British soldier in Woolwich, a new poll shows.

The number of those who believe such a clash is inevitable has increased by 9% from last year.

There has also been a small increase in the proportion of people who believe British Muslims pose a serious threat to democracy, up to 34% on Thursday and Friday from 30% in November 2012, according to the YouGov survey of 1,839 adults.

The Investigation intersets the Sunday Times:

NEW evidence has emerged of the opportunities missed by the British authorities to prevent two Islamic extremists carrying out the Woolwich terror attack.

One of the suspects, Michael Adebolajo, was arrested in Kenya more than two years ago and accused of leading a group of youths trying to join an affiliate of al-Qaeda.

Adebolajo, 28, was photographed in the dock by local media who reported that the group had been seeking terror training with al-Shabaab in neighbouring Somalia.

However, he was allowed to return to Britain and last week allegedly helped to butcher a soldier to death in the street in southeast London.

Adebolajo’s suspected accomplice is Michael Adebowale, 22, who had come to the attention of police for aggressively trying to convert young men in the area to Islam.

And:

In other developments this weekend:

It emerged that both suspects may have come under the influence of a new preacher of hate at a local community centre funded by the council

Hazle Blears should enjoy reading that.

A friend of Adebolajo, Abu Nasaybah, claimed in a BBC interview on Friday that MI5 had tried to recruit Adebolajo to spy on other militants. Nasaybah was himself arrested after the interview.

Sources confirmed that Adebolajo had been approached to spy on other militants after his arrest in Kenya and deportation to Britain in 2010. He was held with six Kenyan youths, allegedly carrying al-Shabaab literature. While in custody, Adebolajo claimed he and the others had been tortured and kept without food for two days.

On his return to London, it is understood MI5 decided that he was not an immediate threat. They reviewed this decision two years later and concluded that he was still a low risk.

However, a Muslim community leader, who did not want to be named, told The Sunday Times that Adebolajo was preaching about the “legitimacy” of carrying out a jihadist attack on British soil just five days before Rigby’s murder…

Both Adebolajo and Adebowale attended a prayer group set up by a radical cleric who was thrown out of a mainstream mosque after allegedly showing children footage of the 9/11 attacks.

The prayer group met every Friday at the Glyndon community centre in Plumstead. The prayer sessions were organised by Usman Ali, a former member of al-Muhajiroun, a proscribed organisation, who has campaigned for the release from prison of terror suspects.

Ali, 36, was banned for life from the Greenwich Islamic Centre in 2007 after the mosque’s trustees won a court injunction against him. Dr Tariq Abbasi, chairman of the Greenwich Islamic Centre, said Ali subsequently started the Glyndon prayer group which attracted a number of disaffected young men, including Adebolajo and Adebowale.

The Glyndon centre is one of four in south London run by a registered charity which is also listed at Companies House. Public filings show Ali was a director in 2010. Its latest accounts state that it received a grant of £100,000 from Greenwich council in 2012 and £123,870 in 2011.

Such are the facts.

 

Posted: 26th, May 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment