Edward Teague (also known as ‘Lord Patel‘) published the excellent UK TOP SECRET blog which is still archived online.
The account below is taken from the UK Top Secret archives. It describes various minor characters in the Beeston area of Leeds, and alludes to events in the ‘July 7th trial’ for April, 2008.
7/7 Show Trial – Stooge tells of Government funded Iqra bookshop which employed ex-SAS Muhajiroun “Muslim converts ”
Yesterday Shabaz Fazal explained to the court trying Waheed Ali, 24, Mr Ali, Mohammed Shakil, 31, and Sadeer Saleem, 27 on charges of aiding the 7/7 bombers, that he was involved in running the Beeston area’s Iqra bookshop.
This would of course be the Iqra Islamic bookshop which shared the same building as Leeds Community School, which obtained a Goverment grant of over £106,000 for ‘staffing and construction costs.’ The ‘al-Qaeda gym’ in the basement of a nearby mosque used by the alleged Edgware Road bomber Khan, 30, was also equipped with money provided by Leeds City Council. Leeds City Council also funded the nearby The Hamara youth centre, which received two huge £200,000 grants for building costs and an £189,000 EU building grant.
The Iqra bookshop was also of course a home from home for ex (?) SAS/ SBA/ Royal Marines special forces soldier Martin Abdullah McDaid who was an early (if not founding member) of member of MI5/6/7/8/9/ sponsored and run Al Mahajaroun. When The Sunday Times approached McDaid (in late 2005) asking about a man called Yacoub , McDaid said: “Whether he was at the Iqra bookstore or not is none of your business you should fear Allah.” The man called Yacoub who the Sunday Times wanted to meet was of course Mohammed Yacoub who was also better known as a Scots born Roman Catholic (Dundee) James McLintock AKA “The Tartan Taliban”.
McLintock, who lived in Bradford in the 1990s, was arrested by Pakistani police near the Afghan border in December 2001 and questioned by the CIA and Scotland Yard anti-terrorism officers. He claimed he was working for a charity and was released a month later…. unlike anyone else who the Pakistani police arrested after 9/11 who either ended up dead, in Bagram prison or in Guantanamo. Two years ago he was arrested in Manchester and questioned by police investigating possible al-Qaeda links but released without charge. He has always denied having terrorist links or knowledge of terrorist activity.
Martin Abdullah McDaid was also associated at the bookshop with Mohammad Tafazal, and Naveed Fiaz – Mohammed Afzal worked as a volunteer at Iqra bookshop after 7/7. After a spectacular raid by the police on the bookshop he was arrested by police (They were given the keys but smashed the door in in front of TV cameras) and then taken to Paddington Green police station in London, some 200 miles away. He was quizzed for 13 days, then released without charge.
Martin ‘Abdullah’ McDaid and James ‘Mohammed Yacoub/Yaqub’ McLintock share conversion to Islam , a life in Beeston and involvement with the Iqra bookshop, but neither of them are mentioned in the Home Office report / timeline for 7/7. Which is not suprising because of course they had no involvement or connection with the event. Or did they ?
The So-called ‘Bomb factory’
18 Alexandra Grove flat was said to be the bombers’ laboratory and the kicking-off point for their fatal journey on 7/7 when they kissed their “industrial size refrigerator “goodbye – before allegedly slipping off their rucsacs , scattering their ID’s Mobile Phones about, and flipping off their mortal coils.
This was owned by a housing association but apparently let to or in the charge of Shakir Mahmoud Al-Ani (AKA Adnan Shakri) which he allegedly rented / allowed to use an Egyptian chemist Magdi El-Nashar pursued at one time as the mystery Fifth Bomber . He skipped to Egypt just before 7/7 and hasn’t been seen since and was “was later eliminated from police enquiries. ”
Shakir Mahmoud Al-Ani (AKA Adnan Shakri) is said to be a ‘respectable hospital consultant’ who has a business registered at 2A The Drive, in the swanky northern Leeds suburb of Adel, which is called Samara Medical Services. Directors are/were
- Shakir Mahmoud Al-Ani (AKA Adnan Shakri).
- Zahra Alani (Wife – daughter?).
- Hassan Al Katib (Chairman of Leeds Muslim Forum – Arshad Chawdhry is also said to be the chairman of the Leeds Muslim Forum).
- Ahmed Albazie (fined £3,000 under Health and Safety regulations in October 2002).
- Lena Al-Bazie.
- Daniel James Dwyer (a director of Resourcing the Community along with Rifhat Malik).
- Philip Mark Croshaw – He had held over 2,400 directorships by the time the DTI handed down a 12-year disqualification in 1999 as a director of Oldham Vehicle Contracts, which went into liquidation. He is mentioned in a Fairplay article regarding fraudulent on-line job search sites and was rumoured 4 years ago to be living in Cyprus. His court case in Manchester (which he failed to attend) is covered here . It appears his Sark background (former resident of the Isle of Sark (the Avenue Sark)) allowed him to peddle himself for companies registered offshore for a “nominal” fee.
Local Testimony
REPORTER: Is there any doubt in your mind that these young men did it?
DR. HASSAN ALKATIB: Well, I haven’t known them myself, personally, so I can only follow what the people are testifying for them and against them, as so far all testimonies are in their favor. That definitely throws doubt in the mind concerning other persons.
REPORTER: So perhaps they were set up?
DR. HASSAN ALKATIB: Perhaps. Most likely, in fact.
[the source cited for this dialogue no longer works.]
The same source gives a reason for the group’s travel that I don’t think I’ve come across before
Down the road, I meet some more teenagers who knew Shahzad Tanweer, but they don’t want to be identified. Despite it being universally accepted that most of the London bombers were from Leeds, these kids don’t want to believe that their friend did it.
BOY: We don’t believe that because we’re his friends we went to school with him. We don’t believe that they did it. We think that they’re victims.
He was a young lad. He took his backpack with him because he was willing to spend three nights in a religious mosque* in London.
He took his rucksack, he took his duvet, everything, sleeping bag, everything, with him. There were no bombs in there. He went in the bus or the train, whatever they say. Someone else did it. They’re my beliefs coming from the heart. I don’t believe that they were the people who did it.
The bomb happened and it was terrorists in London who did it. Terrorism is in London, not in Leeds.
…………………………………………………………….* I think it’s important we find out which mosque this is, whether it’s a specially dedicated building or one of those rooms in someone’s house that has been converted for use [PP Comment].
Some characters connected to Alexandra Grove:
* Dr Shakir Mahmoud Hussain Al Ani. Born 1947, Iraq. Emigrated to Britain in the 1980s. Rented one of several properties he owns, in St John’s Terrace, as well as the Alexandra Grove property to Magdy el-Nashar. Al Ani and el-Nashar had known each other for at least four years and had first met at the Leeds Grand Mosque. Imran Hussain had found Shakir’s number listed on Hasib’s mobile phone and phoned and asked Shakir if he had known where his brother was going.
* (Dr) Samir Al Ani (Samir Al-Arni, Samir Al-Anni), 44 (Jul 2005). He left for Baghdad two months before the bombings and had handed over the keys to Alexandra Grove flat to his (distant) cousin Shakir Mahmoud Alani.
* Magdy Mahmoud Mustafa el-Nashar rented the Alexandra Grove flat around three weeks before 14 July 2005. Had lived at 22 St John’s Terrace before leaving for Egypt at the beginning of July because of ‘visa problems’ His study at the University of Leeds was sponsored by the National Research Centre in Cairo and was awarded a Bioscience Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship by Yorkshire Forward. He was awarded his PhD with a distinction on the 6 May 2005. Al-ani relates that el-Nashar had wanted the flat for a friend from London and had also asked for the furniture to be removed. The flat was still empty of furniture at the time of the police raid. Similar to the property at 386a Forest Road that had been payed for by Samih Ahmed a month before the Operation Overt raids, with two North Africans moving in a week or two later and that was said to have remained unfurnished.
* Abed Shad, 27 (jul 2005), architect. Described as a best friend and former flatmate of el-Nashar. Said he was introduced by el-Nashar to a man called Jamal (19) in 2004, whom el-Nashar had previously met at the prayer room in Leeds University, and that Jamal said he was living in Bradford and traveling to worship at Leeds Grand Mosque [although Lindsay had been living in Huddersfield before moving to Aylesbury and at the birth of their child in April 2004 Jermaine and Samantha had given Meadow Way, Aylesbury as the address – although perhaps that was just Samantha’s address – and had moved to Northern Road about seven weeks before the attacks]…………………………………
Note by NK: Mr Martin Gilbertson a former Hell’s Angel had also been a paid worker at the Iqra Islamic Bookshop, when Khan and Tanweer frequented it during 2002-3. He claimed to have there been asked to make ‘terror videos.’ He alleged that he had first met these two at a ‘9/11 celebration.’ Shocked by the videos that he had (supposedly) been obliged to make, he allegedly sent copies to the local Holbeck police office, with names and phone numbers, and then to West Yorkshire police headquarters in Wakefield, however neither of these offices, he recalled, responded. This story broke in The Guardian on June 24th 2006, with a note that the West Yorkshire police could not confirm any part of this story.8.3.2010