Palestinian native Abu Qatada (aka Omar Mahmoud Othman) was freed from prison by British authorities today when courts ruled against deporting him to Jordan where he faces charges in connection to terrorist  plots in 1999 and 2000. The British government initially arrested Qatada in 2002 but has held no trial against him for the better part of a decade. He has funded terrorists in Chechnya, he was a spiritual adviser to Richard Reid (the shoe bomber), Zacarias Moussaoui (a replacement hijacker for the 9/11 attacks) and for Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers.

I feel as if this is a common trend in the United Kingdom; they’ll spend millions of dollars on surveillance cameras to become the most watched nation in the world. But when they do catch a radical terrorist, they’ll just release him a couple years down the road.

The perfect replacement for another major Al-Qaeda spiritual adviser and recruiter, Anwar al-Awlaki (killed in a CIA drone strike September 2011). This is yet another terrorist freed by what seems to be an inept British judicial system.

  • Mohammed Junaid Babar, an American citizen who trained the 7/7 suicide bombers was released after a little more than 4 years in prison
  • Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber
  • Saajid Badat, plotted to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb; released after 8 years in prison.

The British government even accepted a major Al-Qaeda operative, Binyam Mohamed, after charges were dropped against him and he was released from Gitmo. The British courts ruled that Binyam had been subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities”, he was compensated £1 million and he currently enjoys a carefree life in the UK. Binyam and another house hold name, Jose Padilla, were the ones who planned to set off dirty bombs in the U.S. following the 9/11 attacks.

Good job guys, keep it coming. Hopefully these guys fall back into their old habits in the Middle East and find themselves on the receiving end of a CIA-fired Hellfire missile.

Read more here: Abu Qatada released from prison (BBC)

(Featured Image: courtesy VOANews.com)