British intelligence repeatedly tried to recruit London attacker according to friend

image source: Endthelie.com compilation from video

Madison Ruppert
Activist Post

Before Michael Adebolajo was caught on camera with blood-soaked hands wielding knives after allegedly beheading British soldier Lee Rigby in South East London, British intelligence agents attempted to recruit him according to a friend.

Abedolajo, a 28-year-old British national of Nigerian descent, was identified by friends, acquaintances and British media as the man seen in the video of the aftermath of the Woolwich murder.

The BBC reported that Adebolajo and 22-year-old Michael Adebowale were both known to MI5 for eight years, citing anonymous Whitehall sources.

According to the New York Times, Adebowale was born in Nigeria and immigrated to the UK as a child. Adebolajo was born in Britain to a Christian family that moved from Nigeria. Adebolajo reportedly converted to Islam after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

MI5 allegedly attempted to recruit Adebolajo

According to Adebolajo’s friend Abu Nusaybah, MI5 agents attempted to recruit Adebolajo six months ago.

Interestingly, Nusaybah was arrested immediately after he made the statements to the BBC in an interview.

Nusaybah was arrested by British counter-terrorism police on suspected terrorism offenses, according to CNN. The arrest was not connected to the Woolwich killing, according to a Scotland Yard spokesman who talked to CNN.

According to an unnamed BBC employee, British police waited inside the BBC studios in London while the interview was conducted and waited for it to conclude before making the arrest.

Police confirmed that Nusaybah, 31, had been arrested in relation to suspected terrorism offenses, according to the BBC. Police added that search warrants were being executed at two east London homes.

Adebolajo in Kenya

In the interview, Nusaybah said that he believed “a change” took place in Adebolajo after he returned from a trip to Kenya last year.

According to Nusaybah, Adebolajo went to Kenya “to study” but was rounded up by “Kenyan troops,” interrogated and “beaten quite badly.”

Nusaybah said that in his opinion Adebolajo had been sexually abused though Adebolajo was too “ashamed” to say what happened.

Adebolajo became “less talkative – he wasn’t his bubbly self,” according to Nusaybah, and “his mind was somewhere else.”

When Adebolajo returned from Kenya to the UK, he was stopped and later “followed up by MI5” who were “knocking on his door.”

Adebolajo was “basically being harassed,” according to Nusaybah.

“His wording was, ‘They are bugging me – they won’t leave me alone,’” Nusaybah said of Adebolajo.

“Initially they wanted to ask him if he knew certain individuals. But after him saying that he didn’t know these individuals, what he said was they asked him if he would be interested in working for them,” Nusaybah said. “He was explicit in that he refused to work for them but he did confirm he didn’t know the individuals.”

CNN, however, cited Kenyan counter-terrorism sources who said that “Adebolajo traveled to Kenya in November 2010 and was arrested in the coastal town of Lamu for trying to cross illegally into Somalia.”

Some refuse to condemn the attack

A friend of Adebolajo, Abu Baraa, refused to condemn the killing and called Adebolajo “very caring” in an interview with CNN.

Similarly, Omar Bakri, a Syrian-born Islamist who reportedly once taught Adebolajo, said he was surprised by Adebolajo.

“When I saw that, honestly I was very surprised – standing firm, courageous, brave. Not running away. Rather, he said why he carried (it out) and he wanted the whole world to hear it,” Bakri said.

Bakri, along with Shah Jalal Hussain, who was convicted of fundraising for terrorists in a UK court, debated Christian apologists Sam Shamoun of Answering Islam and David Wood of Answering Muslims in 2011.

Anjem Choudary, who previously protested with Adebolajo, similarly praised the attack in an interview on the BBC.

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This article first appeared at End the Lie.

Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCYTV Monday nights 7 PM – 9 PM PT/10 PM – 12 AM ET. Show page link here: http://UCY.TV/EndtheLie. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at [email protected]