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UK authorities released Streatham terrorist days before 2020 knife attack despite concerns over ‘extremist views’, inquest hears
2 Aug, 2021 16:21
(inset) Sudesh Amman. © Metropolitan Police
Sudesh Amman, the knife-wielding attacker who stabbed two people on Streatham High Road last year, was released from prison days before the assault, despite officials raising concerns about his “extremist views.”
The 20-year-old was killed after wounding a man and a woman in South London on February 2, 2020 – days after being released from HMP Belmarsh, where he had served 40 months after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences.
An inquest, held at the Royal Courts of Justice, has heard how Amman was freed from jail after serving two-thirds of his sentence, despite the police asking for him to remain behind bars due to his “retained extremist views.”
According to testimony delivered to the inquest on Monday, authorities had told the prison governor to not release Amman, amid concerns that he had suggested he was intent on committing a terrorist attack once released from prison.
The prison governor rejected the police’s request to extend Amman’s sentence, because the offence he had originally been jailed for meant authorities could not justify extending his time behind bars. However, the 20-year-old was tagged and required to adhere to a curfew, living in a probation hostel.
Despite the terms of his release and concerns about his “extremist views,” Amman was able to look at knives before travelling to Streatham High Road and stabbing a woman outside the White Lion pub and a man outside a branch of Cash Converters. He was killed when pursuing officers opened fire 62 seconds after the attack began.
The inquest, which is set to explore Amman’s background, actions in prison, and movements following his release, is due to last for three weeks.
It is highly unlikely that the inquest will come to the logical conclusion that Islamic radicals should never be allowed to walk free in a modern society. They are criminally insane and should be treated as such.
Streatham, London
Explosions shake Kabul as Afghan defense minister’s residence
comes under attack
3 Aug, 2021 18:26
The "green zone" in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan (March 13, 2019 file photo) © REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
Multiple explosions and gunfire could be heard in downtown Kabul as the residence of the country’s defense minister came under attack by suicide bombers. The minister and his family are reportedly safe, but there are casualties.
A car bomb went off in the Shirpoor neighborhood of Kabul on Tuesday evening, around 8pm local time, reportedly targeting the residence of General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.
As crowds of Afghans took to the streets to chant “Allahu akbar,” more explosions could be heard, followed by gunfire and rockets.
Afghan officials said at least two attackers exchanged fire with security forces. There were also reports of follow-up explosions, attributed to suicide bombers detonating their vests inside the building.
Four people died and another 20 were injured in the explosions and the subsequent gun battle between security forces and the attackers, Afghan officials later told AFP.
At least six wounded have been admitted to a nearby hospital. The presumed target of the attack, Mohammadi, was not home. His family was reportedly safely evacuated from the residence.
The US-backed government in Kabul is quickly losing control of Afghanistan to Taliban militants, as Washington continues to withdraw its troops from the country. The US and NATO withdrawal is expected to be completed by the end of August. The Taliban have said they are tired after decades of fighting and are committed to a political solution.
Why would anyone believe them? They sure don't look tired from their actions in the past weeks. And considering the success they are having, why would they want to compromise at all?
Beirut ‘responsible’ for Lebanon-based ‘terrorist attacks’
on Israel, IDF claims as UN calls for ‘restraint’
4 Aug, 2021 15:50
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Beirut needs to take responsibility for acts of hostility, notably Wednesday’s rocket fire originating in Lebanon, as the UN pleads with all involved to avoid an escalation.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) called on Israel and parties in Lebanon to stop firing after rockets were launched from inside southern Lebanon into Israel, triggering retaliation from the IDF.
A UNIFIL statement noted that the head of mission and force commander, Major General Stefano Del Col, had been in touch with both parties. “He urged them to cease fire and to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation, especially on this solemn anniversary [of the Beirut Port explosion],” the statement reads.
The general said that UNIFIL was working with the Lebanese Armed Forces to follow up on the ground and reinforce security along the Blue Line, the border demarcation between the two countries.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel said that three rockets were fired from Lebanon at Israel, two of which struck Israeli territory. The IDF responded by firing artillery rounds back into Lebanon.
In a tweet later in the day, the IDF said it was up to the government in Beirut to control militants in its own territory, having labeled the earlier incident a “terrorist” attack.
“Not only is rocket fire from Lebanon at Israeli civilians an act of terrorism, it also is indicative of the Lebanese government’s lack of governance of terrorist organizations operating in Lebanon,” the tweet read, adding that Beirut is “responsible for all attacks from Lebanon.”
Actually, the government in Beirut is not capable of being responsible for anything other than chaos.
The Lebanese Army later issued a statement saying that Israeli forces had fired 92 shells onto several areas in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, some of which caused a fire in the town of Rashaya al-Fokhar. The statement added that the army has started an investigation to determine who carried out the earlier rocket launches.
“The situation is being monitored with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon,” it said.
No party has immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, but the area of southern Lebanon from which they were fired is widely considered to be controlled by Hezbollah militant groups.
A similar incident occurred in late July, when two missiles were fired at Israel from Lebanon, following an IDF strike on targets in Syria’s Aleppo Region.
Surprising news from the one country in the world that might be more absurdly left-wing than Canada.
Sweden plans to make Facebook & WhatsApp to store data
for police use amid rise in gang violence
4 Aug, 2021 14:08
Swedish police officer checks his phone at the crime scene in Stockholm. © AFP / Jonathan Nackstrand
Sweden is looking to grant greater powers to police to access mobile communications data, including chats in Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, saying it’s necessary to fight the surging organized crime more effectively.
“Society’s offensive against criminal networks must and will continue, with more police, tougher sentences and more tools for the police in the fight against gang crimes,” Interior Minister Mikael Damberg said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Is this a sign that Stefan is finally on his way out? We can always hope.
Reducing shootings and explosions
If, for example, Facebook is to be allowed to exist in Sweden, Swedish authorities must be allowed to store their data.
Access to data from mobile messengers will provide the country’s law enforcement with “better opportunities to use technical evidence against criminal gangs and thereby reduce the number of both shootings and explosions in Sweden,” the minister said.
Combating organized crime is a pressing issue for Sweden as the country, which used to have one of the lowest rates of gun violence in Europe, now has one of the highest levels of gun violence on the continent, according to a report issued by the National Council for Crime Prevention this May.
However, the alarming trend is only “limited to a very specific group – young men involved in criminal milieu in socially disadvantaged areas,” the paper noted.
What they are not saying is these specific groups are Muslim migrants. The dramatic increase in violence is Sweden is directly related to the extremely excessive reception of hundreds of thousands of young Muslim migrant men in and since 2015.
Police data shows there were 366 shootings in Sweden in 2020, in which 47 people were killed and more than 100 others were injured. This year, there have already been 180 shooting incidents and 25 deaths.
“During the summer of 2021, we have seen once again that certain people show no limit to the violence they are prepared to use,” Damberg said, referring to a gun attack that left a police officer who was patrolling the Biskopsgarden in Gothenburg dead.
On Tuesday, three people were hospitalized after being shot near a shopping mall in the city of Kristianstad in the south of the country, with three teenagers later arrested on suspicion of carrying out the assault.
A special commission has been set up by the Swedish government in order to make changes to legislation to allow mobile data to be stored in the country without violating human rights and also give the police an opportunity to demand information stored by companies abroad. The expert commission has until February 2023 to come up with its proposals.
Sweden has to develop its own laws regulating data storage because the EU legislation in the area was “too slow,” Damberg insisted.
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