Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied at Wollongong uni campus in Dubai

UMAR Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of attempting to detonate an explosive aboard a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day, spent about 2½ months in Dubai on a student visa, starting in May 2009, according to an official here familiar with the situation.

Mr Abdulmutallab enrolled in a master's degree program at the Dubai campus of the University of Wollongong, said the official, who is familiar with the man's immigration status. His enrollment at the school was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The school is one of many foreign universities that have set up branch campuses in Persian Gulf states to attract foreign students to their programs.

During his brief stay, Mr Abdulmutallab didn't exhibit any signs of radicalism, according to this official.

The school, like all universities based here, offers visa support to foreign students. The website for the Dubai campus of Wollongong says master's degree courses range in cost from about $18,000 to $25,000 for a degree.

Student visas are renewable as long as students are certifiably registered and enrollment is complete, according to the website.

The official familiar with the situation said that the Nigerian attended classes at the university's campus, part of a sprawling set of low-rise buildings populated by a mix of Arab, Russian- and Iranian-speaking students, and acted like "a normal student" during his stint in Dubai. It's unclear what degree he was pursuing.

The Dubai campus offers nine post-graduate programs, most of which focus on business administration, finance and management.

After about a 2 ½-month stay in Dubai, the young man "disappeared," and never returned to the UAE, the official said. "There was nothing at all suspicious about him.

He was a normal student, going to classes, and then all of a sudden he disappeared ... and never came back" to the UAE, the official said.

An official at the Dubai campus said yesterday the school doesn't release any information about its students, and referred questions to the Dubai police. A security-services official declined to comment.

The Australian

Flight 253 jihadist is latest embarrassment for student visa system in U.K.

"We now issue 370,000 student visas a year - almost the entire population of Bristol or Manchester - yet hardly any of the applicants ever see hide nor hair of an Immigration Officer."

An update on this story. "Terror plot raises questions over student visas," by Martin Evans for the Telegraph, December 27:

The latest airline bomb plot by a terrorist with British connections raises serious questions about the UK's controversial student visa system.

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who comes from a wealthy family in Nigeria, was already showing signs of extremist views when he was granted a visa to study mechanical engineering at University College London in 2005.

After completing his studies in 2008 he travelled to the Middle East before applying to return to the UK in May for another six month course.

However, his request was refused by officials from the UK Borders Agency as he was attempting to enrol on a course being offered by an institution on the Government's list of bogus colleges.

Despite the fact his entry was barred, questions still remain over the system which has seen more than one and a half million visas granted to overseas students during the last eight years.

Earlier this year a report by the Home Affairs Select Committee criticised the Government for failing to deal adequately with the explosion in bogus colleges springing up across the UK.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee said: "The government must restrict the term college to prevent any premises above a fish and chip shop from being able to claim it is a reputed educational institution."

It is feared tens of thousands of foreign nationals have gained entry to Britain illegally under the scheme, with many avoiding detection and never leaving.

In March tighter restrictions were introduced cutting the number of institutions allowed to recruit students from outside the UK.

But critics believe the new points based register has done little to close the system's gaping loopholes.

Around 3,000 educational institutions across the UK have been granted licenses under the points based system but there are only 62 officials employed to vet the colleges and their 13,500 employees. [...]

MPs have welcomed efforts to improve the system, but in their report expressed concern that inspectors were giving notice to colleges before visits.

Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch has also been deeply critical of the system which he said provided a "gaping hole" in our immigration system.

He said: "We now issue 370,000 student visas a year - almost the entire population of Bristol or Manchester - yet hardly any of the applicants ever see hide nor hair of an Immigration Officer."

There is also widespread concern that many legitimate universities and colleges are providing fertile recruiting grounds for radical Islamic preachers and banned groups.

Radicalisation among students has been a problem since the 1990s, with many of those involved in terror plots being highly educated graduates.

Three of the July 7 bombers attended university as did most of the gang which planned a fertiliser bomb attack on the Bluewater shopping centre and the Ministry of Sound nightclub.

Ahmed Omar Sheikh, convicted of the kidnap and murder of the journalist Daniel Pearl, was a former student at London School of Economics, and Waseem Mughal, convicted of running a website for al-Qaeda in Iraq, was a former biochemistry student at Leicester University.

Mughal was a member of the university Islamic society, and the fertiliser bomber Jawad Akbar attended Islamic society meetings at Brunel University, while Yassin Nassari, convicted of smuggling plans for a Qassam rocket into Britain, was president of the University of Westminster's Islamic society at its Harrow campus in Northwest London. [...]

A recent study by the Centre for Social Cohesion found that a third of Muslim university students believed killing in the name of religion could be justified.

The disturbing findings of the survey also found a large proportion were in favour of the introduction of Sharia law in the UK.

Following publication of the report, its co-author Hannah Stuart said: "Students in higher education are the future leaders of their communities yet significant numbers of them appear to hold beliefs which contravene liberal, democratic values.

"In addition there are signs of growing religious segregation on campus.
These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said that there is no extremism in British universities."

With thanks to JihadWatch

Follower of radical Islamic movement granted asylum in Australia

By Padraic Murphy | August 27

A FOLLOWER of a radical Islamic movement that seeks to introduce sharia law and has been linked to terrorist groups is being granted asylum in Australia.

The Refugee Review Tribunal has recommended a protection visa for an Egyptian man, who is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political group with links to al-Qaida.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed in several countries, including Egypt.

It seeks to establish a pan-Islamic state ruled by sharia law and is committed to the destruction of Israel.

The Egyptian man initially was denied a protection visa by the Department of Immigration, but the decision was overturned by the tribunal.

"The tribunal is of the view that the applicant's decision to abandon ship, insistence on his rights not to return to Egypt for medical treatment, and behaviour towards his captain, if combined with his support for the Muslim Brotherhood, his low-level political activities and past expression of anti-government political views, would generate a profile that could attract the adverse attention of the authorities and focus their attention on his sympathies for the brotherhood," it found.

"On this basis, the tribunal is of the opinion that there is a real chance that this could place the applicant at risk of facing arrest, detention and ill-treatment."

Prof Greg Barton of Monash University said the Muslim Brotherhood had been linked to terrorist attacks, such as the Luxor bus bombing in 1997, but had since denounced violence, though many of its goals had been taken up by terrorist groups.

"Al-Qaida and other militant groups have benefited greatly from their ideas so it is true that the ideas produced by the brotherhood are taken further by more militant groups," he said. Read more....

Source: Herald Sun

Refugee Review Tribunal
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award

UK police foil Easter terror attack

Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent | April 11

A PAKISTANI ring of suspected terrorists may have been planning an Easter attack on Manchester targets including three large shopping centres and a nightclub, according to British police.

Police and MI5 intelligence analysts decided to seize the 12 men after intercepting emails and other messages suggesting an attack was possible within days - but the arrests were brought forward in a hurry after an embarrassing security bungle on Wednesday, local time.

Britain's top counter-terrorism police officer, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, had carried details of the planned raids in a clear plastic folder visible to press photographers as he entered 10 Downing Street to brief Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

When police realised that photographers had captured images of the secret notes the raids were rushed forward by about 12 hours to prevent the suspects being tipped off by the photographs.

The armed raids had to be carried out in daylight with greater risk to the police and the public than there would have been under the original plan of arresting the men overnight, but the operation was carried out successfully.

Hundreds of officers grabbed the 12 men in simultaneous raids at 10 addresses in Manchester, Liverpool and elsewhere in northern England, including a university library in Liverpool and a car being driven on a motorway near Manchester.

Mr Quick resigned from the police force the following morning, admitting his mistake "could have compromised a major counter-terrorism operation". That meant his error had cost Britain its most highly qualified anti-terror officer, who has been praised by the Government for helping keep Britain safe.

All of the arrested men appear to have come from the al-Qa'ida stronghold of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province or to have family links to the region.

Eleven of the men were Pakistanis who entered Britain on student visas and one was a British citizen whose family came from the same region.

If police suspicions are correct, the dispatch of such a terror team from Pakistan marks a stark turning point in the tactics of al-Qa'ida-linked extremists targeting Britain, who until now have relied on recruiting and training British-based Islamists.

Police say that since the July 2007 suicide bombings on three London trains and a bus they have broken up several terror attempts by home-grown extremists trained in Pakistan, but this is the first time they have encountered a group of Pakistani nationals apparently sent to Britain on such a mission.

Mr Quick's counter-terror police unit and MI5 are believed to have had the men under surveillance for a month.

Several British newspapers reported yesterday that surveillance agents had allegedly seen the men taking video footage and photographs of each other in front of four Manchester sites that could have been targets. They were the Birdcage nightclub and three shopping areas, the Trafford Centre, the Arndale Centre and St Ann's Square.

Some police sources said investigators had not yet identified the potential targets but they decided it was too dangerous to keep waiting for more information.

The Christian Holy Week is one of the busiest shopping times of the year and could have been an attractive time for an Islamic extremist attack. Intercepted messages suggested something was going to happen within days, police said.

Mr Brown said police had prevented "a very big plot" and he vowed to tell Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that Pakistan had to do more to fight terrorism.

"We know that there are links between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Pakistan," Mr Brown said. "That is an important issue for us to follow through and that's why I will be talking to President Zardari about what Pakistan can do to help us in the future."

The incident has raised pressure for a clampdown on student visas, especially those given to Pakistanis.

The UK Border Agency said last month that when it checked on the 2100 colleges that had applied for new licences to admit international students, it found 460 were bogus establishments sponsoring students as part of immigration scams.

In the four years to April last year Britain issued a total of 42,292 student visas to Pakistani students.

Police were believed to be concentrating on Liverpool as they searched yesterday for a suspected bomb factory, but they did not announce any such discovery.

Source: The Australian

Saudi Invasion?

War On Terror: The State Department plans to double student visas issued to young Saudi men. This time, it says, they'll all be vetted for terror ties. Uh-huh.

There are 15,000 Saudi students already in the U.S., many of them here courtesy of a post-9/11 visa deal struck between President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah. The deal was controversial because nearly all the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, including two who entered the U.S. on student visas.

Now the administration wants to let in twice as many Saudi students, Ambassador Ford Fraker announced this month. Didn't he didn't get the memo from the Treasury Department warning that the kingdom is still the world's financial epicenter for terrorism? Read more ...

Source: Investor's Business Daily
H/T: Sharia Finance Watch