Jailed rapist named as terrorist associate

Convicted London rapist Abdul Makim Khalisadar was named today as a key associate of two of al Qaeda's top leaders.

Abu Omar describes how he and 26-year-old Khalisadar stayed with 9/11 ringleaders Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh at a safe house in Karachi in 2002.

While there, Khalisadar took part in a terrorist "brainstorming" session intended to generate ideas for future atrocities and suggested a grenade attack on a convoy of VIPs.

Omar also reveals how he first met Khalisadar on a truck outside Kabul in late 2001 as the pair fled from the frontline and then saw him again repeatedly in close contact with senior al Qaeda figures, including Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Khalisadar was jailed for 10 years at Snaresbrook crown court this month for rape and perverting the course of justice. His al Qaeda links were not disclosed to the jury.

Omar says that Khalisadar, a former primary school teaching assistant who regularly gave religious talks at the East London Mosque, told him when they first met that he had been in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks and enjoyed living there under Taliban rule. "I met him when we were being ferried on a truck from the camp in Kabul when the frontline fell apart.

"I saw him again in Khost and then in Karachi when we were with Mohammed and Binalshibh. He used to go out and get us Zinger burgers from KFC."

Omar said that although he did not know what Khalisadar had agreed to do when he returned to Britain, he had heard him advocate killing during the al Qaeda planning session in Karachi.

Rapist Khalisadar pounced on his 27-year-old victim in the early hours as she returned home in Whitechapel in 2005, holding a knife to her throat while he carried out the attack, despite her telling him she was pregnant in an attempt to get him to desist.

He was caught after his DNA was taken and found to match samples found on the victim. After initially claiming the sex was consensual, he then made up a false alibi, claiming that he had been at the East London Mosque at the time.

Seven of his friends, who backed up his false explanation, have since been jailed for perverting the course of justice after admitting they had lied.

Eleven further charges against Khalisadar of processing photographs of child abuse are not being proceeded with at the moment.