WikiLeaks cables: US launched anti-extremist campaign to reverse UK radicalisation

[sabra]

Source: UK telegraph

The United States launched a secret campaign to reverse the radicalisation of young Islamists in Britain, amid American fears that this country had the most hard-line Muslim communities in Europe.

The plan, backed by tens of thousands of dollars, followed secret warnings from MI6 to the US that Britain was struggling to cope with the “unique” terrorist threat from “home grown” extremists.

The fact that America sought to mount its own counter-extremism programme in Britain demonstrates Washington’s anxiety over the threat from British radicals who intended to attack the US.

Dispatches from the American embassy in London, obtained by the website WikiLeaks, show that US officials were given a private tour of Finsbury Park Mosque, in north London, which was once the home of the notorious extremist Imam Abu Hamza al-Masri.

They found the mosque, which both the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and al-Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui attended, was “apparently cleansed of its extremist past”. However, mosque leaders criticised the police for failing to intervene sooner to prevent Abu Hamza’s radicals from taking control.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8302034/WikiLeaks-cables-US-launched-anti-extremist-campaign-to-reverse-UK-radicalisation.html

[ixion]

1. one group of extremists trying to silence another

the world would be a better place without extremists of ALL shades.

[On the Road]

2. Geez

"backed by tens of thousands of dollars"

What did they do -- hire an intern and buy some leaflets?