Convicted al-Qaida terrorist trainer returned to England

November 11, 2022

From the Boston Herald. As if Batley doesn’t have enough fanatics already.

ICE agents returned a British-born member of al-Qaida, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to trying to start a terrorist training camp in Oregon, to England.

Haroon Rashid Aswat, 48, of Batley in West Yorkshire, England, had been at a federal prison medical facility in Devens before being transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Wednesday to be removed to the United Kingdom. His extradition was handled by a Boston-based ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations team the same day.

“Mr. Aswat, who sought to train future al-Qaeda members and provided material support to terrorist organizations around the globe, has been successfully turned over to authorities in the UK,” said Todd M. Lyons, field director for ERO’s Boston office.

Aswat came to the U.S. on a visa in 1999 but overstayed its terms, according to an ICE statement. He joined fellow al-Qaida members Ouassama Kassir and Earnest James Ujaama to establish a training camp in a rural area of southern Oregon near the unincorporated community of Bly in Klamath County.

This was under the direction of fellow al-Qaida member Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza, who was the imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in London, England, according to court charging documents. The other men were members of the mosque. The purpose of the camp, according to prosecutors, was to train radicalized Muslims in various ways, including military training, to fight jihad in Afghanistan.

Aswat was arrested in 2005 back in England at the request of the U.S. government, but fought his extradition to stand trial for terrorist charges in the U.S. for 10 years. He argued that his mental health — he has schizophrenia, according to documents — should preclude his extradition.

He was finally extradited in 2015 and pleaded guilty in federal court in the Southern District of New York to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Abu Hamza and Kassir had already been convicted of their roles. Kassir was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 and Abu Hamza to the same in 2015. I hope ‘life’ means whole life here.

I’m envious really; Britain should deport foreign criminals s efficiently at the end of their sentences. I expect he will contact Cage and have a second career on the ‘I was a prisoner of the Great Satan’ after halal dinner circuit.