2013: Year of the Extremist
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Defiant until the end, two men are convicted of killing a soldier on a London street, one kissing the Koran as he was led away. Tonight, are we witnessing a growing global problem of lone extremists? Also this hour, the promise of a pardon, what the son of jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky told me about President Putin's offer to his dad. And...</s>ANDERSON: It should be -- can I see it? Yes. There it is.</s>ANDERSON: Find out why my morning was spent doing this. A hint, it has something to do with the beautiful game.</s>ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.</s>ANDERSON: Very good evening from London. The family of the British soldier killed at a military barracks in London says that his memory will live on. They will speaking as two men were found guilty of his murder. Now Lee Rigby was mowed down and hacked to death in broad daylight earlier this year in the neighborhood of Woolwich. Police gave a statement on behalf of the family.</s>PETE SPARKS, DETECTIVE INSPECTOR, METROPOLITAN POLICE: This has been the toughest times of our lives. No one should have to go through what we've been through as a family. We are satisfied that justice has been done, but unfortunately no amount of justice will bring Lee back. These people have taken him away from us forever, but his memory lives on in all of us and we will never forget him.</s>ANDERSON: We must warn you that the images that you are about to see are disturbing. They show the aftermath of that murder. And the two men found guilty will be sentenced in the new year. They were found guilty of Rigby's murder, but not guilty of the attempted murder of a police officer. Atika Shubert recounts the case for you.</s>ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He says he has just killed a British soldier on a London street, but Michael Adebolajo makes no effort to flee or hide his bloodied hands. Instead, he approaches a bystander with a mobile phone to explain his actions.</s>MICHAEL ADEBOLAJO, CONVICTED OF LEE RIGBY'S MURDER: The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one. It is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.</s>SHUBERT: This is just one of the graphic videos the family and widow of Lee Rigby have endured during the trial of 29-year-old Michael Adebolajo and his co-accused 22-year-old Michael Adebowale at London's Old Bailey. The two men, both British citizens, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Rigby who was killed as he walked to the Woolwich military barracks on May 22. CCTV footage captured the moment the 25-year-old father was run down by a car before his attacker set upon him with knives and a meat cleaver in full view of horrified onlooker. "He knelt down next to the man," witness Amanda Bailey said of Adebolajo in a statement read in court. "He grabbed the young man's head and began hacking." The jury saw videos of what authorities said were the two men pulling Rigby's body onto the road. And as seen here, people watched as the pair lingered at the scene still brandishing their bloodied weapons. Authorities say it was only when armed police arrived that Adebolajo ran, but it was at the officers and armed with a meat cleaver. He was shot. Within seconds, Adebowale was also shot after police say he aimed a gun at them. The weapon was later found not to be loaded. Both men pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a police officer. Adebolajo telling the court he only ran at police to draw fire, because he wanted to die while carrying out what he described as a military operation. In closing, the defense argued that Adebolajo was not a psychopath. The killing of Lee Rigby, they argued, was a political act of war, better defined as terrorism or treason, but not murder. Now during the trial, Adebolajo expressed admiration for al Qaeda, saying I love them. They are my brothers. He also showed no regret or remorse for the killing of Lee Rigby, saying that he hoped his death would bring about a change in British foreign policy. The prosecution dismissed Adebolajo's argument that the killing of the young fusilier was an act of war telling the jury that under British law the attack can only be defined as murder. Atika Shubert, CNN, London</s>ANDERSON: Well, the British government has called the attack a sickening and Barbaric murder saying violence and extremism of any kind have no place in society. UK Prime Minister David Cameron added that the whole country was united in condemnation.</s>DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think it also shows that we have to redouble our efforts to confront the poisonous narrative of extremism and violence that lay behind this and make sure that we do everything to beat it in our country.</s>ANDERSON: But this is not an issue confined to the UK, as you and I are well aware. Let's speak to Usama Hasan senior researcher at the Quilliam Foundation which calls itself the world's first counterterrorism think tank. Sir, before we provide some context and some global context for this, your response to the verdict today?</s>USAMA HASAN, SENIOR RESEARCHER, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: Well, no surprise, of course, these men clearly carried out the attack and they are clearly guilty and they can expect a very long prison sentence in January, possibly never to leave prison.</s>ANDERSON: Kissing the Koran on their way out of the -- as being led out? I mean, you're platforming right?</s>HASAN: Yeah, it's an insult to the Koran, a massive insult because these men have no understanding of the depths of the teaching of peace and love in the Koran. And they've used a very twisted interpretation as al Qaeda do. They follow the al Qaeda narrative to justify this terrorism.</s>ANDERSON: We'll take a look at some of the examples from this year of westerners being involved in attacks in the name of Islam. Of course, first of all, the Boston bombings. We've seen al Shabaab with the Westgate Mall in Kenya. And we've seen jihadists, or would be jihadists of course traveling across the border from southern Turkey into Syria. If I were to say this has been a sort of jihadist year, 2013, would I be right in saying that?</s>HASAN: It's certainly, given events in Syria, it has become a strong year for the jihadists if you like. But they've been doing that since 9/11 of course. Since 9/11 you've had jihadist years. And it's important to get to the bottom of this, because these arguments keep being repeated. The 7/7 bombings, this is a war. I'm a soldier. Same as these guys, soldier of god. They honestly believe that the whole world is a war zone now between Islam and everybody else. And that's a very poisonous narrative which needs to be deconstructed and taken apart. There are unfortunately many young people who subscribe to this kind of narrative. The whole country is not quite united in condemnation as the prime minister said, because there are really these fanatics around who celebrate this attack.</s>ANDERSON: You, yourself went to Afghanistan way back when. You were radicalized you yourself confessed. When you say we've got to kind of, you know, put an end to this. 12 years after 9/11 we are only seeing a sort of resurgence it seems, at least in sort of lone wolf sort of individuals who are perhaps not working for, you know, classic cells but radicalized and out there causing mayhem and damage, not just in individual cases like this, but across entire areas of for example Africa. You know, you've been there yourself. What -- how do you put a stop to this?</s>HASAN: Well, terrorists are not born they're made. You know, these people were once decent innocent children. And the key thing is to try to reconnect with some of their good intentions. The guys who went off to Syria, I think most of them are well intentioned. They want to protect the innocent population which has faced a brutal regime, for example. The problem is when they're then poisoned by saying this is a war zone, but equally Britain and America and most of Europe are a war zone. Go back and carry out your jihad there as well. Al Qaeda openly say that. And that's what needs to be challenged. And also to point out that the jihadists when they won in Afghanistan in '92, in Bosnia, in Syria now they fight each other a lot. And so the young men signing up to this are really in for some real trouble. I mean, jihadists in Syria and Somalia -- an American almost killed by al Shabaab themselves. They turned on each other.</s>ANDERSON: Usama, I'm fascinated to hear you say that so far as you're concerned most of those who have gone or went to Syria were well intentioned, because those aren't -- the result of their actions certainly don't look well intentioned at present. I'm fascinated to hear you say that. Why do you say that?</s>HASAN: Because as you said I've been there myself. I went to Afghanistan. And looking back, I was caught up in an Afghan civil war. But after that, dozens, hundreds, thousands from Britain went to Bosnia because the Bosnian Muslims were facing genocide, ethnic cleansing. And something similar with the Syrian war. And some of them spoke on the media recently. And they clearly were thinking that they are misunderstood. And some of them said that we would never do this in Britain, which is a good sign. We actually need to continue the dialogue with these people. And those who hold the narrative of Adebolajo, you can't be soldiers in this country. This is not a war zone. And if you are a soldier, you would have to accept that other people could kill you, for example. We need to discuss, you know, warfare ethics, a demilitarized society, what our civilian societies are all about.</s>ANDERSON: Yeah, there is a school of thought, and I buy this, which says thank goodness for people like you who, you know, understand where youngsters might be coming from and are out there trying to affect some change. Usama, how often do you speak to people here in the UK who are radicalized? And what are they telling you? And what do you say to them in order to try and sort of bring them back as it were, off that perch or pedestal.</s>HASAN: The fundamental issue is to reconcile their basic values of Islam, I believe are the same as the basic value of the world religions and of western civilization. You know, truth, mercy and if you're a believer, love of god.</s>ANDERSON: Are they listening?</s>HASAN: It's a difficult task because of the politics, because of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places -- Israel, Palestine. Because of all these all conflict zones, people get very emotional and very angry about when they see the suffering of their brothers around the world, just as Jews do about their brothers and others do. And we face the global challenge of a dialogue of civilizations rather than a clash of civilizations. And I think there are -- most people in the world subscribe to dialogue, I believe, and living together. And we need to just be firm and keep plugging away...</s>ANDERSON: It's sadly been a terrible 2013. 2014 very briefly, in a word, better or worse do you think?</s>HASAN: I hope better. And if we can end the Syrian war that will really help.</s>ANDERSON: Always a pleasure. And the conversation continues on CNN.com where you can read this opinion piece talking about how fighting extremism doesn't need to threaten freedom of speech. That and much more at CNN.com/international. Still to come tonight, a political pardon. Vladimir Putin says he might let his political rival out of jail, but why now? And as the crisis continues in the Central African Republic, we hear about violence in and around that war torn country. Plus, the billion pixel cameras, it could help to decipher the mysterious Milky Way. All that coming up.