Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hani al-Siba'i says the UK has ordered him out.

He claims that Home Office has decided that he is a threat to the national security of the UK, and they have given him six months to leave. See thread number 195032 at Hesbah. (Hesbah is back online; it is a senior al-Qa'ida forum, and al-Siba'i is one of its most senior members.)

Among other things, al-Siba'i was a member of the Majlis ash-Shura of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, prior to the flight of Ayman al-Zawahiri and others (including himself) after the roundup in Albania. Al-Siba'i is one of the few Egyptian terrorists who still subordinates himself to al-Zawahiri. He has been sentenced to 15 years in Egypt.

After 38 responses, the thread at Hesbah has been closed by "Ibn al-Athir", who asks al-Siba'i to keep the brothers posted on the Maqreze website (run by al-Siba'i).

update:
The thread has been moved within the Hesbah forum, and is now up to 44 responses. The new thread is number 195079.

update 13 October 2008:
Fifty responses now. Most are in the nature of prayers to Allah to protect al-Siba'i from "tyrants" and such things, meaning I presume from the British who have hosted al-Siba'i for ten years. The responders do seem to take seriously the idea that the UK will expel him, although it is almost unprecedented for the UK to deport or extradite a member of al-Qa'ida.

Dar al-Hayat (the Lebanese one) noticed al-Siba'i's statement.

On 14 October CBS noticed it.