Is Hizb-ut-Tahrir another project of British MI6?

Posted on Mar 21, 2010 | 6 comments

General Pervez Musharraf acknowledged in his book, ‘In the Line of Fire’, that Omar Saeed Sheikh – the man who was convicted for killing Wall Street Journal’s correspondent Daniel Pearl, in 2002, was recruited by MI6, the British intelligence agency.

We also know that Omar Saeed Sheikh conducted terrorist strikes in India and was also very close to the sectarian terrorist outfits in Pakistan besides being very close to the former Intelligence Bureau Head, Brig. (rtd) Ijaz Shah.  Omar Saeed was also linked (in the reports of the Associated Press, DAWN, CNN, Fox News, ABC News, among others) to transferring $100,000 to Mohd. Atta, who allegedly led the hijackings of 9/11.

So when people talk about a nexus of the Western intelligence agencies, Pakistani spy masters, and the terrorists in Pakistan, it is more than just conspiracy theory.  Some of the facts have been so well documented and in some instance, as in the case of Omar Saeed Sheikh, acknowledged by people like Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto.

This article provides links to material and reports that indicate that Hizb-ut-Tahrir is in fact a project of the MI6.

From 1986 to 1996, under the leadership of Syrian born Omar Bakri Muhammad, Hizb ut-Tahrir grew from a very small organization in Britain to a one of the most active Islamic organizations in the country. In 1996 Bakri split with Hizb ut-Tahrir over disagreements on policy, style and methods, and focused on another organization Al-Muhajiroun.

A report in Foreign Affairs Journal claims that Hizb ut-Tahrir “dominates” the British Islamist “scene” with some 8,500 members in the United Kingdom, compared to only 1,000 for a rival, Muslim Association of Britain.

Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain emphasized the importance of Muslims choosing loyalty to their religion above loyalty to Britain or any other country. In Hizb ut-Tahrir’s view, Islam is anti-nationalist, transnational and pan-Islamic in nature. Although it was founded decades ago and is active in many countries, its activities in Central Asia are considered as of vital importance to MI6 as part of Anglo-American strategy to contain the Russians and since the last decade to counter the growing influence of China.

Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings the British government announced its intention to ban the organization but abandoned the ban. According to The Independent Blair “shelved the ban after warnings from police, intelligence chiefs, and civil liberties groups that it is a non-violent group, and driving it underground could backfire and according to the Observer because the Home Office believed a legal ban would not stick.

In July 2007, Leader of the Opposition David Cameron asked the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown why the organisation had not been banned from the United Kingdom, arguing it was an extremist group. Gordon Brown responded that more evidence would be needed before banning a group and, when pressed further, John Reid the previous home secretary stepped in arguing that there had already been two reviews of the group with insufficient evidence to justify a ban.

In November of 2009, Mr Cameron again questioned the Government over Hizb ut-Tahrir, claiming that government Pathfinder fund aimed at combating violent extremism was being used to fund schools run by an organisation with links to extremism.

The following links are worth a closer study.

1. The first report is that of UK Daily Telegraph, titled ” Islamists who want to destroy the state get £100,000 funding”,  dated Oct. 25, 2009

2.  The second one is a report published by the Executive Intelligence Review, ”Tajikistan-Another Victim of British-Saudi Terror“, dated August 7. 2009

3. The third report by the UK’s Times, “British Islamists plot against Pakistan“, dated  July 4, 2009, does not link MI6 directly but is silent on one fact. How come the British Muslims belonging to the Hizb  while followed so closely by the British intelligence and known to even the Times, are able to travel so frequently between the UK and Pakistan?

4. MI6 agents in Dehli detained, February 18, 2010

The linkages between the so-called Islamic militants and the Western spy agencies, supported by the reports of the western media itself, suggest that some of the so-called extremist or militant groups are merely tools in the much bigger game, called the “Great Game” and MI6 is naturally a major player.

Unfortunately, Pakistanis have become the cannon fodder of the not just the Great Game but also of the ‘turf battles’ among the MI6, the CIA, and the ISI.  Of course, the fact that many of the extremists have gotten out of their control has made things worse but the fight against the terrorists seems like a losing battle in this part of the world because either the ‘old terrorist’ is eliminated and replaced by a new one as Benazir Bhutto put it on Business Plus TV in one of her last interviews, and a ‘good terrorist” is even supported by some of the most prominent figures in the media leave alone the much maligned Pakistani establishment.