The jailing of a man who encouraged other Muslims to murder Gordon Brown and Tony Blair has been hailed as a significant success for counter-terrorism in Britain .
Ishaq Kanmi, 24, from Blackburn, Lancashire, who posted messages on a jihadist website calling for “martyrdom seekers” to carry out targeted murders and large-scale attacks, was jailed for five years yesterday by Manchester Crown Court.
He posed online as Sheikk Umar Rabie al-Khalaila, the self-styled leader of al-Qaeda in Britain, composing his messages on a public computer at the Central Library in Blackburn.
In one of the postings, in January 2008, Kanmi was said to have compiled a list of aims for the organisation, which included “the elimination of political leaders and top of the list Blair and Brown. As God said, ‘Kill the nonbelievers’,” it read.
Another objective was “huge attacks, God willing, on centres and places of benefit to the crusaders. As God said, ‘Kill the participants as you find them, take them, guard them and wait for them’.”
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After the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Porter, of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said that Kanmi had a dangerous influence on other young Muslims. “What Kami did was just as relevant to the terrorist cause as someone who plans and takes part in attacks. Organisations like al-Qaeda need people who encourage terrorism just as much as they need suicide bombers,” he said.
“The conviction is a significant success for the UK counter-terrorist effort, and reflects our hard work and commitment to combating the evolving terrorist threat.”
Kanmi was also said to have issued a two-month deadline, in January, 2008, for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and Afghanista and the release of all Muslim detainees from Belmarsh prison.
Kanmi denied two counts of soliciting to murder Mr Brown and Mr Blair at his trial at Preston Crown Court in June last year. The jury was discharged midway through proceedings for legal reasons.
He admitted seven terrorist offences, including professing to belong to a proscribed organisation, inviting support for a terror group and collecting information useful for terrorists, at an earlier hearing at Manchester Crown Court.
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The counter-terrorism unit believes that Kanmi was at the heart of a network of radicalised young men who intended to promote terrorism against the West. Officers tracked Kanmi as he posted his messages on various jihadist websites, using the public library as his base, and associating with several other young men.
He was arrested at Manchester Airport as he waited to board a flight for Finland in August, 2008. In his luggage were electronic storage devices containing terror material that he intended to distribute abroad.
His travelling companion was Abbas Iqbal, 24, one of the two brothers, called the Blackburn Resistance, who filmed al-Qaeda-style training films in a public park in daylight. Iqbal was sentenced to two years in jail in March this year.
Kanmi was also in telephone and internet contact with Krenar Lusha, 30, who was convicted at Preston Crown Court in December last year on five counts of possessing terror-related articles and jailed for seven years. Lusha, who had 71.8 litres of petrol in the cellar of his terraced house in Derby, was caught downloading a video on how to blow people up when police burst in.
Joel Bennathan, QC, for the defence, told a court at the earlier hearing that Kanmi was a damaged young man with an unhappy childhood “a million miles from the Muslim cleric Abu Hamza”.
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Mr Justice Mackay told the court that the mere assertion that a serious terrorist group had been setup, even if it were bogus, would have caused alarm to the general population. It was intended to do so. He said: “This defendant effectively devoted his time and energy for hours and days on end to further his aims. We will never know what, if any, success he had.
“We will never know whether, out there, some young man had turned to thoughts of violence in the cause. If there was not such a person it was not for want of trying on the defendant’s part”.
The judge described Kanmi’s childhood as a “wretched affair”. He had suffered systematic physical abuse between the ages of 11 and 16. He wallowed in jihadist material because he had no real friends.
The internet had become Kanmi’s window on the world but, he said, and despite his low IQ and social isolation, he “knew what he was doing and what he wanted to achieve”.