Brit's MI5 Targets Ilyas Kashmiri Terror Cells in U.K.

After a warning from the U.S., Britain's MI5 counter-intelligence is going after Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri's terror cells believed to have already been dispatched to the U.K. Kashmiri is reportedly acting under orders from Osama Bin Laden, and has sent terror cells to the West to make Mumbai-style attacks in Europe.

Ilyas Kashmiri (perhaps in disguise)

Kashmiri claims to be an accomplice, and involved in the the murderer of Daniel Pearl by Omar Saeed Sheikh.

Some senior Al Qaeda members who were associated with Kashmiri were killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan on September 8, including a Briton named as Adbul Jabbar, who had been tasked with leading an Al Qaeda group in the UK.

Kashmiri had more than a few contacts with American David Coleman Headley and Canadian Tahawwar Hussein Rana, both of Chicago. Headley was arrested in October 2009 and held on charges of conspirace to commit terrorist acts and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist groups. Testimony from Headley stated that he was planning to meet Kashiri in Pakistan in October 2009. He was arrested at O'Hare Airport preparing to board a flight.

Tahawwar Hussein Rana owns several businesses, including First World Immigration Services in Chicago, New York and Toronto, a halal meat plant and a grocery store. He is charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorism groups. Both Headley and Rana were born in Pakistan.

In January 2010, the FBI said Headley also worked as an agent for First World Immigration Services. The U.S. Attorney General's office was "working to determine the immigration status of people who entered the U.S. with the agency's help, with false documents. In an Internet search, First World Immigration Services appears to still be operating.

The photo above of Headley and Rana comes courtesy of Cao's Blog who has the details on these two men and their operation, including the immigration scam wrought by First World Immigration Services.

France and Germany have also elevated their terror watch, with the U.K. set at 'severe.'

Mohammed Ilyas Kashiri was believed in a U.S. drone strike in 2009, but gave an interview to a Pakistani reporter in early to mid-2009. He was charged in abstentia in the U.S. in January 2010 and of plotting international attacks. Read an in-depth report about the Osama Bin Laden and Ilyas Kashmiri connection at Long War Journal.

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook