Cleric tries to join evacuation

Exiled Islamist preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed tried but failed to join the naval evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon’s capital Beirut, it was reported today.

The Sun also reported that Syrian-born Bakri has written to the British embassy in Beirut, asking to be readmitted to Britain on “humanitarian grounds”.

Bakri, who settled in Britain in 1985, was banned from reentering Britain in August last year, when then home secretary Charles Clarke ruled that his presence was “not conducive to the public good”. He headed the radical al-Muhajiroun group in London until 2004, and praised the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 as the “magnificent 19″.

The Chief hopes that this character is left to stew in his own juice in Lebanon. With any luck the Israelis can drop a bomb on his head.