Jihadi who helped train (London) 7/7 bomber freed by US after just five years

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Shiv Malik | Sunday February 13 2011 22.00 GMT

An American jihadist who set up the terrorist training camp where the leader of the 2005 London suicide bombers learned how to manufacture explosives, has been quietly released after serving only four and a half years of a possible 70-year sentence, a Guardian investigation has learned.

The unreported sentencing of Mohammed Junaid Babar to "time served" because of what a New York judge described as "exceptional co-operation" that began even before his arrest has raised questions over whether Babar was a US informer at the time he was helping to train the ringleader of the 7 July tube and bus bombings.

=snip=

Babar was imprisoned in 2004 – although final sentencing was deferred – after pleading guilty in a New York court to five counts of terrorism. He set up the training camp in Pakistan where Mohammad Sidique Khan and several other British terrorists learned about bomb-making and how to use combat weapons.

Babar admitted to being a dangerous terrorist who consorted with some of the highest-ranking members of al-Qaida, providing senior members with money and equipment, running weapons, and planning two attempts to assassinate the former president of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/13/jihadi-train-7-7-bomber-freed

---

Mohammed Junaid Babar set up the training camp where a 7/7 bomber
learned about bomb-making techniques.
Photograph: Armadeep Bassey/newsteam.co.uk

[bluestateguy]

1. Is Mike Huckabee on the parole board?

nt

[Monk06]

2. It's not fair to expect an FBI mole to serve the full sentence for the havoc he created.

[DeSwiss]

3. So.....

...being a part of a conspiracy which was responsible for 52 deaths and 700 injuries only garners 4.5 years in prison?

- Unless his "cooperation" included giving us the whereabouts of one Osama Bin Laden, then I say fuck that!

K&R

[Boudica the Lyoness]

4. I wonder if he was as helpful as curveball n/t

[whatchamacallit]

5. Wake up, the war on terror is a LIE! (nt)

[AzDar]

6. Yet citizens are still being violated at the airport. Fascinating.

:eyes:

[tpsbmam]

7. Meanwhile, innocent Americans are on no-fly lists, are groped and

radiated at the airport, spied on all the fuck over the place, we can't take a bottle of water onto an airplane, we can now be picked up off the street and held indefinitely with no rights at the whim of our President, we can be killed at the whim of our President, if we are anti-war activists we can end up with illegal searches & seizures of our homes, if we protest in L.A. and the mayor get his wish we can be locked up in jail for a year for peacefully protesting....

I give up. I just really give up -- our country has become a fucking joke. Too bad it's such a sick joke.

:grr:

[Nihil]

8. Nice to see that the leading nation in the "War on Terror" is supporting terrorists so well.

Some things never seem to "change" do they?

:argh:

[Blue_Tires]

9. meanwhile, we still have innocent people locked up who are never getting out...

[xchrom]

10. ...

:grr:

[xchrom]

11. ...

:grr:

[Old Troop]

12. Is this tit for tat for the Lockerbie guy??

[Turborama]

13. Al-Qaida supergrass: MPs seek answers as pressure on Hague increases

Shiv Malik
guardian.co.uk, Monday February 14 2011 20.53 GMT

British diplomats are pressing for an explanation for the early release of a US informant who helped train the terrorists behind London's 7 July bombings.

Mohammed Junaid Babar, 35, was quietly released by a New York judge two months ago after serving only four and a half years of a possible 70-year sentence, raising comparisons with the lenient treatment received by the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

The Foreign Office said: "Mohammed Junaid Babar's release has caused pain and distress to those who lost family and friends on 7 July 2005.

"The prosecution and sentencing of Babar was a matter for the US authorities and their independent judicial system. The families have a right to an explanation of what lay behind this decision and we will be pressing the US authorities to give them one."

Continues ---> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/14/al-qaida-supergrass-hague

[hootinholler]

14. And in 20 hours, 25 recs. n/t

[suffragette]

15. K&R

[suffragette]

16. Much more being added at the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/14/al-qaida-supergrass-77-questions?intcmp=239
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/14/al-qaida-supergrass-hague
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/feb/14/court-transcript-mohammed-junaid-babar

I haven't read the transcript yet, but the first article adds much detail.