Lord Avebury, Terrorist Godfather
By Joe Brewda
Executive Intelligence Review April 4, 1997, p. 29

Lord Avebury, the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights, is one of the most important handlers of terrorist organizations fielded by the British monarchy. In February 1997, he and his tool, George Galloway of the House of Commons, led successful efforts to block a bill proposed by Member of Parliament, Nigel Waterson, to ban fundraising and support activities for international terrorism from Britain. In the spring of 1996, Lord Avebury successfully led efforts to block the deportation of Saudi terrorist Mohammad al-Masari. ``If the government gave in to the demands [of the Saudi government to deport him],'' he wrote to the Foreign Office, ``it would effectively be giving a green light to others.'' Masari later took credit from his London office for the Khobar bombing which killed 19 U.S. servicemen in June 1996. Lord Avebury's campaign, which was joined by 40 other members of the House of Lords and Commons, argued that deporting Masari would violate Britain's liberal tradition of asylum.

Lord Avebury and his group are certainly right about that. Under the same cover of providing asylum, Queen Victoria's Prime Minister Lord Palmerston offered safe haven to terrorists running insurgencies and revolutions on the Continent. Lord Avebury's grandfather, the first Lord Avebury, who was Queen Victoria's banker, was in Lord Palmerston's circle.

In a September 1995 interview with {EIR,} Lord Avebury gloated that the activities of the groups that he promotes will lead to a break-up of targetted states. ``The tendencies in India will follow those in other parts of the world, a centrifugalism,'' he said in discussing the Kashmiri terrorist separatists on his leash. ``I'm thinking of the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.''

Lord Avebury's liberation movements

Under the cover of human rights concerns, and the liberal right of asylum, Lord Avebury has been host to numerous British-run terrorist organizations. There is no consistency in the political coloration of the movements championed by Lord Avebury, of course, since continuing conflict is his object. Here are some groups in his collection.
      Kashmir: The British-orchestrated drive for an independent Kashmir is run by Ayyub Thukar, the London-based head of the World Kashmir Freedom movement, and Amanullah Khan, the London resident heading the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Lord Avebury was the first British member of Parliament to publicly support the Kashmiri secessionists, in an address to a JKLF conference in London in 1991, where he also announced his support for their armed struggle. In a March 1995 issue of Thukar's publication, {Kashmir Report,} Lord Avebury demanded that Indian troops be withdrawn from Kashmir. ``New Delhi fails to understand that if peaceful initiatives are thwarted, the inevitable result will be further violence,'' he thundered.
      `Khalistan': Efforts to create an independent homeland in Indian Punjab for followers of the Sikh religion, dubbed ``Khalistan,'' are also run out of London. The British-based Jagjit Singh Chauhan of the World Sikh Organization, who took credit for the 1984 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, works closely with Lord Avebury, according to the spokesman of the organization.
      Sudan: British operations against Sudan are overseen by Lord Avebury and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, Baroness Cox, using British-based Sudanese Communist, indigenist, southern separatist, and Islamic networks. In 1994, Lord Avebury and Baroness Cox co-chaired an international conference of their Christian Solidarity International in Bonn, which drew together diverse Sudanese opposition movements committed to broadening the war.
      Iran: In June 1995, Lord Avebury held a press conference in London on his successful effort to mobilize members of European parliaments against the Iranian government, on behalf of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, an Iranian communist outfit, with important offices in London. The group is involved in bombings in Iran. On a podium with leaders of the group, Lord Avebury reported that 250 members of the House of Commons and 175 members of the House of Lords, signed a statement he circulated calling for ``military, economic, commercial, political, and economic sanctions'' against Iran.
      Bahrain: While leading the opposition to Iran, arm-in-arm with communists, Lord Avebury has also professed himself in favor of the London-based Islamic Front's efforts to achieve Shiite ``self-determination'' for oil-rich Bahrain. The front carries out bombings in Bahrain, typically attributed to Iran in the British press. Lord Avebury addressed the group's ``Bahrain National Day'' event on Dec. 17, 1996, where he denounced the emir, Sheikh al-Khalifa, for responsibility for Bahrain's ``oppression and misery.''
      Turkey: Lord Avebury is also the primary British supporter of the PKK, which is seeking to create an independent ``Kurdistan'' carved out of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. In 1994, the European leader of the terrorist group, Kani Yilmaz, was arrested while en route to meet Lord Avebury. In 1996, Lord Avebury sent greetings to the PKK's founding Kurdistan Parliament in exile, held in Brussels, Belgium.