Six charged with terror offences

25 September 2011 Last updated at 21:50 GMT Specialist police teams searched properties in the city Six men have been charged with terrorism offences, including a suspected suicide bombing campaign, West Midlands Police have said.

Four of the men were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism in the UK, and two with failing to disclose information.

It follows a police operation in Birmingham last week.

The six, all from Birmingham and aged between 25 and 32, will appear at West London Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Irfan Nasser, 30, of Sparkhill, and Irfan Khalid, 26, of Balsall Heath, are accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, including travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, making a martyrdom video and planning a bombing campaign.

They are accused of constructing a home-made explosive device for terrorist acts and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Seventh man

Ashik Ali, 26, of Balsall Heath, is accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, which involved planning a bombing campaign, providing premises for the planning of terrorist attack and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.

Rahin Ahmed, 25, of Moseley, is accused of helping fund terrorist acts.

Mohammed Rizwan, 32, and Bahader Ali, 28, both of Sparkbrook, are both charged with failing to disclose information about potential acts of terrorism.

It is alleged that between 29 July and 19 September this year, both had information which they knew may help prevent the commission of an act of terrorism but did not disclose the information.

Mr Ali is also charged with providing money for the purposes of terrorism.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between Christmas Day 2010 and 19 September this year.

A seventh man from the city, aged 20, who was arrested on Thursday, continues to be questioned. Officers have until 29 September to charge, release or apply for further time.

The men were arrested as part of an operation carried out by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. The arrests were unarmed, pre-planned and intelligence-led.

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Teen's texts offer window into Norway terror

Marianne Bremnes received the kind of message that a mother dreads.

“Mummy, tell the police to come quick. People are dying here,” her 16-year-old daughter Julie wrote in a text message from Norway’s Utoya island on Friday.

Like many of the young people attending a Labor Party camp on the island, Julie Bremnes was carrying a cell phone, enabling her to reach her mom while Anders Berhing Breivik was on a 90-minute shooting rampage, killing dozens of people. Her exchange with her mother, released on Wednesday, gives a glimpse into the long, terrifying wait for help.

“The police know,” Marianne Bremnes, 46, texted her daughter. “They’ve had many calls. Give a sign of life every five minutes.”

Julie, was hiding under a rock with three friends while Breivik roamed the island, shooting people as they cowered, ran, or tried to swim for safety.

“We are in fear of our lives,” Julie texted.

Mother: “I understand. Stay hidden.”

As the wait for rescue dragged on, the text conversation seemed a preparation for the worst.

Julie: “I love you even if I still misbehave from time to time."

Mother: “I know that my darling. We love you very much.”

The exchange went on for about 90 minutes.

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Julie and her three friends were rescued, physically unharmed.

Many others were not as fortunate.

Breivik shot to death 68 people on the island, and injured many more. Breivik also detonated a bomb at a Norwegian government building in Oslo earlier in the day, killing 8 others before travelling to the island, about 28 miles away.

Adrian Pracon, 21, said members at the camp were gathering for a meeting, to discuss the news of the bombing earlier in the day, which was also carried out by Breivik before he came to the island.

Pracon was shot in the shoulder as he lay among the bodies, hoping to be mistaken for one of the dead.

“I knew it was over,” he told NBC’s Martin Fletcher from his hospital bed. “I knew I was going to die now.”

He said that there were long spells of silence while Breivik was searching for people in hiding, broken occasionally by bursts of gunfire and screams.

“(Breivik) also screamed out that he would kill us all," Pracon said. "That this was the day we would die out,” said Pracon.

On Wednesaday, the Daily Mail reported that the Breivik had consumed a cocktail of drugs prior to his attack in order to be "strong and efficient," according to the defense lawyer. Breivik had plotted to inject poison into the bullets during the attack, though it was unclear whether he had actually done so . He wore a police uniform to draw young campers to him, and appeared in total control during the island rampage, police official Odd Reidar Humlegaard said.

Some of the last-minute cell phone exchanges among loved ones would prove to be their last.

Gunnar Linaker, 23, was speaking by cell phone to his father Roald Linaker in Bardu in northern Norway when the mayhem began.

"He said to me: 'Dad, dad, someone is shooting,' and then he hung up," Roald Linaker said.

Gunnar Linaker was shot and later died in the hospital, having never regained consciousness.

© 2011 msnbc.com  Reprints

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DEA: Drugs-for-missiles terror deal stopped

NEW YORK — Federal officials have charged several men with planning to use money from sales of heroin on U.S. streets to buy missiles to help arm Hezbollah.

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The suspects were allegedly trying to purchase military-grade weapons, like Stinger missiles, with profits from drug sales in the U.S., including in New York.

But DEA agents posed as weapons dealers in the sting operations and arrested the men with the help of Romanian authorities. Two others were arrested in the Maldives.

Siavosh Henareh, Bachar Wehbe and Cetin Aksu have been charged in connection with the alleged narco-terror deal. A fourth man — Taza Gul Alizai — is separately charged for trying to sell heroin and six assault rifles in order to help the Taliban, officials said.

Wehbe and Gul Alizai were flown to New York for trial. Henareh and Aksu are in custody in Romania awaiting extradition.

Read the Henerah, Wehbe, Aksu indictment in PDF Read the Alizai indictment in PDF

DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said officials "dismantled two dangerous and complex networks, stopped efforts to arm Hezbollah and Taliban terrorists and prevented massive amounts of heroin from reaching illicit markets around the world."

Prosecutors said the meetings took place in Turkey, Romania and Greece with the DEA using confidential informants to help broker the alleged deal.

Prosecutors said that in a meeting in June, Aksu and Wehbe signed a contract to try to buy 48 Stingers, 1,000 M4 rifles and 1,000 Glock handguns.

Officials said Wehbe claimed the weapons were being bought for Hezbollah, but in some cases informants were posing as Hezbollah members.

Read the original story at NBCNewYork.com

Among the charges: conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism, narcotics conspiracy and conspiracy to acquire anti-aircraft missiles. NBC New York is still working to contact lawyers for the suspects.

Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Jonathan Dienst is is WNBC's chief investigative reporter. Shimon Prokupecz is a WNBC investigative producer.

© 2010 msnbc.com  Reprints

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Norway terror attacks suspect to appear in court

The man accused in Norway's twin terror attacks that killed at least 93 says he acted aloneReport: An attorney says the suspect wants to explain himself in court MondayInvestigators are still searching for victims of a bomb blast in OsloAuthorities also are searching waters around Utoya island for victims

Oslo, Norway (CNN) -- A man who authorities say confessed to Norway's terror attacks is expected to make his first court appearance Monday, when, according to his attorney, he wants to "explain himself."

The court appearance comes as authorities continue to search for possible victims of Friday's bombing in downtown Oslo and a mass shooting at a political youth retreat on Utoya island. At least 93 people were killed and 96 were wounded in the attacks.

Police have not identified the suspect, but local television and newspaper reports say the man in custody is Anders Behring Breivik.

Attorney Geir Lippestad, who claimed to represent Breivik, told Norwegian TV2 that the suspect feels the terrorist attacks were "horrible," but "in his head (they) were necessary."

During the TV2 interview late Saturday, Lippestad said his client "is ready to explain himself" at Monday's court hearing.

Whether the suspect will be allowed to address the Norwegian court and under what, if any, circumstances is not immediately known.

CNN's attempts to reach Lippestad have been unsuccessful.

The 32-year-old Norwegian has told investigators he acted alone and was not aided in the planning, acting National Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim told reporters Sunday. But authorities have not ruled out that others may have been involved or helped him along the way, he said.

Sponheim said there has been "no progress" in ascertaining what the suspect's motive might have been. But he said that investigators were studying a 1,500-page manifesto that authorities believe was published online the day of the attack.

The document rants against Muslims and their growing presence in Europe and calls for a European civil war to overthrow governments, end multiculturalism and execute "cultural Marxists."

The author of the document identifies himself as Breivik and indicates he is from Norway. CNN could not independently verify that Breivik wrote the document, and Norwegian authorities would not confirm that the man in their custody wrote the manifesto, saying it was part of their investigation.

Authorities allege that the man in custody killed seven people Friday by setting off a car bomb in downtown Oslo that targeted government buildings, then traveled 20 miles to Utoya island and killed at least 86 teens and young adults in an ambush at a political youth retreat.

The suspect was carrying a considerable amount of ammunition when he surrendered to authorities, Sponheim told reporters.

Investigators will conduct autopsies over the next few days, Sponheim said, and the identities of the victims will be released once all the next-of-kin have been notified. The death toll -- which rose to 93 on Sunday after a person succumbed to injuries from the mass shooting -- could increase, police say.

At least four people have not been accounted for around Utoya island, with investigators searching the waters nearby for victims who may have drowned trying to escape the shooter.

Authorities are also still trying to determine how many people died in the Oslo bombing, where the explosion badly damaged several government buildings as well as the majority Labour Party office.

They are also hunting for new evidence.

On Sunday, police raided a property the suspect owned in the eastern Oslo area of Slettelokka looking for explosives.

"We were there with dogs but found nothing of any value as evidence," Sponheim said.

Police said Sunday that the area around the blast site would remain cordoned off, but members of the public in the area were not at risk.

In addition to the dead, at least 96 people were wounded in the attacks -- 30 in the blast and 66 in the mass shooting, Sponheim said.

Doctors at Oslo University Hospital Sunday were treating 31 patients injured in the terror attacks, 18 of whom were critically or seriously injured, Oslo University Hospital spokesman Jo Heldaas told CNN.

CNN's Michael Holmes, Erin McLaughlin, Chelsea J. Carter and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

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