Cufflink terrorist admits IS charges

Samata Ullah, 34, has admitted to five charges of terrorism, including using a USB cufflink to store extremist data. At the Old Bailey court in London Ullah pleaded guilty to being a member of so-called Islamic State, terrorist training, preparing terrorist acts and possessing articles for terrorist purposes. The Attorney General had decided to accept the pleas. Ullah was arrested on 22 September, after he was found to own a USB cufflink with an operating system loaded onto it to concealing a hoard of extremist data and a blog. The court heard that between December 2015 and his arrest, Ullah had provided instructional videos on how to secure sensitive data and remain anonymous online with the use of encryption programmes. The convict also admitted having a book entitled Guided Missiles Fundamentals AFM 52-31 and an electronic version of Advances in Missile Guidance, Control and Estimation for terrorist purposes. According to prosecutor Brian Altman QC, a hi-tech report dealt with Ullah's desire to copy his blog onto a platform in a ‘format that meant it could not be closed down or deleted by the authorities’. Ullah, who has been diagnosed with autism, admitted the charges earlier in March but his pleas could not be reported until after the the prosecution had time to consider whether to go ahead with a trial on one remaining charge, which he denied.