Radical cleric's arrest could delay extradition to U.S.

LONDON -- Police arrested a radical Muslim cleric Thursday on suspicion of preparing or instigating "acts of terrorism," a move that could delay U.S. attempts to extradite the suspect for allegedly trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon and on other charges.

The arrest of Abu Hamza al-Masri, who already was being held in a British prison on the U.S. warrant, suggests British authorities plan to pursue charges against al-Masri under British law.

If British authorities formally charge al-Masri, the case has to be resolved before any extradition proceedings, according to officials.

British law bars extradition to countries that might execute a suspect, and officials have made clear they would not send the Egyptian-born al-Masri to the United States unless it rules out the death penalty.

Al-Masri, whose mosque has been linked to several terrorist suspects -- including Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid -- is also under U.S. scrutiny for possible links to an alleged senior al-Qaida operative recently arrested on charges he conducted surveillance of financial targets in the United States.

Dhiran Barot, 32, was arrested in England earlier this month and charged with possessing reconnaissance plans for the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund in Washington, the Citigroup building in New York and the Prudential building in New Jersey.

Barot, also known as Abu Eisa al-Hindi or Abu Musa al-Hindi, also is accused of possessing notebooks containing information on explosives, poisons, chemicals and related matters "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."

A Metropolitan Police spokesman declined to comment on whether the department suspected a link between al-Masri and Barot, who was among more than a dozen terrorism suspects arrested recently in Britain following a string of arrests in Pakistan of alleged attack plotters.

The arrests and discovery of computer evidence of the surveillance, which purportedly happened in 2000 and 2001 at the behest of Osama bin Laden, prompted the U.S. Homeland Security agency to issue terror alerts for New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

In Britain, police said Thursday they arrested al-Masri "on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."

Under anti-terrorism laws, prosecutors have two weeks to decide whether to file charges against al-Masri, 47, a flamboyant figure with one glass eye and hooks in place of the hands he says he lost fighting in Afghanistan. He's been held in Britain's high-security Belmarsh prison in London since his May 27 arrest on the U.S. request.

The Metropolitan Police gave no details about what they suspected al-Masri of doing, but Britain's Press Association news agency said the investigation centered on whether he provided support to terrorists in the form of recruitment, finances or logistics.

Investigators also are examining whether the fiery sermons he gave when he was imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London might have encouraged others to commit terrorist acts, the Press Association said.

The American indictment accuses al-Masri of trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon, being involved in hostage-taking in Yemen and funding terrorism training in Afghanistan.

Al-Masri denies any involvement in violence and says he is only a spokesman for political causes. He is challenging the U.S. attempt to extradite him. No one answered a call Thursday evening to the office of his lawyer, Muddassar Arani.

Al-Masri's lawyers argue he will not receive a fair hearing in the United States because President Bush has prejudiced any trial by publicly calling him a terrorism supporter. They also say some American evidence against the preacher may have been obtained from tortured witnesses.

Al-Masri has called the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks a Jewish plot and the invasion of Iraq a war on Islam. Last year, the Charity Commission barred al-Masri from preaching at the Finsbury Park mosque, but for months he continued to give weekly sermons on the street outside.