The Independent: MI5 using intimidation to gain Muslim informants
Categories: Latest News
Tuesday January 05 2010
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The Independent, following its disclosures last year of MI5 allegedly trying to blackmail Muslims into spying for the agency, today reports that the agency is still using intimidation and threats to recruit Muslims from Somali and Yemeni backgrounds. |
The paper reports:
‘In one case, a man who escaped persecution in Africa where members of his family were murdered claims that for the past nine months he has been harassed by MI5 agents who have tried to force him to work for the Security Service.
‘Isahaq Elmi (pictured, photo courtesy of The Independent), 31, says he was bombarded with more than 200 phone calls and tricked into attending meetings at police stations in Birmingham.
‘In one of the most recent phone calls, Mr Elmi says an MI5 officer calling himself Jahil threatened him by saying: “One way or another we are going to get you.”
‘Ahmed Diini, a Dutch citizen who has settled in Britain, says that he was visited by agents at the Birmingham school where he worked and threatened with arrest. When he went on holiday he says he was twice detained at UK airports. Mr Diini, 21, alleges he was also bombarded with phone calls and threatened with detention under the Terrorism Act. On three occasions, he claims, MI5 agents, a man called James and a female officer, suggested that his life would be made easier if he agreed to work for MI5. He also alleges that his wife was harassed by a female MI5 officer while she was shopping at an airport.
‘Britain’s security services stepped up covert operations in 2008 against Britain’s Somali and Yemeni communities over concerns that UK citizens were travelling to Africa and the Middle East to join extremist training camps with links to al-Qa’ida. The attempt to blow up a US-bound airliner by a Nigerian man who spent time in Yemen and a suspected similar attack launched from Somalia has increased MI5’s interest in British residents with links to both states.
‘Mr Elmi said yesterday: “I came here in 2000 after my family and business were targeted by extremists operating in Mogadishu. I thought I was safe after I was granted asylum in 2006 but since the visits and phone calls from MI5 my life has fallen apart. I told them that I didn’t want to work for them by spying on my community. I said if they need informers they should go to the job centres and find work for people who have lost jobs in the recession – but I already have a job.” Mr Diini said that his life had been badly affected since his contacts with MI5. “I personally got morally and mentally affected since I am being victimised. Even now I have to live with the fact that I won’t be able to travel somewhere without being stopped for a minimum of two hours and being seen as a criminal, since the people around me in the queue don’t get stopped but I am the only one that gets picked on.
‘”It even brought too much worrying to my Mum to the extent that she even has headaches and psychology difficulties. My wife also became angry because I hadn’t told her about the problems with MI5 before we married.”’
Update: The Independent today reports that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, set up to oversee the work of surveillance agencies, is investigating a sharp rise in complaints against MI5 and other law enforcement bodies.
Complaints have more than doubled, from 66 in 2007 to 136 in 2008, according to the paper.