ISIS fanatic security guard, 23, wished his followers a 'Happy 911' and sent 8,000 tweets glorifying the terror group and encouraging jihad

An ISIS fanatic who wished his followers a 'Happy 9/11' and posted 8,000 tweets glorifying the terror group and encouraging jihad has been jailed for five years.

Mohammed Ameen, 23, used 42 Twitter handles and 16 different accounts to express his support for ISIS between May and October last year.

Photos of Ameen holding a large knife with Arabic writing on the blade were found on his phone, and videos of him preaching on the streets of London had been uploaded online, the Old Bailey heard.

The security guard pleaded guilty last month to five counts of encouraging terrorism and one count of support for a proscribed organisation.

Ameen, of Dagenham, east London, also pleaded guilty to one count of dissemination of a terrorist publication, relating to a video called For The Sake Of Allah, posted on Twitter last September.

The court heard he sent tweets celebrating the 9/11 attacks in New York.

One read: '£TheMagnificent19 May you all get accepted in the highest ranks and multiply your kind! £Happy 911'.

An image was posted of a statement which read: 'When we descend on the streets of London, Paris and Washington the taste will be far bitterer, because not only will we spill your blood, but we will also demolish your statues, erase your history and, most painfully, convert your children who will go on to champion our name and curse their forefathers.' 

Ameen tweeted a picture of Mohammed Emwazi - known as Jihadi John - in a black face mask holding out a knife. Another tweet read: 'Your 7/7 is our 24/7'.

Prosecutor Christopher Amis QC told the court it 'perhaps gives an insight into the defendant's mindset'.

He said: 'The tweets, looked at individually or when taken as a whole, amount to a sustained effort indirectly to encourage others to engage in terrorism.

'There is, with one exception, no explicit encouragement. Mr Ameen does not direct or invite the reader to engage in acts which would constitute terrorism.

'However the messages clearly constitute indirect encouragement in that they glorify acts of terrorism and those involved in them and they encourage the emulation of this conduct.'

He added: 'There are tweets which celebrate acts of terrorism by ISIL (ISIS). The tweets encourage the emulation of terrorist actions.

'The tweets also portray those who engage in such terrorist action as role models.'

Ameen's home was first raided by police in December 2013, when they found a one way ticket from Luton to Istanbul, Mr Amis said.

Mr Amis said: 'He didn't travel to Istanbul on that occasion. It is thought the intervention of police caused him to alter his plans.'

In June 2014 counter terrorism officers interviewed him about his possible wish to leave the UK to 'travel to regions controlled by the ISIL', Mr Amis said.

In November 2014 he told police he was planning to go to the Turkish border with Syria that night as part of an aid convoy - but was persuaded not to go.

Mr Amis said: 'The defendant's father was shocked. He had no idea.'

He added: 'He was planning to travel to Syria that very evening as part of an aid convoy.'

But he refused to provide any further details regarding the people he would be travelling with, the court heard. 

The prosecutor added: 'He said in one tweet, 'I got radicalised in the UK and by Allah, I will stay a radical until the day I hit the grave'.'

His defence barrister, Tim Maloney QC, in mitigation, said Ameen was vulnerable to radicalisation and regretted his behaviour. 

Mr Maloney said: 'He is genuinely sorry for what he has done.

'Not only for the upset he has caused to his family, but he says he now sees the damage he could have done to other families of those he was encouraging.'

Sentencing Ameen to five years in prison, the Common Serjeant of London, Richard Marks QC, said: 'Those tweets involved a sustained effort on your part to give encouragement, albeit indirectly.

'And in some instances, you were involved in glorifying this, as well as celebrating acts of terrorism by ISIL, celebrating the view of a future that could, by its nature, only be achieved by terrorism.

'It was over a protracted period of about eight months and did therefore clearly show, as the prosecution put it, dogged persistence, as exemplified by the fact you kept opening new Twitter accounts.'

He said: 'Of that, you will serve one half. You will then be on licence.'

Ameen was also made to pay a victim surcharge of £120.

German nuclear plant hit by computer viruses

Computer viruses have infected PCs used at a German nuclear power plant.
The viruses were found on office computers and in a system used to model the movement of nuclear fuel rods.
Power firm RWE said the infection posed no threat to the plant because its control systems were not linked to the internet, so the viruses could not activate.
German federal cyber investigators are now analysing how the Gundremmingen plant became infected.
No damage
The viruses were found on the fuel rod modelling system and on 18 USB sticks used as removable data stores on office computers.
Staff found the viruses as they prepared to upgrade the computerised control systems for the plant's Block B, which is currently not producing power while it undergoes scheduled maintenance.
More than 1,000 computers have now been checked for infection and cleaned up, an RWE spokesman told newspaper Die Zeit. The plant has also improved its security controls.
No system directly involved with the control of the nuclear reactors was infected, RWE said, and there was no danger to the public as a result of the infection.
"All sensitive plant areas are decoupled and designed with redundancy and protected against manipulation," added RWE in a statement.
Among the viruses were two well-known malicious programs - W32.Ramnit and Conficker.
Ramnit debuted in 2010 and is a remote access tool that its creators use to steal data. Conficker dates from 2008 and aims to grab login names and financial data.
Because the infected systems were isolated from the net, neither Ramnit nor Conficker were able to activate, update and steal data, said RWE.
Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, said power plants and other chunks of a nation's critical infrastructure were often infected by viruses but such compromises did little damage.
"The most common viruses spread without much awareness of where they are," he told Reuters.
Gundremmingen is about 120km (75m) northwest of Munich and the plant is Gemany's highest output power station.

Syria conflict: Aleppo in 'catastrophic' state says UN

The UN says the situation in Syria's city of Aleppo is catastrophic, after dozens of people were killed in attacks on targets including a hospital
Air strikes on and around the Medecins sans Frontieres-backed al-Quds hospital killed at least 27 people, while more than 30 died in other attacks.
UN envoy Jan Egeland said the next days would be vital for the humanitarian aid lifeline for much of Syria.
The violence has left a partial truce hanging by a thread.
UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned the cessation of hostilities agreed between non-jihadist rebels and government forces on 27 February was now "barely alive".
Russia's continuing war
Has opportunity for peace been lost?
What is left of Syria?
Assad's growing confidence
Separately, the Syrian government reported that 150 US troops had arrived in the town of Rmeilan in Syria's predominantly northern Kurdish province of Hassakeh, denouncing it as an "illegitimate intervention".
US President Barack Obama said last week he was deploying 250 troops to Syria to help certain rebel groups fight so-called Islamic State (IS).
'Millions in danger'
Mr Egeland, the head of the UN humanitarian assistance to Syria, said he had been briefed on "the catastrophic deterioration in Aleppo over the last 24-48 hours... No-one doubts the severity of the situation."
He warned that the humanitarian lifeline for much of the country was at risk.
"I could not in any way express how high the stakes are for the next hours and days.
"So many humanitarian health workers and relief workers are being bombed, killed, maimed at the moment that the whole lifeline to millions of people is now also at stake."
Graph showing Syrian death toll
Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) said at least 14 patients and three doctors had been killed in the air strike on al-Quds hospital.
Among those killed was Mohammed Wasim Moaz, one of the city's last paediatricians, MSF said.
An MSF representative, Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, told the BBC Dr Moaz had worked at the hospital since 2013.
Mr Zabalgogeazkoa said: "He kept it going, was always there and always worried about the needs of the people. He was honest and very committed. He worked in conditions you cannot even begin to imagine."
Map of Aleppo
Local sources blamed war planes from the Syrian military or from Russia, which is supporting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, for the attack.
The Syrian military denied targeting the hospital. A military source was quoted on state TV as saying: "Such news is merely an attempt to cover up terrorist crimes which target peaceful citizens in Aleppo."
An activist at the scene, named Zuhair, told the BBC: "It was an air strike by two rockets, heavy rockets from [a] Russian air strike.
"Near the hospital, one building on five floors just crumbled and just crashed down and we don't know how many dead will be under these ruins."
However, Russian news agencies quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying it had carried out no air strikes in Aleppo in the past few days.
Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Media captionA doctor in Aleppo explains why he and his team must operate underground and in constant fear
US Secretary of State John Kerry said he was "outraged" by the hospital attack, adding: "It appears to have been a deliberate strike on a known medical facility and follows the Assad regime's appalling record of striking such facilities."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on both the US and Russia to exert pressure to stop the violence, and demanded a credible investigation into the hospital attack.
Monitoring groups said at least 20 people were killed in other attacks on rebel-held areas in Aleppo on Thursday, while at least 14 died in rocket strikes on government-controlled neighbourhoods.
The upsurge in violence comes amid reports that the Syrian army, backed by Russian air power, is gearing up for a major offensive in Aleppo.
Analysis by Jim Muir, BBC News, Beirut
One of the reasons why the "cessation of hostilities" is now at death's door was reflected in the fact that from the outset it was not called a ceasefire or even a truce, because several factions were excluded, including not just the Islamic State militants but also the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
Nusra fighters are present in almost all combat zones, and are mixed up with other groups such as Ahrar al-Sham that Russia is now pressing to have added to the international terror list.
That has meant that hostilities have continued and intensified in many areas, with the government able to claim its attacks are legitimate.
Now state forces are reported to be building up in Aleppo as violence escalates there, raising fears that a long and costly all-out battle for the contested city may be looming.
That would put paid both to the lull and to the Geneva peace talks, prompting Mr de Mistura to urge the US, Russians and others to press their clients on the ground to ease off, so that stalled negotiations have a chance of resuming.

Court Clears Oshkosh to Continue JLTV work

Updated: February 18, 2016: A federal judge on Thursday denied Lockheed Martin’s motion that could have forced Oshkosh Corp. to stop working on a $6.7 billion Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) contract while a lawsuit over that contract award continued. A week after the court decision, following “careful deliberation”, Lockheed Martin has withdrawn its protest of the JLTV contract award decision in the Court of Federal Claims.

This decision lifted the last legal obstacle from the program and Oshkosh Corp. can now keep working on its JLTV contract, focusing on production and delivery. The procurement of JLTV could net the company more than $30 billion over the next 25 years.

Lockheed in its motion to halt work argued that the military applied different standards to the two companies when evaluating the contract and held ‘misleading’ meetings with the company about the bid.

TOW Missile Hits a T-90 Tank with ‘Soft-Kill’ (SHTORA) APS and Reactive Armor

An anti-tank team of the Free Syrian Army (western supported rebels) has successfully used a TOW anti-tank missile (Raytheon BGM-71) missile to hit a Russian T-90 tank equipped with a SHTORA ‘soft-kill’ active defense system. The close-range engagement was recorded on video at Sheikh Aqil, in Syria. The Shtora is an electro-optical active-protection system designed to disrupt the missile tracking using EO disruptor.

Russian T-90 tanks fitted with SHTORA were spotted in recent months in Syria, operated by Russian tank crews. The video report from Sheikh Aqil, northwest of Aleppo.Once a missile attack is detected, the system uses EO countermeasures and launches instant smoke screens against incoming missiles. None of these measures are observed on the video, alluding to the possibility that the countermeasures were not engaged or did not detect the threat. Although the missile seems to hit its target, the explosion effect could be caused by the reactive armor designed to defeat such threats. While a crew member is seen escaping, the tank seems intact, without catastrophic fire erupting as would be the case in frontal attack penetration of such weapon. The SHTORA APS is mounted on the Russian T-80 and T-90 series tanks, as well as the Ukrainian T-84 the Serbian M-84AS and BMP-3.

Commenting on the incident, deputy director of Uralvagonzavod which manufactures the T-90, Vyacheslav Khalitov, noted that the video is too blurry so that it’s difficult to determine what vehicle it is, admits it “closely resembles the T-90.” According to Khalitov. “Shtora is part of T-90s multi-layer protection. It is a subsystem designed to protect the vehicle against flare-tracked ATGMs,” Khalitov told Vzglyad.

He also suggests the SHTORA was switched off, but added, “the reactive armor suite was activated which prevented the tank from suffering serious damage and the crew was able to leave it… If that missile penetrated the armor, nobody inside the tank would have survived. Shtora is part of T-90s multi-layer protection which includes the ballistic protection and Kontact 5 reactive armor.

ST Kinetics Pursueing Combat Robotics, with Foreign UGV Developers

Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK) is highlighting at the Singapore Airshow two unmanned ground vehicle systems (UGV) demonstrating robotics applications of combat systems. The two platforms selected by STK are the Amstaff Israeli wheeled UGV from Automotive Robotic Industries and the TheMIS tracked UGV from Milrem of Estonia, Both debut a Singapore Airshow carrying ST Kinetics’ remotely controlled weapon systems.

Amstaff has already proved its operational use, guarding villages, military facilities and infrastructure site sin operational use and field evaluations in Israel, South Korea, Poland and Canada and other locations worldwide. The configuration used by Singapore Technologies include both 6×6 and 8×8 electrically powered vehicles dubbed ‘Jaeger UGV’. It is equipped with diesel engine and charger alternator that keeps battery full at all time, supporting up to 48 hours of autonomy. When silent operation is mandatory the vehicle can endure over 6 hours on battery power only, quick charging enables the robot to top-up its battery from the on-board charger in 3 hours.The second platform on display is the Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System (THeMIS) from Milrem UGV. TheMIS ADDER (a variant where UGV THeMIS and RWS ADDER are integrated) is a weaponized unmanned ground vehicle equipped with a remote weapon station. The vehicle has independent, electrically powered propulsion units embedded in each track. The TheMIS development has been funded by the Estonian Ministry of Defence. The prototype of the UGV was unveiled at DSEI 2015 in London, UK last autumn.Its kerb weight is 750-850 kg and maximum speed is 25-35 km/h. The platform can carry its own weight (750kg) as payload, bringing the total gross weight to more than 1.5 tons; yet the wide tracks maintain the ground pressure as low as 0.069 kg/cm2, maintaining high off-road maneuverable and amphibious capability with high mobility in mud, sand, water and snow. The vehicle can be remotely controlled by an operator, or follow the operator from a safe distance, while maneuvering to avoid obstacles. In addition to the use as a mobile, remotely operated weapon or anti-tank missile carrier, TheMIS can also assume other missions such as combat casualties evacuation, firefighting, demining, CBRN reconnaissance, combat support supply ‘mule’.

IAI Introduces New Loitering Weapons for Anti-Radiation, Precision strike

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is unveiling two new variants of its Harpy/Harop loitering weapon family at the Singapore Airshow this week. The first is the Harpy New Generation (NG) — an autonomous, anti-radiation loitering weapon designed to Suppress and Destroy Enemy Air Defense (SEAD/DEAD) operations. The second is the Green Dragon, a compact, lightweight variant of the HAROP, which uses Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR)-guidance to provide ‘man-in-the-loop’ capability. HAROP and Green Dragon are designed to locate, track and destroy high-quality static and mobile targets.Harpy NG was developed to counter the newer types of air defense radar threats that have evolved since the introduction into service of its first-generation predecessor, in the early 1990s. It automatically engages emitters and radar-dependent threats in an area of responsibility assigned to it. The NG retains its predecessor’s original 15 kg. warhead, but has a new and improved RF seeker which covers a wider frequency range, to match the ‘migration’ of modern target-acquisition and fire-control radars to the lower frequency bands.

Utilizing the HAROP airframe, the Harpy NG also offers a longer loitering time of about six hours, extended range and a higher altitude ceiling. The common platform enables commonality in maintenance and training across several families of loitering vehicles operated by some of its customers. In addition to its service with the Israel Defense Forces, Harpy also serves as a loitering counter-air-defense weapon with a number of international customers, including India, South Korea, Chile, Turkey and China. Harop is operational with India and Azerbaijan.

Boaz Levi, IAI Corporate Vice-President and General Manager of the Systems, Missiles & Space Group, said: “IAI is introducing these new Loitering Munitions, intended to refresh, update and complement our already successful family of LMs. The new tactical products serve to bolster the abilities of small, tactical, infantry units and Special Ops, with a special emphasis on solving operational problems in urban areas.”The other new member of IAI’s family of LM’s is the Green Dragon – a tactical, affordable weapon which addresses the growing demand from military users for organic, persistent, situational- awareness diagnosis and rapid kinetic response. It is also suitable for small ground units and special operations forces, operating as an organic loitering weapon which enables both ISR and attack capabilities in short-response time. As an all-electric LM, Green Dragon operates silently for up to two hours, during which its operator can collect visual intelligence of surrounding areas up to a range of 40 km.

Green Dragon can locate and acquire targets and, upon a command from its operator, can dive on designated targets to impact and explode with an accuracy better than 1 meter (CEP). The operator can abort the attack any time before impact, through a built-in “abort and circle” capability, designed to prevent unnecessary collateral damage or mistaken targeting.

The Green Dragon weighs 15 kg. and uses an electro-optical ‘micropop’ EO/IR payload for surveillance, targeting and terminal homing. Its warhead weighs almost 3 kg. The Green Dragon is carried and launched from a sealed 1.7-meter-long canister that can be carried by a soldier in a backpack or stacked on a small vehicle in groups of 12-16 launchers. Upon launch, the weapon expands to a cruciform 1.7-meter-wide shape optimized for loitering and terminal dive. It is controlled from a tablet-sized control panel, through a tactical, low-power datalink.