STRAW'S INVITE TO TERRORIST BACKER

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Aug 23, 1998 | by BARRY WIGMORE

HOME Secretary Jack Straw appointed a supporter of Muslim fanatic Osama bin Laden to a top race relations post in Britain.

Makbool Javaid was selected by him to sit on the Race Relations Forum - a group set up to give minorities a voice at the heart of government.

Last night Mr Straw was being urged to think again as Britain and the United States were on a full terrorist alert after bin Laden promised revenge for President Clinton's missile strikes on his bases

Mr Javaid, who used to be a legal adviser to the Commission for Racial Equality, is a member of the London-based Al- Muhajiroun group.

It is the mouthpiece of the International Islamic Front and bin Laden, who was behind the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which prompted Clinton's missile strikes.

After the embassy bombings Al-Muhajiroun issued a statement "applauding" the attacks, which killed more than 260 and injured 1,000.""To us bin Laden is a hero," said one member of the group. "He is to all Muslims.

Tory Home Affairs spokesman James Clappison said he would now be writing to Mr Straw, demanding to know how Mr Javaid came to be appointed.

"These alarming allegations need to be investigated," he said. "It is inconceivable, if true, that a person like that should be connected with a government committee."

Mr Javaid was said to be out of the country last night. Government sources said Mr Straw was unaware of Mr Javaid's connection with bin Laden when he was appointed.

Police said there were taking bin Laden's threat of a holy war very seriously. Extra armed officers, many wearing body armour, were called in to patrol airports and the American Embassy in London where dozens of Muslims protested over the US attacks and Tony Blair's support for the raids.

Heavily-armed SWAT teams were guarding key government buildings across the United States. But "soft targets" like the New York subway, and department stores were thought to be much more likely to be bombed. In Khartoum, the British embassy came under attack from a stone-throwing mob. Windows were smashed and the Union Jack pulled from a flagpole and torn apart.

Left-wing Labour MPs Tony Benn, Tam Dalyell, Alice Mahon and Audrey Wise, have condemned the US strikes on targets in Afghanistan and Sudan as acts of "state terrorism".

And doubts were emerging about whether the Khartoum factory hit by US Tomahawk missiles was a poison gas plant.

Engineer Tom Carnaffin, 57, who lives near Hexham, Northumberland, helped build and equip the factory. He said there was "no way" it could be a front for chemical weapons.

"I am very familiar with the factory and the construction did not lend itself to that use." But both the US and Britain's Foreign Office spokesman said there was "compelling evidence" it was a poison gas plant.

And a secret briefing of \senior Republican and democratic politicians dispelled claims that President Clinton was using the attacks as a diversion from the Zippergate scandal

Republican Senator Gordon Smith, a stern Clinton critic, said satellite photos and tapped phone calls provided "irrefutable evidence" that bin Laden was behind attacks on US facilities over the last 10 years.

It was also backed up by information supplied by Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, a bin Laden follower arrested by Pakistani security services who was now beginning to talk.