David Parkins

The Guardian        p. 35        11.8.2006

The Guardian        p. 6        21.8.2006

Andy Davey
The Guardian        p. 27        15.8.2006
Home Office Secretary John Reid

Police hunt 'two dozen' terror cells in Britain

· Direct link to 7 July atrocity, says Pakistan
· BA chief attacks airport chaos

Sunday August 13, 2006
The Observer
Jamie Doward, Ned Temko, Mark Townsend, Urmee Khan and Antony Barnett

The full extent of the terror threat facing Britain became apparent last night as security sources revealed that 'up to two dozen' terror investigations were operating across the country and that a number of suspects associated with last week's plot to bring down 10 airliners remained at large.

Pakistani intelligence sources alleged that one of the men arrested in connection with the bomb plot had been held following the London terror attack on 7 July last year. British security sources also linked the present investigation to that atrocity, saying the operation that led to Thursday's arrests began days after the 7 July attack. There are also claims that voicemails discovered after the first attack link the two events.

Pakistani authorities are still searching for at least one suspect thought to be involved in the plot to blow up the planes over the Atlantic using liquid-based bombs. US officials estimate as many as 50 may have been involved.

Two British airlines yesterday criticised airport authorities for failing to manage new security measures smoothly. As passengers faced a third day of delays, the chief executives of British Airways and Ryanair, Willie Walsh and Michael O'Leary, said that airport-owner BAA must tackle the ever-lengthier queues.

Yesterday Cobra, the government committee dealing with national emergencies, chaired by the Home Secretary, John Reid, met to discuss the next phase of the operation against terror cells. The committee discussed intelligence on a number of suspects who remain at large following the arrests of men across the country last week.

Downing Street sources emphasised that the threat of an attack by groups connected with those arrested still loomed. 'Despite the apparent breakthrough, it would be wrong to assume that in the case of groups like al-Qaeda it is a question of just one throw of the dice,' one source said. 'There are a series of interlocking cells. Cells overlap... certainly in this case, we can't be certain that everything has been disrupted.'

Security sources told The Observer they were carrying out some two dozen serious investigations into suspected terrorist groups, leading to concerns one might 'activate' as police closed in.

The Observer can also reveal that MI5 used a mole from within the Muslim community to infiltrate the alleged plot. According to Pakistani sources, the informer provided intelligence leading to the arrest of Rashid Rauf, a Birmingham-based businessman alleged to have links to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Rauf is the brother of Tayib Rauf, arrested last week in Birmingham in connection with the alleged plot. Pakistani intelligence sources say Tayib Rauf was held in connection with the 7 July bombings but released without charge. There was no confirmation of this from British police.

Rashid Rauf is understood to have been watched after a UK intelligence tip-off that he was in Pakistan several weeks ago. 'He has been staying here for quite some time and has been under strict surveillance since then,' a Pakistani intelligence source said. 'His calls to Britain and internet communications have been under surveillance that helped in revealing the plot.'

Britain's intelligence services had been watching some of the suspects since the informant tipped them off last December. But events in recent weeks convinced police of the need to act to prevent an atrocity which could have eclipsed 9/11 in terms of loss of life.

Following Rauf's arrest, one of his associates is understood to have phoned the UK urging those alleged to have been involved in the plot to speed up their plans. The call was intercepted by British intelligence and triggered the decision to arrest the suspects.

Last night, further details of Rauf's alleged terrorist links emerged. American and Pakistani officials claimed he had trained in al-Qaeda camps. He is also alleged to be affiliated to Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, a Muslim group close to al-Qaeda.

Labelled by the US as a terrorist organisation, Lashkar has been linked to the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Another Briton, who has not been named, was arrested with Rauf. Five other Pakistanis were also picked up, said local reports.

Four of the suspects were detained in a Punjabi village following a tip-off from the British High Commission in Islamabad, acting on information from MI5.

Two of them have been identified as Mohammad al-Ghadar and Ahmed al-Khan. One is understood to have recently travelled to Germany, where police are investigating their links with a number of terrorist suspects. Similar investigations are going on in Italy and Belgium.

In Britain, last week's alleged plot has prompted renewed concern about the possible role of university groups in radicalising some young Muslims. Today's Sunday Telegraph says an investigation of portable buildings used by the Islamic Society at London Metropolitan University turned up 'documents advocating jihad and a pamphlet on how to deal with approaches from the security services'. One of the people arrested last week was a former head of the society.

Muslim community anger over the arrests was reflected last night in remarks by Imitiaz Qadir, spokesman for the Waltham Forest Islamic Association, who said he had been in contact with several families of the people detained: 'They are devastated, and the manner of the tactics has shocked the community.'

Rukshana Bi, 34, a mother of four who lives near the Rauf family in Birmingham, said she did not believe they had links to terror: 'They're good people. The dad is good, the mum is good. I've never seen any problems. I've been living here for five years and they've only been good religious people. I can't believe it.'

Terror: What they are saying around the world

The New York Times: 'What saved everyone was apparently superb intelligence work by the British. It is unlikely that any of the scanning machines or screening personnel at airports would have detected the potentially destructive materials before they could be carried aboard.'

Dawn, Pakistan, via a blog: 'The part played by Pakistan in uncovering the plot to commit what a British spokesman called "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" is proof of Pakistan's deep commitment to fight terror. This should silence those, especially in Kabul and New Delhi, who allege every now and then that Islamabad is not doing enough and should "do more".'

The Times of India: The 'war' on terror is unlikely ever to be won; political engagement with the causes of terror would be a sounder strategy.'

The Thinking Lebanese, leb.blogspot.com: 'At the risk of being called a paranoid conspiracy theory freak, I would like to share some personal reflections I had about the so-called Terrorist Attempts in London. To be honest: I don't believe a single word of it. Those presumed attacks are a gimmick that are really in favour of the neo-cons and the trash kind of leaders who control this planet.'

The Australian: 'Those who rallied in Canberra to "stop the war" and put the onus solely on Israel have things backwards. And cynics who create a no-win situation by claiming the latest British raids were a government set-up and distraction, while blaming officials when terrorists are successful, do no one any favours. For the rest of us then, the challenge is to continue living our lives unbowed.'

EU Referendum (Eureferendum.blogspot.com) 'What of the terror plot? What can MPs do about that? If it turns out that the whole plot is non-existent there will have to be discussions about our and others' intelligence services. If, as seems more likely, it turns out to be entirely correct, the presence of MPs is entirely superfluous. We do not need more legislation. In fact, the alleged plot seems to have been uncovered without there being any ID cards, an unnecessary, stupid and wrong-headed proposal for a law.'

Christopher Dickey, Newsweek: 'The American failure to limit scenes of carnage in the Muslim world, or even to understand them, has combined with shortsighted military policies to create a kind of breeder reactor for explosive terrorism. Lebanon has become a cause that can cement ties among radical Sunnis and Shias against the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. Iran is cooking up nukes and the inflammatory issue of Palestine is farther than ever from resolution.'

    Police hunt 'two dozen' terror cells in Britain, O, 13.8.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1843667,00.html

Beckett rejects link between foreign policy and terrorism

Ministers condemn claim by leading Muslims that Britain's stance is putting this country at risk

Sunday August 13, 2006
Ned Temko, chief political correspondent
The Observer

Ministers hit back yesterday at accusations from leading Muslims, including three Labour MPs, that Britain's Middle East policy was increasing the threat of terrorist attacks.

One of the strongest responses came from the Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells, who last month became the first member of the government publicly to criticise Israeli military tactics in Lebanon.

The accusations were 'facile' and 'dangerous', he said. 'I have no doubt that there are many issues which incite people to loathe government policies - but not to strap explosives to themselves and go out and murder innocent people.'

The Transport Secretary, Douglas Alexander, who alongside the Home Secretary, John Reid, has taken the lead in responding to last week's alleged plot to blow up a number of planes, denounced the suggestion as 'dangerous and foolish'.

Responding to an open letter which was signed by the MPs, three Muslim members of the House of Lords and nearly 40 Muslim community organisations, he pointed out that terrorists had targeted countries with a range of foreign policies. He said: 'No government worth its salt should allow its foreign policy to be dictated to under the threat of terrorism.'

Earlier, the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the BBC that drawing a link between government policy and the terror threat would be the 'gravest possible error'. She said such suggestions were 'part of a distorted view of the world, a distorted view of life. Let's put the blame where it belongs: with people who wantonly want to take innocent lives.'

The Prime Minister, in a statement which was issued by Downing Street while he remained on holiday, said: 'We should always remember that the terrorism affecting the West today has blighted Muslim countries for several decades.'

He said it had long preceded Britain's part in the American-led invasion of Iraq - one of the issues raised in the Muslim leaders' letter, which was published as an advert in several newspapers.

The Prime Minister added that he would be willing to meet representatives of the signatories on his return.

The protest letter singled out 'the debacle of Iraq and the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East' as providing 'ammunition to extremists that threaten us all.' It said: 'We urge the Prime Minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion.'

The letter concluded: 'Such a move would make us all safer.'

Three of the four Muslim MPs - Sadiq Khan, Shahid Malik and Mohammed Sarwar - signed the protest. So did three of the four Muslim members of the House of Lords - Lords Patel of Blackburn and Ahmed of Rotherham and Baroness Uddin.

The letter, which was addressed to the Prime Minister, came as police said a fire which damaged a mosque in Basingstoke, Hampshire, before dawn yesterday might have been a revenge attack for the alleged bomb plot.

'We are liaising with the local Muslim community to reassure them that our protective services are in place and of our determination to prevent recurrences,' said Assistant Chief Constable Steve Watts, of Hampshire Police.

It took 16 firefighters almost two hours to extinguish the blaze, which destroyed the roof of the mosque. No one was injured in the blaze.

The controversy over the protest letter came on the eve of a government initiative to widen consultations with Muslim communities.

The Communities Secretary, Ruth Kelly, and a group of Muslim leaders will call on Muslim leaders around the country to take 'greater action to tackle extremism', while also seeking suggestions on what the government can do to support them, a spokesman for her department said.

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was scheduled to meet Muslim MPs tomorrow, he added, and a number of ministers would soon be visiting nine British cities with large Muslim communities in order to meet community representatives.

Later this month Kelly plans to launch a Commission on Integration and Cohesion. It will be chaired, according to officials in her department, by the chief executive of Ealing council in west London, Darra Singh.

    Beckett rejects link between foreign policy and terrorism, O, 13.8.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1843610,00.html

Government fears suspects named in trawl could be denied fair trial

Sunday August 13, 2006
The Observer
Mark Townsend

The Home Secretary and the Attorney General issued a joint warning to the media last night to avoid coverage of the current terror investigations that might prejudice future trials.

The statement by John Reid and Lord Goldsmith, which threatened possible contempt proceedings against publications that failed to show appropriate 'restraint', came as both men quashed media speculation they had clashed over Reid's own initial statements on the alleged plot to bomb a number of airplanes.

Reid, it emerged yesterday, had taken the unusual step of seeking the Attorney General's legal advice before publicising details of the alleged plot. Because of the 'exceptional' nature of the allegations, it was agreed he could reveal a significant amount of information surrounding the arrests of the 24 suspects.

Twenty-two of the 24 are still being questioned at Paddington Green police station in London.

Last night, Goldsmith, the government's senior legal adviser, said he was satisfied that Reid had struck the correct balance, providing the public with sufficient information to help cope with the chaotic aftermath of the arrests while avoiding compromising any potential legal charges. 'It was important that we secured the co-operation of the public following the arrests and needed to supply a level of information for that,' said a spokesman for the Attorney General.

Some legal experts were perturbed by the Treasury's decision to name the majority of suspects.

On Friday, the names of 19 suspects whose assets had been frozen were released on the Bank of England website.

Yet it has emerged the Treasury had no option. 'There are millions and millions of financial institutions, and to stop money flowing between them you have to make the details of the suspects available to everyone,' said the Attorney General's office.

The Metropolitan Police has consistently warned the media against identifying any of the suspects in the case, although it granted consent for the Treasury's naming of the suspects on the website.

Senior officers at Scotland Yard, though, were deeply frustrated that several newspaper editors deliberately chose to ignore its directive reminding them of the risk of prejudicing proceedings.

Last night's statement by Reid and Goldsmith asked for 'considerable restraint in the reporting of information relating to the ongoing investigations', and specifically cautioned against 'speculation or information relating to suspects' connections or other activities, including photographs or details of their background'. Representatives of Muslim communities in Britain reiterated their concerns last night that the 19 had effectively been tried and found guilty by the media, making a fair trial impossible.

The suspects:

The names on the Bank of England website are:

Walthamstow, London E17

Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, lives in Albert Road. Attends Queens Road mosque

Waheed Zaman, 22, head of Islamic Society at London Metropolitan University

Assan Abdullah Khan, 21, lives in Banbury Road with brother and fellow suspect Abdula Ahmed Ali

Waheed Arafat Khan, 25, lives in Farnan Avenue

Cossor Ali, 23

Osman Adam Khatib, 19, lives in Wellington Road

Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, security guard at Heathrow

Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, lives in Banbury Road with brother and fellow suspect Assan Abdullah Khan

Ibrahim Savant, 25, lives in Alkam Road. Changed name from Oliver Savant when converted to Islam. Attends Queens Road mosque

Poplar, London E14

Umair Hussain, 24

Stoke Newington, London

Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 35, oldest of the known suspects

Chingford, Essex

Nabeel Hussain, 22

Leyton, London E10

Tanvir Hussain, 25

Clapton, London E5

Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, youngest known suspect

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Waseem Kayani, 29, reported to have recently returned from Pakistan, where he married

Umar Islam, 28, West Indian Christian background; changed name from Brian Young when converted to Islam

Assad Sarwar, 26, believed to have attended the Muslim Education Centre in Totteridge Drive. Brother of suspect Amjad Sarwar

Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, believed to have attended the Muslim Education Centre in Totteridge Drive. Runs car import business, AKZ Trading. Brother of suspect Haider Ali

Birmingham

Tayib Rauf, 22, lives in Ward End. Works with brother at father's cake business, Classic Confectionery Supplies. Brother, Rashid, arrested in Pakistan

Not on the Bank of England list:

Walthamstow

Atika Sidyot, wife of Ibrahim Savant. Reportedly pregnant

High Wycombe

Amjad Sarwar, 28, works at Shazad Khuram Ali's car business, AKZ. Brother of Assad Sarwar

Adbul Waheed (or Wahid), 21, changed name from Don Stewart-Whyte when converted to Islam

Haider Ali, works for his brother Shazad Khuram Ali's car business, AKZ

Unnamed, woman in her twenties with a six-month-old child

    Government fears suspects named in trawl could be denied fair trial, O, 13.8.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1843606,00.html

These ludicrous lies about the West and Islam

Sunday August 13, 2006
Leader
The Observer


The first Islamist terrorist plot against New York's World Trade Centre was carried out on 26 February 1993 with a car bomb under one of the twin towers. It killed six people but failed in its aim of bringing the whole building down. To achieve that, another plot was hatched.

Meanwhile, British and American foreign policy was focused not on the Islamic world, but on the unstable transition of former communist countries to democracy. Twice during the Nineties, Nato launched military interventions in the Balkans, both aimed at protecting Muslim populations in Bosnia and Kosovo. What Middle East policy there was focused on diplomatic efforts, led by President Clinton, to negotiate lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

This was hardly a Western war against Islam. Britain and America spent much of the Nineties trying to prevent conflicts or to resolve them. At worst, as shamefully in Rwanda, they simply ignored them. They were transparently not running a conspiracy to trample the Muslim faithful underfoot. The people who depicted it that way were a tiny minority telling lies to justify murder.

But things have changed. The argument that terrorism is, in fact, a response to Western actions overseas has gained currency. It was voiced most recently on Saturday in an open letter by a number of influential British Muslim leaders to Tony Blair. The Prime Minister's policy in the Middle East, they said, puts British lives at risk. The implication is that the young Britons who last week were accused of plotting to blow up passenger planes in mid-air would have been less susceptible to al-Qaeda recruitment had Britain not fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Policy should be changed, they said, to avoid giving ideological 'ammunition to extremists'.

There is indeed a plausible argument that military action in recent years has made Britain less, not more, secure. In particular, the conduct of the war in Iraq, regardless of the virtues of removing Saddam Hussein from office, has been riddled with error. The absence of weapons of mass destruction, removal of which was the premise for war, has undermined trust in the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, engagement in Iraq has made it harder to secure victory in Afghanistan, where the anti-terror justification for war was rock solid.

But even within the bleakest possible analysis of Mr Blair's foreign policy, it is still simply not true that the West is waging war on Islam. Just as it is not true that the CIA was really behind the 11 September attacks or any other arrant conspiratorial nonsense that enjoys widespread credence in the Middle East and beyond. It is also a logical and moral absurdity to imply, as some critics of British policy have done, that mass murder is somehow less atrocious when it is motivated by an elaborate narrative of political grievance.

If young British Muslims are alienated, that is sad and their anger should be addressed. But anyone whose alienation leads them to want to kill indiscriminately has crossed a line into psychopathic criminality. Policy cannot be dictated by the need to placate such people.

British Muslim leaders are entitled, along with everybody else, to raise questions about the conduct and consequences of Mr Blair's foreign policy. But they have a more immediate responsibility to promote the truth: that Britain is not the aggressor in a war against Islam; that no such war exists; that there is no glory in murder dressed as martyrdom and that terrorism is never excused by bogus accounts of historical victimisation.

    These ludicrous lies about the West and Islam, O, 13.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1843562,00.html

Britain's Al-Qaeda leader seized

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times 
David Leppard

SECURITY sources believe that a man arrested in last week’s anti- terror raids in Britain is Al-Qaeda’s leader in this country.

Home Office officials say that one of those arrested is suspected not only of masterminding the foiled plot to bring down up to nine transatlantic airliners, but also of involvement in other planned atrocities over the past few years.

They believe that he was instrumental in sending the ringleader of at least one previous British terror plot for training at a camp in Pakistan last year. He is described by counter-terrorist officials at MI5 as the senior figure in a British terror network involving Kashmiri, north African and Iraqi cells.

Scotland Yard believes that the plan to bring down airliners involved up to 20 terrorists who were planning to smuggle liquid bomb components in hand luggage onto nine British and American passenger jets.

Their targets were planes leaving Heathrow and possibly three other British airports later this month.

The bombs were to be assembled on board by combining peroxide and acid-based substances into liquid explosives. The plan was to explode the devices simultaneously as the planes headed for cities in America.

Paul Stephenson, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said it was a plot “to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale”. It is estimated that as many as 3,000 people could have been killed.

The thwarting of the alleged plot has, however, failed to quash continuing fears among counter-terrorist experts. Senior security officials have briefed ministers that a “second phase” of attacks may be about to be launched.

At least two suspects escaped last Wednesday night’s police raids. Although they are not thought to be significant players, there remain concerns that they may now be galvanised into taking some form of unspecified action.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda’s deputy head, is said to have warned in a message placed on a restricted extremists’ website last month that the terrorist group was planning two large-scale attacks this autumn.

The FBI has assigned 200 agents to follow up any leads that come out of the British investigation. Security sources said that separate surveillance operations by police and MI5 were continuing into a variety of suspected plots by other terror cells.

These included plans, said to be in their early stages, to target ferry ports, the railway network and the London Underground. Police say they are also stepping up patrols at some mainline railway stations.

A senior transport security official said: “The question is: have we got everybody? If they are going to find airports too difficult, the railways aren’t a bad second choice.” However, he emphasised that there was no specific intelligence that the railways were under imminent threat.

Police sources claimed yesterday to have seized “high grade evidence” including chemicals, documents and a video during last week’s raids in east London, Birmingham and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

They believe they have arrested “the ringleaders, the technical experts and the foot soldiers” behind the plot. “The leadership was very professional,” said a police source.

The investigation into the suspected Al-Qaeda leader in Britain and his UK associates was considered by Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5’s director-general, to be the security service’s single most important line of inquiry.

He is suspected of being behind two “pipelines” which saw potential terrorist recruits being sent for training at camps in Pakistan and to join the “holy war” in Iraq.

The Al-Qaeda leader — who cannot be named for legal reasons— acts as a suspected hub in a network of extremist groups. These include Kashmiri and north African groups based in this country. He is linked to a second suspect also in Britain who has “played a major role in facilitating support for the Iraq jihad”.

A third associate is an Iraqi who came to Britain in 2004 and worked on providing support for British extremists who wanted to travel to Iraq to fight the “holy war”.

MI5 said he acquired weapons in preparation for an unspecified attack in Britain. He was detained in January last year pending deportation to Iraq.

The British leader’s suspected links with other Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan have been the subject of intense MI5 scrutiny since last August.

It was the arrest of another associate in Pakistan last week that prematurely triggered Operation Overt, the counter-terrorist plan that is said to have foiled the transatlantic airliner plot.

Contrary to claims by the Pakistani government, the arrest was not anticipated in London. There were also conflicting reports about the reasons for the suspect’s arrest.

One Pakistani official said he had been under surveillance for several weeks following a tip-off from Britain. He was said to have been monitored visiting radical imams and seminaries that had been linked to terrorism. The official said he had travelled to some of the same places as Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the July 7 bombers.

Some of those arrested were reported to have travelled to Pakistan to engage in charity work following last October’s earthquake.

John Reid, the home secretary, reviewed the security situation when he chaired a further meeting of Cobra, the emergency committee which is co-ordinating the government’s response.

Although police say that they have arrested all those they wanted, the country still remains on “critical” alert. This means that MI5 believes that a further attack could be imminent.

The Metropolitan police said 23 people remained in custody last night. One person was released on Friday.

The origins of Operation Overt are said by some American officials to have begun in 2003. However, the full-scale inquiry is not thought to have been launched until last August when dozens of surveillance officers were assigned to monitor the British Al-Qaeda leader’s home.

A Pakistani official close to the intelligence services there was reported yesterday as saying that there may have been a British mole planted by the security services inside the terror cells in the UK.

Two of those arrested last week are said to have visited Pakistan in the months before the planned attacks. They are said to have met Matuir Rehman, an Al-Qaeda suspect and specialist in explosives.

After the two Britons returned to this country, they are believed to have received a wire transfer of money.

Pakistani authorities say the man arrested there last week had fled the West Midlands several years ago. He had received training in explosives at Al-Qaeda camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border and had organised Al-Qaeda funding for the organisation's leader in Britain.

One agent said he had been under surveillance for several weeks following a tip-off from British intelligence which had been following up several Pakistan-related leads from its investigation into last year’s July 7 bombings.

It was British detectives who uncovered the role of the man arrested in Pakistan last week and tipped off their Pakistani counterparts.

    Britain's Al-Qaeda leader seized, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310645,00.html

 


Focus: Terror in the skies

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times

For most of Wednesday Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard’s top anti-terrorist investigator, had been reviewing routine reports about his network of surveillance operations monitoring terrorist suspects across Britain.

As the evening drew on he picked up the telephone to make a critical call to the head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller. For months the two had been co- ordinating Operation Overt, a huge surveillance and intelligence effort aimed at two cells of suspected Islamic militants who were believed to be plotting a massive terrorist attack.

They had been patiently gathering evidence and following all the tentacles and were preparing to move in only when they were satisfied that they had every suspect covered. Now a sudden twist of fate threatened to disrupt their plans. It was time for a decision: to pounce or to continue stalking.

Thousands of miles away a British man called Rashid Rauf had been arrested in Pakistan. Reports of what had happened were conflicting.

One senior Pakistani government official said the Pakistani police had detained Rauf, a Muslim, in connection with an investigation into the murder of his uncle, who had been stabbed in Britain in April 2002. He told The Sunday Times that Rauf had been arrested in the southeastern city of Hyderabad while going to catch a bus to Karachi.

But a Pakistani intelligence source said Rauf had been under surveillance for several weeks following a tip-off from Britain. He had been caught in Bahawalpur, said the source, in the home of a militant linked to the proscribed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, a band of Sunni extremists.

Wherever and why he was arrested, two things were clear. British police were caught by surprise, and Rauf was much more than a man wanted in connection with a murder inquiry. He is, the intelligence agencies believe, linked to Al-Qaeda. “He’s the main guy in Pakistan,” said the intelligence source. “He has a very large network extending beyond Europe.”

And he is the brother of a man in Britain who the British security services suspected of being involved in the biggest terrorist plot to be planned in the UK.

News of the arrest came as a shock in London. The soft- spoken Clarke conferred with Manningham-Buller. How long would it be before Rauf’s arrest in Pakistan became common knowledge in Britain? What would happen then?

At Scotland Yard dozens of senior officers and plainclothes detectives assembled, waiting for Clarke’s orders.

By mid-evening Clarke and Manningham-Buller had reached their decision. They could wait no longer. They could not risk the entire operation being blown.

“It was all hands to the pump,” said a senior police source familiar with the operation. “It was a pretty exceptional piece of business. They just gathered up all the people who were available to do this at short notice.”

Teams of detectives and anti-terrorist officers headed out into the night. Shortly before 11pm John Weir, of Forest Road, Walthamstow, east London, noticed an unusual number of cars parking on the street, their occupants staying put.

“About 11.50pm two vans came up the road and parked at either end of the street. Then about 20 officers, four of them were in uniform, ran up and bashed in the door of a house,” he said.

“None of them seemed to have any weapons, although they weren’t local police. I know that because our local police station is just up the road and it wasn’t the officers from there.”

The officers hurried upstairs to a first-floor flat, swarming in with flashlights.

A little later Riaz Jaffary, another Walthamstow resident, noticed more police cars arriving in Ravenswood Road at the home of Asim Tariq — listed by the Bank of England after his bank account had been frozen as Amin, but known by everyone as Asim — who worked as a security guard at Heathrow.

“About 10 or 15 police officers arrived in vans, some of them in uniform and some in plainclothes,” said Jaffary.

“They barged into the house and minutes later they took every member of the family, including the baby and the two-year-old girl, and put them in a van and drove them away. Asim was brought out in handcuffs,” he said.

A few miles away Tariq’s cousin was also being bundled into a police car. Then, in the early hours, three more men, all believed to be students at universities in London, were arrested in or near the Queen’s Road mosque in Walthamstow.

In total the raids netted 24 people that night, ranging from Walthamstow to High Wycombe to Birmingham. Later in the day police raided three internet cafes, one in Reading and two in Slough, taking away computer hard drives.

All those who were taken for questioning were British citizens. Many were well educated and middle class. One was the son of a former Tory party agent, another was the son of an architect. Three were converts to Islam.

Yesterday specialist forensic teams set up a temporary control centre in the King’s Wood area of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire as uniformed officers with picks and spades made a sweep of woodland.

One of the men taken into custody, Tayib Rauf, is the brother of the man whose arrest in Pakistan sparked the raids.

Locals knew Tayib Rauf and his family as “intensely religious” people who trekked over to the mosque each day at 5am and prayed five times a day. “They are deeply religious but peaceful,” said Mohammed Arif, a neighbour of the Rauf family, after the raids. “This must be a mistake. They are brilliant, peaceful people. But I suppose you don’t know what people do behind closed doors.”

MI5 and the police suspected that behind closed doors Rauf and others had been plotting mayhem and murder on “an unimaginable scale”.

They believed that the suspects had been planning to smuggle bombs aboard as many as nine airliners in a wave of attacks over the Atlantic or above American cities, blowing the aircraft out of the skies and potentially killing as many as 3,000 people.

They feared that Britain faced its own September 11.

On the morning before the raids John Reid, the home secretary, had made a speech about terrorism as part of his reform of the Home Office. In it he had declared the country was facing “probably the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of the second world war”.

Reid had been aware of the intelligence operation but had not been aware of the imminent raids. As he spoke he had not known just how prescient his words would seem only hours later.

Although the scale of the alleged attacks might seem astonishing, intelligence agencies suspected even more. The plot, they believed, had global reach. Late on Friday more than 40 people were arrested in Italy, though officials later played down the significance of the swoop.

“The whole plot has an Al-Qaeda connection linked to Afghanistan,” Aftab Sherpao, the Pakistani interior minister, told The Sunday Times from his home in Peshawar last week.

“It has far wider international connections than so far reported.”

THE investigation had begun last year in the wake of the July 7 suicide bombings in London.

Hundreds of counterterrorist officers had been deployed to investigate the “concentric circles” of individuals around the 7/7 bombers and the suspects who had been arrested after the abortive July 21 attacks.

By September the attention of MI5’s international terrorism division was beginning to concentrate on the Ward End area of Birmingham.

A surveillance operation on Tayib Rauf involved dozens of MI5 officers. His telephones were bugged and, sources say, warrants were obtained to insert listening devices in his home.

The operation was regarded as so sensitive that when The Sunday Times hinted at it in an article published earlier this year, it was threatened with legal action by the Treasury solicitors.

Over the next few months the MI5 investigation built up a picture of a group of individuals who were suspected of forming a militant cell.

Then earlier this year investigators say they found connections to a second suspected cell in and around London. That, too, was subjected to intensive monitoring.

As Clarke described it dryly last week: “We have been looking at meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people.” E-mails, mobile phones and bank accounts were all tracked.

The intelligence services had long been aware that Al-Qaeda and other militant terror groups were developing small bombs for use against planes.

The FBI had sent MI5 a bulletin outlining fears that suicide terrorists had been plotting to hijack transatlantic aircraft by smuggling individual explosive ingredients past airport security and then assembling the bombs on board.

The FBI warning was entitled Possible Hijacking Tactic for Using Aircraft as Weapons. It said: “Components of improvised explosive devices can be smuggled onto an aircraft, concealed in either clothing or personal carry-on items such as shampoo and medicine bottles, and assembled on board. In many cases of suspicious passenger activity, incidents have taken place in the aircraft’s forward lavatory.”

In June a known Al-Qaeda website, protected by a password but secretly monitored by MI5, had yielded more clues. It detailed information in the style of a manual on how to destroy airliners using new types of miniature bombs.

One device used an adapted flash unit from a disposable camera as an electric detonator. Various ways of powering the detonator were suggested, including personal music players.

One potential type of explosive was nicknamed Mother of Satan because of its power and volatility. Known as triacetone triperoxide or TATP, it can made from mixing two or more harmless household liquids, such as hair bleach and nail varnish remover.

If properly mixed the substance can be as lethal as military-grade explosives. Similar mixtures were used by the London suicide bombers on July 7, 2005.

Despite the warnings and suspicions, the security services faced considerable uncertainty. Several of their suspects seemed far from the typical image of would-be terrorists.

One was Don Stewart-Whyte, the son of a Tory party agent (who died nine years ago), who had been brought up in the stockbroker belt of Buckinghamshire.

His mother is a PE teacher and his half-sister Heather, from his father’s first marriage, is a successful model. She was formerly married to Yannick Noah, the French tennis star.

Stewart-Whyte had been brought up as a Methodist and attended Dr Challoner’s grammar school in Amersham.

According to one neighbour, he had converted to Islam only about six months ago and changed his name to Abdul Wahid.

“I met him in Currys where he was working,” said a taxi driver in High Wycombe last week. “

As soon as he saw that I was a Muslim he greeted me with ‘Salaam’ and shook my hand. “I could tell that he was a convert, making a big thing out of greeting fellow Muslims. It’s what the new generation do, what the young radicals do.”

Another convert was Brian Young, 28, whose parents, from St Lucia, had brought him up as a Christian. But three years ago he converted to Islam and changed his name to Umar Islam.

Oliver Savant was another young Briton brought up in well-to-do circumstances who was taken in for questioning. The son of an accountant and architect, Savant had converted to Islam, changed his name to Ibrahim Savant and began to frequent the Masjid-E-Umer mosque in Queen’s Road, Walthamstow.

At least five more of the people taken into custody last week also attended the mosque, including Waheed Zaman, 22, a final year student in biochemistry at London Metropolitan University.

Others seemed to have more troubled backgrounds. Abdul Patel, at 17 the youngest arrested last week, had grown up in east London as the son of Muslim immigrants from India.

Yesterday a former friend of Patel recalled how he had changed from being a carefree boy who used to enjoy playing football in the street into a cold and temperamental youth.

The friend claimed that Patel’s character had changed two or three years ago when his father, a mechanic called Mohammed, travelled to Iraq on a Muslim aid mission and, apparently, never returned home.

Having attended Northwold primary school, which is directly opposite his home, Patel’s secondary education was cut short. He was expelled at the age of 15 or 16.

“He was kicked out because he was bunking off lessons all the time,” said the friend. “He didn’t try to get back into school and just ended up staying at home all day. I don’t think he started work.

“At one stage he used to come around to help us carry out repairs in our home, but in less than a year he turned 180 degrees.”

Patel had taken to wearing traditional Muslim clothes. But more recently, said the friend, he switched back to western clothing but nobody knew why.

“He did have a temper on him,” said the friend. “Only last week he was arguing with my grandfather for staring at him in the street.”

Tariq, another of those arrested in east London, “did not look shocked, just perfectly calm” when he was arrested, said a neighbour. Tariq, 23, recently became a father and had worked for two years at Heathrow for an airline called Jet Airways.

A few miles away his cousin Tanvir Hussain was also arrested. Hussain, 25, is described by neighbours as an ordinary, quiet young man. Recently married, he sports a bushy beard and wears western clothes.

After leaving university he worked as a telesales rep for Mobile Connections, a phone company. He was often seen driving a black four-door Mercedes and praying alongside his family at the Noor-ul-Islam mosque in Leyton.

One local, who did not wish to be named, claimed that Hussain in private had become increasingly resentful over the past two or three years. “He was an angry young man,” said the source.

The object of his rage was apparently British foreign policy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel. Relatives said that his behaviour had changed in recent weeks. One friend said that Hussain had been making trips outside London.

“He visited some friends in High Wycombe about two weeks ago,” said the source. During a recent trip to see family members in the West Midlands, he made his excuses and left early. The source was surprised by his behaviour, recalling: “He said he wanted to visit some mates in Birmingham.”

BOTH Clarke and Manningham-Buller were all too well aware that Al-Qaeda had previously planned a mass attack on long-haul flights.

In December 1994 a known Al-Qaeda terrorist called Ramzi Yousef had smuggled a small bomb onto a flight from the Philippines to Japan, concealing the batteries used to detonate it in his shoes.

Yousef had got off the flight after its first leg, leaving the bomb hidden on board and timed to detonate four hours later. When it exploded in mid-flight it killed a Japanese businessmen who was seated nearby but failed to destroy the aircraft.

The attack had been a dry run for a much bigger plan. Yousef’s grand aim, in what became known as Operation Bojinka, was to smuggle liquid chemical explosives hidden in fruit juice bottles, children’s dolls and containers of contact lens solution onto 12 aircraft.

The plot was uncovered when a fire started at a flat that Yousef was using to prepare his bombs. Yousef fled but was later arrested at a hotel in Manila. Investigators found details of the Bojinka plan and dolls containing nitrocellulose. He was sentenced to 240 years in prison by an American court.

As security officials weighed the implications of Rauf’s arrest in Pakistan — fearing that they might be facing Bojinka II — calls went out to government ministers.

Douglas Alexander, the transport secretary, was whisked by helicopter from his holiday on the Isle of Mull. By late Wednesday evening he had joined Reid in the Cabinet Office. There Reid chaired the first of what would be a series of ministerial meetings of Cobra, the government committee which is convened in times of national emergency.

Around the table were senior officials from MI5, MI6, the Home Office, the Department for Transport and the Cabinet Office.

Since the aftermath of the 2005 July attacks in London the level of terrorist threat had been rated “severe”, meaning that an attack was “highly likely”. Now they debated whether to raise it to the highest level — “critical” — meaning an attack was imminent.

That carried its own risks of alerting those under surveillance before they had all been rounded up.

They waited while the raids went on. At 2am on Thursday the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) raised the level to critical.

Stephen Nelson, the new chief executive of the British Airports Authority (BAA), the UK’s largest airports operator, was on his way home from a business party in central London and was unaware of the impending chaos.

However, officials at the Department for Transport were already briefing Ian Hutcheson, BAA’s director of security, about the need to prevent almost all hand luggage being taken into aircraft cabins.

An automated alert went out to airports and main airlines, including British Airways. Working through the small hours Alexander called Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA, to explain the situation.

“The headline advice was that no hand luggage would be allowed,” said a source at the airline. “We were told that this was to do with a specific threat. It was a shock. We could see straight away that this was going to be a major, major problem.”

Passengers would be allowed only the bare essentials as their hand luggage, such as wallets, purses and travel documents.

All liquids were barred with the exception of medicines and baby milk, which would have to be tasted by passengers in front of airport security staff.

Mobile phones and all other electrical devices would have to be stored in the hold.

“We were facing the prospect of tens of thousands of customers turning up and having to unpack their bags and go through increased security checks,” said an airline official.

For passengers crammed into Heathrow by the delays, feelings ran from frustration to fury. For Reid, on the other hand, the timing happened to be a golden opportunity to shine.

With Tony Blair holidaying on a yacht in the Caribbean, Gordon Brown closeted away with his wife and newborn son in Fife, and the disgraced John Prescott still smarting over his empty portfolio, Reid had a chance to bestride the stage in prime ministerial style.

For weeks he had endured a relentless criticism of his department’s failure to control immigration. What could be a better distraction than the foiling of an alleged plot to murder British airline passengers with thousands of fatalities?

In a series of assured television performances, Reid spoke with gravitas on the nature of the threat — while Prescott, the man nominally in charge of the country, was left fumbling.

Blair was kept informed all along, but the chancellor learnt of events only at 4.30am after the alert had swung into action. “They thought they were waking him up, although actually he was up with the baby,” a Treasury aide said.

It was Prescott whose pride was most dented. Many around Westminster believed that Reid had “stitched Prezza up”, as one put it.

Not until 7pm on Friday — “36 hours after the initial alert”, as Steve Bates, media adviser to Reid, helpfully pointed out — did Prescott finally appear to address the nation. By then his sombre tone and flat delivery jarred.

IN the febrile atmosphere following the raids, all sorts of spectacular claims emerged, some from British sources, but mostly from the United States and Pakistan. Some reports claimed that police searching one of the suspects’ houses had found airline tickets booked for August 16. A new date seemed set to enter the annals of terror: 16/8.

Other reports claimed that five more suspects were on the run. Yet more claimed that a message had been sent from Pakistan ordering the alleged plotters to “go now” — implying that they had been ordered to attack.

That was wrong. Scotland Yard said yesterday that no airline tickets had been found. Nor are five significant suspects on the run. Police are seeking two further people in connection with the investigation, but believe that they have all the main figures they want to question — although they can never be certain in such an investigation.

A police source yesterday could not confirm that a “martyrdom video” had been found during their investigations; instead the source said merely that “video evidence” relevant to the case had been obtained. Some chemicals and potentially incriminating documentary material are also said to have been recovered.

After the debacle of Forest Gate — in which two suspects were arrested amid great fanfare, only to be released without charge — the police still have a long way to go.

This weekend Scotland Yard forensic teams are continuing to search homes and businesses at addresses in Walthamstow, east London, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

Yesterday the threat level in Britain remained at “critical” and Reid chaired a further meeting of Cobra, the government emergency committee. Well placed security sources said that concerns about terrorist plots run far wider than the suspicions — all of which have yet to be proven — of Operation Overt.

The sources disclosed that separate surveillance operations by police and MI5 are under way into a variety of other suspected plots by terror cells. These include plans, said to be in their early stages, to target ferry ports, the railway network and the London Underground.

As Reid said in his speech: “Britain is facing a new breed of international terrorist.”

If the suspicions of MI5 and the police are proved correct, many of them might turn out to have been born and bred here.

THE MEN THE POLICE ARE HOLDING

The police took 24 people in for questioning and have released one without charge. Most of the rest can be held in custody until Wednesday, although police can then seek permission to hold them for longer, up to a limit of 28 days. Among those seized were:

Usman Muhammed Saddique, 24, from Walthamstow, worked at his brother’s pizza restaurant. Nicknamed Uzi, he is “highly educated” and a fitness fanatic, say friends, but had a rebellious streak. Police took videos and computer disks from his house.


Assan Abdullah Khan, 21, and Waheed Arafat Khan, 25, lived together at a semi-detached house in Walthamstow. The brothers were known locally as proficient amateur mechanics who helped to fix neighbours’ cars. Assan is studying at the University of Hertfordshire and his elder brother is married with a baby. They prayed daily at a mosque close to their home.


Assad Sarwar, 26, lived with his brother in an ex-council house in High Wycombe. His brother, who was not arrested, is known locally as “Valentino” after he posted his details on an internet dating site three years ago, revealing that he liked rap music and fish and wanted to meet a girl with a “nice personality”.


Waseem Kayani, 29, from High Wycombe. A taxi driver who lived with his parents and wore western clothes. Neighbours say he had a pronounced limp and had shaved his head while retaining his long beard. He recently returned from Pakistan with a new bride.


Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, from High Wycombe runs a car trading company which is believed to have employed fellow suspect Assad Sarwar. Accounts show that the company made an £11,000 loss last year. Neighbours have complained about the building of a makeshift mosque in his back garden. Recently visited Pakistan.


Mohammed Shamin Uddin, 35, from Stoke Newington moved into his housing association flat a month ago. The former body-builder is understood to have suffered from mental illness after a violent assault which temporarily left him in a coma.


Waheed Zaman, 22, from Walthamstow is a final year biochemistry student at London Metropolitan University. He is president of the college Islamic society and lives opposite the Queen’s Road mosque where at least eight of the suspects are believed to have worshipped. Friends say he was too busy revising for exams to be a bomb plotter.


Don Stewart-Whyte, 20, son of a former Tory agent, attended a grammar school. His half-sister is Heather Stewart-Whyte, a successful model who lives in north London. She has said that she has never met her half-brother.


Umair Hussain, 24, and his brother Nabeel Hussain, 22, were seized in Hackney, east London. Nabeel, a hospital administrator, recently visited Pakistan — friends say he went with his grandmother.

Reporting team: London: David Leppard, Jonathan Calvert, Abul Taher, Dipesh Gadher, Gareth Walsh, Will Iredale, Isabel Oakeshott, Jonathan Milne; Delhi: Christina Lamb, Dean Nelson; Karachi: Ghulam Hasnain

    Focus: Terror in the skies, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310607,00.html

Street unrest feared over terror arrests

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times
Isabel Oakeshott and Abul Taher

PREPARATIONS to head off possible violence on the streets are being made in the wake of the alleged terrorist plot uncovered last week.

Talks are being held with local authority leaders in seven areas of England where it is feared tensions could boil over.

New measures to win over the Muslim community are to be considered as Islamic leaders predict protests. Yesterday a mosque was set alight in what police believe could be the first in a series of revenge attacks.

Ministers have scheduled meetings with leading Muslim organisations in which they will appeal for a united front against extremists. They are concerned by the public reaction of Muslims, amid evidence that many ordinary people are sceptical about the way the anti-terror operation was carried out.

Downing Street is also worried about the waning support of the most influential Muslim groups in Britain.

A statement signed by every leading Muslim organisation and placed in yesterday’s newspapers blamed British foreign policy for giving “ammunition to extremists”. It was signed by

36 organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain, representing a further 400 groups.

The council said the letter was written in response to the Lebanon crisis, and it was coincidental that its publication came after last week’s arrests.

A spokesman said: “We published it because our government and the US are the only two that did not call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.”

The full-page advertisement is likely to worry Tony Blair, who has ploughed millions of pounds into initiatives to reconcile Muslims since the terror attacks of July 7 last year.

Last night, the government said it would focus attention on five London boroughs — Newham, Hackney, Barking, Dagenham and Waltham Forest — as well as Birmingham and High Wycombe. All these areas were affected by last week’s raids.

Concerns have been stoked by the British National party, which held its summer rally yesterday and has a strong presence in several of the boroughs being monitored.

Nick Griffin, chairman of the BNP, called yesterday for all Muslims aged between 15 and 50 to be banned from flying and said there was “no such thing as a moderate Muslim”.

Further evidence of tension came early yesterday when fire crews were called to a blaze at Al-Birr Masjid mosque in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Police believe it was arson.

Leading Muslims have warned of trouble if last week’s anti-terror operation did not result in any charges.

Labour’s Lord Ahmed said: “The police on the whole have acted professionally and satisfactorily. But they must produce some evidence soon, otherwise people will not believe.”

Ministers are trying to balance the need to maintain calm with warnings of further moves against would-be terrorists.

John Reid, the home secretary, told police chiefs yesterday: “No one should be under any illusion that the threat ended with the recent arrests.

It didn’t.”

    Street unrest feared over terror arrests, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310625,00.html

Integration into British society will not stop Muslim anger

Was this the week that terrorism went ‘mainstream’, asks Navid Akhtar

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times

Last Thursday morning as I walked down Folkestone Road in Walthamstow to my home two streets away, I listened intently on my mobile phone to a friend tell me about the overnight police raids in his home town of High Wycombe. I passed a house that had been cordoned off by police, but it never occurred to me that something untoward had also happened in my neighbourhood.

Walthamstow is like any other anonymous London suburb flourishing from the overspill of city dwellers from areas such as Islington and Hackney. The streets are leafy and many homes sell for a handsome £500,000. We are an increasingly diverse community: despite the large number of Pakistanis who settled there in the 1960s and 1970s, it is no longer an exclusively Muslim area and there are a number of Polish, Somali and Turkish residents.

Yet when I got home and switched on the television, I realised we were now a town under siege, forever cloaked in suspicion and stained by the infamous terrorist label.

I do not know any of the people arrested last week; but since the July 7 bombings a year ago I have studied the behaviour of disaffected young Muslims in Britain who have been lured into the extremist snare.

When I investigated this issue for Channel 4’s Dispatches last autumn I concluded that the disaffected of this generation were frustrated by the restrictive clan system — called Biraderi — inherent in many Pakistani communities and the wider emphasis on individualism espoused by the state.

In Beeston, where two of the London bombers had lived, integration with the wider community was minimal, education poor and the job prospects bleak. The “orphans of Islam” who emerged were angry and directionless, susceptible to adopting a new political Islamic identity.

The arrests last week, however, have suggested something very different. Many of those arrested are middle class and well-educated. They do not appear to have been brainwashed by aggravating imams like Omar Bakri or Abu Hamza or by militant groups while travelling in Pakistan.

Many appear to have been following a sensible career path. If any of those arrested are subsequently convicted, does it mean there is a new class of extremist? Has the mindset of young British Muslims changed since last year? Can the bomber become mainstream? Despite all the government rhetoric in the post 9/11 era that better integration is the key to winning the war on terror, most of the people arrested last week were fully assimilated. We learnt that Oliver Savant, 25, who was arrested at his parents’ home in Folkestone Road runs an event management company with his brother Adam. He had only recently decided to convert to Islam and change his name to Ibrahim and he is expecting a child with his new wife Atika.

But he is now under suspicion for helping to plan what would have been the worst terrorist attack in recent history. Why would such a person, seemingly with everything to live for, allegedly want to engage in terrorism against his own country? If they are representative, the only plausible answer is to consider their supposed ideology. They have enjoyed the freedoms and reaped the benefits of our liberal democracy and capitalist economy, and we should consider that they are not acting entirely on the basis of an extreme religious conviction.

Instead, at the root of this ideology are the various wars in the Middle East. There is an incredible sense of betrayal and deep resentment among the Islamic community at the government’s failure to intervene in the Lebanon crisis, which is compounded by the number of civilian deaths in Iraq every day.

Those in their early twenties — like most of the suspects — have been caught up in the war on terror for much of their adult lives. They have seen their fellow Muslims being killed in wars conducted by their own government and they feel responsible.

Consequently, many young British Muslims live in a dual reality. They have had a good education and enjoy a great sense of personal empowerment, but they lack figureheads to help them unravel the burdens of their experience of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 7/7 bombings and other trials, such as the Danish cartoon crisis.

Even in Walthamstow the Muslim community is still dominated by its elders. They control the mosques, they decide who gets elected to the local councils; yet despite everything that has happened since the 7/7 attacks, there is very little evidence of community initiatives to address the issues and concerns troubling young Muslims.

The kind of Islam practised here is a very passive. It focuses on personal responsibility, but it doesn’t properly address the reality of life outside the mosque. It’s theoretical, it’s old church and it’s suited to someone living in Pakistan.

The imams don’t understand the realities of living in contemporary British society. The imam at my local mosque, for example, insists on speaking Urdu instead of English during his sermon, although very few youngsters can understand him.

It is frightening to think of the consequences if the suspects did pose a genuine threat and were able to execute their alleged plan to blow up passenger planes over the Atlantic. Britain’s Muslim community does not deny that these people exist or that bigger problems lurk around the corner.

Last week’s events have turned the spotlight back on the Muslim community and there will be calls for us to root out any more alleged plotters lurking in the shadows. The problem is there is no specific Muslim community in Walthamstow. Like many other residents I work in the centre of London and mix with people from all persuasions. Walthamstow is not a ghetto in the mould of Beeston and we do not have an official representative or figurehead.

Instead, a number of disillusioned youngsters feel more attached to the global community via the internet than they do to their immediate community on the ground.

In general terms, as second or third-generation Britons, we are very patriotic: in every Pakistani community this summer people wore England shirts during the World Cup.

But the majority of British Muslims cannot forgive the government for embarking on a series of wars in which hundreds of fellow innocent Muslims have died.


Navid Akhtar was speaking to Peter Hall

    Integration into British society will not stop Muslim anger, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310599,00.html

Mosque pleads for calm after being linked to eight suspects

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times

A mosque in Walthamstow, east London, is emerging as the hub where a number of the terror suspects may have met each other and become friends, writes Abul Taher.

At least eight suspects worshipped at the Masjid-E-Umer mosque regularly, three of whom were well known to those that run it.

Waheed Zaman, 22, lived opposite the mosque on Queens Road, and is believed to have prayed five time a day. Zaman, a final-year biochemistry student at London Metropolitan University, is understood to have become friends there with Ibrahim Savant, 25, a white convert to Islam, and Muhammed Usman Saddeque, 24. All three were known as “good Muslims” to mosque officials.

Savant is believed to have converted to Islam about five years ago.

It is understood that the Hussain brothers, Umair, 25, Nabeel, 22, and Mehran, were all frequent worshippers at the mosque, though they are known to have worshipped at others in the area. They used to sell alcohol-free perfumes outside mosques during prayer times.

All three brothers are believed to be students at universities around London.

A senior Muslim leader said brothers Assan Abdullah Khan, 23, and Waheed Khan, 25, also visited the mosque.

The Umer mosque, which is one of the biggest in the area with a capacity of about 1,300, adheres to the strict Deobandi sect of Sunni Islam, which derives from the Indian subcontinent.

No extremist Muslim groups have infiltrated the mosque but it is believed that local fanatics have distributed leaflets outside during prayer times.

Iqbal Mehtar, a trustee of the mosque, said: “Every mosque has that problem. There is nothing we can do about it.”

The mosque does allow a missionary Islamic group, Tablighi Jamaat, to preach inside. The sect is known for its tendency towards secrecy.

Western security services have in the past accused the global Tablighi movement of being a “conveyor belt” for terrorism.

However, members of the Tablighi Jamaat say they do not advocate any kind of terrorism or violence, and forbid their followers from discussing politics during prayers.

The Umer mosque, which was formerly a synagogue, was reopened after a refurbishment that cost more than £2m three years ago.

This weekend friends of Zaman rallied in support of the arrested men outside the mosque. Mohammed, 24, a fellow student at London Metropolitan University, said: “Wahid used to do a lot of community work on his own. He used to go and force people to get off drugs. He used to preach to them about Islam.”

Another friend of Zaman, who identified himself as Ali, 30, said: “Look, this mosque has had no problems with extremism. It’s just a normal mosque.”

The IT consultant added: “These people they have grabbed cannot be the people they really wanted because if British or US intelligence are saying they are capable of bringing planes down then we are very worried. These are very simple people who would not be able to do this.”

Last week, after Friday prayers, Maulana Shoaib, the imam of the mosque, appealed for calm.

Reading from a statement, he said: “The Masjid urges the Muslim community to remain calm and assist the authorities with the ongoing investigation.

“We urge all to be mindful of the fact that despite what is said in the media people are innocent until proven guilty.”

    Mosque pleads for calm after being linked to eight suspects, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310697,00.html

The enemy within

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times

Few can have failed to shudder at the thought of a plot to blow up nine passenger planes and the intended mass murder of thousands of innocent people over the Atlantic. Whatever the outcome of the police investigation into a conspiracy that seems to have been stopped just in time, we should praise the alertness of Britain’s often criticised and overstretched intelligence services. Peter Clarke, deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, says at least three other serious plots by home-grown terrorists have been disrupted since last year’s July 7 attacks on the London Underground. The danger seems ever present.

It is now self-evident that there is an enemy within Britain who wants to destroy our way of life. Most of this relatively small group of fanatics are British-born Muslims who have been educated here and brought up within our tolerant democracy. Those looking for the outward signs that identify them as full of hatred would be hard-pressed to find them. Many seem all too ordinary, perhaps enthusiastic about football and cricket and living “normal” westernised existences in neat terraced houses. They work, study or run small businesses. Most show little indication that they have signed up to the distorted ideology of radical Islam, with its millennial ideology of bringing destruction to the corrupt West. As “sleepers”, they are perfect.

Why is Britain such a breeding ground for these young men, for that is what most of them are? Much can be ascribed to timidity on behalf of the authorities, wedded as they are to a multiculturalism that isolates many young men in ghettos and a reluctance to espouse British values through our schools and institutions. That appeasement was epitomised by the sanctuary offered to extremist Islamic groups in Britain — “Londonistan” — in the pathetic hope that it might offer some form of immunity from violence. The United States, with its intolerant attitude to those preaching hate, has been far more successful in integrating its Muslim citizens, offering them the ideals of patriotism and progress. Even France, which has a bigger Muslim population than Britain and has had its share of troubles with disaffected youth, has not seen the scale of Islamist treachery that we are experiencing here. MI5 believes up to 400,000 people in Britain are sympathetic to violent “jihad” around the world and that as many as 1,200 are involved in terrorist networks.

These extremists are drawn both from our educated classes and the Muslim underclass. The first alienated group seems susceptible to radical recruiters on university campuses, the latter to firebrands they meet in mosques or in prison. There they are fed the lines that the West is evil and corrupt. They are urged to look at a culture of binge drinking, reckless hedonism, moral laxity and materialism. They see little of the advantages to our society of freedom of choice, of religion, of individualism and of equality. Nor is it good enough to claim that extremism is fostered by poverty. Although Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are struggling to do as well as some other second or third-generation immigrant groups, many of the recruits are from relatively privileged backgrounds. It is more a matter of a battle for minds rather than pockets. Add to this the internet, the finishing school of global terror, and a legal system that appears to be inflexible about deporting foreign jihadists, and you have the ingredients for an explosive clash of cultures.

When an undercover reporter from The Sunday Times visited Beeston in Nottinghamshire, where three of the July 7 bombers came from, he found either a denial that they had been involved or, perhaps more alarmingly, respect for them as Muslim martyrs. It is this potent mix of self- delusion — witness all the absurd theories about 9/11 and 7/7 — and a sneaking admiration for jihad even among seemingly sensible Muslims.

The great challenge for Britain is how to stop this and minimise the future risks. Nobody should underestimate the scale of the problem or the time needed. We already have a generation of disaffected Muslims who see any excuse, whether it is war in Iraq, Afghanistan or Lebanon, as a reason for killing their fellow citizens. The government has commissioned studies on combatting the problem, so far with little tangible impact. Tony Blair has been wooing Muslim leaders, too often the radicals rather than the moderates, although this policy seems to lie in shreds as they moan about wars in the Middle East inflaming Islamic youth. They are perfectly entitled to be angry about these conflicts, but that anger should be expressed through the democratic processes of demonstrations and elections.

That is not to say that the government is not right to try to win over Muslim opinion. If terror is to be defeated, you have first to drain the swamp. Muslims have to be persuaded that we are on the same side, that there is no witch-hunt against Islam and that the wars involving British troops are about stopping Islamists and the corruption of their religion. This means Muslims being alert to extremists in their ranks and being prepared to identify them to the police. It means Muslims becoming intolerant of radical mullahs and hounding them out of their mosques. Equally the authorities have a responsibility to crack down on extremists in universities and in prisons, to close internet sites and bookshops that spread hatred and violence, and to take all reasonable measures to protect their citizens.

At times this may seem unjust. Muslims who visit Pakistan will have to be more closely scrutinised and it may seem that they are being systematically targeted. But Muslims will have to understand that it is their co-religionists who are bent on bombing trains and planes and that requires extraordinary measures. A mature Muslim response will be to co-operate and help to eradicate extremists in their midst. It requires the vast majority of Muslims to believe that their future is tied to Britain, a country in which their religion can be respected and freely practised. If the radicals succeed, it will foster only hatred and intolerance.

This low-level war is going to take a huge effort of will and courage. It is going to mean applying what may seem illiberal measures in order to save lives. In return, the state must exercise massive restraint and not abuse that responsibility. But the real key is for Muslims to realise that their future lies here and to embrace British values and reject violent Islamist theology. The country may indeed be in its greatest danger since the second world war, as John Reid, the home secretary, said last week. But as Britain prevailed then, so it will again.

    The enemy within, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2310296,00.html

The ‘hearts and minds’ battle for British Muslims that failed

The government pinned its sights on reform but the taskforce it set up says it has been let down, writes Jon Ungoed-Thomas

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times

In an Oldham mosque Mohammed Shafiq, a worker for an educational foundation, recently stood before the devotees and made a heartfelt plea. Young Muslims, he said, should confront violent extremism in the heart of their community.

This battle, according to Shafiq, starts with an acknowledgment. “We have to recognise that within the Muslim community there is a small number of people who are hellbent on committing mass murder,” he said. “9/11 was not a Jewish conspiracy and Tony Blair was not behind the July 7 attacks. There are people in our community who want to kill innocent people.”

It is a stark message and Shafiq, who works for the Ramadhan Foundation, which aims to improve the education of young Muslims, admits that genuine change in the Muslim community could take a long time.

The government has tried to encourage this reform. After September 11 and the Madrid bombings, ministers developed a “hearts and minds” strategy to reach out to disaffected Muslim youths who might be potential recruits for Al-Qaeda. The project, Operation Contest, was given added impetus after July 7.

A taskforce involving more than 1,000 Muslims was created to draw up proposals for tackling extremism. It was intended that senior figures in the Muslim community would combat some of the more radical elements of Islam and their conspiracy theories.

To date the results have been less than encouraging. A survey published last week showed that nearly a quarter of British Muslims felt that the July 7 attacks could be justified because of the government’s support for the war on terror.

The most hardline views were held by Muslims under the age of 24, who have been educated in Britain. A third of those surveyed said they would rather live under sharia (Islamic law) because they so disapproved of British culture.

Last week’s arrests will also raise new concerns about the radicalisation of Muslim youth in this country.

What has gone wrong? Members of the taskforce say that the government has lacked the political will to bring about real reform. They warned last month that of 64 recommendations made by the taskforce, only three had been implemented. The government denies this and claims that 27 recommendations have been acted on.

“They walked us up to the top of the hill and now they are walking us down again,” said Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, when he spoke last month of his disillusionment with the government’s work to tackle extremism. “What tangible progress has been made after all these months?” Lord Ahmed, who heads one of the taskforce’s working groups, said: “The Muslim communities are crying out for help. The government shouldn’t start the blame game because we know that the blame also lies with them for not pursuing some of the regeneration policies that we were asking for.

“Muslims are told by politicians that they need to integrate, but the government has to make it possible by giving communities the resources they need.”

The government says it has worked to improve conditions in Muslim communities and to forge links with young people. It cites as an example the “roadshow” of moderate Muslim scholars which toured the country and was seen by 30,000 young people.

However, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament, the self-styled British group, said the roadshow and other initiatives were on the “periphery” of the Muslim community and failed to change many entrenched attitudes. He claims the government’s work since July 7 has been undermined by its own foreign policy.

“Many in the British Muslim community are convinced that the war on terror is a war against Islam and Muslims,” Siddiqui said. Such attitudes, he added, meant a “field day” for the fundamentalists.

He also said more should have been done to tackle high unemployment among Muslim youth, but criticised Muslim leaders as well: “There are still many in the Muslim community who are in a state of denial that there is a problem. We have to say we have made mistakes and we have to change from within.”

According to many senior Muslims, it is often the elders who run the mosques who have resisted change. Ahmed said his proposals for a radical reform of the mosques were blocked by Muslim leaders.

Ruth Kelly, secretary of state for communities and local government, is to meet Muslim leaders tomorrow to discuss such issues.

Rob Beckley, spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers on communities and counter-terrorism, said officers were trying to encourage people within the Muslim community to raise concerns about young people who were being radicalised.

Beckley is optimistic in the long term. “Of course there is anxiety and I don’t underestimate the seriousness of the threat, but there are signs of change,” he said.

“There is a new generation of leaders in the Muslim community who are taking their places and they are starting to make a difference.”

    The ‘hearts and minds’ battle for British Muslims that failed, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310565,00.html

Divided Britain makes a tempting terrorist target

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times 
Michael Portillo

Why did Al-Qaeda choose Britain as the country from which to launch an audacious and bloodthirsty assault on the United States whose death toll could have rivalled or exceeded 9/11? Some who oppose the Iraq war and criticise Tony Blair’s support for Israel will claim that he has made Britain a target for terror. They will suggest that if Britain repudiated Blair’s policies it could be safer. Around that point hinges by far the most important debate in British politics. Blair’s view must prevail.

There is no point denying that our closeness to the United States is probably one reason why Britain was chosen. Al-Qaeda would regard the murder of thousands of people flying between the two allies as a propaganda triumph. Across the Muslim world the streets would fill with crowds celebrating the carnage.

More subtly, had the plot succeeded it would have been a massive humiliation for Britain that would have strained US-British relations.

Al-Qaeda may regard Britain as a weak link in the West’s security. In 1988 British airport security was criticised when a suitcase bomb brought down a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie. Our security services identified Mohammad Sidique Khan (one of the London bombers) as a threat but failed to keep tabs on him. When police killed an innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, and at Forest Gate shot a man who was then not charged, British intelligence looked amateurish. On this occasion we must congratulate heartily those who have smashed the conspiracy.

As 7/7 demonstrated there is a pool of Britons lurking within our sizeable Muslim community who will joyfully commit suicide and mass murder.

The scale of the aircraft plot suggests that in Britain Al-Qaeda can easily assemble quite large numbers of self-styled martyrs. The men who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were foreigners in the US, mainly Saudis. Al-Qaeda is bound to favour indigenous terrorists who attract less attention. Unfortunately, for years Britain paid little heed to the threat from Islamic extremists. Hundreds of young Britons have been radicalised in mosques at home and trained in terror schools abroad.

Last week, before the bomb plot was public knowledge, Tarique Ghaffur, an assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan police, warned that anti-terror legislation and insensitive policing make British Muslims feel victimised. As far as that statement goes it is a victory for Al-Qaeda. Each terror plot increases the pressure on the Muslim minorities in western countries. It would be illogical and dangerous if our counter-terror efforts did not focus on those communities. But as we intensify those activities we make new enemies within our population. Those tensions offer Al-Qaeda a route to bring down the democracies that represent the antithesis of its world view.

So those who argue that Britain has brought terror to its shores by supporting George W Bush should admit that we have imported it unwittingly by recognising our obligations to Commonwealth countries such as Pakistan, by pursuing liberal policies on immigration, by extending asylum to those who faced “persecution” without much reflection on why they found themselves in that position, and by ignoring the activities of “dissidents” based here, despite warnings about them from allies such as France and Saudi Arabia.

More uncomfortably still for those who argue the simplistic anti-Bush line, Britain could be an Al-Qaeda target precisely because it is a nation divided and given to self-flagellation. After the Lockerbie bombing it fell to me as a transport minister to meet some of the grieving relatives. One man who had lost his daughter told me that he blamed airport security, not the terrorist. Even allowing for his suffering I can make no sense of the remark, but it seems to typify a misplaced magnanimity that springs from unwarranted collective guilt.

Terrorists are alive to our vulnerabilities. In 2004 Al-Qaeda attacked trains in Madrid hours before the Spanish general election. Jose Maria Aznar, ally of Bush and Blair, who had been expected to win, lost. The new government scurried to withdraw Spain’s troops from Iraq. Was Spain targeted because it supported America, or because it could be intimidated? Perhaps the US has been spared attacks at home since September 2001 partly because its security is good, but also partly because terror unites Americans more than it divides them.

In this country discontent with Blair’s foreign policy has reached fever pitch. From a pipsqueak parliamentary private secretary to Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, Labour politicians vie with each other to wear their conscience on their sleeve and distance themselves from Blair. As Israel fights terror the Tories are mealy mouthed and Gordon Brown is silent.

Might not Al-Qaeda reasonably believe that another massive atrocity could bring Blair’s leadership to an end and usher in a series of less hard-nosed administrations? Might they not also reason that Britain is a tempting target because in vast numbers the British refuse to recognise the nature of the extreme Islamist threat that confronts us?

For many Britons a new massacre would supply fresh evidence of the wickedness of the Iraq war or the plight of Palestinians or the downtrodden condition of British minorities. The more obvious explanation, that a group of religious fanatics is bent on destroying us and achieving world domination, would somehow elude them.

In the United States the Democrats (especially Ted Kennedy) are behaving disgracefully, scoring political points by claiming that the conduct of the Iraq war has made America more vulnerable. That may indeed be true but it is irrelevant.

The assault by Al-Qaeda on Muslim governments and against the West cannot be sidestepped. Pacifism is not an option. It does not inoculate against terror. Al-Qaeda launched 9/11 to open a front between Muslims and the rest. The West’s failures in Iraq may have helped Al-Qaeda to attract more recruits. But if the invasion had not occurred, Saddam Hussein’s untamed defiance would have encouraged Al-Qaeda too. Western weakness would have made the fundamentalists believe that victory was easy.

British commentators mock Bush’s “war on terror”. To me the idea of not waging such a war seems more contemptible and risky. I am more inclined to question Bush’s idealistic plan of combating terror by spreading democracy to Muslim states.

Removing Saddam has allowed Al-Qaeda into Iraq. It is hard to believe that infant democracies in Saudi Arabia, Morocco or Egypt would suppress terror more effectively than their present leaders. Nor is Bush hurrying to replace General Musharraf in Pakistan. Even long-established democracies such as Britain and France are wondering how liberty and the defeat of terror can be compatible.

This is not a good day to wave the flag of civil liberties, and so I will. The day before news of the plane plot broke, John Reid, the home secretary, again addressed the issue of why we need to detain some people without trial or even charge. Once more I was left unconvinced.

Indeed my suspicions were heightened because much of his argument focused on how nasty fundamentalists are (for example, in their treatment of women). That has nothing to do with how it is that he apparently knows that some people are very dangerous, but cannot prove it in a court of law. In the wake of last week’s news parliament will give the government yet more draconian powers if it requests them. Ministers bear the responsibility to act honestly and with a good conscience.

For these are times when we expect our politicians to metamorphose into statesmen. Blair has never disguised his ambition to play Churchill, and truly his oratorical skills are superb. The problem is that while the words still come to him, his audience has drifted away disillusioned.

David Cameron and Gordon Brown must step forward to give Britain leadership. If the political class does not unite we will be in more danger from terror. Unless our leaders educate the British people on the unavoidable threat that we face we will be more vulnerable. Brown and Cameron, even more than Blair, must become statesmen. Let us hope that they can rise to the occasion.

    Divided Britain makes a tempting terrorist target, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2310288,00.html

Just whose side is Pakistan really on?

An ally in the war on terror or a haven for jihadists? After every outrage, it’s the state in the spotlight, says Christina Lamb

August 13, 2006
The Sunday Times

For budding suicide bombers all roads seem to lead to Pakistan — and last week’s global alert over a suspect massive terrorist attack did nothing to dispel that view.

“The moment I heard the first news about the airline plot, I knew it was just a matter of time until we heard the word Pakistan,” said a US intelligence agent. “Whether it’s 9/11, the Bali bombs, 7/7 and now this, Pakistan is always the connection. That’s gotta raise some questions." The roots of Pakistan’s reputation as a haven for jihadists run deep. It was, after all, in the city of Peshawar that Al-Qaeda was born after ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence, started to recruit Arabs to fight in the Afghan jihad.

It was ISI that turned the Taliban from a bunch of religious students into a movement that took over Afghanistan. According to Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, ISI continues to provide a safe haven, training them to fight British soldiers in Helmand.

Whose side is Pakistan on? After September 11, when Pakistan’s leadership was given the blunt choice by President Bush — “you’re either with us or against us” — it had little option. The decision to support Bush’s war on terror turned President Pervez Musharraf from a pariah dictator to a feted world leader.

It was a lucrative move. Pakistan has again become one of the biggest recipients of US aid — just as it was during the Afghan war against Soviet occupiers when ISI was the main conduit for arms and funds. Since September 11, America has dismissed $1.5 billion in debt and provided Pakistan with more than $3 billion in military assistance.

Last year Pakistan was one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. It recently placed a $2.5 billion order for American F-16 jet fighters — as much as Afghanistan’s entire annual foreign aid.

However, Musharraf has been walking a tightrope. At home he has been the target of three assassination attempts and much criticism, while abroad his commitment is under increasing question.

Critics point out that the six top Al-Qaeda officials so far captured, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammad (KSM), the mastermind of 9/11, were all arrested in Pakistan. They were not hiding in caves but living in cities like Karachi and Faisalabad. KSM was picked up in the military cantonment of Rawalpindi.

It was in Pakistan where Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, was murdered in 2002. Pakistan has refused to extradite Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born Muslim convicted of the killing, prompting speculation that it fears what he might say.

Sheikh was in ISI custody for a week before the FBI was informed and is reported to have given himself up to his former ISI handler. We also know from official reports that two of the July 7 bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, travelled to Pakistan.

It was Khan’s second trip. It is still unclear what they did there, but British intelligence believes they underwent training and made martyrdom tapes. What is certain is that on their return the pair rented a place to build bombs.

Pakistan’s problem is that extremist organisations and training camps, such as those linked to the London bombers, were either created by, or supported and used by, ISI.

The camps were set up in the late 1980s with US backing to train fighters for jihad in Afghanistan. Their mission was expanded in the 1990s to send jihadis to the contested province of Kashmir to fight a proxy war with India.

“Pakistan is still in denial,” said Husain Haqqani of the Carnegie Endowment in Washington whose book, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, looks at state sponsorship of jihadi groups.

He points out that many senior figures in Pakistan’s military establishment had probably run camps: “The attitude of condoning extremist behaviour is so pervasive that it may be difficult for people to adjust to a new attitude of cracking down on them.”

The difficulty is establishing links between Al-Qaeda and jihadi groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-i-Toiba, Musharraf’s failure to rein them in suggests that they are out of control. “We might have created a Frankenstein,” one Pakistani military officer admitted.

How much the West has been willing to turn a blind eye was shown by its lack of censure over Abdul Qadeer Khan, the nuclear scientist who provided weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Musharraf’s ludicrous claim that these were the actions of an individual without the knowledge of the state was apparently accepted by Washington, despite evidence of military planes transporting parts.

Those involved in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden have long believed that Pakistan knows more than it has let on and may have tipped off Al-Qaeda leaders, letting them escape. They point out that any time Pakistan has come under pressure from Washington it has diverted attention by arresting an Al-Qaeda leader.

Pakistan is sensitive to such criticism. Officials are quick to point out that Musharraf’s stance has placed his own life in danger and that Pakistan has lost hundreds of soldiers in Waziristan, the tribal area bordering Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda leaders have reputedly been hiding.

After July 7, Musharraf reacted angrily to questions over Pakistan’s role, retorting that the perpetrators were British-born Muslims (and one was of Jamaican origin) — a home-grown problem.

“We don’t need to prove anything to anyone,” said Aftab Khan Sherpao, Pakistan’s interior minister, after last week’s airline plot arrests. “We have been in close collaboration with the US and UK on the war on terror all along.”

The number of people from Britain’s Pakistani community going back to the country makes investigation difficult. There were more than 400,000 visits by UK residents to Pakistan in 2004, with an average stay of 41 days.

Pakistan insists it has taken action on the madrasahs, or religious schools, described as nurseries of terror.

Ijaz ul-Haq, minister for religious affairs, said: “Any madrasahs found involved with militancy or distributing hate material will be closed.”

THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Many Muslims are reluctant to accept the role of fundamentalists in terror attacks. Their scepticism is fed by conspiracy theories that continue to spread on the internet. Among the most virulent are:

The Bin Laden tapes

Bin Laden was never involved in 9/11, but has been used by Washington to justify spending on the military and intelligence services. Bin Laden has been dead more than five years and the US used lookalikes and fake tapes of his voice to issue new threats.




The July 7 attacks

The work of western intelligence services. Confusion over timings indicates a classic “false flag” operation to divert attention from Blair and Bush’s problems. One theory is that the terrorists were framed. Another is that power surges caused the blasts.




9/11, the twin towers

The Israelis were quickly fingered in the Arab world as suspects after the towers collapsed, killing 2,752. This theory is often bolstered with the false claim that 4,000 Jewish employees did not turn up for work that day. Conspiracy theorists say the impact of the planes did not have the power to demolish the towers. The buildings had been rigged with explosives.



9/11, the Pentagon

The relatively limited damage suffered by the Pentagon despite being hit by a passenger jet is held up as evidence that it was a faked attack. Some suspect a guided missile was used.




The Iraq war

The war on terror was a pretext for gaining control of Middle East oil.



The 2004 tsunami

An Egyptian newsletter blamed the tsunami on an Indian nuclear test.

    Just whose side is Pakistan really on?, STs, 13.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2310567,00.html

Tracing Plots, British Watch, Then Pounce

August 13, 2006
The New York Times
By PHILIP SHENON and NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 — The disclosure that British officials conducted months of surveillance before arresting 24 terrorism suspects this week highlighted what many terrorism specialists said was a central difference between American and British law enforcement agencies.

The British, they say, are more willing to wait and watch.

Although details of the British investigation remain secret, Bush administration officials say Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, was for at least several months aware of a plot to set off explosions on airliners flying to the United States from Britain, as well as the identity of the people who would carry it out.

British officials suggested that the arrests were held off to gather as much information as possible about the plot and the reach of the network behind it. Although it is not clear how close the plotters were to acting, or how capable they were of carrying out the attacks, intelligence and law enforcement officials have described the planning as well advanced.

The Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have suggested in the past that they would never allow a terrorist plot discovered here to advance to its final stages, for fear that it could not be stopped in time.

In June, the F.B.I. arrested seven people in Florida on charges of plotting attacks on American landmarks, including the Sears Tower in Chicago, with investigators openly acknowledging that the suspects, described as Al Qaeda sympathizers, had only the most preliminary discussions about an attack.

“Our philosophy is that we try to identify plots in the earliest stages possible because we don’t know what we don’t know about a terrorism plot,” Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said at the time. “Once we have sufficient information to move forward with a prosecution, that’s what we do.”

The differences in counterterrorism strategy reflect an important distinction between the legal systems of the United States and Britain and their definitions of civil liberties, with MI5 and British police agencies given far greater authority in general than their American counterparts to conduct domestic surveillance and detain terrorism suspects.

Britain’s newly revised terrorism laws permit the detention of suspects for 28 days without charge. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government had been pressing for 90 days, but Parliament blocked the proposal. In the United States, suspects must be brought before a judge as soon as possible, which courts have interpreted to mean within 48 hours. Law enforcement officials have detained some terrorism suspects designated material witnesses for far longer. (The United States has also taken into custody overseas several hundred people suspected of terrorist activity and detained them at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as enemy combatants.)

At the same time, Britain has far stricter contempt-of-court laws intended to prevent the prejudicing of trials. Anything that is said or reported about the suspects rounded up this week could, the police contend, prejudice their trial and prevent their prosecution.

Andrew C. McCarthy, a former terrorism prosecutor at the Justice Department, said he believed that British authorities were willing to allow terrorist plots to progress further because, if an attack appeared imminent, they could immediately round up the suspects, even without formal criminal charges.

“They have this fail-safe,” he said. “They can arrest people without charging them with a crime, which would make a big difference in how long you’d be willing to let things run.” He said F.B.I. agents, who are required to bring criminal charges if they wanted to arrest a suspect, had a justifiable fear that they might be unable to short-circuit an attack at the last minute.

There is a difference, too, in how information is shared, with American law enforcement officials typically communicating much more fully with the news media and other agencies than their British counterparts do.

In one case in particular, last year after the London bombings when New York police officers traveled there to pitch in, the different working style created tension. British police and intelligence officials complained to the F.B.I., C.I.A. and State Department after the New York officers, used to speaking more openly, gave interviews to the press in London and sent information on to their headquarters in New York, where officials then held a news conference with some details about the investigation, according to one senior American official involved in the relationship with British agencies.

While American officials say they do not believe there were any serious compromises of the investigation, the British were extremely upset. “They don’t want us to share so widely,” the senior American official said.

A senior federal law enforcement official said MI5 also had a distinct advantage over the F.B.I. in that it had a greater store of foreign-language speakers, giving British authorities greater ability to infiltrate conspiracy groups. The F.B.I. still has only a handful of Muslim agents and others who speak Arabic, Urdu or other languages common in the Islamic world.

Justice Department officials and others involved in developing American counterterrorism strategies, however, say it is wrong to suggest that the F.B.I. always moves hurriedly to arrest terrorism suspects, rather than conduct surveillance that may lead to evidence about other conspirators and plots.

On Saturday, as news reports surfaced describing significant disagreements between British and American officials over the the timing of the arrests in the bombing plot, Frances Fragos Townsend, the president’s homeland security adviser, said in a statement: “There was unprecedented cooperation and coordination between the U.S., U.K. and Pakistan officials throughout the case and we worked together to protect our citizens from harm while ensuring that we gathered as much information as possible to bring the plotters to justice. There was no disagreement between U.S. and U.K. officials.”

John O. Brennan, a former official of the Central Intelligence Agency who set up the government’s National Counterterrorism Center two years ago, said in an interview that he had been involved in a number of recent cases — most of them still classified — in which the F.B.I. had placed suspected terrorists under surveillance rather than rounding them up.

He said the bureau’s willingness to wait reflected a new sophistication as supervisors adapted to the rhythm of terrorism investigations. “Especially given the history of 9/11, of course the bureau wants to move quickly and make sure there is no risk of attack,” he said. “But over the past two years, I think the bureau has become much more adept at allowing these operations to run and monitor them.”

But others are less certain that the bureau has overcome its traditional desire to make quick arrests.

Daniel Benjamin, a counterterrorism specialist in the National Security Council in the Clinton administration, said the apparent success of the British surveillance operation — and the failure of the F.B.I. to identify and disrupt any similar terrorist cell in the United States since Sept. 11 — argued for creation of an American counterpart to MI5. “The F.B.I. has still not risen to the domestic intelligence task,” he said.

But MI5, others note, may have benefited from the longer experience of dealing with domestic terrorism in connection with the Irish Republican Army. And it has its own critics who question its strategy by noting that it had some of the suspects in last summer’s bombings in the London subway and on a bus under surveillance before the attacks.

British security officials have publicly acknowledged that two of the London bombers — Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer — had been observed in connection with a different terrorist plot that was subject to heavy surveillance. But when they dropped out of sight — well before the London bombings — intelligence agencies did not pursue them because the other conspiracy seemed a much greater priority.

John Timoney, the Miami police chief who also has run the Philadelphia Police Department and served in the No. 2 post in the New York Police Department, has worked extensively over the years in Britain on policing matters. He said comparing the two country’s approaches was difficult.

“First and foremost, the policing systems are completely different,” said Chief Timoney, noting that in Britain the Metropolitan Police is the dominant national law enforcement agency and is served by MI5.

In the United States, on the other hand, there is intense competition between various federal agencies and between some federal agencies and some state and local forces, he said.

But neither approach is guaranteed to succeed. In June, about 250 police officers stormed an East London row house looking for chemical weapons and arrested two brothers, Abul Koyair and Mohammed Abdul Kahar. Mr. Kahar was shot and wounded during the operation. But the two men were later released without charge after the authorities failed to find any evidence linking them to terrorist activities.

David N. Kelley, a former United States attorney in Manhattan who has overseen a range of international terrorism cases, including prosecuting the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, said, “The real challenge in law enforcement when you have a plot like that is when do you pull the trigger.”

He also said that the longer investigators waited to take down a case, the risks that they might lose track of suspects increased, even if the plotters were under 24-hour surveillance.

“People think when you have someone under surveillance, it’s a fail-safe, but losing someone is a real fear in these things,” he said. “It’s not like television. It’s a real juggling act. You’ve got to keep a lot of balls in the air and not let any of them drop.”

Lowell Bergman contributed reporting from Berkeley, Calif., for this article, Alan Cowell from London, and William K. Rashbaum from New York.

    Tracing Plots, British Watch, Then Pounce, NYT, 12.8.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/world/europe/13disrupt.html?hp&ex=1155528000&en=0e40e8e65bcfcfc6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

The enemy within? The ordinary men in the midst of an extraordinary plot

Published: 12 August 2006
The Independent
By Jonathan Brown Geneviève Roberts and Cahal Milmo

One is a taxi-driver, another delivers pizzas, one group buys and sells used cars. They earn their livings in unremarkable ways.

They are family types, with young children and pregnant wives. They live in typical suburbs and ordinary towns. To relax, they watch cricket and football, meet their friends and pray at the local mosque. On the surface, their lives are unexceptional.

But in the early hours of Thursday morning, 23 young men and one woman were arrested in a series of raids in connection with an alleged plot to bring down five airliners packed with passengers.

Yesterday police found bomb-making equipment, intelligence sources claimed. And it emerged that the raids were prompted by an arrest of a Briton in Pakistan on Wednesday.

But what of the British-born suspects who face up to 28 days of questioning?

One is Waheed Zaman. He liked to kick a football though, like many young men, his enthusiasm ran ahead of his ability. Turning out with his mates at Lloyd's Park in the east London suburb of Walthamstow, the Liverpool fan failed to make the grade for the local side Asianos FC. His friend Oliver Savant was a different proposition on the pitch and a sought-after player among the Asian teams that battled it out each Sunday afternoon as their less-motivated friends sat through the EastEnders omnibusat home.

Despite the three years between them, the two men had been close since school, both attending Kelmscott secondary - a typical London comprehensive where a third of the pupils are of Pakistani descent.

When Mr Savant converted to Islam and changed his name to Ibrahim eight years ago, the two worshipped at Queens Road Mosque, where, before it underwent a £2m rebuilding programme, Friday prayers used to spill out onto the street. Islamic classes at the Madrassas were always over-subscribed by the area's children.

With his beard and flowing white robes, Mr Savant cut a distinctive figure, driving his R-registration silver Honda car each day to the music company he ran with his brother in Limehouse. Early on Thursday morning, the newly married 25-year-old was arrested at his home in Folkestone Road as police led away his pregnant wife Atika, from the couple's maisonette a few miles down the road in Stoke Newington.

Back in Walthamstow, Mr Zaman was watching late-night television at his Queens Road home along with his sister when the police came around. Their 90-year-old father was asleep upstairs.

The 22-year-old, who studied bio-medical sciences at London Metropolitan University, where he was president of the Islamic Society, was handcuffed and led to a waiting van.

Some 30 officers, some of them armed, had come to arrest him. His family, like that of his life-long friend, were furious and protested the innocence of the "popular, serious-minded" student, describing him as a "typical British lad", who liked nothing better watching his favourite team play football on TV and wolfing down a meal of burger and chips.

Yesterday the community rallied around the men, describing them as ordinary and peaceful. The father of three of the arrested men in east London, Nabeel, Tanvir and Umair Hussain broke down as he said his sons' only crime was "going to prayer".

Another youngster recalled fondly how Mr Zaman had encouraged him to be a doctor, lending him books on anatomy. He also gave him copies of his favourite novels, typically science fiction fantasy by Terry Pratchett and the humorous Artemis Fowl series by the Irish author Eoin Colfer.

Also arrested in Walthamstow that early morning was Muhammed Usman Saddique. The 24-year-old attended pirmary school with Mr Savant and who lived in a typical 1930s suburban semi-detached house on nearby Albert Road with his family. Also a regular at the Queens Road mosque he worked at the local pizza takeaway.

Amin Asmin Tariq's two-storey terraced home in Ravenswood Road was also raided. The 24-year-old was said to have shown little outward interest in his religion. Also recently married with a three-week-old baby, he came from a typical east London family - closely knit with a hardworking father who ran his own dry cleaning business until retirement. Mr Tariq was employed as a security guard at Heathrow airport.

Across London and 30 miles up the M40 motorway, the police were also at work on Thursday morning arresting six men in the Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe. Four of those worked in the motor trade, importing cars from an office set up inside a suburban home.

It was a family affair. The business was run by 26-year-old Shazad Ali. He employed his younger brother and another man Amjad Sarwar, a cricket-loving 28-year-old. Mr Sarwar's brother Assad was also arrested and the two men, both married with young families, shared a house in Walton Drive, positioned on a declining 1960s estate. The only remarkable thing was the succession of used sports cars and SUVs that were parked on the drive outside, neighbours said.

Before his marriage, Amjad had posted his details on an internet dating site, in search of a girl with "a nice personality". He listed his hobbies as rap music and reading while the slim-built salesman said his favourite meal was fish.

The Ali brothers lived in Micklefield Road, where neighbours said a small prayer room had been built in their back garden. They were near-neighbours of Don Stewart-Whyte, who had converted to Islam six months ago after turning his back on drink and drugs problems.

Like many of the arrested men, he too was recently married. The 21-year-old was stopped in his red Nissan Micra by police early on Thursday morning.

The men held

* WALTHAMSTOW

Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25;

Cossor Ali, 27; Assan Abdullah Khan, 21; Waheed Arafat Khan, 25;

Osman Adam Khatib, 19;

Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24; Ibrahim Savant, 25; Asmin Asmin Tariq, 23; Waheed Zaman, 22

* EAST LONDON

Nabeel Hussain, 22 (arrested in Hackney); Tanvir Hussain, 25 (Leyton); Umair Hussain, 24 (Hackney); Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 35 (Stoke Newington); Abdul Muneem Patel, 17 (Hackney)

* HIGH WYCOMBE

Shazad Khuram Ali, 27; Umar Islam, 28; Waseem Kayani, 29; Assad Sarwar, 26; Don Stewart-Whyte, 19

* BIRMINGHAM

Tayib Rauf, 22

(Five of those arrested have yet to be named)

    The enemy within? The ordinary men in the midst of an extraordinary plot, I, 12.8.2006, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1218642.ece

Airline terror plotters 'linked to 7/7 bombers'

August 12, 2006
The Times
By Zahid Hussain in Islamabad, Russell Jenkins and Sean O’Neill

- Arrest in Pakistan holds key to police investigation
- More delays at airports as security is stepped up

THE capture of a British national in Pakistan was the trigger for the arrests of 24 men suspected of plotting to blow up transatlantic airliners.

Government sources indicated to The Times that the apprehension of Rashid Rauf was the key event that forced British police to raid addresses in London, Birmingham and High Wycombe. One of those arrested in Birmingham was Rauf’s brother, Tayib, 21.

Police brought the raids forward because they were concerned that the alleged plotters would realise they were under surveillance once they lost contact with a central figure in their plans, and either go into hiding or carry out an attack.

In a separate development, Scotland Yard is investigating possible links between the men arrested on Thursday and other British terrorists, including the July 7 bombers. They are concerned that some of those now in custody visited Pakistan last year at the same time as two of the London bombers. Pakistani intelligence sources are examining whether any of those arrested on Thursday attended the same madrassa, or religious school, as the 7/7 bombers..

Searches after Thursday’s arrests had uncovered material which could be used in bomb making, The Times was told by security sources last night.

Rashid Rauf left Britain in 2002 after the murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed, 54, who was stabbed to death in Birmingham in April of that year. Pakistani officials said that Rauf had forged links with militant groups and received explosives training at an al-Qaeda camp. The Foreign Ministry said: “A key person arrested is British national Rashid Rauf”.

West Midlands Police said that the home of the Rauf family, at St Margaret’s Road in Ward End, Birmingham, had been searched in 2002 in connection with the Saeed murder inquiry. Rashid Rauf has not been arrested or charged with his uncle’s murder.

The Pakistani authorities have made several more arrests which they said were directly connected to the airline plot. They said that one was a British national.

Another of those detained is understood to be Matiur Rehman, 29, previously identified by Pakistani intelligence as a senior al-Qaeda operative and linked to an assassination attempt on President Musharraf. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry added: “There are indications of an Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda connection.”

John Reid, the Home Secretary, has thanked the Pakistani Government for its assistance. He said the threat level would remain at “critical”.

Police have been granted an extension until August 16 to question the suspects. They can in theory hold them for 28 days before charging or releasing them. One person has been released without charge.

    Airline terror plotters 'linked to 7/7 bombers', Ts, 12.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2309334,00.html

Terror plot: Pakistan and al-Qaida links revealed

· Key suspect seized on Afghan border
· Arrested men attended Islamic camps
· Martyrdom tapes found during searches
· Tip-off came from Muslim informer

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Richard Norton-Taylor, Sandra Laville and Vikram Dodd

A brother of two of the 24 suspects seized by detectives investigating a plot to bomb up to 12 planes was seized in Pakistan shortly before police launched their raids, it emerged last night.

The arrest of Rashid Rauf in the border area with Afghanistan was a trigger that led investigators to start an immediate pre-emptive operation with officers fearing the alleged cells were ready to strike.

Pakistani officials claimed last night that Mr Rauf had links with al-Qaida. "We arrested him from the border area and on his disclosure we shared the information with British authorities, which led to further arrests in Britain," said the interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao.

The foreign minister, Khursheed Kasuri, said Mr Rauf had been monitored for some time before his arrest.

Mr Rauf's uncle was murdered in Birmingham in April 2002 and as part of the murder hunt it is understood that Mr Rauf's home in St Margaret's Road in the city was searched.

Mr Rauf's arrest was one of seven made by Pakistani authorities in recent days, and is understood to have included one other Briton. Mr Rauf's two brothers were arrested in Birmingham on Thursday. There were reports last night that Mr Rauf provided the link between the plot's planners and the British Muslims alleged to have been preparing to carry out the attacks.

It also emerged yesterday that at least one suspect arrested in Walthamstow, east London, regularly attended camps run by Tablighi Jamaat, an organisation which the Americans believe has been used as a recruiting ground for al-Qaida. Martyrdom tapes and other items were found in the search of the 29 properties where arrests were made on Thursday.

As it became clear that Pakistan played a pivotal role in the plot, and helped in its unmasking, British counter-terrorism officials said several of the Britons involved had visited the country two months ago, before returning to the UK.

British intelligence sources say the original tip-off about the alleged plot came more than a year ago from an informant in the UK. The informant is believed to have come from the Muslim community.

A combination of Mr Rauf's arrest, at least one intercepted message from Pakistan to Britain, and an alert from an informant here, led to Thursday's arrests, according to British security sources.

More details about the backgrounds of the 24 arrested suspects emerged yesterday. Three were Muslim converts. The youngest was 17 and the oldest 35. It is understood that the 19 names released by the Bank of England as subject to asset freezes are the core suspects.

Although some had visited Pakistan, a senior security official said: "The plot was constructed in the UK, targeted in the UK, based in the UK, and foiled in the UK".

But it is not clear when the attack was to take place. None of the alleged plotters had yet bought airline tickets, according to anti-terrorist sources.

Anti-terrorist detectives were last night granted warrants for the further detention of 22 of those arrested on Thursday. One was later released without charge.

It also emerged that police in Italy had arrested 40 people across the country in what the interior ministry called "part of an extraordinary operation that followed the British anti-terrorist operation".

    Terror plot: Pakistan and al-Qaida links revealed, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843057,00.html

The Pakistan connection: suspicion falls on al-Qaida

British citizens arrested in Karachi and Lahore linked to planes conspiracy

Ewen MacAskill and Vikram Dodd
Saturday August 12, 2006

Guardian

The Pakistani government yesterday made the first explicit link between al-Qaida and suspects held in Pakistan and Britain in connection with the alleged London planes bomb plot.
The British arrests followed a tip-off from the Pakistani intelligence services, after a series of arrests in Pakistan over the last few weeks. Pakistan's security service also confirmed it had arrested two Britons of Pakistani descent last week, one in Karachi and one in Lahore. Five others were arrested last weekend.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of but cannot confirm reports of the arrest of British nationals in Pakistan. We are in close contact with Islamabad." The Foreign Office caution is because the two may have dual nationality, in which case they are subject to Pakistani law and would not be entitled to consular visits.

A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman said: "There are indications of Afghanistan-based al-Qaida connection. The case has wider international dimensions."

He added: "Acting on the information earlier received from the United Kingdom, arrests were made in Pakistan which triggered arrests in the United Kingdom."

Although al-Qaida is a diverse organisation, its leadership under Osama bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until pushed out by the US-based invasion in 2001. Bin Laden is regularly reported to be in hiding in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, and al-Qaida has established links with extremist groups in Pakistan.

The British, US and Pakistani intelligence services have been working closely on the present case.

Mr Abdul Basit, Pakistan's deputy high commissioner in London, said: "Pakistan has played a key role in foiling this plot. This shows our commitment to continue our efforts against terrorism which is a global problem and needs to be handled collectively."

The high commission was trawling through its records to establish whether any of the Britons arrested this week have been to Pakistan in recent months. If it is established how many went to Pakistan, police and intelligence officers there can begin to retrace their movements and establish whether there are any links with madrasas or militant groups.

The deputy minister for information, Tariq Azim, stressed that those arrested were "all British citizens - brought up and educated in UK. Their forefathers may be Pakistanis but they are UK citizens and that is very important for everybody to remember. We do not want any foreigners coming here and getting involved in activities, which are prejudicial to Pakistan's interests."

According to some sources in Pakistan, more arrests are likely, though most officials as well as British diplomats remained tight-lipped about the ongoing operation. In spite of the foreign ministry statement, officials have failed to trace the trail to any of the Pakistan-based groups but they said the intense hunt for more accomplices was on.

They insist, however, that some of the arrested, including the two British nationals, are of Kashmiri origin, and could possibly have links with militant organisations fighting the Indian troops in Kashmir. But a Pakistani official ruled out a link with Kashmiri militant groups. The official said there was no link with Lashkar-i-Taiba, renamed as a charity, Jamat-ud-Dawa, after September 11. He said that the group's founder, Hafiz Saeed, was put under house arrest this week, but it was on an unrelated matter, a demonstration planned for Lahore.

Other militant groups in Pakistan include Sipah-i-Sahaba, which has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is headed by Sunni extremists. A related group is called Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

Leading figures from these groups, particularly Sipah-i-Sahaba and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, have worked with senior al-Qaida figures before on plots to kill President Pervez Musharraf. They may also have helped to shelter renegade al-Qaida figures in Pakistani safehouses.

President Musharraf, who came to power in a coup, has been engaged in a dangerous balancing act, cracking down on Islamist militancy in order to maintain its alliance with the US but not hard enough to alienate the many voters sympathetic to the Islamist militants.

Since the US-led attack on Afghanistan in 2001 which disrupted al-Qaida's ability to operate there, Pakistan has increasingly been the country where Islamist terrorists have been based. One senior UK counterterrorism official said wryly, but bluntly: "Pakistan is the new Afghanistan."

Two of the July 7 plotters are believed to have received training in explosives at al-Qaida linked camps in Pakistan, months before the attack on London. Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer travelled to Pakistan in November 2004, returning to the UK in February 2005.

Khan visited a camp in Pakistan in 2003 where he received terrorist training. According to the UK government's narrative about the July 7 attacks, between April 2005 and the day they attacked, "the group was in contact with an individual or individuals in Pakistan", and these contacts are described as "suspicious".

Other plots against the UK also have links to Pakistan. Because of the links between hundreds of thousands of Britons and Pakistan, determining who is going there to legitimately visit family, and who is going there for the purposes of jihad training or inspiration, is difficult.

    The Pakistan connection: suspicion falls on al-Qaida, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843122,00.html

Intelligence chiefs looking at transatlantic phone calls

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

The FBI was investigating possible connections between the men arrested in London and people in the US. In a round of television interviews, the White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend confirmed that "there are leads that the FBI is running".

Senior US intelligence officials told the Washington Post that some of the alleged plotters had made telephone calls to the US. Other sources said that in the days before the arrests in London, the FBI has sent hundreds of agents across the US to chase down leads from British intelligence. But sources said that none of the suspected plotters had travelled to the US.

The chairman of the House homeland security committee, Republican Congressman Peter King, told ABC television that authorities were concerned about the five members of the cell unaccounted for.

"They are on the loose," said Mr King. "These are desperate, vicious people, who have a good degree of sophistication. And they're out there, if nothing else, they're available for future operations. The more deadly threat is that there is a plan B that they would be able to implement."

The list of US destinations thought to be targets of the plot included New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Washington DC and Chicago, sources said.

Authorities did their best to assure an alarmed public that it was safe to fly. In common with scenes from Britain that played constantly on US television, US airports saw large queues and delays. By yesterday most of the delays had eased.

The Department of Homeland Security raised the threat level to red on Thursday, the highest level, for flights to and from the UK. All other domestic and international flights were on an orange alert, one step below red but above the yellow level that had previously been in place. The National Guard provided a highly visible security presence at major airports in California, New York and Massachusetts.

Restrictions on hand baggage were placed with no liquids and only essential medicines allowed on board. The delays provoked resigned acceptance although passengers more readily expressed their frustration with the security measures. Betty Murphy told the Los Angeles Times: "I can't even take a water bottle with me, and I can only drink spring water."

Bins at San Francisco airport filled with toiletries, cosmetics water bottles and wine bought by tourists visiting the vineyards of northern California. Similarly, bins at New Orleans filled with hot sauce while in Vermont it was maple syrup.

The US government's reaction to the arrests in Britain came overnight on Wednesday as the homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff and the department's advisory committee briefed airports and airlines on the measures.

Mr Chertoff told colleagues that he was rattled by the seriousness of the threat. "Very seldom do things get to me," he told Mr King in a call late on Wednesday night.

Time reported that the department and the FBI sent out a document to law enforcement bodies on Thursday titled Possible Terrorist Use of Liquid Explosive Materials in Future Attacks.It said: "The FBI and DHS have no information of plotting within the United States, but such a possibility cannot be discounted."

    Intelligence chiefs looking at transatlantic phone calls, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843087,00.html

Comment

Give us good policing and fair trials - not rhetoric on stilts

Law enforcement, rather than another rush to the statute book, is the right way to deal with the threat of terrorism

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Shami Chakrabarti

Dear home secretary

Trust me, I really do get it. We face a significant terrorist threat from an international network that feeds on division, distrust, real and perceived injustice, and converts it into suicide and murder. You see the intelligence and hear "the chatter" on a daily basis. You carry responsibility for protecting lives and democratic institutions. You field criticism for domestic and foreign policy, and periodic opposition to particular measures which some think counter-productive . But don't make the mistake of confusing scrutiny with complacency or treachery. As the prime minister suggested in California, both praise and criticism of leadership should be looked upon "with a very searching eye".

You have sat in the greatest department of state for 100 days. Whether you stay there for 100 or 1,000 more, you are unlikely to do or say anything more important than your call for tolerance, resilience and solidarity yesterday. I believe that at times of great difficulty rhetoric can either unite or divide its recipients. Sometimes legislation becomes rhetoric on stilts, and at the Home Office hyperactivity can be as grave a danger as inaction. A deep breath and a calm voice might be a better prescription than the arbitrary deportation and legislative lock-down already demanded by parts of the press.

A devastating human-rights atrocity may have been prevented, not by political debate and new legislation but by intelligence-gathering and policing. I have little doubt that while the suspects are said to be British Muslims, much of the intelligence must also have come from Muslims. This kind of courage can only be built on if you are unequivocal in protecting the suspected, the innocent and even the guilty from the baying mob.

If some of that intelligence is converted into evidence and fair trials, innocent members of minorities who have been made weary, afraid and even sceptical by less successful operations may grow a little more trusting. That's why it was so important that Peter Clarke of the Metropolitan police spoke of focusing on the criminal process and saying nothing to prejudice fair trials.

This week, as the airport operation followed hard upon your immigration and national security speech, people remarked upon the "conveniently coincidental timing". We now know there to be no coincidence. You will have known of the suspected plot and planned operation for some time. Yet surely this degree of scepticism requires real reflection on how to rebuild trust in intelligence and government. Few expect a complete volte-face on hotly contested policies, but generosity and humility in the face of democratic dissent might be a good start in promoting the value of debate over destruction.

On Thursday you spoke of a unity of purpose that you share with your political shadows. Whatever the differences on details of policy, surely there is no reason for that not to continue? A good example was the largely overlooked counterterror report of the all-party joint parliamentary committee on human rights a couple of weeks ago. The committee took time and care in preparing its recommendation that the law-enforcement approach is the best defence against the terrorist threat. It advocates involving prosecutors earlier, bringing charges and facilitating fair trials in preference to long periods of pre-charge detention. It joins Liberty and the Met in calling for intercepted material to be admissible in trials. Above all, it speaks of the often false choice between liberty and security, of the dangers of counterproductivity in the rush to the statute book and of a human-rights framework that contains careful balances between values of protection, freedom, equal treatment and justice.

I know that you have not always been the greatest fan of human-rights instruments, or of the lawyers who seek to apply them. But if you can reach out to political opponents and demonised minorities, I suggest you might find language that achieves a solidarity with the legal community as well.

I was interested in your comments on Wednesday that the convention on human rights was designed in another age as a defence against fascist states rather than fascist individuals. But let me ask how it squares with your belief in "our values" and the prime minister's stark choice between "open and closed" societies. We must not allow opponents to paint open societies as decadent pits of binge-drinking moral relativism where anything goes. Human rights are not mere laws but the ultimate values of dignity, equality and fairness that preserve and inspire the openness and modernity you defend.

· Shami Chakrabarti is director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties)
info@liberty-human-rights.org.uk 

    Give us good policing and fair trials - not rhetoric on stilts, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843131,00.html

British Muslims

The challenge for us all

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Leader

The scale and the ruthlessness of the alleged plot by a group of young British Muslims to blow up passenger planes makes it inevitable that questions about the role and responsibility of Muslim communities will again be raised. John Reid, the home secretary, was right to say yesterday that terrorism threatens us all equally, and, by implication, that we all have an equal responsibility to do what we can to counter it. The responsibility is not only practical but intellectual, because the framework for effective decisions can only be provided by agreement on the historical processes which have led to the emergence of radically disaffected Muslim youth.

This is a sad drama of impoverishment in which a significant number of young people been alienated from the culture their parents and grandparents brought to Britain without acquiring either a sense of ownership in British life or a command of the broader Islamic culture which could have been theirs under other circumstances. The flux of settlement that sees an early generation assiduously protecting their culture, a second rebelling against their parents and a third moving on, has been interrupted. The collapse of the industries in which the first-comers had found work, and discrimination and ignorance on the part of the host society played a major part in the creation of this limbo, as did short-sighted, protectionist and socially regressive impulses within some of their communities. Some young men then find a way out in a second-hand form of Islam that is formulaic, generalised and organised around the principles of confrontation and resistance. A few converts from other backgrounds may then follow them, for disaffection is obviously not a solely Muslim phenomenon.

One way of responding is through the professionalisation of the mosques, so that they are served by leaders who can speak to the young in language they understand - which is English - and widen debate within the congregation. Another is represented by the work of a new array of Muslim thinktanks and action committees. Both show the community itself embracing change. Other initiatives include the incorporation into the school curriculum of the neglected history of British Muslims before 1945, to give young Muslims and non-Muslims alike a sense that Muslims have deep roots in this country. There is a whole range of worthwhile projects, coming from all sides - but they will all take time to exercise a benign influence. The same is true of that often repeated prescription for improvement, the demand for altered foreign policies. Shifts of the kind envisaged in international life cannot simply be conjured into being to solve problems at home, however dangerous. In any case, they can take years to complete.

The need for more immediate measures is obvious. But the self-policing often demanded by outsiders rests on unrealistic ideas about the degree of social control within Muslim communities - although Muslims should be expected to do their duty as citizens if they have knowledge that crimes are being prepared. A more active approach, of the kind favoured by intellectuals such as the sociologist Tahir Abbas, would see task forces dispatched to areas where Muslims are concentrated, with resources at their disposal and a brief to open up community life, air questions on Britishness, gender, arranged marriages and the Sunni-Shia relationship, organise thorough debate on foreign policy, and focus on unemployment and discrimination. It is an idea worth serious consideration.

    The challenge for us all, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842926,00.html

Ordinary friends who grew devout together

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Paul Lewis and Sandra Laville

As small boys they walked the few hundred yards to primary school together every day. At 3.15pm they ran out of the school gates to kick a football in the street and buy sweets in the nearby shop. When they became teenagers their interests were those of most young men: Premiership football, girls, clothes and music; and as young adults they grew devout together.

In Walthamstow, which emerged yesterday as one of the focal points of the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, those who knew the nine young men arrested from their family homes by anti-terrorist police on Thursday morning insisted they were ordinary boys with unremarkable lives.

Thirteen of the 19 addresses of suspects were registered in east London - most of them were clustered within a 500-metre radius.

In the streets around the east London suburb, which are lined with pebble dash terrace houses and interspersed with Islamic bookshops, grocery stores and travel agencies selling flights to Asia, the 10 men were well-known faces.

Most wore Islamic shalwar kameez, sported long beards and prayed five times a day at the same mosque on Queens Road.

A few years ago on the same streets the now banned Islamic group al-Muhajiroun was also a familiar sight.

Among those arrested were two sets of brothers, the Hussains - Nabeel, 22, Tanvir and Umair, 25 and the Khans, Assan Abdullah, 22, and Waheed Arafat, 25, whose young wife and baby were also arrested in the raids.

"They were ordinary British boys. They liked football, they were practising Muslims and they wore traditional dress. They were good boys; this would be totally out of character," said Imtiaz Qadir, spokesman for the Waltham Forest Islamic Association.

Perhaps the closest pair of friends among the nine men were 24-year-old Muhammed Usman Saddique, known as "Uzi" and the popular young medical student Waheed Zaman, 22.

Although brought up together in the suburb, they were very different characters.

Uzi was a somewhat troubled young man who dabbled with membership of a street gang and worked in a pizza parlour while the aspirational Waheed ran the Islamic society at the London Metropolitan University and worked part-time in Hamleys toy store.

Of the pair of them, perhaps Waheed was the most outwardly committed to religion and politics.

His friend Mohammed, who declined to give his full name, revealed that Waheed and he would travel to Islamic camps run by Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary group whose UK base is in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, the home of one of the July 7 bombers, Mohammed Siddique Khan.

The Americans believe the group has links to terrorism, something the organisation denies.

Mohammed said the camps were innocent. "We would go away on weekend trips," he said. "All they do is talk about the beauty of Islam. They would teach that you were not allowed to listen to music or have girlfriends. They only teach peace.

"I am sure there is no one trying to pick up or recruit people from those camps. This has been a mess-up by the police."

Clubbing and dating

But Waheed was not always so devout. In his teens he and his friends were more interested in clubbing and dating than the pursuit of the Islamic faith.

"We all had an eye for white women," said Mohammed. "Waheed chased girls before. Who wouldn't? But three years ago we both started praying more at the same time and we grew our beards. We realised God's promise is better than what white women can offer.

"We realised that if we are forever chasing desires of fame and money it wouldn't go anywhere."

Many of the shop owners on Queens Road said they knew Zaman well. He was a quiet but well-known man, with a long-beard, and wore Islamic dress and was always active in the community, they said.

One added: "He was the kind of person who, if there were youngsters messing about, he would advise them to go to the mosque and think of their religion. He got on with everyone - the youth, elders - a well-known character."

Another friend claimed Uzi had been the "mad one" of the group. " He was a bit of a rebel. First of all he was a rebel, then he turned Islamic and got deep into religion. Then he stopped going [to the mosque] and began rebelling and then, lately, he just got religious again.

"When he was rebellious, we talked together. He hung around with a local crew. It was for three or four years like this, first religious spell, then rebelling."

As Walthamstow Islamic leaders appealed for calm last night, the intensive searches continued at several addresses in the area.

Two police officers stood guard yesterday in front of the black front door of the pebble-dash terrace house on Queens Road where Waheed lived with his two elderly parents, both of whom were of Kashmiri Pakistani origins.

Occasionally officers carried out yet more property to add to the growing list of forensic exhibits in their inquiry: a computer hard drive, a bag of photographs and 50 audio cassettes.

    Ordinary friends who grew devout together, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843077,00.html

Convert to Islam among suspects

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Jeevan Vasagar, David Pallister and Hugh Muir

Police imposed a three-mile no-fly zone over streets in High Wycombe yesterday as they renewed their search of five properties and sought fresh information about the group of terror suspects arrested 24 hours earlier.

Key to the investigation was the search for more details about how the association among an apparently disparate group of people came about. Locals said they did not know of any radical organisations that might have been a unifying factor. The widespread assumption was that they were joined by geography. Many of the houses raided are in close proximity.

One of the figures being singled out for intense scrutiny was Umar Islam, 28, formerly known as Brian Young, who was arrested in London in the early hours of Thursday morning but grew up in High Wycombe. Anti-terrorist squad officers are examining the possibility that he may have provided a link between the group detained in London and those arrested in Buckinghamshire. Yesterday his mother Sylvia expressed disbelief at the arrest. "I don't even believe it," she said.

A neighbour, Parkhash Dhanjal, 62, said Mr Islam had married a Muslim and the couple had a son. He wore shalwar kameez to the mosque and had grown a beard, she said. Mrs Dhanjal said: "The family are nice and Brian is a good boy."

While officers searched his family home in High Wycombe, forensic experts were also examining the property owned by his in-laws in Plaistow, east London. Neighbours told how his wife had changed around the time they met. "She was a lovely, independent young woman but she suddenly changed," one resident said.

There was also renewed focus on Waseem Kayani, 29, who is thought to work as a taxi driver in High Wycombe. He lived in the Downley area, to the west of the town, where his was the only Asian family in the street.

A neighbour, Brian Ashby, 41, said the family, who have a number of daughters, were "one of the quietest" in the neighbourhood. "They were led out of the house and were carrying bags of clothes, not under arrest, and they left in their own cars," Mr Ashby said.

Mr Kayani is thought to have been friends with two of the other men arrested in High Wycombe, Assad Sarwar, 26 and his older brother Amjad, 28. It is believed that materials have since been taken from the Sarwars' semi-detached ex-council house.

The older brother, who was known locally as "Valentino" apparently came late to a more radical version of his faith. In 2003 he advertised himself on an internet dating agency, describing his virtues as honesty and his likes as fish and rap music. He worked in car sales which may have forged his link with Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, who lives about half a mile away, to the east of the town. Mr Ali ran a car import business, AKZ, trading from his home in Micklefield Road. Ali Hussain, 19, said the men were friends.

His incredulity was echoed by others, including Shaukat Warraich, a local community leader, who told a police press conference of his shock at the arrest of Abdul Waheed, a convert formerly known as Don Stewart-Whyte, 21. Mr Waheed, whose late father was a Conservative party agent, was seen by neighbours being escorted from his home in Hepplewhite Close. He is a half brother of the catwalk model Heather Stewart-Whyte.

"He converted to Islam quite recently and just two weeks ago attended an inter-faith dialogue meeting where he spoke freely about his conversion and spoke freely to people of all faiths there, Hindu, Christian, Muslim alike," Mr Warraich said. "It is very difficult to imagine that individual holding radical views."

He added that Mr Waheed had been instrumental in cleaning and painting local mosques and was known by all as a gentle character. "We don't know whether he has been associated with radical elements but when we look at this individual in particular it is very surprising that he has been arrested."

    Convert to Islam among suspects, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843073,00.html

Surprise over arrest of cake firm brothers

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
David Ward


Two of the men arrested in Thursday morning's anti-terror raids were brothers who come from a family that runs a cake and confectionery business in Birmingham, it emerged yesterday.

Tayib Rauf, 22, was one of 24 men held and yesterday his name appeared on a Bank of England list of 19 men whose assets had been frozen. Tayib's brother Maroof, 19, was also arrested but his name is not on the Bank of England list.

Friends of the brothers expressed astonishment yesterday that they could be involved in such a plot. "I have known the family for 22 years," said Mohammad Arif, 50, who lives close to the Rauf family in Ward End, a multi-ethnic area close to the city centre and near a house raided by police after last year's London bombings.

"They are a very religious family and go to the mosque to pray regularly. They are working class people, originally from Pakistani Kashmir."

Mr Arif described Tayib as a very polite boy. "He went to school with my daughter and left school at 16 to work in the family business. I cannot say a bad word about him. He has never caused any trouble and never got in with bad groups."

The Birmingham Evening Mail reported that, at the time of the arrests, police also led away the brothers' father, Abdul, their mother, Salma, and their brother Hamza, 17. Their sister Samya, 23, teaches in an informal madrasa at the bottom of the garden of the family's terrace home, built in 1921 and set back from a playing field behind a large paved drive. The house was guarded by police yesterday.

Mr Arif added that an elder brother had attended a private school. He is thought to have gone on to university and no longer lives at home. Another brother died, possibly of typhoid, at the age of 22.

The Rauf family runs an Asian confectionery business and neighbours said two vans were regularly parked outside their home. The family either owned or rented premises half-a-mile away in Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green, which were also raided by police.The building carries a sign advertising the ACS Management Group and grey steel doors lead into an adjacent yard.

"I'm dumbfounded by the raids," said a neighbour who did not wish to be named. "Every Friday a truck laden with pallets would draw up to deliver bread and cakes. There were always a lot of people coming and going and arriving to pick up bread. I can't see these people being involved in terrorism. They just seemed to be getting on with their business."

Another neighbour said : "I woke up [on Wednesday] and saw hordes of police outside. I knew him [Tayib] to say hello to. He seemed a good bloke."

    Surprise over arrest of cake firm brothers, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843041,00.html

'He was as good as gold ... a good kid as far as I know'

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Maev Kennedy


Amjad Afzil scowled at the effort to remember anything useful about Waheed Zaman, the young man he'd known vaguely since he was six, and spoke to occasionally after Friday prayers about cricket or football. "He was a good kid, you know? As good as gold. As far as I know he was a good kid."

There was no chat about cricket after prayers yesterday at the Masjid E-Umer mosque, in Walthamstow, as the imam emerged on to the steps, directly across the road from the small house on the nondescript London street in which the good kid was arrested, one of eight houses raided in the maze of surrounding roads.

The imam, flanked by members of the mosque committee, declined to identify himself to the barrage of cameras and microphones. He read a short statement, urging the Muslim community: "Remain calm and assist the authorities in the ongoing investigation. We urge all to be mindful of the fact that despite what is being said in the media, those arrested are innocent until proven guilty. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this very difficult time."

As soon as he finished reading, he turned and went back inside. The wooden doors of the mosque, and then the outer gates, were locked.

"You see?" said Taslim'U'Khan, a local businessman who gave some of the money which helped to build the mosque. "This is how it is here, after prayers the mosque is closed and everybody goes home. This is a place of peace. These people, they have nothing to do with the mosque at all.

"The young generation are completely lost," he said. "If the parents tell them what is the right way to behave, this would never have happened."

Mr Khan was in traditional long robes, Mr Afzil, 29, in track suit and a Von Dutch T-shirt. He remembered that the good kid had taken to wearing traditional dress all the time - "But you see how it is around here? That means nothing, some wear western dress, some wear traditonal dress, it means nothing."

In the Friday crowd at that mosque and the nearby Lea Bridge mosque, there was shock, even incredulity at the familiar streets suddenly scattered with knots of police, and the helicopters hovering overhead. But there was often anger too just below the surface.

Ahmed Sharif, a property developer, said: "If they have to arrest people, and make inquiries, and carry out searches inside houses, fine, let them do that - but do they have to stand around in the street, do they have to have nine guys sitting in a van outside the gate, do they have to have four men standing at the door? What's that about? Is it just an attempt at total humiliation of the community?"

A mini-cab driver, who did not wish to be named, also with four children, said: "We are not extremist people, we live in the community with black, white, yellow, blue, I don't mind. But since George Bush came in, this is not a peaceful world. I feel very sad. Tony Blair and George Bush, they are not doing a good job for the Muslims."

Afzac Akram, the local councillor and head of the community safety committee, and Mayor Faroq Quereshi, were doing the rounds of the mosques and community centres.

"There is shock, there is sadness, and there is anger of course," Mr Akram said. "But through dialogue we will build understanding."

"The voices of the 99.99% of our community who are moderate people have not been heard," Mr Quereshi said, "but the reason they are speechless is that they are shocked, they are not used to it and they want to go back into their shells."

    'He was as good as gold ... a good kid as far as I know', G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843050,00.html

Muslim leaders say foreign policy makes UK target

· Open letter accusing PM dismays Downing Street
· Iraq and Middle East 'boost extremists cause'

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Will Woodward and Stephen Bates

Leading UK Muslims have united to tell Tony Blair that his foreign policy in Iraq and on Israel offers "ammunition to extremists" and puts British lives "at increased risk".

An open letter signed by three of the four Muslim MPs, three of the four peers, and 38 organisations including the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain, was greeted with dismay in Downing Street. It has courted the MCB and several of the signatories, such as key Labour MPs Sadiq Khan (Tooting) and Shahid Malik (Dewsbury), whom it believes can shape Muslim opinion.

The letter says: "As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens. It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

"To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy.

"The debacle of Iraq and the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.

"Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion. Such a move would make us all safer."

The signatories insisted they condemned those who planned the alleged attacks. Mr Khan told the Guardian that Mr Blair's reluctance to criticise Israel over the Lebanon attacks meant the pool of people from which terrorists found their recruits was increasing.

He said: "We simply cannot ignore the fact that our country's foreign policy is being used by charismatic [figures] to tell British Muslims that their country hates them. Current policy on the Middle East is seen by almost everyone I speak to as unfair and unjust. Such a sense of injustice plays into the hands of extremists."

Mr Malik said British foreign policy encourages the view in the Muslim community "where you forget about right and wrong, where you think two wrongs equals a right ... those events are diminishing my ability to put forward arguments against extremism".

Lord Patel of Blackburn said the US and British governments were applying "double standards" by failing to take on Israel.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We hope the government will do more to ensure its policy doesn't allow people to believe that the lives of some civilians are worth more to it than others."

No 10 is frustrated by the letter, which it did not know about until last night. A spokesman said: "Al-Qaida starting killing innocent civilians in the 90s. It killed Muslim civilians even before 9/11, and the attacks on New York and Washington killed over 3,000 people before Iraq. To imply al-Qaida is driven by an honest disagreement over foreign policy is a mistake."

Two Muslim commentators blamed a lack of community leadership from foreign-born imams and mosque elders for the alienation felt by some younger Muslims. On the BBC's World at One Shiraz Mihir, a former member of the hardline Hizb ut-Tahrir group, said: "The mosques are not able to offer any effective leadership. At a time when there is a polarising debate about Muslim identity and how young British Muslims fit into the wider British society, there is a vacuum which is being filled by radicals and extremists."

Harris Rafique of the newly formed Sufi Muslim Council added: "We are seeing a huge politicisation of faith rather than (economic) circumstances. An ideology is taking hold of our youngsters."

Senior members of other faith communities voiced their practical support for a peace settlement in the Middle East. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, announced that he was cancelling his holiday and would embark on a week of prayer and fasting inside York Minster.

Alan McDonald, moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, called for prayers for peace and donate to charities such as Christian Aid.

    Muslim leaders say foreign policy makes UK target, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843114,00.html

Police and ministers move to defuse backlash

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
David Hencke and Alan Travis

The government and the Metropolitan police acted swiftly to anticipate and attempt to defuse any potential backlash from the Muslim community in the wake of the raids and arrest of 24 suspected terrorists.

Muslim MPs and MPs whose constituents were in custody yesterday were personally briefed by senior Scotland Yard staff and John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, explaining the background to the raids.

Typical of MPs briefed early was Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, who was rung at 6.30am on Thursday by Scotland Yard to be told about the raids and the alleged terrorist plot. At midday the call was followed up by a more detailed explanation from Mr Prescott.

Although none of Mr Khan's constituents was arrested, there had been fears that Labour backbenchers, already critical of government policy on Iraq and the Lebanon, might have been further alienated by the arrests.

Mr Khan said: "The feeling this time is that we have the real deal. The crime sounds so heinous that Muslim people do accept that the police and security forces had to act."

Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow, where the main group of suspects in London was arrested, last night praised the London borough of Waltham Forest, which had convened a meeting of more than 100 people, including local imans, community activists, councillors and police, to discuss the situation.

Mr Gerrard said: "The atmosphere was calm and tempers did not flare up. The local police were also helpful in asking people what they wanted them to do rather than telling people they had the right to do what they wanted."

John Reid, the home secretary, stressed yesterday that the struggle against terrorism was a matter of common solidarity that united all communities in Britain. He said: "The threat from terrorists is a threat to every individual in every section of British society. Terrorists do not distinguish on the basis of sex, social background, age or religion."

Grassroots meetings with the Muslim community across the country will be held this month and next; Mr Prescott, Mr Reid and Tony McNulty, the police and counterterrorism minister, will be among those listening to people's concerns.

Ahmed Versi, of the Muslim News, said he hoped Mr Blair would temper George Bush's talk of "a war with Islamic fascists' which implied America was at war with Islam.

    Police and ministers move to defuse backlash, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843125,00.html

Blair keeps faith in Reid and Prescott to handle terror alert

Political fallout PM resists calls to return from holiday and recall parliament

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Will Woodward, David Hencke and Alan Travis

Tony Blair was last night resisting calls to return from holiday and recall parliament in the face of renewed pressure from MPs.

The prime minister talked to John Prescott, the deputy prime minister yesterday, about the terror threat, and continued to make calls on the Middle East, from the boat in the Caribbean where he is on holiday.

Officials conceded the prime minister has discussed returning home, but say he is nervous of appearing to issue an effective vote of no-confidence in the handling of the terror threat. He believes home secretary John Reid and Mr Prescott have handled the crisis effectively.

"If he's going to come back there has to be something only he can do," one official said. That moment has not yet arrived, Downing Street argues. "It's still primarily an operational issue."

Yesterday Mr Prescott was sent a letter by 100 Labour MPs, led by backbencher Jon Trickett, urging a recall of parliament "as practically as possible" to debate the Middle East. An advertisement supported by key aid organisations including Oxfam, War on Want, Cafod and Christian Aid in today's Guardian demands a recall to "maximise pressure on Israel and Hizbullah to stop all military action immediately".

But ministers continued to hold the line against parliament's return yesterday, reckoning it to be a gesture at best, and the Conservatives do not support it either. Mr Prescott last night moved to take a more prominent role in handling the terror crisis by announcing two summits with Muslim MPs and community leaders next week.

The deputy PM went public after a strong defence of his role by home secretary, John Reid, who has been the government's lead minister during the alert.

Mr Prescott's office says he has working behind the scenes to keep on board Muslim MPs and Labour backbenchers.

Next week Mr Prescott will be asking Muslim MPs to come to a Downing Street summit to discuss the situation followed by a further summit with Ruth Kelly, the local government and communities secretary, with Muslim community leaders.

At a Home Office press conference Mr Reid said there was nothing unusual in him, rather than the deputy prime minister, chairing the emergency Whitehall cabinet committee in charge of the official response to the terror crisis.

The home secretary also went out of his way to strenuously deny claims that he had struck a deal with Tony Blair that he would not go on holiday as long as the prime minister was out of the country.

Mr Reid is due to have a break at the end of August but he said that his own holiday arrangements - he is expected to go away towards the end of the month - had not been based on the timing of Mr Blair's plans.

The home secretary insisted that he had followed the convention in chairing three meetings of Cobra - the Cabinet emergency response committee.

"In the past the home secretary has chaired Cobra even when the prime minister and the deputy prime minister have attended. There is nothing unusual in that. I chaired Cobra yesterday and I chaired the meeting today. It is the normal and conventional procedure for the lead minister to chair such meetings.

"The home secretary is charged with security matters. That is part of my responsibility," he said.

Mr Prescott missed the first two meetings of Cobra on Thursday and although he attended the third he did not chair it. Mr Prescott and Mr Reid both attended a meeting with the National Aviation Security Committee, chaired by transport secretary Douglas Alexander.

Meg Munn, junior minister at the Department for Communities and Local Government, has been leading on community relations, but her boss Ruth Kelly is back on duty at the weekend.

    Blair keeps faith in Reid and Prescott to handle terror alert, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843098,00.html

Cause for optimism as markets regain lost ground

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Katie Allen and Angela Balakrishnan

Financial markets got back to normal yesterday as shares in British Airways stabilised, oil prices recovered, the pound firmed and hotel groups shrugged off the effects of the terror alerts. Experts predicted some short-term damage to tourism, but said the latest scare would have little effect on the economy.

The FTSE 100 had slumped on Thursday, rattled by fears of lost airline business and a drop in the fuel demand. But stocks had an easier ride yesterday, with oil shares such as BP leading gains for much of the day before a late-afternoon dip. British Airways recovered some ground early on and ended little changed, and shares in InterContinental Hotels rebounded almost 1%. The pound also reversed Thursday's losses to strengthen against the dollar and the euro.

Retailers also shook off the news. The British Retail Consortium said the alert showed no signs of denting high street business. "The July 7 bombings had an enormous impact on retailers, but there is no reason at all that we will have anything like that this time," a spokesman said. "What may happen, although it is too early to predict this, is that overseas visitors may be less inclined to come here."

Experts pointed out that the economy was in much better shape than at the time of last year's bombings. Howard Archer at Global Insight said losses on the back of travel delays and cancellations were a "drop in the ocean given that the economy is worth over a trillion pounds".

"While the alleged aircraft plot appears to be a particularly major incident, at the end of the day nobody has been hurt and no material damage done," he said.

But there might be some losers. Stricter security checks could mean budget airlines will have to rethink their strategies, especially the move by Ryanair and easyJet' to cut costs by encouraging passengers to carry only hand luggage.

    Cause for optimism as markets regain lost ground, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843110,00.html

Fewer flights cancelled but delays likely to continue into next week

Saturday August 12, 2006
Guardian
Dan Milmo

British airline passengers face further travel chaos this weekend after airports were hit by more flight delays and cancellations yesterday.

British Airways cancelled up to 100 flights yesterday, and said it would take "a few more days" before its operations returned to normal after the disruption of the transatlantic bomb alert. The low-cost carrier easyJet scrapped 112 flights, including nearly all domestic departures from Stansted, Gatwick and Luton, as it suffered severe operational problems for the second day running.

A spokesman for BAA, owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, urged passengers to arrive early for check-in, but warned that delays and cancellations were still likely during the weekend. Passengers should not bring hand luggage and should carry any items allowed on flights in clear plastic bags, he added.

"Allow extra time to get to the airport and check with your airline before you leave the house, because there will be delays and cancellations. It is reasonable to expect that this will remain the case for the foreseeable future."

The BAA spokesman added that delays at airports in the south-east of England were inevitable because they were already operating at full-stretch and had no capacity for accommodating delayed flights: "There is only so much that the system can absorb."

Airports around the country reported improvements, with Manchester scrapping at least 12 flights, although delays were still being experienced, with one flight to Canada from Manchester held back for 17 hours.

A spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents said people booked on flights this weekend and into next week should plan for disruption at most UK airports owing to heightened security measures and late flight arrivals: "It is likely to continue over the weekend and into next week."

Heathrow airport, Europe's busiest, again bore the brunt of the disruption yesterday. BAA reported shorter queues and a "busy but calm" atmosphere, but passengers going through Terminal One were still being held in an overspill marquee outside the airport's busiest building yesterday.

There were 100 cancellations at Heathrow yesterday, against 652 for the whole of Thursday, when nearly 200,000 passengers were stranded at the airport. There were also delays to the majority of flights, although most departures were delayed by less than an hour, BAA said.

BA was responsible for most of the cancellations but reported fewer delays than expected as the day progressed, with around 90% of its long-haul flights expected to leave on schedule.

It also estimated that 70% of its short-haul flights would take off, after more than 400 of its flights to and from Heathrow were cancelled on Thursday.

Airports elsewhere reported similar improvements, with Manchester scrapping 12 flights, although there were still delays, with one flight to Canada from Manchester held back for 17 hours. A total of 40 flights were scrapped from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.

All US-bound flights were subjected to delays of up to two hours as longer security checks at US airports slowed turnaround times. Most inbound flights to Heathrow were arriving on time, but flights from the US were heavily delayed.

One flight from San Francisco, although due in at 11am yesterday, was not expected until just before 5pm.

The transport secretary, Douglas Alexander, expressed his "heartfelt thanks" to members of the public for their patience during the travel disruptions, adding that airports and airlines had staged a quicker-than-expected recovery.

He said that the "best instincts" of the travelling majority had contrasted sharply with the "worst instincts" of the terrorist minority. He added that restrictions put in place yesterday, with a ban on carrying hand-held luggage, would remain in place "only as long as the situation demands".

Ryanair cancelled 57 flights at Stansted yesterday morning, and said many had been cancelled because security staff had been unable to process passengers in time. A spokesman for the low-cost carrier said there would "probably" be further delays and cancellations today: "Many flights have had to depart empty because Stansted could not process passengers for outgoing flights."

British tourism officials said there had been no noticeable effect on bookings after the emergence of the plot. Last year's July 7 attacks cost the UK economy an estimated £750m.

Visit Britain, the national tourism agency, said there had been no reports from its 23 offices around the world of people making cancellations. "People may be waiting to travel but they are still wanting to travel," said Visit Britain's Elliott Frisby. "People are now much more resilient, and aware this is something that can happen anywhere in the world."

    Fewer flights cancelled but delays likely to continue into next week, G, 12.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843074,00.html


 

Flights return to normal

Fri Aug 11, 2006 2:06 PM BST
Reuters
By Michael Smith

LONDON (Reuters) - Airlines said flights were returning to normal on Friday but warned of more cancellations and further delays at airports after a foiled bomb plot sparked a security alert and stranded thousands of passengers.

Airport operator BAA said a ban on short-haul flights coming into London's Heathrow had been lifted and the airport was "busy but calm".

British Airways said about 70 percent of its short-haul services from Heathrow were expected to operate on Friday, a day after cancelling all short-haul flights to and from the airport.

Most long-haul flights from Heathrow were operating as normal, except for six services to the United States, the airline said, but warned of delays at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

"While the airline is hoping to operate a near-normal schedule, it is advising customers that they still could face delays at the airport and that the security restrictions introduced yesterday on all UK airports remain in place," BA said in a statement.

On Thursday, airlines banned hand luggage on flights out of the UK and warned of severe delays at London airports after police said they had foiled a plot to blow up aircraft mid-flight between Britain and the United States.

Low-cost carrier easyJet said it had cancelled about 80 flights on Friday compared with 300 a day earlier and said operations were returning to normal.

Dublin-based Ryanair listed about 30 cancellations from London's Stansted Airport on its Web site. The airline cancelled 120 flights on Thursday.

Virgin Atlantic said it expected to operate its normal flight schedule on Friday but warned of some delays. UK carrier bmi had also resumed its flights.

BAA, which operates Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, said it had been told the new security measures were in place indefinitely and it had deployed extra staff at airports to reduce delays.

A BAA spokesman said passengers were still allowed to take duty-free items bought after clearing customs and security onto flights, except for those to the United States.

Shares in BA, which lost 6 percent Thursday, edged up 0.9 percent to 373-1/2 pence at 9:55 a.m. British time.

Ryanair fell 1.2 percent to 7.35 euros in Dublin and easyJet gained 0.9 percent to 417-1/2 pence.

(Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim)

    Flights return to normal, R, 11.8.2006, http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=UKNews1&storyID=2006-08-11T130552Z_01_L11375892_RTRUKOC_0_UK-TRANSPORT-BA-1.xml

6pm update

Pakistan: Afghan al-Qaida link to plot

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

The Pakistani government today said there were indications of an "Afghanistan-based al-Qaida connection" in the alleged plot to blow up passenger jets flying from UK airports.

Britain remained on the highest level of terror alert today as 19 of the 24 suspects arrested were named, and air travellers faced tight restrictions on hand luggage.

Pakistan's foreign ministry named Rashid Rauf, a Briton arrested earlier this week, as a "key person" in the alleged plot and said there were indications of an al-Qaida connection. Mr Rauf was arrested near the Afghan border, the Pakistani interior minister said.

Reports on the television channel CNN, citing British and US government officials, said two of the 24 men under arrest in Britain had met an al-Qaida ringleader who is at large in Pakistan.

Matiur Rehman, described as an explosives expert, was reported in March to be planning attacks against the US. The Pakistani government is offering a 10-million rupee (£90,000) reward for his capture. The government officials did not know whether Mr Rehman was involved in the planning of the plot, but they said it showed signs of al-Qaida involvement, CNN reported. Mr Rauf and another Briton were among seven people arrested last week in Pakistan, it emerged today. The arrests were made in the eastern city of Lahore and in Karachi, Pakistan's main port on the Arabian Sea.

The other five people were Pakistanis, arrested on suspicion that they had served as local "facilitators" for the two Britons.

Police in Britain believe they have accounted for the main players in the alleged plot to cause what one senior police chief described as "mass murder on an unimaginable scale", but the home secretary said: "There is no 100% certainty in these things."

John Reid, the home secretary, called for solidarity "across all sections of the community" today in the face of the "immense" terrorist threat facing Britain.

In the US it was reported that up to 50 plotters and accomplices were involved in the plan, which the security services discovered from a tip-off after last year's London bombings. US security officials told the Washington Post that the operation to counter the threat had subsequently expanded to involve several hundred investigators on three continents.

The investigators kept dozens of suspects under close surveillance for months, even as some of the plotters travelled between Britain and Pakistan to raise money, find recruits and refine their scheme, the paper said.

Three suspects converted to Islam

Details about the individuals arrested yesterday in raids in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham continued to emerge today. Three of them were converts to Islam. One of these was Ibrahim Savant, from Walthamstow, east London, who changed his name from Oliver when he converted, according to neighbours.

The 25-year-old student, whose Muslim wife is reportedly pregnant, was arrested at his family home in Folkestone Road. He is believed to have taken his Iranian father's name when he converted and immersed himself in religious books.

The second convert was called Don Stewart-Whyte until he changed his name to Adbul Waheed. The 21-year-old was arrested during a raid at a house in Hepplewhite Close, High Wycombe, where he lived with his widowed mother.

The third suspect believed to have converted to Islam is 28-year-old Umar Islam, who was also arrested in High Wycombe. Elsewhere in the Buckinghamshire town, 27-year-old Shazad Khuram Ali was arrested after anti-terror squads stormed his home in Micklefield Road.

The youngest of the suspects was 17-year-old Abdul Muneem Patel, who was seized in the Clapton area of London.

Cancellations spell more travel chaos

Passengers were warned of further disruption at UK airports as the anti-terror security operation launched yesterday continued.

Hundreds more flights were cancelled or delayed but airlines said there were far fewer problems than yesterday as passengers complied with new security measures.

The BAA chief executive, Stephen Nelson, said: "It is going to be another difficult day today, both for airports and for passengers, but there is cause for optimism that we will get more flights off today. There will be queues, there will be cancellations, but we are making progress."

Mr Nelson told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that it was unclear how long the new security restrictions would remain in place.

Assets frozen

Acting under the instruction of the chancellor, Gordon Brown, and on the advice of the police and security services, the Bank of England froze the assets of 19 of those arrested yesterday, releasing their names and ages for the first time.

It acted under powers granted by the United Nations to tackle the financing of terrorism in the wake of September 11.

In a statement on its website, the Bank of England said it had directed that none of the frozen funds "should be made available, directly or indirectly to any person, except under the authority of a licence".

It added: "Financial institutions and other persons are requested to check whether they maintain any accounts or otherwise hold any funds, other financial assets, economic benefits and economic resources for the individuals named and, if so, they should freeze the accounts or other funds and report their findings to the Bank of England."

    Pakistan: Afghan al-Qaida link to plot, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842797,00.html

5.15pm

Muslims stung by terror claims

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

British Muslims today expressed a mixture of sadness, alarm and anger that their communities were once again at the centre of alleged terrorist conspiracies.

Worshippers arriving for Friday prayers at a mosque opposite one of the addresses searched by police in Walthamstow, east London, were in sombre mood. Uniformed police stood at the entrance to the modern building, providing a clear path for dozens of worshippers, young and old, who did not wish to speak to the media.

But one Muslim, on seeing an Asian police officer at the mosque gate, burst out in anger: "You are a Muslim. You should be ashamed of yourself. You are a bad Muslim." The officer remained calm and did not respond.

In Birmingham, Muslims heading to mosques close to where two brothers had been arrested seemed united in their scepticism about the reasons for their detention.

A woman who was dropping her children off at the Jamia Masjid mosque in Alum Rock Road said she was shocked at the idea that anyone living locally could have been involved in international terrorism.

Mohammed Hussain, attending prayers at the Masjid mosque, said local people were very upset about yesterday's events.

"It's not the first time. We know what is happening in Palestine, they [the government] want to take our attention from there to this side," he said. "We know the people arrested are going to be Muslims, no one else, and then later they will find out there is nothing wrong.

"We are peaceful people. We want to live in peace but the new generation, they can't take what is happening. It's unjust the foreign policy in this country, they [the government] are killing Muslims everywhere, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, everywhere.

"When the new generation see what is happening on the TV, their blood boils."

One worshipper said he was not surprised by the news, in light of recent developments, but said he was "disappointed".

Another young man said: "I think it's all lies, it's just propaganda, it's discrimination against Muslims."

A spokesperson for the Muslim education centre in High Wycombe, which was said to have been attended by at least one of the suspects, told waiting reporters that the prayer group was a "small one, mainly frequented by elderly men who can hardly speak English".

He said that the message given to Muslims at the group was one of a moderate and tolerant Islam.

"I have spoken to all the imams in High Wycombe and they all confirm that this is the message they are giving out. This is one of the smaller centres in the area and all the imams wanted today to impress on people that High Wycombe is a leafy suburb and a beautiful multi-cultural community."

He said that the area was proud of its "harmonious relations" between religions and cultures and added: "I am sure that the press will want to convey that.

"From speaking to people that knew these young lads, they were individuals who were known as very diligent, hard-working people who would pick up litter lying in the street and put it in the bin. They certainly have not been picked up as people of concern to the community."

He stressed that the suspects were innocent until proven guilty and said that the local community had some concerns about the way information was extracted from people arrested in Pakistan.

"The evidence based on this may have been obtained by torture in Pakistan."

He refuted comparisons between the High Wycombe centre and radical mosques, saying that the centre was a small, low-profile affair. He added that since 9/11 and 7/7 local imams had been put on alert to keep a close eye on anybody they thought might be misinterpreting the message of Islam.

One local Muslim said: "They'd have to be bloody nutters. There's nowhere in Wycombe that preaches that sort of stuff - in fact the sort of thing our mosque teaches is that such attacks are deeply wrong and no one is going to heaven who tries to kill innocent women and children. It's crazy. What kind of religion would teach that?"

He added that, like the rest of the community, he was "completely shocked" by news of the local arrests.

Worshippers at the once notorious Finsbury Park mosque in north London condemned the alleged plot.

"As a normal Muslim our religion - Islam - says peace," said Farook Oomer, 40, from Woodford. "At the end of the day, I'm a family man and I want peace myself. The killing of another innocent human being is forbidden in our religion and I think in all religions, be it Muslim, Christian or Jewish.

"I think it is wrong to kill an innocent person for religion, or personal or political gain."

Nabil Dellal, 30, visiting from Algeria, described the news as "terrible", adding: "I think it is the full reaction of the community".

Shamsul Khan, 33, from Luton, said: "It is a bit horrific really. I just watched the news and saw what happened. At the end of the day, it is not right, it gives us a bad name."

Twenty-four people remained in custody this afternoon after being arrested in raids in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham in connection with the alleged plan to smuggle explosives on to transatlantic flights and detonate them.

They are all being held under counter-terrorism legislation and can be detained for up to 28 days.

    Muslims stung by terror claims, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842393,00.html

Bomb suspect a keen footballer

Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:22 PM BST
Reuters
By Katherine Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Ibrahim Savant, named on Friday as a suspect in an alleged suicide bomb plot on U.S.-bound aircraft, had a regular job and loved football, just like many other young Britons, his neighbours said.

Neighbours and friends in the ethnically mixed eastern London suburb where the 25-year-old spent his youth said he was well-known.

"We grew up together. He was a normal, average guy," said Assad, who declined to give his surname. "Everyone around here will be amazed and dismayed" at his arrest, he added.

Assad said Savant converted to Islam in 1997 or 1998, began wearing traditional Muslim dress and grew a beard. He attended a local mosque, one of several in the area of Walthamstow.

Savant was one of 19 people named on Friday by the Bank of England in connection with the alleged plot to blow up numerous transatlantic flights. The bank, acting on instructions from the government, ordered their assets frozen.

U.S. authorities said all those arrested were British Muslims.

The neighbours' surprise at Savant's alleged involvement reflect growing fears about home-grown Islamist militancy and the difficulties faced by police to track it down.

The four British Muslim suicide bombers who killed 52 people on London's transport network in July last year had appeared to live similarly unremarkable lives. One loved cricket. Another was a classroom assistant.

Savant grew up with his brother Adam and his parents in a modest, white terraced house not far from Walthamstow's railway station and just across from a mosque.

"We called him Oliver when he was a little boy but he changed his name," said Paul Kleinman, a 66-year-old firefighter who lives next door to Savant's parents' house, raided by police on Thursday.

"He loved football and used to play the trumpet when he was small. All of a sudden he started to put these white robes on," he said, adding he had known Savant's parents for some 25 years.

Assad said Savant had worked at a central London department store: "He was always sleeping on trains," he joked.

The 19 named suspects are aged between 17 and 35. Police are holding 24 people after raids in other parts of London, southeast England and Birmingham.

    Bomb suspect a keen footballer, R, 11.8.2006, http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=UKNews1&storyID=2006-08-11T162223Z_01_L11388703_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-BRITAIN-SUSPECT.xml

Muslims criticise naming of plot suspects

Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:28 PM BST
Reuters
By Gideon Long

LONDON (Reuters) - Muslims criticised the government on Friday for publishing the names of 19 men who police sources say are under arrest for allegedly plotting to blow up passenger planes bound for the United States.

The government instructed the Bank of England to publish the names on its Web site on Thursday, just hours after police arrested 24 people in connection with the suspected plot.

Police have not named the 24 but a police source confirmed they include the 19 named by the central bank. Although the bank did not give the addresses of the 19, it listed their dates of birth and the areas where they live.

The bank's action is unusual. Normally, authorities do not publish the names of suspects until they have been formally charged and identified by the police.

But the government defended the move, saying it was essential to ensure the assets of the 19 were frozen.

"The Treasury has informed us that this is a normal procedure," Home Secretary John Reid told a news conference.

"When people's assets are frozen, the names are published, and this, the Treasury tells us, is part of the obligation of ensuring that people cannot deal with such individuals in the transfer of assets."

Some Muslim groups said the move was unnecessary and could hamper the suspects' chance of a fair trial if they are eventually charged in connection with the plot.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), an umbrella group representing Muslim students, said it was "extremely disappointed" by the government's action.

"It is important to wait until a thorough investigation has taken place before pointing fingers and drawing conclusions," FOSIS spokesman Wakkas Khan said in a statement.

"It is important to maintain the legal principles we hold dear, namely the concept of innocent until proven guilty."

The government said that in publishing the names, it was not inferring guilt.

Police are still questioning the 24 suspects and can hold them for up to 28 days before either charging or releasing them.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamist party which the government says it plans to ban, said it too was dismayed by the publication of the names.

"It concerns us that there is already talk in the media about the ethnic identity of the suspects, and that suspects are presumed guilty before any due process," said Imran Waheed, spokesman for the British branch of the party.

"We urge caution before jumping to conclusions."

Many Muslims accuse the police of unfairly targeting their community in their crackdown on terrorism.

Since 2000, police have arrested over 700 people -- many of them Muslims -- under tough anti-terrorism laws, but have brought only a handful to court. The vast majority have been released without charge.

    Muslims criticise naming of plot suspects, R, 11.8.2006, http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-11T152753Z_01_L11571123_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-BRITAIN-NAMES.xml

4pm update

Airports latest

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
David Batty and agencies

British airports began to see some improvement in conditions after the confusion and chaos of the past 24 hours, but all air travellers are asked to call their airlines before setting off today.

Here is a roundup of the latest information from BAA:

Heathrow airport

Tony Douglas, the managing director of BAA operations at Heathrow, said the west London airport was "slowly but surely returning to normal", but warned passengers that they could still expect delays and some cancellations.

There were long queues in the departure hall early this morning, but the overcrowding of yesterday morning was not repeated.

British Airways hoped to operate 70% of its short-haul flights in and out of Heathrow today, with around 120 flights likely to be cancelled. The affected flights include services to Glasgow, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The airline is operating a filter system at Terminal 1, with passengers waiting outside in a marquee until being called to check in.

Gatwick airport

A total of 44 scheduled flights on a variety of airlines had been cancelled by 8am today. Transatlantic flights of American carriers were being delayed because of additional security checks in the US.

Short haul flights from Gatwick were expected to resume at noon following the cancellation of nine domestic flights this morning.

Manchester airport

There were no cancellations or major delays this morning, despite longer queues than normal for the new security checks. However, an airport spokesman warned of cancellations and delays later today as flights from Heathrow failed to arrive.

The delays affected flights of Continental, PIA, and Delta Airlines to New York, and US Airways to Philadelphia, but British airlines were not affected. The spokesman said that other than those transatlantic flights there was currently "minimal disruption".

Stansted airport

Travellers flying from Stansted were told to prepare for another "very difficult day". A spokesman said EasyJet and Ryanair had cancelled 59 flights. He added there were delays to other flights and advised passengers to contact their airline for more information.

The spokesman added that it could be several days before flight schedules returned to normal. People not intending to fly are still being advised not to enter the terminal.

Luton airport

All EasyJet domestic flights had been cancelled today, along with a small number of outbound international flights and some inbound flights. She said delays were minimal. Anyone not flying today would be barred from entering the terminal.

Southampton airport

No flights have been cancelled today, only two flights have been delayed by around 30 minutes.

Birmingham International Airport

The flight schedule was returning to normal today. Staff said 80% of flights were leaving and arriving on time, and the average delay was just 20 minutes. Three exceptions were flights from America, two of which were running 90 minutes late and one which was running two hours late.

Cardiff airport

No flights have been cancelled today. There are some minor delays due to new security measures, but on average these are only around 30 minutes.

Newcastle International airport

Staff said 22 flights have been cancelled today, all either BA or Easyjet. Flights are still delayed but only by between 30 and 35 minutes. The airport still requests that anyone not travelling today does not enter the terminal.

Leeds/Bradford airport

No flights have been cancelled today. Delays to most flights have been only between five and 10 minutes, apart from one flight to Rome that is still waiting for a departure time.

Scottish airports

BAA Scotland said 36 departing flights had been cancelled - 20 from Edinburgh, 12 from Glasgow and four from Aberdeen. It added that there had been some delays, including waits of more than an hour for transatlantic routes.

Bristol International airport

An airport spokesman said 98% of passengers had experienced only minimal delays of less than 30 minutes today. Only one flight has been cancelled, and the flight schedule is expected to return to normal tomorrow.

Nottingham East Midlands airport

A spokeswoman said there were no cancellations or delays today, but passengers were still advised to arrive early for check-in.

Humberside airport

A spokeswoman said there were no cancellations or delays today, but passengers were still advised to arrive early for check-in.

    Airports latest, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842763,00.html

3.15pm

'Immense' threat keeps terror alert at maximum

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke and agencies

Britain remained on the highest level of terror alert today as 19 suspects arrested over the alleged plot to blow up passenger jets were named.

Police believe they have accounted for the main players in the alleged plot to cause what one senior police chief described as "mass murder on an unimaginable scale", but the home secretary said: "There is no 100% certainty in these things."

A total of 24 people remained in custody where they faced questioning from anti-terror police. John Reid, the home secretary, called for solidarity "across all sections of the community" today in the face of the "immense" terrorist threat facing Britain.

He used a press briefing to announce that the "critical" terrorist alert would remain in place as a "precautionary measure" until further notice.

In Pakistan, it emerged that two British citizens were among seven people arrested in connection with the plot, according to a senior government official. The arrests were made in the eastern city of Lahore and in Karachi, Pakistan's main port on the Arabian Sea.

The two Britons, of Pakistani origin, were arrested a week ago, the official said. The five Pakistanis were arrested on suspicion that they had served as local "facilitators" for the two Britons. It wasn't clear when they had been detained.

In America, it was reported that up to 50 plotters and accomplices had been involved in the plan, which the security services discovered from a tip-off after last year's London bombings. US security officials told the Washington Post that the probe had expanded to involve several hundred investigators on three continents.

They kept dozens of suspects under close surveillance for months, even as some of the plotters travelled between Britain and Pakistan to raise money, find recruits and refine their scheme, the paper said.

Three suspects converted to Islam

Details about the individuals arrested yesterday during raids in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham continued to emerge today. Among the converts to Islam was Ibrahim Savant, from Walthamstow, east London, who changed his name from Oliver when he converted, according to neighbours.

The 25-year-old student, whose Muslim wife is reportedly pregnant, was arrested at his family home in Folkestone Road. He is believed to have taken his Iranian father's name when he converted and immersed himself in religious books.

The second convert was called Don Stewart-Whyte until he changed his name to Adbul Waheed. The 21-year-old was arrested during a raid at a house in Hepplewhite Close, High Wycombe, where he lived with his widowed mother.

The third suspect believed to have converted to Islam is 28-year-old Umar Islam, who was also arrested in High Wycombe. Elsewhere in the Buckinghamshire town, 27-year-old Shazad Khuram Ali was arrested after anti-terror squads stormed his home in Micklefield Road.

The youngest of the suspects was 17-year-old Abdul Muneem Patel, who was seized in the Clapton area of London.

Cancellations spell more travel chaos

Passengers were warned of further disruption at UK airports as the anti-terror security lockdown imposed yesterday continued.

Hundreds more flights were cancelled or delayed but airlines said there were far fewer problems than yesterday as passengers complied with new security measures.

The BAA chief executive, Stephen Nelson, said: "It is going to be another difficult day today, both for airports and for passengers, but there is cause for optimism that we will get more flights off today. There will be queues, there will be cancellations, but we are making progress."

Mr Nelson told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that it was unclear how long the new security restrictions would remain in place.

Assets frozen

Acting under the instruction of the chancellor, Gordon Brown, and on the advice of the police and security services, the Bank of England froze the assets of 19 of those arrested yesterday, releasing their names and ages for the first time.

It acted under powers granted by the United Nations to tackle the financing of terrorism in the wake of September 11.

In a statement on its website, the Bank of England said it had directed that none of the frozen funds "should be made available, directly or indirectly to any person, except under the authority of a licence".

It added: "Financial institutions and other persons are requested to check whether they maintain any accounts or otherwise hold any funds, other financial assets, economic benefits and economic resources for the individuals named and, if so, they should freeze the accounts or other funds and report their findings to the Bank of England."

    'Immense' threat keeps terror alert at maximum, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842797,00.html

1pm

Hundreds of cancellations spell more travel chaos

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Passengers were warned of further disruption at UK airports today as the anti-terror security lockdown imposed yesterday continued.

Hundreds more flights were cancelled or delayed but airlines said there were far fewer problems than yesterday as passengers complied with new security measures.

The BAA chief executive, Stephen Nelson, said: "It is going to be another difficult day today, both for airports and for passengers, but there is cause for optimism that we will get more flights off today. There will be queues, there will be cancellations, but we are making progress."

Mr Nelson told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that it was unclear how long the new security restrictions would remain in place.

"Clearly, these restrictions have been imposed as part of the critical threat procedures imposed by the government and none of us can actually determine how long that will go on for," he said.

The low-fare airlines continued to be among the worst hit. EasyJet today cancelled 112 flights, mainly those to destinations that passengers could reach by train. These included services from Luton, Stansted and Gatwick to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle as well as to Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva.

Tony Douglas, the chief executive of BAA Heathrow, said the west London airport was "slowly but surely returning to normal" but warned passengers that they could still expect delays and some cancellations.

Mr Douglas said passengers should check with their airlines before leaving for the airport and urged them to comply with new security measures banning hand luggage. He added that those flying to the US were still barred from taking any liquids on board.

A BAA spokesman earlier said that around 250 people had slept overnight in Terminal 3, although only a handful had spent the night in the other terminals.

Queues in the departure hall at the airport were long again early today but the overcrowding of yesterday morning was not repeated. When a range of cancellations was announced at 7.45am, many passengers went home.

The BAA spokesman said passengers would be allowed to shop in the departure lounges and take those items on board with them, but passengers travelling to the US were still banned from carrying any liquids, such as bottles of duty-free alcohol and toiletries, on to the aircraft.

British Airways hoped to operate 70% of its short-haul flights in and out of Heathrow today, with around 120 flights likely to be cancelled. The affected flights included BA services to Glasgow, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A spokesman for the airline said he could not predict how long people would be delayed, but pointed out that some flights had already taken off as normal. "There will still be delays today but we are pretty confident of getting the majority of our flights away today."

BA was operating a filter system at Terminal 1, asking passengers to wait outside the building in a marquee until they were called to check in.

Jackie Mills, of Winchester, said she, her husband and their family had waited outside the terminal building for an hour before joining a check-in queue for their flight to Alicante.

"We've only been waiting three quarters of an hour in this queue and it is moving quite fast. Our flight is not until 11am but we arrived early because we expected much longer delays."

At Gatwick airport, tough security measures were in force with armed police in place around the north and south terminals. Many passengers had slept overnight on chairs or on the floor as they awaited news of their rescheduled flights.

Fernando Viegas, 63, told how he slept on the airport floor after his easyJet flight back home to Portugal was cancelled. "I arrived at Gatwick at 3pm yesterday and I'm still here now. I'm very tired, but what can you do? It is going to be a long day. I have been told that the next flight won't be until 6am tomorrow, which will have meant I would have been here for two days."

A BAA Gatwick spokesman said a total of 44 scheduled flights on a variety of airlines had been cancelled by 8am today. Transatlantic flights with American carriers were delayed because of additional security checks in the US. Short-haul flights from Gatwick had been expected to resume at noon following the cancellation of nine domestic flights this morning.

Staff at Manchester Airport reported no cancellations or major delays this morning - despite longer queues for the new security checks. But an airport spokesman warned of cancellations and delays later today as flights from Heathrow failed to arrive. The delays affected flights operated by Continental, PIA, and Delta Airlines to New York and US Airways services to Philadelphia.

He said: "We are getting delays on those flights because of delays in the States getting the aircraft out on time - and that's having a knock-on effect. It's not a problem getting them out of here. Check-in is normal. The British carriers are not affected."

The spokesman said that other than those transatlantic flights, there was currently "minimal disruption". He added that passengers' compliance with new security measures was helping to reduce delays.

"People are coming with no hand luggage which means check-in speeds up," he said. "Our advice is just turn up as normal."

Travellers flying from Stansted were told to prepare for another "very difficult day". Airport officials said easyJet and Ryanair had cancelled 59 scheduled flights by 7am.

An airport spokesman said scores of passengers had spent the night at the airport in the hope of re-booking flights. He added that although the airport was "much calmer today", it could well be next week before flight schedules returned to normal. "We would continue to ask people to check before travelling to minimise disruption."

A spokesman for Luton airport said that in addition to the axing of all easyJet domestic flights, a small number of outbound international flights and some inbound flights had been scrapped at the Bedfordshire airport.

Bosses at Birmingham International Airport said the situation was returning to normal today. A spokeswoman said 80% of flights were leaving and arriving on time - the average delay was 20 minutes. Three exceptions were flights from America, two of which were running 90 minutes late and one of which was running two hours late.

A spokesman for BAA Scotland, which runs Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports, said the airports were beginning to return to normal, although there would still be some delays and cancellations.

Around 400,000 people in the UK were affected by yesterday's travel chaos, the airline information company OAG estimated.

    Hundreds of cancellations spell more travel chaos, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842682,00.html

12.45pm

'All communities' must stand together, says Reid

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Hélène Mulholland


John Reid, the home secretary, called for solidarity "across all sections of the community" today in the face of the "immense" terrorist threat facing Britain.
Mr Reid used a press briefing to announce that the "critical" terrorist alert would remain as a "precautionary measure" until further notice.

Both he and Douglas Alexander, the transport secretary, will be meeting with national aviation security representatives later today.

Mr Reid also confirmed that he chaired another meeting of Cobra - the civil contingencies committee which leads responses to national crises - yesterday afternoon. A further meeting is scheduled for today.

The home secretary stressed the need for the British public to work together as he sought to quell community tensions following yesterday's arrests of alleged bomb plotters.

In an update of developments following yesterday's arrests of 24 individuals believed to be involved in an alleged bomb plot on airlines bound for the US, Mr Reid reiterated yesterday's call for the country to be united by a "common purpose" in the face of a "common threat".

Mr Reid insisted that the government had made efforts to combat the rise of extremism within Britain by working more closely with different communities.

John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, officially in charge while Mr Blair is on holiday, was playing a particular role by leading the "important process" of bringing communities together as part of a "common effort" following yesterday's police swoop to seize the alleged bomb plotters, Mr Reid said.

The home secretary said that tolerance and resilience were Britain's most "precious" assets in combating terrorism.

"This is a common threat to all of us and we should respond with a common purpose and a common solidarity and common cause," he said. "This, I believe, is our most precious asset and we should foster it within all sections of the community."

Since the 7/7 bombings in London last year, ministers in the Home Office had been "very actively engaged" in discussing with members of Muslim communities the threat facing "all of us" and had already acted on nine of the 12 points outlined in an anti-terrorism plan drawn up after the London bombings, Mr Reid said.

Asked if Muslim communities could do more to deter terrorism, Mr Reid dodged a direct answer.

"The threat from terrorists is a threat to every individual in every section of British society," he said. "Terrorists do not distinguish on the basis of sex, social background, age or religion. Terrorism is a common threat to all of us."

Muslim leaders have been angered by the government's failure to pay heed to their recommendations on tackling extremism.

Just two months ago, a Labour backbencher accused the government of ignoring the recommendations of a taskforce set up by Tony Blair after 7/7 dealing specifically with ways to tackle extremism within Muslim communities.

Community leaders, thinkers and imams sat on seven official working groups during the autumn, coming up with practical ways to tackle extremism. In total, more than 1,000 Muslims were involved.

However, only one of the 64 proposals made by the taskforce in its final report last November have been fully implemented.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting who sat on the policing group on the taskforce, used a speech to the Fabian society, the left-wing think tank, to describe the disappointment felt by those involved at the government's failure to act on the recommendations. Mr Reid also sought to quash speculation over Mr Prescott's low public profile since the alleged bomb plot was first foiled on Wednesday night.

The home secretary, who led the government's response to the foiled terror attacks, insisted that "conventional arrangements" had been followed.

There was widespread criticism of Mr Prescott - who is standing in for Mr Blair - after it was disclosed that he did not attend the first two Cobra meetings yesterday. Cobra is an acronym for Cabinet Office briefing room A.

Although Mr Prescott did attend a third meeting later in the day, that - like the earlier two - was chaired by Mr Reid.

Mr Reid said that in his capacity as home secretary, he was responsible for security, and answerable to Tony Blair, who is currently on holiday in the Caribbean, and to Mr Prescott.

Mr Reid insisted that it was normal for the home secretary to chair Cobra meetings, even when the prime minister was present.

"These are absolutely conventional arrangements that apply in these circumstances," he said. "The home secretary is charged with security matters. That is part of my responsibility."

Mr Reid praised the international collaboration which had helped to prevent the alleged bomb plots from going ahead.

The home secretary said he would be meeting with European partners in a few days to discuss the combating of global terrorism.

    'All communities' must stand together, says Reid, G, 11.8.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1842660,00.html


 

Muslims "under siege" after plane plot report

Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:38 PM BST
Reuters
By Amil Khan

LONDON (Reuters) - Many Muslims say they are sceptical of police reports about a plot by Islamists to blow up trans-atlantic airliners, and feel "under siege".

Police arrested 24 people on Thursday, saying they had been just days from carrying out multiple suicide bomb attacks on planes using devices disguised as innocent liquids.

The news once again threw a spotlight on the country's 1.7 million Muslims, 13 months after four young British Islamists killed themselves and 52 commuters in suicide bomb attacks on London's transport system.

"There is a siege mentality," said Abu Mumin, the manager of an east London youth organisation. "We have to continually justify things that come on the news. We just want to get on with our lives and live peacefully."

Many Muslims remain suspicious of the ongoing police operation, pointing to other high-profile anti-terrorism raids which turned out to be based on faulty intelligence.

In June, 250 police officers, some in special protective suits, took part in a raid on a house in the Forest Gate area of east London acting on a tip-off about a chemical bomb.

However, the two Muslim men they arrested, one of whom was shot during the raid, were freed and police admitted there was no bomb and the intelligence had been wrong.

In the most damaging incident, police shot dead an innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, in July last year after mistaking him for a suicide bomber on an underground train.

"GUILTY TILL PROVEN INNOCENT"

"In today's Britain, Muslims are perceived to be guilty until proven inncent," said Anjem Choudary, a former leader of the radical Al Muhajiroun group which praised the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was another case of a high-profile operation whipping the general public into this frenzy with very scant evidence," he told Reuters.

Scepticism is not limited to radicals. A poll of British Muslims published this week found 45 percent believed the September 11 attacks were a conspiracy between America and the Israel.

"The cynicism is there because of Forest Gate and what happened to Menezes," said Fareena Alam, editor of Muslim monthly magazine Q-News said.

Abul Khair, who runs an Islamic bookshop near the East London Mosque in the Whitechapel district of east London, said: "The government says it's Muslims, but it's propaganda. Muslims can't do such things. It's not allowed."

Many of those stopped on the streets around the mosque, surrounded by take-away restaurants, clothing shops, Islamic bookstores like Khair's, pubs and even a strip bar, did not want to discuss the latest security alert.

"There is a great deal of denial because they (Muslims) feel beleaguered. They feel it's an effort to draw attention away from what's happening with Israel," Alam said.

Events in the Middle East and Prime Minister Tony Blair's foreign policy are seen as key factors in fuelling radicalism.

Many British Muslims are angry at what they see as the wanton killing of civilians in Lebanon by Israeli forces fighting the Hizbollah guerrilla organisation.

"Why is America sending weapons to Israel to kill kids in Lebanon and why are British airports used to transport them?" Mumin said, referring to reports U.S. flights loaded with bombs for Israel had refuelled at Prestwick airport in Scotland.

Blair has signalled he does not object to the United States using British airports to fly weapons to Israel, provided procedures were obeyed.

"There must be a direct link -- if people were indeed planning to bring to down planes -- between what is taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also the support of Israel," Choudary said.

Teenagers in the Whitechapel mosque said they feared the latest event would put more focus on their community and could lead to ill treatment of British Muslims.

"It's going to raise tensions in areas where Muslims stand out," said one young man with a wispy beard and a prayer cap who did not want to give his name.

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden)

    Muslims "under siege" after plane plot report, R, 11.8.2006, http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-11T123742Z_01_L11409822_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-BRITAIN-MUSLIMS.xml&archived=False&src=081106_1411_TOPSTORY_bomb_plot_suspects_named

1230BST update

Arrest of duo in Pakistan 'triggered bomb plot swoop'

Names of 19 suspects listed below

August 11, 2006
Times Online
By Jenny Booth, agencies, Philip Webster, Sean O'Neill and Stewart Tendler

Two British Muslims arrested eight to ten days ago in Lahore and Karachi gave vital information about the alleged plot to detonate chemical suicide bombs on US-bound passenger jets, officials in Pakistan claimed today.

The details that the duo revealed may have helped to trigger yesterday's dramatic arrests of 24 young Britons in London, Buckinghamshire and Birmingham, and the massive security clampdown at airports which caused hundreds of flight cancellations and travel chaos for 400,000 people.

A senior Pakistan government official said that five Pakistani nationals had also been held on suspicion that they served as local "facilitators" for the two Britons, without being directly involved in the alleged plot.

"Both the men were British nationals of Pakistani origin and were key members of the Britain-based network of militants. The arrests in Pakistan were made prior to the action in London," the official told AFP.

Last night US officials told reporters that substantial sums of money had been wired from Pakistan to two of the alleged ringleaders in Britain, so that they could purchase airline tickets.

One report said they were planning a "dry run" to see if the mechanics of the plot worked - and hinted that this was what decided the security services and Special Branch to move in, ending a huge surveillance operation that had lasted a year.

This morning, the 24 UK suspects were being questioned by detectives at Paddington Green police high security station in West London, and forensic officers were continuing their searches at homes and businesses in Walthamstow, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

Unconfirmed sources reported that a "martyrdom" video, of the type made by suicide bombers, had been found at one address.

The Evening Standard reported that two airline tickets for United Airlines flights from London to America today and Wednesday had also been discovered, but this was not confirmed. The Standard speculated that the second ticket indicated that next Wednesday - August 16, or 16/8 - was to have been the date of the alleged plot.

Security sources suggested that the first inkling about the plot came when British agencies were alerted to suspicious activity during visits to Pakistan.

The ISI, Pakistan's intelligence service, is said to have warned MI6 of the involvement of officials of Lashkar-i-Taiba - a militant group with close links to al-Qaeda, blamed for innumerable terrorist acts in Kashmir and, more recently, for the Bombay train bombings which killed 180 commuters last month.

The majority of those arrested in the UK are understood to be young British Asian men of Pakistani descent, many holding dual nationality.

Three of the suspects are however believed to be white British males who have converted to Islam, including Oliver Savant, 26, from Walthamstow, who changed his name to Ibrahim Savant, Umar Islam, 28, from High Wycombe, who was born Brian Young, and a third man from High Wycombe who is believed to be the son of a former Conservative constituency agent.

Today the police were refusing to confirm the identities of any of those arrested, or whether any were women. The names of 19 men aged between 17 and 36 were however released last night by the Treasury, which has frozen their assets, using United Nations powers to tackle the financing of terrorism. Several are understood to have had thousands of pounds in their bank accounts.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, said today that Britain's security level would remain at "critical", the highest level. He said that although police believed they had arrested the main suspects, he could not rule out further arrests.

ABC, the US television network, was however reporting sources in Washington saying that five suspects were still at large.

Some in the British Muslim community have voiced scepticism about the existence of the plot, claiming that the timing was too convenient in drawing attention away from the crisis in the Middle East.

Mr Reid today urged all communities in Britain to make common cause against terrorism, stressing that ordinary people had shared values of tolerance, democracy, and the peaceful resolution of problems. Causing the deaths of innocent civilians was never justified, he said.

Air travellers were reported to be experiencing fewer difficulties today, although more than 300 flights from London airports were cancelled.

Airlines said that most passengers had heeded the warnings in the news media that all hand baggage had been banned, except for wallets, travel documents, and limited medicines, sanitary items and baby food carried in a clear plastic bag. As a result, the delays were much shorter.

A meeting of the National Aviation Security Committee this afternoon will discuss how long the current heightened security measures will last, and what other measures were needed to stay ahead of the terrorists, said Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary. He promised that the draconian measures were being kept under constant review.

Gatwick reported that 44 flights had been cancelled, British Airways cancelled 120 flights from Heathrow, including six long haul flights to the United States, EasyJet cancelled 112 flights - mainly to UK destinations that could equally be reached by train - and Ryanair cancelled more than 30 flights. Many regional airports were however reporting near normal levels of service.

The alleged plot which has been intercepted was intended to "commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale", Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday.

Meetings of the Government’s Cobra emergency unit were told that the first wave of bombings was to have targeted five aircraft leaving British airports in the next few days. The destinations, US officials said, were New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. The plotters are said to have studied the timetables of three US airlines: American, Continental and United.

Security sources said that a second wave of attacks had been considered, with as many as 12 aircraft to be attacked.

Surveillance on internet traffic between the suspected terrorists indicated that they had considered setting off their devices simultaneously in mid-Atlantic but had also discussed trying to blow up the aircraft as they circled above the destination cities. The aim was to cause maximum death and destruction in the air and on American soil.

US sources said that the main fear of British authorities was that terrorists planned to hide micro-bombs in false bottoms built into opaque energy drink bottles, enabling them to still drink the contents.

The devices may have been liquid explosive but experts said that it was more likely to have been a more stable peroxide material similar to that used in the 7/7 attacks last year.

The apparent intention was to explode the device using a detonator concealed in the flash mechanism of a disposable camera to puncture a hole in the aircraft skin. MP3 players or electronic key fobs could also have been used to trigger an explosion.

Michael Chertoff, the US Homeland Security Secretary, said: "The conception, the large number of people involved, the sophisticated design of the devices that were being considered and the sophisticated nature of the plan, all suggest that this group that came together to conspire was very determined, and very skilled, and very capable."

Mr Chertoff said that the plan had many of the characteristics of an al-Qaeda operation — a so-called terrorist spectacular aimed at multiple targets. He added that it was "well advanced" and "really quite close to the execution phase".

The plot, which at first was considered too far-fetched, had echoes of an al-Qaeda plan, codenamed Bojinka and discovered in the Philippines in the mid-1990s, to use explosives in bottles in attacks on aircraft.

Reports from Pakistani intelligence, suggesting the direct involvement of senior Kashmiri militants linked to al-Qaeda, convinced British intelligence that the plot had to be taken seriously. Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch was brought in to the operation last December.

"We have been looking at meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people," said Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commisioner and head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch. "This has involved close co-operation, not only between agencies and police forces in the UK, but also internationally."

Pakistan has repeatedly been accused of not doing enough to stamp out terror groups, that are alleged to have provided training, expertise and support to terror cells planning atrocities in Western countries.

Several al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal territory in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Their network has forged links with some Pakistani groups, including Lashkar-i-Taiba.

At least two of the British Muslims involved in the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks, that killed 52 innocent people last year on the London Tube and bus network, had visited Pakistan months earlier, raising suspicions they had ties to militants in the country.

Pakistan retorts that it is co-operating fully with Western security agencies, and has arrested hundreds of al-Qaeda members since joining the US-led global war on terrorism following the 9/11 attacks. Despite those efforts, President Pervez Musharraf’s government still struggles to change perceptions that Pakistan is a haven for militancy.

Nato countries with troops in Afghanistan are frustrated that Pakistan has not done more to staunch the flow of Taleban fighters involved in a cross-border insurgency, diplomats say.

UNDER SUSPICION

These are the names of 19 suspects reportedly being held by the police after the foiled plot and whose assets the Treasury has sought to have frozen.

Umir Hussain, 24, London E14

Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17

Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17

Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17

Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe

Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17

Cossor Ali, 24, London E17

Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham

Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17

Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17

Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington

Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17

Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe

Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10

Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe

Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe

Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17

Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5

Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest

    Arrest of duo in Pakistan 'triggered bomb plot swoop', Ts, 11.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2308675,00.html

Terror plot

How the road to terror leads back to Pakistan

August 11, 2006
The Times
Foreign Editor's Briefing by Bronwen Maddox

PAKISTANI officials are keen to claim credit for helping to foil this terrorist plot. British officials make clear that there was indeed good co-operation.

About time, too, you might say. Pakistan is vulnerable to the charge that it has done too little to curb militant Islam.

Its investigation into the Pakistani links of the 7/7 bombers last year ran into the sands. India blames Pakistan-based terrorist for the Bombay bombings last month, which killed more than 200 people. Militants trekking over Pakistan’s western border are attacking Nato forces in Afghanistan.

All of this adds to the predicament of President Musharraf before next year’s elections.

Too tough on the militants and he may enrage the religious parties, who yesterday teamed up with the main political parties to threaten him with a no-confidence vote.

But too lenient and he would jeopardise relations with the US and Britain. He would also threaten nearly three years of rapprochement with India, which has underpinned recent economic growth, one of the successes of his tenure.

Yesterday the nature of links to Pakistan of the 21 people arrested remained unclear, but officials in Islamabad said that arrests they had made had helped to uncover the plot.

Pakistani families in Britain often have very close links back in Pakistan; if some of the alleged terrorists are from such families then they might too.

Investigators will be trying to establish whether part of the plot was devised within Pakistan, with an active contribution from militants there.

Precedents for this line of inquiry are not encouraging. The police were keen to establish whether the 7/7 bombers who had visited Pakistan before the attacks had help there, possibly from within the madrassas, or religious schools.

But British officials have found those inquiries frustrating. Whatever the blame and counter-blame between Britain and Pakistan on that point, the bottom line is clear: no such role was proven.

Yesterday the Pakistani Government imposed house arrest on the founder and former head of Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group that it has already banned, and which India suspects of planning the Bombay bombing. The group was also among those implicated in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, which brought the two countries to the brink of their fourth war.

Pakistani officials did not link the house arrest to the 21 British arrests, although the events coincided. They have put Hafiz Mohammed Saeed under house arrest before, but then lifted the curb. Saeed resigned five years ago from Lashkar-i-Taiba to become head of a charity called Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely seen as its sister organisation.

The US has designated both as terrorist groups. Last year the State Department said that Lashkar-i-Taiba used the charity to raise funds and nurture ties with Islamic militant groups around the world.

But while Pakistan has banned Lashkar-i-Taiba, it has not done the same for Jamaat-ud-Dawa (although it has put it on a watchlist). There are good reasons why it might feel inhibited from cracking down on it.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa has won itself great support by providing aid to the north after last year’s earthquake killed more than 73,000 people and left three million homeless.

After pressure from the US and Britain, Musharraf has also begun to tighten government supervision of Pakistan’s madrassas. Most of them are considered to be harmless religious schools, even if their curriculums fail to supply the skills that Pakistan’s economy needs.

But some, particularly near the wild western border, have been headed by imams preaching support for a radical, militant interpretation of Islam.

In responding to the West’s demands for help on terrorism, Musharraf has been nervous of offending conservatives. His army, while apparently loyal, regards the tussle with India over Kashmir as iconic and would jib at a concession too far. His intelligence service has been intimately intertwined with the Taleban in Afghanistan.

Musharraf has raised the stakes for himself by relying on the religious political parties for support. But yesterday, they teamed up with the two big political parties to threaten a no-confidence vote in two weeks’ time. They do not have the parliamentary strength to win, but it is a shot across his bows before elections next year.

    How the road to terror leads back to Pakistan, Ts, 11.8.2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2308063,00.html

1pm

Hundreds of cancellations spell more travel chaos

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Passengers were warned of further disruption at UK airports today as the anti-terror security lockdown imposed yesterday continued.

Hundreds more flights were cancelled or delayed but airlines said there were far fewer problems than yesterday as passengers complied with new security measures.

The BAA chief executive, Stephen Nelson, said: "It is going to be another difficult day today, both for airports and for passengers, but there is cause for optimism that we will get more flights off today. There will be queues, there will be cancellations, but we are making progress."

Mr Nelson told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that it was unclear how long the new security restrictions would remain in place.

"Clearly, these restrictions have been imposed as part of the critical threat procedures imposed by the government and none of us can actually determine how long that will go on for," he said.

The low-fare airlines continued to be among the worst hit. EasyJet today cancelled 112 flights, mainly those to destinations that passengers could reach by train. These included services from Luton, Stansted and Gatwick to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle as well as to Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva.

Tony Douglas, the chief executive of BAA Heathrow, said the west London airport was "slowly but surely returning to normal" but warned passengers that they could still expect delays and some cancellations.

Mr Douglas said passengers should check with their airlines before leaving for the airport and urged them to comply with new security measures banning hand luggage. He added that those flying to the US were still barred from taking any liquids on board.

A BAA spokesman earlier said that around 250 people had slept overnight in Terminal 3, although only a handful had spent the night in the other terminals.

Queues in the departure hall at the airport were long again early today but the overcrowding of yesterday morning was not repeated. When a range of cancellations was announced at 7.45am, many passengers went home.

The BAA spokesman said passengers would be allowed to shop in the departure lounges and take those items on board with them, but passengers travelling to the US were still banned from carrying any liquids, such as bottles of duty-free alcohol and toiletries, on to the aircraft.

British Airways hoped to operate 70% of its short-haul flights in and out of Heathrow today, with around 120 flights likely to be cancelled. The affected flights included BA services to Glasgow, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A spokesman for the airline said he could not predict how long people would be delayed, but pointed out that some flights had already taken off as normal. "There will still be delays today but we are pretty confident of getting the majority of our flights away today."

BA was operating a filter system at Terminal 1, asking passengers to wait outside the building in a marquee until they were called to check in.

Jackie Mills, of Winchester, said she, her husband and their family had waited outside the terminal building for an hour before joining a check-in queue for their flight to Alicante.

"We've only been waiting three quarters of an hour in this queue and it is moving quite fast. Our flight is not until 11am but we arrived early because we expected much longer delays."

At Gatwick airport, tough security measures were in force with armed police in place around the north and south terminals. Many passengers had slept overnight on chairs or on the floor as they awaited news of their rescheduled flights.

Fernando Viegas, 63, told how he slept on the airport floor after his easyJet flight back home to Portugal was cancelled. "I arrived at Gatwick at 3pm yesterday and I'm still here now. I'm very tired, but what can you do? It is going to be a long day. I have been told that the next flight won't be until 6am tomorrow, which will have meant I would have been here for two days."

A BAA Gatwick spokesman said a total of 44 scheduled flights on a variety of airlines had been cancelled by 8am today. Transatlantic flights with American carriers were delayed because of additional security checks in the US. Short-haul flights from Gatwick had been expected to resume at noon following the cancellation of nine domestic flights this morning.

Staff at Manchester Airport reported no cancellations or major delays this morning - despite longer queues for the new security checks. But an airport spokesman warned of cancellations and delays later today as flights from Heathrow failed to arrive. The delays affected flights operated by Continental, PIA, and Delta Airlines to New York and US Airways services to Philadelphia.

He said: "We are getting delays on those flights because of delays in the States getting the aircraft out on time - and that's having a knock-on effect. It's not a problem getting them out of here. Check-in is normal. The British carriers are not affected."

The spokesman said that other than those transatlantic flights, there was currently "minimal disruption". He added that passengers' compliance with new security measures was helping to reduce delays.

"People are coming with no hand luggage which means check-in speeds up," he said. "Our advice is just turn up as normal."

Travellers flying from Stansted were told to prepare for another "very difficult day". Airport officials said easyJet and Ryanair had cancelled 59 scheduled flights by 7am.

An airport spokesman said scores of passengers had spent the night at the airport in the hope of re-booking flights. He added that although the airport was "much calmer today", it could well be next week before flight schedules returned to normal. "We would continue to ask people to check before travelling to minimise disruption."

A spokesman for Luton airport said that in addition to the axing of all easyJet domestic flights, a small number of outbound international flights and some inbound flights had been scrapped at the Bedfordshire airport.

Bosses at Birmingham International Airport said the situation was returning to normal today. A spokeswoman said 80% of flights were leaving and arriving on time - the average delay was 20 minutes. Three exceptions were flights from America, two of which were running 90 minutes late and one of which was running two hours late.

A spokesman for BAA Scotland, which runs Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports, said the airports were beginning to return to normal, although there would still be some delays and cancellations.

Around 400,000 people in the UK were affected by yesterday's travel chaos, the airline information company OAG estimated.

    Hundreds of cancellations spell more travel chaos, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842682,00.html

11.15am update

Terror suspects identified

Bank of England freezes assets of 19 men

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke and agencies

The Bank of England named and froze the assets of 19 of the 24 air terror suspects today.

Acting under the instruction of the chancellor, Gordon Brown, and on the advice of the police and security services, the bank froze the assets of 19 of those arrested yesterday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up passenger jets leaving UK airports for the US.

It acted under powers granted by the United Nations to tackle the financing of terrorism in the wake of September 11.

The oldest of the named suspects is 35 and the youngest 17. Thirteen are from east London - nine from Walthamstow, one from Chingford, one from Leyton, one from the Limehouse and Poplar area and one from Clapton.

Four are from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and the other two are from Birmingham and Stoke Newington, north London.

More suspects may have their assets frozen, said Treasury spokesman Nic Stevenson. "The list may grow bigger as the process evolves," he said.

In Pakistan, a senior government official confirmed that seven people had been arrested in connection with the plot, including two British citizens.

The arrests were made in the eastern city of Lahore and in Karachi, Pakistan's main port on the Arabian Sea.

The two Britons, of Pakistani origin, were arrested a week ago, the official said. The five Pakistanis were arrested on suspicion that they had served as local "facilitators" for the two Britons. It wasn't clear when they had been detained.

Rasheed Ahmed, a member of the Pakistani government, confirmed that the country's intelligence agencies had passed on information about the plot obtained from people - including British nationals - arrested in Pakistan.

"Mostly they were British national and Pakistani religious people who have been arrested before and from there our agencies got some clues and that was shared with the British and American agencies," he told the BBC's Today programme.

Two of the men arrested in Britain on suspicion of being involved in the plot were converts to Islam. Ibrahim Savant, from Walthamstow, east London, changed his name from Oliver when he converted, according to neighbours.

The 25-year-old student, whose Muslim wife is reportedly pregnant, was arrested at his family home in Folkestone Road.

Another convert was called Don Stewart-Whyte until he changed his name to Adbul Waheed after converting to Islam around six months ago. The 21-year-old was arrested during a raid at a house in Hepplewhite Close, High Wycombe.

Another of those arrested in Walthamstow was said to be a young mother, though Scotland Yard has not officially confirmed this.

Imtiaz Qadir, from the Waltham Forest Islamic Association, said the woman was in her early 20s and had a six-month-old baby.

"A young Muslim lady was arrested, and she has a six-month-old child," he said. "They have taken the child too, because it needs to be with its mother."

Mr Qadir added: "I know five of the men very well and they are really respectable young Muslim men. I am totally shocked. I don't believe they've done anything to warrant this."

Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, has said all the arrests were made on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Under new anti-terror laws, police have up to 28 days to question the suspects before deciding whether to charge or release them.

Ed Balls, the economic secretary to the Treasury, said accounts held by the 19 named suspects with UK financial institutions had been frozen until further notice.

"The Treasury will review the need for further use of our asset-freezing powers as we receive further advice from the police and security services," he said.

In a statement on its website, the Bank of England said it had directed that none of the frozen funds "should be made available, directly or indirectly to any person, except under the authority of a licence".

It added: "Financial institutions and other persons are requested to check whether they maintain any accounts or otherwise hold any funds, other financial assets, economic benefits and economic resources for the individuals named and, if so, they should freeze the accounts or other funds and report their findings to the Bank of England."

Here are the names, released today by the Bank of England, of 19 of the 24 arrested airline terror suspects who have had their assets frozen on the orders of Chancellor Gordon Brown:

· Abdula Ahmed Ali
DoB: 10/10/1980
Address: Walthamstow, London;

· Cossor Ali
DoB: 04/12/1982
Address: London E17;

&149; Shazad Khuram Ali
D#oB: 11/06/1979
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire;

· Nabeel Hussain
DoB: 10/03/1984
Address: London E4;

· Tanvir Hussain
DoB: 21/02/1981
Address: Leyton, E10;

· Umair Hussain
DoB: 09/10/1981
Address: London E14;

· Umar Islam
DoB: 23/04/1978
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire;

· Waseem Kayani
DoB: 28/04/1977
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire;

· Assan Abdullah Khan
DoB: 24/10/1984
Address: London E17;

· Waheed Arafat Khan
DoB: 18/05/1981
Address: London E17;

· Osman Adam Khatib
DoB: 07/12/1986
Address: London E17;

· Abdul Muneem Patel
DoB: 17/04/1989
Address: London E5;

· Tayib Rauf
DoB: 26/04/1984
Address: Birmingham;

· Muhammed Usman Saddique
DoB: 23/04/1982
Address: Walthamstow E17;

· Assad Sarwar
DoB: 24/05/1980
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire;

· Ibrahim Savant
DoB: 19/12/1980
Address: London E17;

· Amin Asmin Tariq;
DoB: 07/06/1983
Address: Walthamstow E17;

· Shamin Mohammed Uddin
DoB: 22/11/1970
Address: Stoke Newington, London;

· Waheed Zaman
DoB: 27/05/1984
Address: London E17.

    Terror suspects identified, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842393,00.html

BREAKING NEWS

Muslims react to terror

[11.8.2006]
The Sun
By SUN ONLINE REPORTER

THERE was anger and sadness today as Muslims arrived for Friday prayers at mosques close to addresses raided by police.

Uniformed officers cleared a path for dozens of worshippers as they gathered at the mosque opposite one of the addresses searched in Queen’s Road, Walthamstow.

One Muslim was enraged when he saw an Asian police officer at the mosque gate.

“You are a Muslim. You should be ashamed of yourself. You are a bad Muslim," he said.

A few roads away an Internet cafe, which police stripped of its computer hard drives to hunt for terror clues, was shut.

A businessman working close to the Hamar Jadid shop in Markhouse Road said it had been closed all day.

The shopkeeper, who did not wish to be named, said: “The owner is just an ordinary man doing a job. If there were terrorists how would he be able to recognise them? He is a good man."

Meanwhile worshippers at the Finsbury Park Mosque - made infamous by the now-jailed radical cleric Abu Hamza - condemned the alleged plot to blow up passenger jets.

The congregation described the news as “terrible” while the conspiracy to kill thousands of innocent travellers was criticised as un-Islamic.

But questions were raised outside a mosque close to where two brothers were arrested in Birmingham.

A woman who was dropping her children off at the Jamia Masjid mosque in Alum Rock Road, Alum Rock, said: “How do we know what’s going to come out, though?

“We don’t know they’re guilty - we don’t know.

“Just look at the arrests in London previously - what came out of that?"

    Muslims react to terror, S, 11.8.2006, http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006370222,00.html

WAR ON FREEDOM

Brit was born a Christian

[11.8.2006]
The Sun
By JAMIE PYATT
and THOMAS WHITAKER

ONE suspect arrested yesterday was a British Christian who converted to Islam when his new religion “just clicked”.

Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, changed his name to Abdul Waheed and grew a bushy beard, said his neighbours.

Last night it was believed he was the son of Doug Stewart-Whyte, a Tory party agent who died nine years ago.

Stewart-Whyte, who recently married, was one of at least four people held in High Wycombe, Bucks, as cops foiled a mass plot to down transatlantic jets.

Others held in the town included a close pal of his and a young lad who had just returned from Pakistan.

One of those arrested in High Wycombe was named last night as convert Umar Islam, 28 — who had been formerly known as Brian Young.

Meanwhile anti-terror cops also sealed off an area of forest in the town 40 miles west of London.

Locals said Stewart-Whyte, who was held in Hepplewhite Close, had been kicked out of school.

One said: “He was quite a troubled teenager who would go drinking and was often in trouble but nothing serious.

“He attended school in High Wycombe but got expelled for bad behaviour and moved to a school in Chesham.

“He was never able to hold down a job for very long and worked at a hairdresser’s at one stage and also had a job at a local branch of Curry’s.

“A short time ago he said he had given up work and was going to college but he didn’t say what he was studying.

“About six months ago he said that he was converting to Islam because it all made sense and had just clicked with him.

“His mother was not best pleased about it but after he converted he seemed a lot calmer and more at peace with himself. He made the conversion with his sister Heidi.

“He grew a beard and shaved his head.

“The sister lives in the South-West of England and his mother is on holiday in Scotland.

“His mum is a PE teacher who regularly attends a local Methodist church. She is going to be devastated.

“He married recently but we don’t know much about the wife and hardly ever saw her.

“She would appear in the street from time to time wearing a scarf round her head.”

Another neighbour, who described Stewart-Whyte as “polite and helpful”, told of a commotion outside her house at 10pm on Wednesday night, resulting in a man being led away by police.

The woman said: “I thought it was a drugs raid. But when I saw the news today I couldn’t believe it.”

The owner of a nearby restaurant who has known Stewart-Whyte since he was a boy added: “He went to school with my daughter. He was always very naughty.”

Elsewhere in High Wycombe a man named as Shazad Khuramali, 26, was arrested after police stormed the home of a family who bought a house with £300,000 cash.

Neighbours said that they used the money to buy a bungalow in Micklefield Road, near the family home, which was yesterday raided at dawn.

Tim Wilmington, 58, of Micklefield Road, said: “The family turned up two years ago and bought a house here.

“Their son disappeared to Pakistan for a couple of months and came back with enough money to buy the bungalow opposite.

“The family paid cash, around £300,000. They rented out the bungalow to asylum seekers. At one point there were 15 people living there.”

Mr Wilmington said the family also turned the front drive into a car lot selling second-hand sports cars which Khuramali imported from America.

Mr Wilmington added: “They were selling two or three cars a week, but six months ago the council shut the car lot down after complaints.”

A friend of Khuramali told how he altered after his visit to Pakistan, switching mosques and becoming much more devout.

The friend said: “He went to Pakistan two years ago and came back a changed man. Everyone noticed changes in him.”

Another address was raided in Plomer Green Avenue where a family, said to include four daughters and a son, were taken away.

A man named as Waseem Kayani, 29, was arrested and cops took metal detectors into the semi.

One neighbour said: “They seemed pleasant, although they didn’t mix much.

“When the son first came here he was always dressed in white robes and little white hats.”

Meanwhile cops cordoned off a dense area of woodland in their hunt for bomb-making equipment.

Police, forensic units and dogs searched King’s Wood, near the Micklefield area of the town as a helicopter hovered overhead.

Police also sealed off an address in Walton Drive, in the Totteridge area half a mile from the woods, after raiding it at 1.30am.

Assad Sarwar, 25, was arrested in this raid and a neighbour said: “He’s one of two brothers who lived in the house.”

Yesterday afternoon cops were searching the back garden and the inside of the £200,000 property.

Neighbour Phil Redfern, 26, said the brothers had become more and more religious in recent years and shunned the local community.

He said: “They now keep themselves to themselves and visit religious Islamic bookshops.”

Pensioner Maisie Cooper, 80, who lives close to the house, said: “I heard the police go in at 1.30am with a big crash. I never imagined they might be terrorists.”

j.pyatt@the-sun.co.uk

    Brit was born a Christian, S, 11.8.2006, http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006370176,00.html

WAR ON FREEDOM

'1,000 Brits ready to die'

[11.8.2006]
The Sun
By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
Political Editor
and JOHN KAY
Chief Reporter

EXCLUSIVE

ONE thousand British Muslim fanatics have been radicalised and could be turned into suicide bombers, intelligence chiefs believe.

MI5 and anti-terrorist groups have already identified the young men.

The size of the group under suspicion is far larger than previously disclosed.

PM Tony Blair and Home Secretary John Reid have been briefed about the scale of the problem.

One intelligence figure said: “We know there are 1,000.

“They could be persuaded very easily to turn themselves into suicide bombers — or martyrs, as they would see it.

“The problem we have is that we don’t understand what makes a radical into an extremist.”

Agents are monitoring all those on the “at risk” list. But it is a huge drain on resources involving thousands of anti-terrorist officers.

Last night, leading security expert Chris Dobson said the fact that the foiled air massacre plot was intended to use up as many as ten “martyrs” indicates the size of the problem.

He said: “If ten were to be expended, how many more are out there?

“The other shocking factor is that it appears they are all British-born, almost certainly Islamists.

“Does this mean that the disaffection among young Muslims in this country is so great that there is a deep reservoir of young men — and possibly women — willing to give their lives in the cause of fundamental Islam?

“Is there an echo of this disaffection in the jeers of ‘Traitor’ which greeted the success of fast bowler Sajid Mahmood, playing for England against Pakistan?”

He added: “This growth of home-grown terrorism is possibly the most worrying aspect.

“There have been British-born suicide bombers before, most notably the four in the July 7 attacks on London last year.

“The shoe-bomber Richard Reid was overpowered by passengers as he tried to detonate a bomb on a flight to America.

“Others have taken part in suicide-vest attacks in Israel. But there has been nothing on the scale of today’s revelations.”

Mr Dobson, who has written 20 books on security and terrorism, went on: “Suicide bombers were often dismissed as misguided youths seduced by the promise of life in paradise, with 72 virgins.

“But that argument can no longer be made. The bombers have moved beyond the promise of pleasure.

“They are now consumed with hate for Britain and the West in what they see as a global war between Islam and the ‘Crusaders’. They see death in the struggle as their duty.

“They are people, said one Muslim cleric, ‘who want to die, the way you want to live’.

“They are so full of rage and are so cunningly taught by their extremist leaders that they welcome death.”

Ministers have been staggered by the anti-UK feeling they have encountered on recent visits to Muslim areas of Britain.

Young men have berated them over the Lebanon crisis and the Middle East peace process.

And they have condemned the PM for his support for America and Israel.

Foreign minister Kim Howells came back “verbally battered” after a recent trip to the north of England.

Other ministers from the new Communities and Local Government department are to make similar visits in the coming weeks.

One source said: “They don’t know what they’re letting themselves in for.

“They are in for a real shock at the scale of anti-British feeling.”

Although the air bombings plot was foiled, Mr Dobson said the terrorists would be delighted with the massive travel and economic disruption it caused — as well as the fear it has brought travellers

He said: “The old terrorist motto used to be ‘Kill one and frighten 10,000’. It is still true because fear is a powerful weapon.”

A senior Government security adviser said of the foiled attacks: “Even though we have had a considerable success, the public must not be complacent.

“We are investigating literally dozens of other plots, some big and some smaller.”

The adviser said there was no suggestion that the planned attacks were to take place yesterday.

But he added: “We believe that the planning and activating of the plots was so far advanced that we could not afford to take any risks and had to act immediately to protect the public.”

gpascoewatson@the-sun.co.uk

    '1,000 Brits ready to die', S, 11.8.2006, http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006370135,00.html

WAR ON FREEDOM

Just two days from doom

[11.8.2006]
The Sun
By SIMON HUGHES
Chief Investigative Reporter
and GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
Political Editor

AL-QAEDA fanatics were just TWO DAYS away from mounting a suicide blitz to destroy nine US-bound aircraft, it emerged last night.

But months of investigation by Scotland Yard’s AntiTerrorist branch and the security service MI5 prevented the evil operation.

Vital intelligence on the planned massacres at 33,000ft was shared with the US and other allies.

The bombers aimed to board American Airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines flights to five US cities. They were to fly from Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham or Glasgow.

It was believed the gang intended to use a liquid, peroxide-based explosive which could be mixed mid-flight to bring down the aircraft in three waves of three.

The deadly fluid components would have been hidden inside drink bottles and even baby milk.

The method would have foiled airport security before the flights — and been impossible to detect after the blasts, triggered by electrical signals from devices such as a cheap disposable camera flash, an iPod, or a mobile phone.

The terror cells had planned to insert false bottoms in sports drinks bottles like Lucozade and fill them with liquid explosive.

That meant they could leave the bottle top sealed and filled with the original drink so they could sip it safely if asked by security.

A source said: “If the planes were blown up over the Atlantic, very little would then be found.

“The black box flight recorders would be lost, the wreckage would sink and any bodies would be so badly damaged they’d be little use.”

Last night intelligence sources told The Sun: “It is feared the terrorists may have been just two days away from the attacks.

“Scotland Yard and MI5 have done absolutely brilliantly.”

And Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said: “We are confident we’ve prevented an attempt to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”

Home Secretary John Reid seized command of the nation in PM Tony Blair’s absence and put Britain on a “critical” security alert — the highest threat level.

Mr Blair approved raids on suspects at 2am yesterday after he was briefed by video-conference from Whitehall’s Cobra war room.

Cops were last night searching several properties. Sources said they had found “a number of things that are causing interest”.

The plot was uncovered nearly a YEAR ago. Intelligence agencies brought in anti-terror police at Christmas to watch the suspects.

The PM and President George Bush had been briefed on the operation for weeks.

Last night Mr Blair broke off from his Caribbean holiday and said: “I’d like to pay tribute to the immense effort made by the police and security services.”

Mr Bush thanked Mr Blair and British intelligence.

He said: “This is a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom. I want to thank the government of Tony Blair and officials in the UK for doing good work in busting this plot.”

Peter King, chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said: “This is very, very serious, this is the real deal.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff confirmed the attacks were in the final stages of planning.

He said: “This operation is in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaeda plot, but the investigation is still under way.”

Security services in Britain and elsewhere are worried that the bombers may have already shared with other terror networks the method they planned to use.

It is known that fanatics have developed methods of communicating by email which are very hard to crack. Passwords are exchanged that allow access to key messages.

It was thought the jet terrorists were going to use an explosive called TATP — triacetone triperoxide.

It is a white crystalline powder that bomb sniffer devices and dogs have difficulty in detecting.

But TATP would be only one component in a “binary bomb”. They are made of others that are generally harmless until mixed.

Experts say just EIGHT OUNCES of TATP could bring down a plane.

s.hughes@the-sun.co.uk

    Just two days from doom, S, 11.8.2006, http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006370176,00.html

Air terror plot foiled

Met chief : "murder on unimaginable scale"

[11.8.2006]
The News of the World
By Simon Freeman

Terror suspects behind the foiled plane bomb plot planned to blow up nine transatlantic planes in three hours - killing 3,000 innocent people.

Details of the planned atrocity emerged today as the names of 19 of the 24 suspects arrested - all young British-born Muslims from London and the Midlands - were released by the Government. Thousands of pounds in their bank accounts have been frozen.

The youngest is just 17. Another is a white youth who converted to Islam only six months ago. One studied biochemistry and a fourth is a mum with a young child.

The terrifying scale of the plot - which was less than 48 hours from being carried out when it was smashed in a joint operation by MI5 and Scotland Yard - has rocked security experts.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, confirmed today that Britain will remain on red alert as the massive police probe into the operation continues.

One source said: "We stopped Plan A. The question is whether there is a Plan B."

ON THE RUN

Detectives believe they captured the ring-leaders of the plot in a string of overnight raids yesterday but insiders in the US have revealed at least FIVE more suspects could still be on the run.

The Met described the plan as a bid to cause 'mass murder on an unimaginable scale'.

If it had not been stopped, cops reckon the death toll would have been higher than the number killed in the 9/11 attacks on New York.

There were reports that the sickening bid had been time to coincide with the five year anniversary of the carnage at the World Trade Centre.

It also emerged today that the trigger for yesterday's arrests came when two British Muslims were captured by police in Pakistan.

The duo gave crucial details which tipped off security agents that the plot which had been under surveillance for 12 months was hours away from being activated.

Today, the 24 suspects were being quizzed at Paddington Green high security police station in London. Forensic searches were being carried out at homes in Walthamstow, Birmingham and High Wycombe.

al-Qaeda link

It is believed that a 'martyrdom video' typical of al-Qaeda suicide bombers was found at one of the houses.

Three of the suspects are believed to be white British males who have converted to Islam, including Oliver Savant, 26, from Walthamstow, who changed his name to Ibrahim Savant; Umar Islam, 28, from High Wycombe, who was born Brian Young, and a third man from High Wycombe - the son of a former Tory agent.

Air travellers were reported to be experiencing fewer difficulties today, although more than 300 flights from London airports were cancelled and there were long delays.

Most passengers have heeded warnings and restrict their hand luggage to the barest essetials - wallet, passport, medicines and specs.

Gatwick said 44 flights had been cancelled, British Airways cancelled 120 flights from Heathrow, EasyJet cancelled 112 flights and Ryanair scrapped more than 30.

Sources have said that the terrorists planned to smuggle chemicals aboard planes in sports drink bottles. The chemicals would be mixed in the plane loos into an explosive cocktail which would be triggered by the flash of a disposable camera or iPod, puncturing a hole in the aircraft.

The targets were American Airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines flights for New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles from Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham.

----------------------

THE SUSPECTS

The names of 19 suspects being held by police were released by the Treasury today, as it froze thousands of pounds in their bank accounts. Umir Hussain, 24, London E14

Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17

Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17

Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17

Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe

Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17

Cossor Ali, 24, London E17

Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham

Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17

Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17

Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington

Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17

Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe

Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10

Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe

Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe

Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17

Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5

Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest

    Air terror plot foiled, NoW, 11.8.2006, http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news3.shtml

10am

Market rallies after terror plot losses

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Dan Milmo

Travel stocks staged a recovery this morning, as air travellers faced more disappointment with hundreds of flights cancelled by airlines still recovering from the delays brought about by yesterday's terror alert.

The budget airline easyJet, which cancelled 300 flights yesterday, pulled a further 112 departures today while Ryanair scrapped 30 flights from Stansted. BA said it expected to cancel around 120 journeys. Flights to Glasgow, San Francisco and Los Angeles have already been cancelled.

A BA spokesman said the delays were a practical measure designed to ensure that the airline's flights ran smoothly for the rest of the day. An easyJet spokesman said the company was being "realistic" about its ability to run a full service: "We could have been heroic ... and fallen flat on our faces."

Shares in BA, which fell along with other European airlines yesterday, rose 1% in early trading and InterContinental Hotels gained 1.6%. The car hire firm Avis Europe rose 2% as the market banked on the tourist trade shrugging off the revelation of a transatlantic bombing plot. By 7.44am, the FTSE 100 index was up 18.1 points at 5,841.5 as it regained ground lost yesterday. Oil and banking stocks were among the strongest performers.

Investors will also be awaiting the outcome of a special meeting of the National Aviation Security Committee later today. The committee, chaired by the transport secretary, Douglas Alexander, will brief aviation bodies including BAA, the owner of Heathrow and Gatwick airports, on whether practical security measures implemented yesterday need to be maintained.

Airlines fear that keeping the measures in place will have long-term knock-on effects such as lengthening the turnaround time for planes - particularly for budget operators - and increasing the cost of security. Duty free shops also fear the consequences of a ban on carrying liquids onto planes.

    Market rallies after terror plot losses, G, 11.8.2006, http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1842426,00.html

'Sometimes we may have to modify some of our freedoms'

Warning: Why Reid changed his speech

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian

John Reid was due to give a major speech on immigration on Wednesday as part of his ongoing restructure of the Home Office. Instead, he devoted his address to terrorism, speaking passionately about the nature of the threat and how critics of police and government tactics were putting national security at risk.

"They just don't get it," he said. "Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse and abuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms in the modern world," he told the Demos thinktank.

Mr Reid may not have known then that the police were going to have to act within hours of his speech, but he would have known about the details of the plot and that the police and the security service were going to act, probably within days.

He said that Britain was facing "probably the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of the second world war" and that the country was being confronted by a new breed of ruthless "unconstrained international terrorists".

Everyone across the political, media, judicial and public spectrums needed to understand the depth and magnitude of the threat, he said.

Mr Reid's targets were judges, political commentators and British politicians.

He pointed out that laws designed to deport and detain had been repeatedly weakened by liberal opposition. Drawing on recent research by Demos, he added: "If more violent attacks on UK citizens are to be stopped, the public, corporations - everyone - will have to do its part to help."

    'Sometimes we may have to modify some of our freedoms', G, 11.8.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842285,00.html

'A plot to commit murder on an unimaginable scale'

· Police: up to 12 aircraft to be blown up
· Plan to hide liquid explosives in luggage
· Five US cities targeted
· 24 held after dawn raids
· Travel chaos hits thousands

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Sandra Laville, Richard Norton-Taylor and Vikram Dodd

British suicide bombers were within days of blowing up 12 passenger jets above five US cities in an unprecedented terrorist attack designed to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale", counterterrorism sources claimed last night.

Anti-terrorist agents said they had uncovered the plot from surveillance of a group of young British Muslims, which began nearly a year ago and was on a scale never before undertaken.

US and British counterterrorism officials claimed the men, the majority British Muslims of Pakistani descent, were going to disguise liquid explosive as bottles of soft drink and carry them in their hand luggage on to US-bound planes leaving British airports.

When the jets were in midair over American cities, they planned to combine the explosives and detonate them using an electric charge from an iPod, the security services believe. BA flights were among the targets. US officials said the bombers had been seeking to hit New York, Washington, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles. Other airlines targeted were thought to be United, American and Continental.

Loss of life might have surpassed the 2,700 killed in the attack on the twin towers in New York five years ago. "This was our 9/11," a British security source said.

Anti-terrorist police were bounced into action in the early hours of yesterday after an arrest on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan two weeks ago, according to a Pakistani government official.

A British government source said an intercepted message from Pakistan telling the bombers to "go now" had triggered the arrests. Security sources said they had been planning to break up the cells in the next few days, but were forced to move earlier to prevent huge loss of life; they believed the attacks were to take place in the next two days.

The Metropolitan police deputy commissioner, Paul Stephenson, said: "This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

Twenty-four people were in custody last night after police raided addresses in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in Birmingham, and in north and east London. Among those arrested was a Muslim bookkeeper from Walthamstow. Another of the alleged plotters was understood to work at Heathrow.

Although security sources said they believed they had arrested all the known main suspects, police were last night still hunting a number of others thought to be involved in the plot, a senior counterterrorism official told the Guardian.

There is also a fear that jihadists involved in other plots may decide to attack quicker than otherwise, because they fear those arrested yesterday may inform on them, or because they fear the authorities are about to arrest them.

It was claimed in the US that the plotters had planned to blow up three planes an hour for three hours, and that up to 50 people had been involved; this could not be corroborated in the UK.

The American news network NBC quoted an unnamed counterterrorism official as saying that more than one of the plotters had prepared a martyrdom videotape, while at least one had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Britain remained on its highest alert - critical - as the suspects were being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism.

John Reid, the home secretary, chaired meetings of Cobra, the cabinet emergencies committee, on Wednesday night and yesterday morning as the police operation took place. Tony Blair was kept informed of the operation while on holiday in Barbados. Mr Reid said that if the bombers had succeeded they would have caused death on an "unprecedented scale".

Extraordinary security measures were put in place in British airports from 3am yesterday, causing chaos for thousands. Hundreds of long-haul flights were cancelled, and passengers were banned from taking luggage on board. In the US, officials stopped drinks being taken on flights and issued its highest terrorism alert for commercial flights from Britain.

The US homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said the plotters had envisioned blowing up the aircraft using bomb components innocuous in themselves but which could be combined to form an explosive after take-off.

British Airways cancelled 400 flights out of Heathrow at a cost of £100,000 an airliner. Analysts estimated that BA could lose up to £40m from the delays, while easyJet, which cancelled 300 flights yesterday, has lost an estimated £1m.

    'A plot to commit murder on an unimaginable scale', G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842272,00.html

Months of monitoring exposed details of conspiracy

Security operation stepped up after 'go' order from Pakistan intercepted

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Richard Norton-Taylor, Sandra Laville and Vikram Dodd

For well over a year, MI5 had been watching a group of young British Muslims after a tip-off from an informant.

Through an unprecedented surveillance operation involving bugging and phone tapping, they learned that in mundane residential streets a plot was being hatched which a senior security source described yesterday as "bigger than 9/11".

The plan, it appears, was to blow up passenger jets with liquid explosives hidden in hand luggage that would be combined on board with a detonating device, possibly hidden in an iPod.

In December 2005 the police joined the MI5 operation, with officers and agents monitoring what the alleged plotters read on the internet, where they spent their money, where they took their dry cleaning, which shops they used, and the meetings they attended as the authorities attempted to piece together what Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, described as the "aspirations of a large group".

As well intrusive surveillance, their spending habits and bank accounts were tracked by a special anti-terrorism unit which can monitor flows of money to provide evidence of association.

Sources say some in the alleged plot had access to unusually large amounts of money, out of keeping with their incomes.

But the group was not acting alone. It became clear last night that the trigger for the sudden police sweep on houses in Birmingham, High Wycombe and east London, and the arrest of 24 terror suspects, came from Pakistan.

The arrests in Britain followed the detention of terrorist suspects in Pakistan, it is believed, within the past fortnight. According to some government sources, after the arrests a message was sent to the suspected terror cells in Britain telling them: "Do your attacks now." In effect, it was a "go" order to the British bombers.

According to these sources, the message was intercepted and decoded by either British or US intelligence in the past 72 hours, spurring counterterrorism officials to intensify the investigation against the alleged plotters.

Mr Clarke suggested yesterday that the alleged bombers may not yet have created the bombs they intended to use.

"The devices were to be constructed in the UK," he said. But the plotters had given enough information in their overheard conversations to convince police the suicide attacks would be carried out using some form of liquid explosives hidden in bottles carried in their hand-luggage.

"The investigation has focused on intelligence, which suggested that a plot was in existence to blow up transatlantic passenger aircraft, in flight," he said.

"The intelligence suggested that this was to be achieved by means of concealed explosive devices smuggled on to the aircraft in hand baggage. The number, destination and timing of the flights that might be attacked remain the subject of investigation."

Security sources said up to 12 planes were to be targeted, suggesting at least two plotters were preparing to board each transatlantic jet.

Each person would have had a separate component of the explosive device, which on its own would have seemed harmless had the person been stopped and examined at security. This could avoid suspicion as the plotters passed through airport security, and suggests the planning had allowed for the terrorists being stopped and searched, but not being caught. Once the planes had taken off, the devices could then be assembled.

The sources say the power to detonate the devices could have come from iPods, laptops or mobile phones. The various components for the bombs were to be hidden in innocuous items such as soft drinks.

Though the alleged suicide bombers had been subject to intensive surveillance for several months, the full extent of what they were planning, what they were targeting and how they would attack only started to fall into place in recent days.

The US homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff, said yesterday that it was within the past fortnight that western intelligence agencies had realised the targets were US-bound planes leaving Britain.

In what may be a related move, Pakistani authorities yesterday placed Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the founder of Laskhar-e-Tayyaba, the militant Islamist group that India accuses of sending hundreds of Pakistanis to fight in Kashmir, under house arrest.

Senior British anti-terrorist and security sources confirmed last night that they had been helped by the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI.

However, they said that while the Pakistan link was an important one, it was just one factor in the decision to raid the houses of the suspects between 2am and 3am yesterday.

What is not in doubt is that the police moved before they had intended to. Senior anti-terrorism officials were called back from holiday to oversee the raids. Among them was the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Andy Hayman, who took an easyJet flight from Spain early yesterday morning.

"It was all very quick," a senior security source said.

At the same time, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raised the terrorist threat level to the highest - critical - meaning "an attack is expected imminently", and indicating "an extremely high level of threat to the UK".

In addition to the 24 arrested yesterday police were still searching for three or four people involved in the plot, a senior counterterrorism official told the Guardian. They were not believed to be "main players" but officials could not rule out they had the capacity to inflict attacks within the UK.

As the 24 suspects were being prepared for questioning, the scale of what was being planned behind the facade of ordinary urban lives emerged.

US security officials believe their plot was a direct copy of the Bojinka operation in the mid-90s to bring down 12 western airlines simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean.

The US immediately accused al-Qaida of orchestrating the planned attacks. Mr Clarke was more circumspect. He said further investigations were needed to establish the exact destinations, and the timing of the flights that could have been attacked.

"During the investigation an unprecedented level of surveillance has been undertaken and our objective is to gather intelligence and evidence in support of the investigation," he said.

"As is so often the case in these investigations, the alleged plot has global dimensions."

    Months of monitoring exposed details of conspiracy, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842326,00.html

Arrest of 'normal' neighbours shocks residents

Suspects seized at addresses in south and Midlands

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Hugh Muir, Jeevan Vasagar, David Pallister and Duncan Campbell


High Wycombe

As the police investigation into the terror plot unfolded yesterday, the main focus of attention was on two brothers who lived in a semi-detached ex-council house in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Their home in Walton Drive was raided by police in the early hours. Officers simultaneously sealed off surrounding roads and evacuated local residents.

As word of their arrest spread, residents spoke of how the pair, both in their early 20s, seemed to shun local mosques and become insular after frequenting a local Islamic bookshop.

Phil Redfern, 26, a local builder and former acquaintance, said: "They used to come out and play football, but as they got older they got very secluded. There's a lot of Islamic bookstores popping up all over the place. Its different, the preaching down there."

Neighbours said the pair regularly visited an Islamic bookshop on nearby Totteridge Drive, a blue-shuttered shop next to a grocer.

Zaffar Iqbal, a worker in the bookshop, said he knew the men's father, but did not know the brothers. He said the parent had emigrated from the Kashmiri region of Pakistan and initially worked in a clothing factory in the town. He dismissed any suggestion that the brothers may have been radicalised at his shop. "This is not a munitions supplier, this is a bookshop," he said.

Another neighbour, Ashiq Rasul, also defended the brothers. "They are good mates of mine, practising Muslims. Teachings in the mosque have taught them to not to speak back to their elders and commit any violent acts on innocent people. [One] has a baby girl and loves his wife to bits. He cares for his child. These guys would never do any terrorism."

Half a mile away, other residents were seeking to come to terms with the arrest of another local man. They told how Don Stewart-Whyte became a changed figure a year ago when he converted to Islam. He lived quietly in Hepplewhite Close with his widowed mother. But former acquaintances said he had become less inclined to acknowledge his former friends and neighbours.

"He grew a long beard and had shaved his head," one said. "The people he was hanging around with were different. Now he's with people who are religious. He doesn't speak to anyone around here since his conversion. We don't know what he does nowadays."

Another neighbour said Mr Stewart-Whyte had become "very enthusiastic" about his new faith. "He just said 'salaam' one day and I was so surprised," said the neighbour, an Asian woman who declined to be named. "He said, 'I'm a Muslim.'"

A total of five addresses were raided in High Wycombe, and an area of forest land at King's Wood in the town was sealed off and searched by police. One neighbour of another unnamed suspect in Micklefield Road said the householder had caused some resentment by housing asylum seekers in his property until four months ago. Peter Whitelock, 77, who coordinates Neighbourhood Watch in the area, said: "There were people coming to the house at night-time, around midnight, almost every night."

London

There was similar confusion after police raids on four houses in north-east London, spread over more than six hours. The raids began on Wednesday evening in Forest Road, Walthamstow, with police ramming open doors. No 386, a shabby, sandy-coloured two-storey terrace house, was empty. It had been sold about a month ago. But a local resident, John Weir, said that after the sale he had seen two men of north African appearance visiting the premises.

Another raid followed in nearby Folkestone Road at the home of Marylin Savant and her husband Ibrahim. On the electoral register are their sons Oliver and Adam, although neither of them lives there. Oliver, 25, was arrested elsewhere soon afterwards, but one family member said the experience had been terrifying for them all.

"Oliver is a just an ordinary family man who is expecting a new baby," said a relative. "He is a Muslim, he goes to the mosque but he is not the member of any organisation."

The relative said none of them had any idea why the arrest might have taken place and that Oliver's parents were blameless. "They are just two normal people. She is a bookkeeper and her computer was taken away. They are very upset and traumatised." Mrs Savant is believed to be of English origin while her husband was born in Iran.

A neighbour said Oliver, a former shopworker, had started growing a beard and wearing long white robes after converting to Islam in his teens. Another neighbour, Paul Kleinman, 66, a retired fireman, said he had known Oliver all his life. He said: "He was a very polite young man. I've known him since the day he was born. His dad invited me in for a drink. Oliver started putting on Muslim robes and growing his beard long a few years back."

A friend of Oliver's from Henry Maynard primary school said he had been a good footballer and was well known and liked in the area. The friend, who asked not to be named, said: "He loved football, he used to play at a club just around the corner and everyone liked him; he was a really nice guy."

Two more arrests occurred soon afterwards in Stoke Newington. Two Bangladeshi men were arrested in their upstairs flat. "He had lived there for many years and was a very nice chap," a neighbour said of one of them.

"He was attacked by some youths and hit on the head with an iron bar a couple of years ago and he went into a coma. I think he's still recovering."

Further east, in Stratford, another man was arrested in the street by officers who had been keeping him under close surveillance. His arrest is believed to be linked to a flat in Carnarvon Road, Stratford, which was being searched by anti-terrorist officers last night.

Birmingham

Though anti-terrorist squad officers have been keen to keep the identities of those arrested secret, the lack of information only served to heighten speculation in several cities.

In the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, two men were arrested in Belcher Road as detectives raided the offices of ACS Management Group. A 30-year-old builder who did not wish to be named said: "I heard some commotion so looked out of my back window and saw at least 20 police officers chasing a group of men over gardens of the houses to the rear of the shop."

Neighbours reported seeing a lorry twice a week delivering unmarked packages. "There are a number of smartly dressed Asian and Somalian men who seemed to come and go at the property," one said.

"I know everybody round here and the people who used to come in and out of there were from all over the place, they often had London accents."

He said the owners of the shop had erected a metal gate to restrict access to the garages at the rear and the business had changed names three times in the past year despite being staffed by the same people.

"The two Asian men who lived there had been there for years but kept themselves to themselves," he said.

    Arrest of 'normal' neighbours shocks residents, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842306,00.html

Blair forewarned Bush of terror threat to US airlines

· Decision to sanction raids took ministers by surprise · First Cobra meeting took place late on Wednesday

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Patrick Wintour, political editor

Downing Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday if he had known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot. He has known about it in general terms for months, and has spoken to President George Bush about it on a number of occasions. The two leaders discussed it in more detail on Sunday, during a conversation on a secure line in which the prime minister outlined what he knew of the British cell being monitored by the security services.

Downing Street officials said he had also mentioned the specific surveillance operation. Mr Blair warned the president that it showed there was a specific threat to US airlines and urged total secrecy, warning premature leaks would destroy the monitoring of the group.

From his holiday home, he spoke again to Mr Bush on Wednesday around 8pm UK time, again mentioning the security threat, but primarily discussing fresh plans to break the deadlock at the UN on the Middle East. Hours later police and security services were in contact with their US partners to say a specific threat was being acted upon.

The decision to sanction the raids took ministers by surprise. Douglas Alexander, the transport secretary, was on holiday in Mull on Wednesday when he was told by security officials he needed to be briefed on a threat to UK aviation. The official flew to Mull, and he was told there was a plot to blow up planes simultaneously.

Mr Alexander immediately decided he needed to be in London. So an RAF helicopter was flown to the island and he was taken to London in time for the first Cobra meeting that began a little before midnight. John Reid, the home secretary, chaired the meeting, which included senior figures from the security services, defence chiefs and Metropolitan police.

The discussion centred on how to handle the likely transport disruption yesterday as well as the economic and community implications of the raid. It was also agreed that Mr Reid should brief the leaders of the opposition parties. John Prescott, the deputy leader and in charge in the prime minister's absence, was not at the meeting.

Midnight meeting

Largely the same group met again at 5am yesterday - midnight US time - to discuss the details of the raid, and how to handle the media, including the early morning statements from Mr Reid and Mr Alexander as well as the need to involve local communities in the fight against terrorism.

Mr Prescott was given the job of speaking to constituency MPs about the reasons for the raid but was not give a prominent media role. The communities minister, Meg Munn, spoke to Muslim religious leaders.

No 10 was reluctant to go into details of exactly how much Mr Blair has known about the scale of the plot in the past few months. Some of the near desperate tone in Mr Blair's speeches, especially in Los Angeles, suggest he was exercised by the levels of alienation of Muslim opinion in the Middle East and Britain. British foreign policy was not perceived to be even-handed or just, he conceded, even if he offered no criticism of the invasion of Iraq or the scale of Israeli bombings in Lebanon.

He said radical Muslims were backward looking, intolerant and a perversion of true Islam. But he seemed acutely aware that there had to be a new push towards solving the Palestinian problem once the Lebanese crisis was settled. He has also stressed at his Downing Street press conferences that there was a tendency in too many Muslim groups to give ground to those who argued British foreign policy justified terrorism. He said with open frustration that British Muslim leaders needed to be a lot more aggressive to confront such thinking.

The foiling of the alleged plot also fuelled the demands for a recall of parliament originally made to debate the British approach to the Lebanese crisis.

Shahid Malik, the Labour MP for Dewsbury, argued : "I think today's events may well have an impact, but I think the momentum was always there. We want to make sure that the representations made to us by our constituents are actually debated in the chamber of the house. I think that is the democratic thing to do."

Mr Malik has been one of many Muslim MPs who have questioned the degree to which the government followed up the recommendations of taskforces set up by ministers in the wake of 7/7 designed to ensure Muslims remained fully bonded into British society.

Praise

On the Tory and Liberal Democrat benches there was no attempt to make political capital. The shadow home secretary, David Davis, confined himself to praise for the security services.

The Tory MP Paul Goodman, whose constituency includes High Wycombe, spoke for many Tories when he said it was an "inexpressibly sad day" for the town, where community relations were "traditionally good".

He said the events highlighted two key points: "First, that the vast majority of Muslims in High Wycombe and elsewhere are peaceful and law-abiding citizens and that any hostile action towards them is reprehensible. Second, that all Muslims must strive ceaselessly to condemn, confront and root out support for terror from their communities. Loyalty to Britain and its way of life must come first."

    Blair forewarned Bush of terror threat to US airlines, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842313,00.html

Officials see plot as worst threat since 9/11

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Oliver Burkeman in New York


The White House framed the apparently thwarted terrorist plot as a direct attack on the US yesterday, as America responded to the news from London with a nationwide tightening of airport security.

With officials describing the plot as the greatest terrorist threat to the US since September 11 2001, George Bush called the arrests a "stark reminder" that the country was "at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation". Speaking in Wisconsin, the president said: "It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America."

Delays grew at airports after homeland security officials banned all liquids and gels from aircraft cabins except for baby formula and medicines. The official terror threat level was raised throughout the aviation system, requiring airlines to provide US authorities in advance with the name of every passenger travelling from Britain.

Federal security officials were focusing on John F Kennedy airport in New York, Dulles airport outside Washington, and Los Angeles International airport as the probable destinations of the planes involved, they told state-level officials privately. A spokesman described officers at the US Northern Command in Colorado as "a little bit more vigilant" than normal.

By the middle of yesterday, additional armed air marshals had left the US for London, where they were to join US-bound flights, mingling unidentified with passengers, the homeland security department said. One of the carriers reportedly targeted in the plot, American Airlines, cancelled several flights to London, blaming delays at Heathrow.

US officials emphasised a suspected link with al-Qaida. The homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, called the disrupted plans "suggestive of an al-Qaida plot", while Robert Mueller, the FBI director, said the scheme "had the earmarks of an al-Qaida plot". A senior counter-terrorism official told the Associated Press that up to 50 people might have been connected to the conspiracy.

Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general, suggested there might be prosecutions in the US, though there had been no arrests or evidence of plotting on American soil.

By Wednesday, Mr Chertoff said, the potential attackers "had accumulated and assembled the capabilities they needed, and were in the final stages of planning for execution ... this is not a case where they were just in the initial thought stage".

Repeatedly citing the British legal system as a reason for withholding further information, officials painted a picture of close collaboration between British and American investigators that had been stepped up in the last two weeks. Mr Chertoff said that was when Washington had received the first definitive clues that the plot would target American planes specifically. But there was still uncertainty, he said, "about whether the British have scooped up everybody".

A former senior homeland security adviser to Mr Bush told the Guardian that the US ban on liquids would probably be temporary. "Can we have an entirely foolproof system? Probably, but at what cost, psychologically or economically?" said Frank Cilluffo, director of the homeland security policy institute at George Washington University in the US capital.

The official US terror threat level was raised to red, or severe, its highest level, for commercial flights originating in the UK and bound for the US, and to orange, or high, for the aviation system. The general nationwide threat level remained unchanged at yellow, or elevated.

Showing a markedly more relaxed attitude than British authorities, Mr Chertoff said US passengers should "go about their plans confidently, while maintaining vigilance in their surroundings, and exercising patience with screening and security officials".

    Officials see plot as worst threat since 9/11, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842208,00.html

Concern and relief mixed with fear and cynicism

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent

British Muslims reacted with a mixture of concern and defensiveness to the latest terror alert and arrests. Raw memories of the Forest Gate fiasco and last year's Stockwell shooting tempered their response.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We applaud the action of the police in taking appropriate action to avert a tragedy but what is really required now is to be aware of the appropriate facts on which their action was taken. There is a danger of stigmatising a whole community.

"We should not allow certain sections of the media and politicians to use the opportunity to carry out a diatribe against us. We need to know the facts."

Khurshid Ahmed, a member of the Commission for Racial Equality in Birmingham, where some arrests took place, expressed relief that an attack had been averted and said he had been alerted by the police in advance so he could explain what was happening to members of the local community.

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "The response here is one of shock that we still find young people actively involved in activities which we would condemn as a society and also a sense of relief that a possible attack has been thwarted. In my own view the security authorities need to be commended based on the information we currently have."

But Fahad Ansari, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, was more sceptical. "I think you will get cynicism from the community," he said. "Over the last few years we have seen many high-profile raids like this plastered over the press to terrify the public. We have seen it time and time again. It has been hit and miss on too many occasions. It is causing a lot of mass hysteria."

He suggested that the raids could even have been timed to distract attention from criticisms of the government's stance on the Lebanon crisis.

"There has been so much pressure on the government, it could be a way of diverting attention away from its policy on the Middle East."

Khalid Mahmood, a Birmingham Labour MP, appealed to local communities to provide as much extra information as possible to help the police, saying the arrests were based on "fairly good intelligence" and would not prove unfounded or increase tensions.

"We need the communities to work more together with the police and security services to provide any more information they may have on these people. We have to be very vigilant."

He added: "There has been a lot more intelligence. The authorities have not just relied on people informing ... but have done surveillance themselves for some time. This has not been something which has been rushed."

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, who has in the past been critical of some foreign-educated imams, said: "We appreciate that our country is under threat from terrorist activity and we want to be part of the solution to this difficulty. We appreciate that the police have an extremely difficult job but there is a risk of adding fuel to the fire and increasing anger, resentment and mistrust and so diminishing cooperation.

"No one would be more worried than our community if these suspects are British-born and educated. We constantly preach that they should not be misled by these terrorists, but if the government refuses to acknowledge the contributions its actions have made, what more can we do collectively?"

Yesterday's alert came only a few days after a warning by Tarique Ghaffur, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police and the country's highest-ranking Muslim officer, that law enforcement agencies risked criminalising ethnic minorities and that anti-terrorism laws were discriminating against Muslims. Recent opinion polls have also suggested a higher degree of alienation among some young Muslims in Britain than elsewhere.

"One youngster said to me this morning, 'look, Tony Blair goes on holiday and the next thing you know they close all the airports'," said Mr Mogra, an imam in Leicester. "I mean, people are asking what kind of liquid are they talking about? What is all this about electronic car keys and women's sanitary towels? The measures being adopted are making a mockery of the seriousness of the situation.

"The youngsters are trying to laugh it off. Another said that we all know the human body is 75% liquid.

"What I think is, we have to be extremely cautious about the measures being taken. People are cynical about the timing and critical about the way this is being done. People are supportive of the need for security in our country, but they're fearful of their front door being kicked down by the police at 3 o'clock in the morning."

Websites yesterday were chattering with distrust of ministers and the government's good faith, and conspiracy theories were already starting to circulate, with frequent mention of previous police actions and resentment that the subsequent release of suspects found innocent achieved less publicity than their original arrests.

    Concern and relief mixed with fear and cynicism, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842278,00.html

Security

Tackling terror

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Leader

"They just don't get it," said John Reid as he charged large parts of Britain's political, legal and media establishment this week with willfully ignoring the threat from "unconstrained international terrorists". Britain faced "probably the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of the second world war", he added. As the home secretary spoke on Wednesday the stridency of his language appeared remarkable and, to many, excessive. Yesterday that changed, with the successful disruption by the police and security services of what appears to have been an advanced and merciless plot to kill many hundreds of travellers on flights across the Atlantic. Exactly what Mr Reid knew when he spoke, hours before raids which led to 24 arrests across England, is unclear. But yesterday's actions go far to support his and the prime minister's calls for a resolute drive against a terrorist threat that exists, is active, perhaps increasing and which must be confronted.

Resolution comes in many forms, however and yesterday's firm and justified response does not excuse the government from showing equal resolve in defence of principles that have defined this country and served it well. In his statements yesterday, the home secretary displayed commendable urgency in response to immediate danger but he must take care before extending this into a political environment that is not as unthinkingly obstructive as he suggests. Mr Reid cited with approval the prime minister's recent statement that "traditional civil liberty arguments are not so much wrong as, just made for another age". But this is to misunderstand a debate that should be about measures, not values. Few people question the fact that changing threats require changing laws, resources and priorities, but that must not be allowed to wash away the liberal foundations on which they are built.

So much remains uncertain about the causes and course of yesterday's events across Britain that certainty, on the part of ministers and the police as well as the media, is hardly possible. All that can be said is that much that was unknown yesterday will become known in the weeks to come and some of what appeared clear will turn out to be wrong. That was true of the July 7 and 21 attacks last year, too, as well as of the unsuccessful Forest Gate raid more recently. The scale of the criminality that was halted yesterday was perhaps among the greatest that this country has faced, described by the security services as Britain's 9/11, but even this is not confirmed. What is certain and right is that Britain has a system that controls not just terrorists who hope to destroy civilisation but, in a very different manner, regulates the authority that allows the state to stop them, too. Yesterday that balance worked. However terrible, the goals of demented individuals should not overturn it. Fresh restrictions must be fuelled by more than fear.

Writing on the Guardian's Comment Is Free debate website yesterday, Jack Straw's former press secretary, John Williams, described the then foreign secretary's response to 9/11: "at a moment like this, the job of ministers is to reassure the public that the state remains in control". Yesterday that reassurance was provided not just by Mr Reid himself and by the police, but by the airlines and airport workers who worked admirably to keep services going. There was no overreaction, no panic and plenty of preparedness on display. That resilience is a guide to what should follow. There are bound to be misguided attempts by some to dismiss the threat tackled yesterday as invented; the product of hysteria, or manipulation. The threat was and is real and the response to it was proper. But a serious response should recognise that scrutiny, debate and liberal principles are allies not enemies in fighting criminality.

A year ago, cross-party agreement on this was undermined by the prime minister. Mr Reid rightly consulted the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats yesterday and should sustain this in the weeks ahead. He may do it in a parliament whose return before October looks increasingly essential. There should be consideration of the causes of terror and an acceptance that these are not simple. The government should recognise that the need for action against terror to take place largely in secret raises the responsibility on ministers to be calm and accurate. A public that has heard talk of WMD dossiers and seen tanks at Heathrow has become wary of what it is told. But doubters should remember the story of the boy who cried wolf. In the end, there was a wolf.

    Tackling terror, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842216,00.html

Comment

It's Reid who doesn't get it

This government's response to the real threat of terrorism has only made things worse

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Dan Plesch


Popular trust in government is a necessary foundation of a society's defences against terrorism. We need to believe we are being told the truth and that our government is acting in good faith. Unfortunately there is now sufficient reason to be sceptical about who we should entrust our security to.

The alleged plot to attack aircraft and passengers announced by Scotland Yard yesterday obviously concerns us all and, for the time being, we have to take it at face value. There have so far been some modest successes by the security services in bringing terrorists to trial. But the government's actions have also been marked by misinformation and false scares. The supposed ricin poison plot, the Forest Gate raid and the "padded jacket" Jean Charles de Menezes never wore when he was shot dead by police last year come immediately to mind.

More important for public safety are the false government claims made after last summer's London tube bombings that the attacks were made by people unknown to the authorities. It is now known that some of the attackers had been under observation, and that at least one member of the public was ignored when he did what the government asked and acted as its eyes and ears. We badly need effective counterterrorist tactics and strategy. The threat is real both at home and abroad. But the problem is not that his critics "don't get" the terrorist threat, as the home secretary has put it, but that the government has, with the US, abandoned all the principles of effective counterterrorism. These were practised by the British against countless insurgencies. Whether or not you agree with Niall Ferguson and Gordon Brown about empire, it is instructive to review the five key principles that - usually - allowed imperial rule with minimum force.

First, ensure good coordination between security services and police. Karen DeYoung's indictment of the failure of the US security services to talk to each other in this week's Washington Post is truly damning. By refusing to communicate, the US services render their, and by extension our, services less effective. We now know that US officials have a routine seat at Britain's joint intelligence committee, a fact that one of its former chairmen told me makes it hard for the British state to think independently. Do US officials also sit in on the UK's counterterror organisations, and if so how do they relate to the myriad, non-communicating services detailed by the Washington Post?

The other four principles are to deny the enemy a base, secure your own base, keep the political and moral high ground and address your opponents' grievances.

Our leaders say there are no grievances to be addressed, despite the fact that the London bombers said they were motivated by the Iraq war and our security services warned that the occupation of Iraq would increase the terrorist threat.

Our moral high ground is preserved by a US attorney general who was promoted to this office after sanctioning the Guantánamo detention camp and the practices used at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The Islamist terrorists still have a base in Pakistan and Afghanistan. By shifting attention to Iraq after 9/11, we gave al-Qaida and the Taliban a respite for which British troops are now paying the price. And more people are prepared to provide tacit support to those fighting the US.

Our own base is now less secure than before 9/11, based on the number of actual and alleged threats, while our continued unnecessary dependence on oil makes our home base hostage to adverse regime change abroad. There are indeed those who do not get the terrorist threat. Principal among them are the prime minister and his supporters.

· Dan Plesch is a research associate at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

    It's Reid who doesn't get it, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842186,00.html

Anger, frustration and chaos as hundreds of flights are cancelled

· Heathrow worst hit with queues at all terminals
· Travellers bed down in airports and hotels fill up

Friday August 11, 2006
Guardian
Paul Lewis


Tens of thousands of passengers were caught up in chaotic scenes at airports across the UK yesterday after an unprecedented security lockdown.
The chaos at Heathrow began shortly after 5am when the first passengers of the day spoke of armed police officers suddenly swarming into the departure hall. "We realised something was up when we saw armed police everywhere," said Ayesha Kazmi, 30, who arrived shortly after 5am to fly to Boston via Dublin.

"As we checked in, we were forced to hand in our hand luggage. All I have left is what's in here," she added, opening a Costa Coffee bag filled with credit cards, a boarding pass and passport. "I don't know what to do. To be honest I'm glad my flight was cancelled. All the confusion and noise made me and everyone scared."

Within a few hours, all four of Heathrow's check-in halls had been overwhelmed by passengers, as 200 of the 550 BA flights normally operating were cancelled. All passengers were ordered to leave the airport and handed hastily photocopied sheets of paper with telephone numbers for customer services.

"There were queues of people in every direction," said Steve King, 50, travelling to Naples with his wife and two daughters. Anna Hill, 35, from London, was on the same flight. "The kids are realising that their holidays are over before they even begun."

Budget airlines easyJet and Ryanair, which were due to fly thousands of people off on summer holidays, also had to axe hundreds of flights. EasyJet scrapped all flights in and out of Gatwick, Luton and Stansted by midday and cancelled around 300 flights in total. Major European airlines including Lufthansa, Iberia and Air France grounded all UK-bound planes.

Last night some passengers bedded down in airports and there were warnings of knock-on delays today. Britons wanting to return home from European destinations found no flights able to take them back to any of the London airports.

BAA Heathrow chief executive, Tony Douglas, said there would "inevitably" be delays at Heathrow today. Passengers should check with Heathrow or their airline before travelling and should not carry any hand luggage. Mr Douglas said he very much regretted yesterday's disruption and thanked passengers for their "patience and cooperation".

Around 400,000 people in the UK were affected by yesterday's travel chaos, the airline information company OAG estimated. It said that more than 3,800 flights should have taken off in the UK, 3% of which were transatlantic.

The most perplexed passengers were those who had hoped to catch transfers via Heathrow, but found themselves stranded mid-journey. Many were told they would have to wait until the weekend, or possibly early next week, for a connecting flight to European destinations.

At midday, as British Airways cancelled all short-haul flights, check-in desks were used to dispense vouchers for nearby hotels to thousands of stranded passengers. The queues curled 100 metres around the main departure lounge in terminal one. One BA source admitted hotels were quickly being filled up by stranded passengers: "We're thinking of booking hotels as far away as Brighton."

The trickle of passengers who made it through the near-deserted passport control zone to catch the few flights still departing were asked to empty bottles of water and place a few authorised possessions in plastic bags. Electronic key fobs and mobile phones were banned.

For many, the frustration was too much to handle. Arlene Wilson, 41, who was flying to Glasgow, was told her phone would be confiscated at the x-ray machine. "I had to buy a bag for £25 just so I could check-in my phone," she said. "It's ridiculous. We're not being told anything until it is too late."

Meanwhile, the airport's arrival halls were eerily empty, as many flights into the airport were cancelled or diverted.

The mood in one airline staff room was stoic. "Most of us have been drafted in from our days off to help with the emergency," said one check-in adviser. "Everyone's just doing their bit. But what can we do? Tell people there are no flights and that we can't rebook. It's not what they want to hear."

But Don Hanson, a software engineer from Los Angeles en route to Greece, said he was impressed by the calm. "In the States people would be flipping out," he said. "But everyone's staying relaxed and helping each other out."

More than 10,000 passengers were involved in chaotic scenes at Stansted airport where armed police were called in to help Ryanair staff deal with upset travellers trying to rebook their flights.

Inside the terminal a huge queue of passengers which stretched for 650 metres snaked around the building as people tried to get through security.

Most fliers were philosophical about the delay but furious about the lack of information. And Ryanair bore the brunt of their fury. Tannoy announcements told passengers to leave the terminal and rebook their flights on the internet or via a central telephone number. There were angry scenes as a mob bore down on the ticket desk with one staff member shouting: "Get back, get back!" at travellers.

Flights from Manchester were delayed for up to three hours and 10 flights to Heathrow were cancelled. By late morning delays were reduced to a maximum of 90 minutes. All 15 flights to the US went ahead. Twelve departing and 11 arriving flights at Nottingham East Midlands airport were cancelled. Other flights were delayed by up to two hours. At Liverpool John Lennon international airport seven early flights were cancelled.

At Leeds-Bradford, four flights were cancelled and there were delays of up to 90 minutes. At Birmingham, 10 flights were cancelled by mid-morning and passengers faced delays of up to two hours.

Airport officials said around a dozen flights had been cancelled at Glasgow. In Edinburgh, an estimated 20 domestic flights had been cancelled and others were subject to an average three-hour delay.

Additional reporting by Kirsty Scott, David Ward and Andy Lines

Banned items

Security checks imposed yesterday were the most stringent ever imposed. Guidelines from the Department for Transport demand that all cabin baggage be carried in the hold of aircraft.

No electrical or battery-powered items, can be carried in the cabin, and nothing may be carried in pockets. Passengers may take through the airport security search point, in a single transparent plastic bag, the following items:

· pocket-size wallets and purses

· travel documents

· prescription medicines essential for the flight, except in liquid form unless verified as authentic

· glasses, but not their cases

· contact lens holders, no solution

· for those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger) and sanitary items essential for the flight

· female sanitary items and tissues

· keys (but no electrical key fobs)

If you have to travel

Will flights be disrupted today and over the weekend?

Almost certainly. Before you set off, contact your tour operator or airline to check your flight is still going ahead. Follow the latest travel advice on the radio/TV or check government websites such as homeoffice.gov.uk. Arrive as early as possible for your flight to ensure your belongings (other than a few permitted items such as wallets, sunglasses etc) can be checked into the hold. And expect long delays.

Is it possible to get a refund if passengers are feeling nervous about flying?

In some cases, yes. British Airways says passengers can get a full refund on any flight starting in the UK that is due to leave today, or rebook for a later date. Ryanair was yesterday allowing refunds for cancellations but you will need to check what the position is today/this weekend. Those on Ryanair flights that were delayed yesterday but not cancelled have until the end of today to rebook, and the flight must be taken by August 24.

Will travel insurance cover reluctant travellers?

"Disinclination to travel" - in other words, you are so concerned about the situation that you'd prefer not to travel - almost certainly won't be covered. Most travel insurers will not cover you for acts of terrorism, and it is likely this stance will extend to delays, missed flights or cancellations caused by the threat of terrorism, according to the website moneysupermarket.com. However, most Norwich Union policies do not have a terrorism exclusion, while Direct Line indicated it would pay out for delays of more than 12 hours. Check your policy's small print.

    Anger, frustration and chaos as hundreds of flights are cancelled, G, 11.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1842246,00.html

A terror plot, 24 arrests and the day when chaos reigned

Published: 11 August 2006
The Independent
By Jason Bennetto, Nigel Morris, Terry Kirby and Andrew Buncombe

A plot by a British-based al-Qa'ida cell to blow up 10 transatlantic airliners has been foiled, counter-terrorist officers say.

The plan to commit what one senior police officer described as "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" was within hours of being activated, it was claimed.

Twenty-four suspected terrorists were arrested in a series of raids in south-east England and Birmingham following the biggest surveillance operation undertaken against alleged al-Qa'ida followers.

Stringent security measures were imposed at all UK airports yesterday, causing widespread chaos and the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The national security alert was also raised to the highest level - "critical" - for the first time.

The terrorist cell is accused of planning to smuggle a liquid explosive hidden in soft drinks bottles on to aircraft bound for the United States and using a battery to detonate it while on board.

The suicide bombers allegedly intended to carry out three "phased" attacks on nine or 10 jets over a period of several months. The plan, it is understood, was to blow up the aircraft over the sea so that investigators would be unable to discover how the explosive - possibly a peroxide-based liquid explosive - was taken through the airport security without being detected. A counter-terrorist source said: "This had the potential to be bigger than the 9/11 attacks [on the US]."

A joint investigation by police and MI5 reached a critical point on Wednesday night after it emerged that the plotters might be ready to strike within 48 hours and anti-terror officers swooped in the early hours, arresting 24 young Britons, mostly of Pakistani origin, in London, Buckinghamshire and Birmingham.

One unconfirmed report from the US said that two "martyrdom" videotapes were discovered by police during their searches. Another report claimed that five suspects were still being hunted.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, said that if the plot had succeeded, it would have caused death on an "unprecedented scale".

In the US, President George Bush said the plot was "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom".

Michael Chertoff, the US Homeland Security Secretary, who was briefed by the British, confirmed that the plot was in the "final stages" of planning. The US-bound airlines targeted were United, American and Continental, which fly to New York, Washington and California. The US administration raised the threat level for flights from Britain to "red", designating a severe risk of terrorist attacks. It banned beverages, hair gels and lotions from flights, saying only that liquids had been identified as a risk by the investigation in Britain.

The plot is thought to have been partly inspired by a similar plan hatched by an al-Qa'ida terrorist, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who intended to detonate bombs on airliners over the Pacific in the 1990s.

Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

Airports in Britain introduced a ban on hand luggage and taking liquids on board, which led to massive queues. Parents were being told that if they wished to take baby milk on board they would have to taste it in front of security staff.

Of the 24 suspects arrested so far, sources indicated that the majority, if not all, were British citizens. ABC News in the US reported that two of the alleged ringleaders were said to have travelled to Pakistan and later had money wired to them from Pakistan to buy plane tickets. Several suspects were also arrested in Pakistan as part of the co-ordinated operation, said the Foreign Office.

Searches were still taking place last night at a number of addresses in Walthamstow, east London, High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, and Birmingham. Documents and computer equipment have been removed, along with what police describe as "objects of interest". There were no confirmed reports of bombs being discovered.

In High Wycombe, anti-terrorist squad officers raided three separate addresses on the northern outskirts of the town, arresting several men. All the properties were still being searched yesterday, along with a patch of woodland near one of the houses. One of houses, in Walton Drive, belonged to an Asian family called Sawar who had lived there for some years. There were said to be three sons and two daughters, Neighbours said two of the brothers, Amjad and Asad Sawar, were married and lived there with their wives.

A short distance away, police raided a house in Hepplewhite Close, and are believed to have arrested a man named Don Stewart-Whyte, 19 - a white convert to Islam. Mr Stewart-Whyte, a salesman at an electrical store, lives at the house with his mother, who is a schoolteacher, and his wife, who is believed to be of Asian or Arabic background. They married recently after his conversion.

Whitehall sources said the anti-terror operation had gathered pace over the past few days and Tony Blair was fully briefed on its progress before he flew on holiday to Barbados.

At 10pm on Wednesday, John Reid, the Home Secretary, chaired the first meeting of Cobra, the Whitehall civil contingencies committee, which includes security and police chiefs. After a three-and-a-half-hour meeting, at which the police raids were approved, the committee broke off, resuming at 5am.

Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, interrupted his holiday in the Hebridean island of Mull after an official travelled to Scotland to brief him.

Mr Blair was alerted to the crisis and was in constant contact with the Home Secretary. One official said: "What with the situation in the Middle East, the PM has barely been off the phone." One of Mr Blair's first calls was to Mr Bush to brief him on the terror plot and the planned arrests.

Mr Reid took immediate charge of the crisis, marginalising John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is nominally in charge in the Government in Mr Blair's absence. The Home Secretary and Mr Alexander called a Westminster press conference to urge public vigilance. Mr Reid said the plot, if it had succeeded, would have caused death on an "unprecedented scale".

Mr Blair said: "I would like to pay tribute to the immense effort made by the police and security services who, for a long period of time, have tracked this situation and been involved in an extraordinary amount of hard work.

"There has been an enormous amount of cooperation with the US authorities which has been of great value and underlines the threat we face and our determination to counter it."

Both David Cameron, the Tory leader, and Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, were briefed on events by Mr Reid.

How events unfolded

Wednesday 9 August

10pm: The Home Secretary, John Reid, chairs a meeting of Cobra, at which it is decided to act to prevent an imminent terrorist attack.

11.50pm: Twenty-one people in London, Birmingham and High Wycombe are arrested in connection with a suspected terrorist plot to blow up aircraft in mid-air.

Thursday 10 August

2am: The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raises UK threat status to critical.

5am: First flights scheduled out of Heathrow. Passengers hear they may carry only essential hand luggage.

6.45 am: Reid says police raids are part of "major counter-terrorism operation" against plot designed to "bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions".

7.30am: Stansted airport asks passengers only to travel if essential.

8.10am: Extra security drafted in at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.

8.50am: All incoming flights to Heathrow, not already in the air, suspended.

9.22am: John Reid and the Transport Secretary, Douglas Alexander, deliver "war-style" speeches.

9.30am: British Airways says short-haul UK and European inbound and outbound flights to and from Heathrow are cancelled until 3pm.

9.40am: Tony Douglas, from BAA, says the overnight operation has come as "a surprise" to Heathrow.

10.30am: Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, of Scotland Yard, says: "Aim was to smuggle explosives on to aeroplanes in hand luggage."

11.45am: British Airways cancels 200 flights. Ryanair cancels almost 100.

12.10pm: Head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, Peter Clarke, says investigation reached "critical point" on Wednesday night.

12.20pm: Reid says police are confident "main players" are "accounted for".

1pm: Labour MP Mohammad Sawar says demands for a recall of Parliament are intensifying in the wake of the alleged plot.

1.10pm: All easyJet flights out of Gatwick cancelled.

1.30pm: Washington says terrorists targeted three US airlines - United, American and Continental - hoping to hit flights to New York, Washington and California.

2.20pm: US Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, describes plot as "well advanced".

3pm: Tony Blair thanks police and security services.

4.20pm: John Prescott arrives at No 10 to attend Cobra meeting.

4.50pm: George Bush thanks Mr Blair for "busting the plot".

5pm: Markets fail to recover. BA shares 5 per cent down, easyJet down 3 per cent.

Geneviève Roberts

    A terror plot, 24 arrests and the day when chaos reigned, I, 11.8.2006, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1218446.ece

Middle-class and British: the Muslims in plots to bomb jets

Filed: 11/08/2006
The Daily Telegraph
By Caroline Davies, John Steele and Catriona Davies

Twenty-four terrorist suspects being held last night over an alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 transatlantic jets include middle-class, well-educated young men born in Britain. At least one of them converted to Islam only recently.

As Britain remained on a "critical" level of alert, it emerged that among those arrested were the white son of a former Conservative Party worker, the son of an architect and an accountant and a heavily pregnant woman. Some had studied at university and came from families that owned several properties or ran their own businesses.

Anti-terrorist police were continuing to search properties in High Wycombe, Bucks, Walthamstow, in east London, and Birmingham. Sources said they had found "a number of things that are causing interest". Many of those being questioned are believed to be Britons of Pakistani origin, although police have not confirmed that.

There were fears that as many as five people could still be on the run but Scotland Yard sources said it was believed that those alleged to be the key people had been arrested. Several arrests co-ordinated with those in Britain were made in Pakistan.

"Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network," Tasnim Aslam, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in Islamabad.

The British arrests were made after security sources decided that plans to explode liquid bombs on airliners flying from the United Kingdom to America could have been executed within 48 hours.

Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner, said: "This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

It is believed that the plan was for different passengers to carry peroxide-based liquid explosive in drinks containers and detonators disguised as everyday electronic devices and combine them on board.

'This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale'

US officials said the airlines to be attacked were United, American and Continental, which fly to New York, Washington and California, and that the alleged plot bore some of the marks of al-Qa'eda. It is thought that the terrorists planned to blow up the aircraft in three simultaneous waves, possibly over major cities to cause maximum loss of life.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, said it was believed that "the main players" had been accounted for but neither the police nor Government were "in any way complacent".

For the first time, America raised the threat level to "red" for all flights from Britain, indicating a severe risk of attack. It also sent US marshals to Britain to provide increased security on flights bound for America.

It was not clear what prompted the timing of the raids after a lengthy investigation by police and MI5 involving "an unprecedented level of surveillance" and stretching back to December.

The clampdown caused chaos at British and American airports. Tens of thousands of holidaymakers and business passengers were stranded as hundreds of flights were cancelled across Britain.

Lack of space meant that inbound short-haul flights could not land, disrupting European airports as well.

Passengers who managed to join a flight after lengthy queuing faced the strictest security checks. Hand luggage was confined to money, travel documents, baby milk and food and essential medical items, which had to be carried in transparent plastic bags. All other liquids, including contact lens solution, makeup, toothpaste and sun lotion were banned.

No 10 said that Tony Blair, on holiday in the Caribbean, was "in constant contact" and had briefed President George W Bush overnight. The Prime Minister said in a statement that the police and security services had tracked the situation for "a long period of time".

George W Bush: 'This nation is at war with Islamic fascists'

Mr Bush said the plot was "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom".

Michael Chertoff, his secretary for homeland security, said: "This was not a handful of people sitting around coming up with dreamy ideas about terrorist plots. The conception, the large number of people involved, the sophisticated design of the devices that were being considered and the sophisticated nature of the plan all suggest that this group was very determined and very skilled and very capable".

American officials said the British authorities had been working on the case "for some considerable period of time" but the fact that flights to the United States were to be attacked had become apparent only in the past fortnight.

The Home Secretary said in a statement: "The events over the last 24 hours have shown that we continue to face an unprecedented threat to the safety of our nation.

"What could have happened had the police and security services not disrupted the alleged plot to bring down aircraft through mid-air explosions, causing huge loss of life, is almost unimaginable. We should be under no illusion that the police believe this alleged plot was a very significant one indeed."

He regretted the disruption to travellers but said it was vital that people tried to go about their daily business as usual, "otherwise those who seek to destroy our country, our values and our spirit will win. We are involved in a long and deep struggle against evil people who do not distinguish between those of different religions, men and women, or adults and children".

    Middle-class and British: the Muslims in plots to bomb jets, DTel, 11.8.2006, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=P1CGZTJVENVA3QFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/08/11/nterror11.xml

We have to find a way to keep the skies free and safe

Filed: 11/08/2006
The Daily Telegraph
By Philip Johnston

There was a moment on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, as the scale of the airport terrorist alert gradually became apparent, when the interviews betrayed incredulity that such an appalling atrocity could have been contemplated. One correspondent was asked: do the police and the security services believe there are more out there ready to do us such damage?

Lord Stevens, the former Met Commissioner, was questioned over the number of terrorists currently under surveillance. The disclosure that many, if not all, of those arrested over the alleged plot were British-born was considered a matter of significance. Yet it has been apparent for some years now that radicalised British Muslims have been involved in serious conspiracies intended to cause maximum carnage and mayhem.

The suicide attack on London last year, with the loss of 52 innocent lives, was the first successful demonstration in this country of their intent, but dozens of other extremists, who have either been convicted or are awaiting trial, were planning similar or worse attacks. They do not need a signal from Osama bin Laden, though this particular plot was looking last night as if was being run by al-Qa'eda leaders based in Pakistan.

Jihadi terrorists have long been obsessed with aviation as a target. Many years before the attacks in America on September 11, 2001 demonstrated the spectacularly murderous use to which a passenger aircraft could be put, they recognised their potential as weapons. Let us not forget that the worst terrorist atrocity on British soil was the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 passengers and crew through a plastic explosive device concealed in a radio.

Since then, more than a dozen passenger planes have been destroyed by terrorists as far afield as Niger and Panama, and further attempts have been thwarted by intelligence and police efforts, including a plot to blow up 12 American airliners over the Pacific in 1995. Other plots include that of the so-called shoe-bomber Richard Reid and attempts to use portable surface-to-air missiles to attack planes, including one in Kenya and a threatened strike at Heathrow. Aviation has long been seen as a soft touch by the jihadis because it offered the prospect of significant fatalities, generating maximum publicity, and it used to be easy to penetrate security because of the commercial imperative of moving people quickly, with the least fuss.

All that has changed. As the threat has grown, so governments and airlines have responded by introducing sophisticated and time-consuming security measures to which passengers have had to become resigned. But they have also tried to keep one step ahead of the terrorists, with the use of advance passenger information and increasingly intrusive searches at airports. Anyone who has flown from an American city will know the routine of removing shoes, hats and belts that Britain has managed to resist so far.

As it has become more difficult to get on to a plane with explosives, or to leave an unaccompanied suitcase in the hold, the terrorists have sought to devise ways of beating the tighter security.

The key to thwarting such plots is intelligence. Members of the alleged conspiracy thwarted yesterday had been under surveillance by MI5 for more than a year, since before the July 7 bombings in London, and there has been significant assistance from the Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, in smashing the operation. A tip-off about the way the attacks were to be carried out - with up to 10 planes being blown up over the Atlantic in a series of phased attacks, leaving no forensic trace as to how they were brought down - enabled MI5 to advise the airlines on the sort of security needed.

While the police believe all the would-be bombers have been caught, the possibility that one or two may have escaped the net was the reason why the threat alert was raised to critical. MI5 and Scotland Yard were also mindful of the criticism they faced over the raid last month on a house in east London, where a chemical device was sought but not found. But they believe that the intelligence was strong and had to be acted upon. To do anything else was to risk the safety of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Anti-terror officers suggested the alleged plotters intended to use liquid explosives, whereby apparently benign compounds could be smuggled on to a plane and then mixed or detonated, causing an explosion. Such a method would almost certainly be a suicide mission, since a timed device left on a plane is more likely to be spotted. The thought that a score of British men may have been prepared to blow themselves and hundreds of passengers out of the skies should send a shudder down the nation's collective spine.

On the other hand, what we don't want is a response that gives the terrorists a victory of sorts by rendering normal travel almost impossible. The ban imposed yesterday on any hand luggage beyond a ticket and a passport is clearly unacceptable as a long-term proposition. People need computers to work during long flights; there are good reasons, especially on long-haul flights, for carrying an overnight bag on board, even if the trend towards counting large cases as hand luggage could be reversed to everyone's advantage.

For those who find flying a stressful and scary experience at the best of times, the thought that the neighbouring passenger apparently sipping a fizzy drink may be planning to kill you and everyone else on board is not an edifying one. But we have to travel by air and we need to do so with as little disruption and delay as is consistent with our safety and security. It has been a challenge for the aviation authorities, especially since 9/11, to strike this balance, and their task in achieving it has now been given added urgency.

The ferociously tight security imposed at airports yesterday caused worldwide disruption and clearly cannot be sustained for more than a few days at most. After this particular flap has subsided, assuming all the alleged terrorists have been rounded up, it will be necessary to return to some sort of normality, or the impact on Britain's economy from continued chaos will be substantial. If similarly Draconian searching is to become routine, airlines and airports will have to employ far more staff to minimise delays to passengers.

But an airport such as Heathrow is often - and especially at this time of year - operating almost to maximum capacity, with planes arriving every few minutes. The decision of many European airlines yesterday to cancel flights to Heathrow was an understandable, if depressing, reaction and one that in the long term could impact severely on London's pre-eminence as a world aviation hub.

That would give the terrorists, thwarted in their most evil ambitions, a lesser triumph that they must not be allowed to enjoy. An early return to normality at our airports, or something resembling it in these parlous times, is essential.

    We have to find a way to keep the skies free and safe, 11.8.2006, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/08/11/do1101.xml

Just two days from doom

11.8.2006
The Sun
By SIMON HUGHES
Chief Investigative Reporter
and GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
Political Editor

AL-QAEDA fanatics were just TWO DAYS away from mounting a suicide blitz to destroy nine US-bound aircraft, it emerged last night.

But months of investigation by Scotland Yard’s AntiTerrorist branch and the security service MI5 prevented the evil operation.

Vital intelligence on the planned massacres at 33,000ft was shared with the US and other allies.

The bombers aimed to board American Airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines flights to five US cities. They were to fly from Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham or Glasgow.

It was believed the gang intended to use a liquid, peroxide-based explosive which could be mixed mid-flight to bring down the aircraft in three waves of three.

The deadly fluid components would have been hidden inside drink bottles and even baby milk.

The method would have foiled airport security before the flights — and been impossible to detect after the blasts, triggered by electrical signals from devices such as a cheap disposable camera flash, an iPod, or a mobile phone.

The terror cells had planned to insert false bottoms in sports drinks bottles like Lucozade and fill them with liquid explosive.

That meant they could leave the bottle top sealed and filled with the original drink so they could sip it safely if asked by security.

A source said: “If the planes were blown up over the Atlantic, very little would then be found.

“The black box flight recorders would be lost, the wreckage would sink and any bodies would be so badly damaged they’d be little use.”

Last night intelligence sources told The Sun: “It is feared the terrorists may have been just two days away from the attacks.

“Scotland Yard and MI5 have done absolutely brilliantly.”

And Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said: “We are confident we’ve prevented an attempt to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”

Home Secretary John Reid seized command of the nation in PM Tony Blair’s absence and put Britain on a “critical” security alert — the highest threat level.

Mr Blair approved raids on suspects at 2am yesterday after he was briefed by video-conference from Whitehall’s Cobra war room.

Cops were last night searching several properties. Sources said they had found “a number of things that are causing interest”.

The plot was uncovered nearly a YEAR ago. Intelligence agencies brought in anti-terror police at Christmas to watch the suspects.

The PM and President George Bush had been briefed on the operation for weeks.

Last night Mr Blair broke off from his Caribbean holiday and said: “I’d like to pay tribute to the immense effort made by the police and security services.”

Mr Bush thanked Mr Blair and British intelligence.

He said: “This is a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom. I want to thank the government of Tony Blair and officials in the UK for doing good work in busting this plot.”

Peter King, chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said: “This is very, very serious, this is the real deal.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff confirmed the attacks were in the final stages of planning.

He said: “This operation is in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaeda plot, but the investigation is still under way.”

Security services in Britain and elsewhere are worried that the bombers may have already shared with other terror networks the method they planned to use.

It is known that fanatics have developed methods of communicating by email which are very hard to crack. Passwords are exchanged that allow access to key messages.

It was thought the jet terrorists were going to use an explosive called TATP — triacetone triperoxide.

It is a white crystalline powder that bomb sniffer devices and dogs have difficulty in detecting.

But TATP would be only one component in a “binary bomb”. They are made of others that are generally harmless until mixed.

Experts say just EIGHT OUNCES of TATP could bring down a plane.

    Just two days from doom, Sun, 11.8.2006, http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006370175,00.html

Brit was born a Christian

11.8.2006
The Sun
By JAMIE PYATT
and THOMAS WHITAKER

ONE suspect arrested yesterday was a British Christian who converted to Islam when his new religion “just clicked”.

Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, changed his name to Abdul Waheed and grew a bushy beard, said his neighbours.

Last night it was believed he was the son of Doug Stewart-Whyte, a Tory party agent who died nine years ago.

Stewart-Whyte, who recently married, was one of at least four people held in High Wycombe, Bucks, as cops foiled a mass plot to down transatlantic jets.

Others held in the town included a close pal of his and a young lad who had just returned from Pakistan.

One of those arrested in High Wycombe was named last night as convert Umar Islam, 28 — who had been formerly known as Brian Young.

Meanwhile anti-terror cops also sealed off an area of forest in the town 40 miles west of London.

Locals said Stewart-Whyte, who was held in Hepplewhite Close, had been kicked out of school.

One said: “He was quite a troubled teenager who would go drinking and was often in trouble but nothing serious.

“He attended school in High Wycombe but got expelled for bad behaviour and moved to a school in Chesham.

“He was never able to hold down a job for very long and worked at a hairdresser’s at one stage and also had a job at a local branch of Curry’s.

“A short time ago he said he had given up work and was going to college but he didn’t say what he was studying.

“About six months ago he said that he was converting to Islam because it all made sense and had just clicked with him.

“His mother was not best pleased about it but after he converted he seemed a lot calmer and more at peace with himself. He made the conversion with his sister Heidi.

“He grew a beard and shaved his head.

“The sister lives in the South-West of England and his mother is on holiday in Scotland.

“His mum is a PE teacher who regularly attends a local Methodist church. She is going to be devastated.

“He married recently but we don’t know much about the wife and hardly ever saw her.

“She would appear in the street from time to time wearing a scarf round her head.”

Another neighbour, who described Stewart-Whyte as “polite and helpful”, told of a commotion outside her house at 10pm on Wednesday night, resulting in a man being led away by police.

The woman said: “I thought it was a drugs raid. But when I saw the news today I couldn’t believe it.”

The owner of a nearby restaurant who has known Stewart-Whyte since he was a boy added: “He went to school with my daughter. He was always very naughty.”

Elsewhere in High Wycombe a man named as Shazad Khuramali, 26, was arrested after police stormed the home of a family who bought a house with £300,000 cash.

Neighbours said that they used the money to buy a bungalow in Micklefield Road, near the family home, which was yesterday raided at dawn.

Tim Wilmington, 58, of Micklefield Road, said: “The family turned up two years ago and bought a house here.

“Their son disappeared to Pakistan for a couple of months and came back with enough money to buy the bungalow opposite.

“The family paid cash, around £300,000. They rented out the bungalow to asylum seekers. At one point there were 15 people living there.”

Mr Wilmington said the family also turned the front drive into a car lot selling second-hand sports cars which Khuramali imported from America.

Mr Wilmington added: “They were selling two or three cars a week, but six months ago the council shut the car lot down after complaints.”

A friend of Khuramali told how he altered after his visit to Pakistan, switching mosques and becoming much more devout.

The friend said: “He went to Pakistan two years ago and came back a changed man. Everyone noticed changes in him.”

Another address was raided in Plomer Green Avenue where a family, said to include four daughters and a son, were taken away.

A man named as Waseem Kayani, 29, was arrested and cops took metal detectors into the semi.

One neighbour said: “They seemed pleasant, although they didn’t mix much.

“When the son first came here he was always dressed in white robes and little white hats.”

Meanwhile cops cordoned off a dense area of woodland in their hunt for bomb-making equipment.

Police, forensic units and dogs searched King’s Wood, near the Micklefield area of the town as a helicopter hovered overhead.

Police also sealed off an address in Walton Drive, in the Totteridge area half a mile from the woods, after raiding it at 1.30am.

Assad Sarwar, 25, was arrested in this raid and a neighbour said: “He’s one of two brothers who lived in the house.”

Yesterday afternoon cops were searching the back garden and the inside of the £200,000 property.

Neighbour Phil Redfern, 26, said the brothers had become more and more religious in recent years and shunned the local community.

He said: “They now keep themselves to themselves and visit religious Islamic bookshops.”

Pensioner Maisie Cooper, 80, who lives close to the house, said: “I heard the police go in at 1.30am with a big crash. I never imagined they might be terrorists.”

    Brit was born a Christian, Sun, 11.8.2006, http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006370176,00.html

After a failed attack

Aug 11th 2006
From The Economist Global Agenda


Britain's security services believe they have foiled a big attack

HEATHROW, London’s main airport, is normally thronged with cross people in queues at this time of year. But on Thursday August 10th the lines became serpentine and the people in them more anxious than querulous as news spread that the police and security services had thwarted a plot to blow up several planes bound for America. Had the terrorists succeeded British police said it would have resulted in “mass murder on an unimaginable scale”.

Twenty four people, all apparently British citizens and mostly of Pakistani origin, were arrested by police in London, Birmingham and High Wycombe, a town close to Heathrow. The suspects seemed to have strong links to Pakistan. Security forces in that country said that they too had arrested several suspects in connection with the failed attack and had helped British intelligence uncover the plot.

American sources suggested that five more suspects could still be on the run. However, John Reid, Britain's home secretary, claimed that British police had the “main players” in custody. On Friday, using laws introduced in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on America in 2001, the British government ordered the Bank of England to freeze the accounts of 19 of the suspects. The bank released the names and some details of the people who were aged between 17 and 35.

The plot appears to have been modelled on another failed terrorist attack foiled in Manila in 1995. That plan, which involved blowing up 11 jumbo jets over the Pacific in a two-day period, was planned by ethnic Pakistanis with ties to Kuwait: Ramzi Yousef and his relative, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, architect of the attacks on September 11th 2001. But there was a big difference between the two plans: the main Manila plot was not designed to use suicide-bombers as this one evidently was. Instead, the terrorists intended to plant their bombs during the first stage of their two-leg journey and get away during the stopover.

After the arrests this week, passengers at Britain's airports have been allowed to carry only cash, passports and other travel documents onto their flights. Liquids, and anything that could conceal a detonator, were whisked away. Mothers were made to sip baby milk before being allowed to take it on board. For the time being, at least, passengers will no longer be allowed to travel with hand luggage from British airports. The chaos did not stop there. Many European carriers cancelled flights to London's airports and over 600 flights were cancelled from Heathrow alone. Some 100,000 passengers faced delays. In America, passengers bound for Britain were prevented from taking drinks, hair gel or other lotions on board.

This is not the first plot involving passenger planes that Britain’s security services have become aware of. In 2003 Tony Blair strengthened security at Heathrow with 450 troops in armoured vehicles and 1,000 extra policemen, although many criticised the army’s presence as melodramatic and unnecessary. In August 2004 officials claimed to have thwarted another terrorist attempt after a suspected al-Qaeda computer expert arrested in Pakistan was found to have photographs of the airport. Mr Reid reckons that in total around 20 such conspiracies have been discovered by MI5, the domestic intelligence service, MI6, the foreign intelligence service, and the police.

But intelligence sources think that this was potentially the most lethal attempt so far. The plan seems to have involved taking liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks into aircraft cabins. The devices would apparently have been undetectable by conventional airport security checks, and intelligence sources say they would have detonated successfully. Even a small blast at a critical point on an aircraft’s fuselage could puncture the outside skin, causing rapid depressurisation and a lethal crash. If placed in the baggage hold, the bombs would have been less effective. They would have to have been triggered either by a timer of some kind or a remote-control device, both of which are more easily detected in baggage checks.

Intelligence sources also say the plan involved phased attacks, targeting several planes and probably concentrated on British and American airlines. They said the attacks were foiled after a surveillance operation lasting many months and with only days, perhaps, in hand. In Washington, security officials suggested that the bombers had targeted United, American and Continental airlines. The Department of Homeland Security raised its colour-coded threat warning to red, for certain flights, for the first time since its inception.

This was the first plot to be thwarted in Britain since the government decided last month that it too would make public the threat assessment of its Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre. The level was raised accordingly, from “severe” to “critical”. But Mr Reid’s speech the day before the police operation, in which he said that although he was “confident that the security services and police will deliver 100% effort and 100% dedication, they cannot guarantee 100% success”, was a reminder that a certain amount of fear is rational.

Financial markets reacted quickly to the news on August 10th. Shares in British Airways fell by 5.1% over the day and other travel-related firms also suffered losses. But the FTSE 100 recovered from early jitters, ending the day down by just 0.6%. Airlines had seen travel grow by 6.7% in the first six months of the year and hoped for more of the same. Though there is less chance of that now there are few signs of wider repercussions in the markets.

    After a failed attack, E, 11.8.2006, http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7279257

MI5 tracked group for a year

Published: August 10 2006 22:30 | Last updated: August 10 2006 22:30
The Financial Times
By Bob Sherwood and Stephen Fidler in London


It was the biggest anti-terrorist surveillance operation ever mounted in the UK.

For more than a year, police and security service officers had tracked a “large group” of people they were convinced were plotting to blow up transatlantic aircraft in mid-flight.

The detectives allowed the alleged plot to continue for as long as they dared. They followed the young Muslim men’s movements in London and other parts of the UK, listened into their meetings and monitored their spending. But by late on Wednesday, with the suspected suicide bomb plans well advanced and an attack considered “imminent”, MI5 and anti-terrorist branch officers decided they could wait no longer without risking public safety.

During the night, 24 people were arrested in a co-ordinated series of raids on homes in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

By 2am, MI5, which is responsible for domestic security, had raised Britain’s threat level to the highest possible alert. Surprised airport staff were told to implement the most stringent security precautions, causing chaos at the airports.

John Reid, the home secretary, said security chiefs were confident that “we have the main players in custody” but the terror threat would remain at “critical”, which implies a terrorist attack is imminent, in case other members of the suspected terrorist cells were still at large.

Most of the people being questioned yesterday were believed to be young British Muslims, although police refused to rule out the possibility of international connections. 

The Pakistan government said on Thursday night that the country’s intelligence helped to crack the plot and had arrested some suspects. A senior government official said “two or three local people” were held a few days ago in Lahore and Karachi.

In London officers were beginning the painstaking task of ascertaining the suspect’s true identities and nationalities, interviewing witnesses and searching homes and business premises.

Peter Clarke, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, who is leading the investigation, said: “The investigation has focused on intelligence, which suggested that a plot was in existence to blow up transatlantic passenger aircraft, in flight.

“The intelligence suggested that this was to be achieved by means of concealed explosive devices smuggled onto the aircraft in hand baggage. The intelligence suggested that the devices were to be constructed in the UK, and taken through British airports.”

He said the number, timing and destinations of the planned attacks were still under investigation. But officials in Washington indicated that United, American and Continental flights to New York, Washington and California had been targeted.

British security officials suspected the innovative use of liquid explosives smuggled on board could have evaded airport detection devices. They said the method of attack, if used to blow up an aircraft over the ocean on a flight from the US to the UK, could potentially have been used repeatedly because its detection would have been all but impossible after the event.

One official said: “We were very lucky to have acquired the intelligence about the modus operandi of the attacks. If we hadn’t got the intelligence, they probably would have succeeded and there would have been little or no forensic evidence showing how they had done it. The modus operandi could have made waves of attacks feasible.”

British police had liaised closely with US law enforcement agencies for some time, although US officials said they learnt the intelligence pointed to threats against specific US airlines only in the past two weeks.

Security officials indicated that the police were aware of threats against a number of airlines but had not told the carriers for fear of compromising the operation. The airlines were eventually warned by US officials.

During the night the government’s Cobra emergency response committee was hurriedly convened and met again twice during the morning, chaired by Mr Reid, to oversee developments.

Tony Blair, on holiday in the Caribbean, spoke to US President George Bush during the night to tell him the operation to disrupt the plot was under way. It is understood the two leaders had also spoken about the plot in the days before the arrests.

The US Department of Homeland Security increased its security level for US-bound flights from the UK to “red”, the first time it had applied the highest level for flights from another country. It also despatched US air marshals to Britain to provide extra security.

As the day wore on, Eurostar increased its security for trains through the Channel tunnel, and Kent police stationed armed officers at the county’s ferry ports.

Nine houses were evacuated in High Wycombe near to where at least one suspect was arrested as a “precautionary measure”. Police also raided a mosque in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, near where two men had been arrested.

The suspects, most of whom were arrested in London, were held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under the 2000 Terrorism Act.

The number of arrests suggests the group occupied significant resources from MI5, which has enjoyed a big increase in its budget since 2001 and is in the midst of a recruitment campaign.

However, officials said the breaking-up of the group would give the agency little respite because those involved would be quickly redeployed to tracking other suspects.

John O’Connor, a security consultant and former Metropolitan police commander, said part of the alleged plotters’ objectives had been achieved. “Airports have been disrupted. Businesses have been disrupted.”

    MI5 tracked group for a year, FT, 10.8.2006, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cbed2e12-28b5-11db-a2c1-0000779e2340.html

7.30pm update

'Mass murder terror plot' uncovered

· Claims 10 planes were targeted
· 24 held following raids
· Chaos at British airports

Thursday August 10, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Mark Oliver, David Batty and agencies

A plot to kill thousands of people by detonating explosions on up to 10 transatlantic flights from UK airports was disrupted today.

The home secretary, John Reid, today said such an attack could have caused civilian casualties on an "unprecedented scale".

It is believed the intention was to set off near simultaneous blasts on flights, probably bound for the US, using explosives smuggled into passenger cabins inside hand luggage.

Police were holding 24 people in custody in London following overnight raids by anti-terror officers and MI5. Mr Reid would not comment on claims that the detainees were British-born Muslims of Pakistani descent.

A decision was made to move suddenly following months of surveillance. US counter-terrorism officials told the Associated Press that three major US airlines - United, American Airlines and Continental - had been targeted in the plot.

The aim of the plot was to blow up planes over UK and US cities, Sky News reported. Five US cities are thought to have been among the targets, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles, it added.

The plans could have been carried out in the next two days, a White House spokesman said today. He added that Tony Blair and George Bush had discussed the plot on Sunday and Wednesday.

Reports citing official sources said the apparent idea was to use a liquid-based explosive, and there were suggestions one explosive component was to have been hidden in bottles of fizzy drink.

President Bush said the was a "stark reminder" that the US was "at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom." He thanked the British government for "busting this plot".

There is major disruption to flights in the UK, and European airlines have cancelled hundreds of flights into London. Flights at Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted airports have been particularly disrupted. It is believed that up to 400,000 passengers have been affected.

Emergency restrictions were in place at British airports, barring passengers from taking any liquids or other hand luggage, apart from travel documents and essential prescriptions, on board. Heathrow officials said all milk for babies would have to be tasted by an "accompanying passenger".

There were no firm indications of plans for an attack to have been carried out today, but the US homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said it was a "well advanced" scheme. He said the plot was based in Britain but was "international in scope".

Mr Chertoff said: "They had accumulated the capability necessary and they were well on their way."

"This wasn't supposed to happen today," a US official who asked not to be named, told the Washington Post. "It was supposed to happen several days from now. We hear the British lost track of one or two guys. They had to move."

The US attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez, said it was "suggestive of al-Qaida tactics". British officials were more circumspect about the background to the plot than their US counterparts, stressing that they had to be careful about what they said because there could be trials in future.

Officials also declined to confirm the number of flights believed to have been targets - sources said up to 10 - and the home secretary would only say the alleged intention was to carry out a "wave" of attacks.

Paul Stephenson, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, spoke of the threat of "mass murder" on an "unimaginable scale".

Mr Reid said there was confidence that the plot's "main players have been accounted for", but added that officials were not being "complacent".

Raids in London, Birmingham and Thames Valley

Most of the suspects detained overnight were arrested in east London. Two people were also arrested in Birmingham, and Mr Stephenson said there had also been an operation in the Thames Valley.

Thames Valley Police said homes in High Wycombe were also being searched. But a spokesman stressed there was not thought to be a direct threat to people in the area.

Peter Clarke, the head of the Metropolitan police's anti-terror branch, said the operation had involved an "unprecedented level of surveillance" and had reached a "critical point" last night when officers move to "protect the public".

The focus of the long investigation had been on the "meetings, movement, travel pending and the aspirations of a large group of people", and the alleged plot had "global dimensions", he said.

At 2am, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raised the UK terror alert from severe to critical - its highest level - for the first time. The Home Office website defines critical as meaning an attack is expected imminently.

The US government responded by raising its threat assessment to red, the highest level, for commercial flights from Britain. Passengers in the US have also been prohibited from carrying liquids or lotions on flights.

Mr Chertoff said the plotters had "planned to carry the components of the bombs disguised as beverages, electronic devices or other common objects". Components could then be mixed on board to create explosives, he said.

If 10 planes had been targeted, it would have been by far the most ambitious terror plot since the September 11 2001 attacks in the US killed more than 2,700 people.

Downing Street said Tony Blair, who is on holiday in the Caribbean, was being kept constantly informed of developments and had briefed the US president, George Bush, overnight.

The anti-terror operations were carried out with Mr Blair's "full support", No 10 said.

Airport disruption

The restrictions caused delays of up to five hours on some flights, and the disruption was expected to last for several days.

All passengers were hand searched, and their footwear and all items they were carrying x-ray screened. Laptop computers, mobile phones and iPods are among the items banned from being carried on board.

At Heathrow terminal one and Manchester airport, huge queues stretched the length of the departure lounge this morning.

Yesterday, Mr Reid said Britain was facing its most sustained period of serious threat since the end of the second world war and told critics of the government's controversial anti-terror tactics that they "just don't get it".

In recent months, officials have said several plots had been foiled since the July 7 London bombings, in which 52 people died.

Three days before Christmas 2001, Briton Richard Reid, who pledged allegiance to al-Qaida, tried to set off explosives in his shoes while on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.

    'Mass murder terror plot' uncovered, G, 10.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1841140,00.html

7.30pm update

Airports in chaos after flights grounded

Thursday August 10, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Hundreds of thousands of air passengers across the UK today faced major disruptions to their journeys after an anti-terrorism operation.
The travel chaos unfolded as unwitting holidaymakers found their trips were delayed, if not cancelled, after authorities moved the terrorism state of alert to "critical".

Around 400,000 people in the UK have been affected by the situation, according to an estimate from airline information company OAG.

British Airways cancelled about 400 flights, as UK airports faced chaotic scenes and huge queues.

Most of the affected services were domestic and short-haul services, to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports in London. A typical August weekday would see 820 BA flights in and out of these two airports.

By mid-afternoon BA had been forced to axe more than 360 of the 550 flights it normally operates daily out of Heathrow in west London. All short-haul flights to and from Manchester airport were also cancelled by the airline.

By late afternoon the situation had started to ease, with some outbound short-haul services allowed and long-haul flights continuing to operate. But a BA spokesman warned the disruption was expected to affect passengers for the next 48 hours.

The airline expects to run about 60% of their scheduled 400 short-haul and domestic services at Heathrow tomorrow, while 75% of the scheduled 150 long-haul services will fly.

All long-haul services to and from every country with the exception of the US were expected to fly as normal.

British Red Cross volunteers have arrived at Heathrow to assist thousands of stranded travellers. The 16 volunteers were called in by London Ambulance Service to help provide first aid support at terminal four.

Dr Marcus Stephan, leading the operation, said: "Clearly people will be anxious and tired after being held up for hours."

BA said about 80% of its scheduled 210 short-haul and domestic services to and from Gatwick would fly tomorrow, as would three quarters of its scheduled 18 long-haul services.

A total of more than 600 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and 135 at Gatwick.

A Stansted airport spokesman said 90 flights - nearly a third - had been cancelled. Officials said it had been the most demanding day since the aftermath of 9/11 five years ago.

British Airways said customers who choose not to travel from any UK airports on the airline tomorrow would be able to get a refund or rebook their flight tickets. Customers should call a special freephone number, 0800 727 800.

Low-cost airline EasyJet assured passengers whose flights had been cancelled that they would be refunded. EasyJet said it had suspended all flights in and out of Gatwick, Luton and Stansted airports by midday and cancelled over 300 flights.

Displaced passengers caused a surge of bookings on the cross-channel Eurostar service, which is sold out today and under limited availability until Sunday. The company said it had received 5,000 bookings from displaced passengers and had called in extra staff to cope.

Passengers were still being advised to return home and check if their flights were going by contacting their airlines, and were told to arrive for their flights with no hand luggage and with any onboard items carried in clear plastic bags.

Similar security measures were being introduced in the US, and flights into other British airports from across Europe could also be delayed or cancelled.

Many foreign airlines suspended services to London, even before BAA announced a suspension of short-haul Heathrow-bound flights that had not already left for London. Those axing flights to London included Italian carrier Alitalia, German airline Lufthansa, Spanish carrier Iberia and Irish airline Aer Lingus. Air France scrapped five of its Heathrow to Paris flights.

A wide range of extra security measures - including specific restrictions on fluids - were introduced overnight, after the government said security services had disrupted a plot to blow up passenger aircraft over the Atlantic.

Barely enough room was left at Heathrow's terminal one check-in for people to line up as some queues reached out the door. Inside many passengers were going through hand luggage to remove those items they could not take on board.

The Department for Transport said that all cabin baggage would be processed as hold baggage and carried in the holds of aircraft departing UK airports with immediate effect. Items that could be taken on board in hand-carried bags included:

· Pocket-sized wallets and purses, plus contents
· Travel documents essential for the journey
· Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight, except in liquid form unless verified as authentic
· Spectacles and sunglasses, without cases
· Contact lens holders, without bottles of solution
· Baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle had to be tasted by the accompanying passenger)
  and sanitary items sufficient and essential for those taking an infant on a flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags)
· Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (for example, tampons, pads, towels and wipes)
· Tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs
· Keys (but no electrical key fobs)

Passengers were not allowed to carry anything in their pockets, and were being searched by hand. Footwear and all items being carried were being screened.

Pushchairs and walking aids were also being x-ray screened, and only airport-provided wheelchairs were allowed to pass through the screening point. All passengers boarding flights to the US and all the items they were carrying - including those acquired after the central screening point - were being subjected to secondary searches at the boarding gate.

One family of four described how they had waited fruitlessly since 6am for a flight to Colombia via Madrid. Speaking for the family, Ray Derosa said: "We have no information at all. They won't even tell you if the flight's been cancelled. They're just saying long delays are likely and now they are advising us to go home."

    Airports in chaos after flights grounded, G, 10.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1841154,00.html


 

5.15pm update

Plane plot investigators search houses

Thursday August 10, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Matt Weaver and agencies

Police were today searching a number of homes and businesses in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham after the arrest of 24 people in connection with the alleged terrorist plot to blow up planes leaving the UK.

The home secretary, John Reid, said he believed all the "main players" in the plot were accounted for. The 24 suspects were being held in London's Paddington Green police station following the raids.

Nine houses were evacuated in High Wycombe around Walton Drive, where at least one person was arrested in one of a series of raids around the country last night. Police described the evacuation as "as a precautionary measure".

Specialist Metropolitan police search teams were also scouring an area of woodland in the town, half a mile from another residential address in Micklefield Road, which was being guarded by police officers. It is understood this house, a Victorian semi, was also raided overnight by anti-terror squads.

Neighbours said the house had been lived in by an Asian family for around 15 years and that they did not interact much with fellow residents.

Locals said police first swooped on the wood in the early hours of the morning, appearing in an unmarked Range Rover and had been searching the site all day.

In Walthamstow, north-east London, a flat was stormed by about 20 officers.

They rammed the front door to a house containing a number of flats in Forest Road, shortly before midnight last night, neighbours said.

John Weir, 50, who lives opposite the terraced property, said plain clothed officers in unmarked cars silently lined up opposite the house before the raid.

He said: "At about 10.30pm, unmarked police cars all lined up on the street and just sat there. About 11.50pm two vans came up the road and parked at either end of the street. Then about 20 officers - four of them were in uniform - ran up and bashed the door in."

Mr Weir said officers headed upstairs to a first floor flat, which they proceeded to search by torchlight. He said: "The only lights they turned on were the ones just inside the front door. When they went upstairs they didn't turn any lights on and you could see the torches flashing as they started their search. They were swarming all over the place.

"There must have been forensic officers there because I saw them taking tool boxes and lots of equipment in."

Mr Weir said he believed two north African men had been living in the flat for about a month.

He said: "I saw a couple of north African-looking men about three weeks ago. They were in their mid 30s. They were dressed quite normally in T-shirts and trousers. "I haven't seen them in the last couple of weeks. There is not often anyone there at that house."

Police also raided a second house in nearby Folkestone Road in the early hours of this morning. A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "All we know is that the police came last night and they told us that one young man was arrested."

The neighbour said he believed a young man was living at the terraced property at the time of last night's raid.

He said: "I think there was a man in his 20s living there, maybe with his family, who converted to the Muslim faith a while ago. But I couldn't tell if that was the same person as was arrested."

A uniformed police officer guarded the house, while forensic officers carried out a fingertip search today. West Midlands police said two of those arrested were from Birmingham. They are believed to come from the Bordesley Green area, after homes were sealed off there last night. Forensic teams were searching the area. Police also continued to search a property in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham this afternoon.

The two-storey shuttered building on Belchers Lane, which is thought to include a business on the ground floor and a residential flat on the first floor, was cordoned off and guarded by uniformed officers.

West Midlands police refused to confirm whether its presence at the address was connected with the anti-terror operation or whether any arrests had been made there.

Neighbours reported seeing a small police van arrive at the building at 3.30am and two larger police vans pull up at around 7am.

Dr Mohammad Naseem, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, said he remained circumspect about the basis on which today's arrests were made. "With the track record of the police, one doesn't have much faith in the basis on which people are detained," he said.

"And it poses the question whether the arrests are part of a political objective, by using Muslims as a target, using the perception of terrorism to usurp all our civil liberties and get more and more control while moving towards a totalitarian state."

    Plane plot investigators search houses, G, 10.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1841778,00.html

4pm update

Blair praises security services for 'immense effort'

Thursday August 10, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Hélène Mulholland and agencies

Tony Blair today paid tribute to the "immense" effort made by the police and security services in thwarting the planned terror attacks.

Police arrested 21 individuals overnight to foil an alleged conspiracy to cause near-simultaneous explosions on approximately three airlines travelling from the UK to the US, using explosives smuggled on board inside hand luggage.

The government also took the "precautionary measure" of rasiing the terrorist warning level to "critical", announced to the general public earlier today by John Reid, the home secretary, in a government broadcast reminiscent of wartime years.

With the prime minister away on holiday, Mr Reid took the lead on handling the biggest terrorist threat since the 7/7 bombings last summer. Mr Reid said today that "the main players" behind the plot had been "accounted for" by police.

Mr Reid chaired the overnight emergency Cobra meeting, it emerged, while the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, did not attend.

Speaking from his Caribbean holiday today, where he was receiving regular updates on developments, the prime minister praised the domestic security services for the months of work that culminated in today's arrests.

"I would like to pay tribute to the immense effort made by the police and security services, who, for a long period of time, have tracked this situation and been involved in an extraordinary amount of hard work," he said.

"I thank them for the great job they are doing in protecting our country."

He added: "There has been an enormous amount of cooperation with the US authorities which has been of great value and underlines the threat we face and our determination to counter it."

Mr Blair is believed to have been aware of the security threat for some time but he is not believed to have anticipated today's events before leaving the country on Tuesday.

However, today's alleged plot adds momentum to the calls for a recall of parliament to discuss the UK's foreign policy in the Middle East, which until now have concentrated on the war in Lebanon.

More than 150 MPs, mostly Labour but including the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, have called for parliaiment to temporarily return.

A consensus appeared to be emerging on an early September sitting, before the party conferences.

The prime minister had discussed the threat with George Bush earlier in the week - and briefed him on today's operations during a planned call about the Middle East.

Earlier today, Mr Reid had explained that the decision to take action was made with the "full knowledge" of Tony Blair, as he warned darkly that, had the attacks gone ahead, the loss of lives to innocent civilians would have been on an "unprecedented scale".

The police, security services and government officials were working "around the clock" to prevent further terrorist activity, the home secretary told journalists at a lunchtime press conference.

Mr Reid called on the public to remain vigilant and noted that the high state of alert was merely "erring on the side of caution".

"Whilst the police were confident that the main players have been accounted for, neither they nor the government are in any way complacent," he said.

"This is an ongoing complex operation and we believe we have taken the necessary precautionary measures to protect the public both by the actions we have taken and by maintenance of that [terrorist] threat level for the time being at the highest possible level."

Asked if Muslim leaders in Britain were doing enough to crack down on malign individuals within their own communities, Mr Reid said the British public from "whatever" community or religious group shared a common threat which should be met by a "common unity of purpose".

Mr Reid refused to be drawn on whether the apprehended individuals suspected of terrorist activities were foreign or "home-grown".

"This is a case of terrorists who wish to use evil methods against the rest and therefore there is a common cause in this country from whatever background... because the threat is common to all of us," he said.

"Indeed, internationally, most of the people that have been massacred are actually Muslims."

The home secretary thanked the British public for their patience as the government implemented what it saw as necessary security measures.

Mr Reid spent most of the night in meetings in his capacity as chair of Cobra - the civil contingencies committee which leads responses to national crises - before making a public announcement which harked back to wartime bulletins.

Flanked by Douglas Alexander, the transport secretary, Mr Reid chaired a meeting usually held in Cabinet Office briefing room A - hence the acronym Cobra - in the bowels of Downing Street, which began last night and carried on into "the early hours of the morning".

Mr Reid said the meeting reconvened at five o'clock this morning, after the security alert was raised to "critical".

John Prescott, the deputy prime minister - in charge of the day-to-day running of the country in the absence of Mr Blair - was "in constant contact" with Mr Reid, but had no plans to make any public appearances, according to his office.

The events unfolded just hours after Mr Reid used a speech to a thinktank to accuse critics of the government's anti-terrorism measures of putting national security at risk through their failure to recognise the serious nature of the threat facing Britain.

Mr Reid gave the strongest hint yet that more anti-terrorism legislation was on the way this autumn as he argued yesterday in his speech that civil-liberties arguments belonged to another age.

He warned that the country was facing "probably the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of the second world war".

Less than a day later, the home secretary was making the broadcast announcement explaining to the country that the police had thwarted the highest possible threat of terrorism that had faced the country since the London bombings.

Issuing a statement with Mr Alexander, the home secretary nevertheless reassured the country that the counter-terrorism measures now under way were "precautionary".

The cabinet ministers sat behind a desk with hands clasped in front of them, unflinching and speaking straight to camera in the Home Office surroundings.

Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, urged the public to calmly co-operate with the police, whom he praised for their efficiency and professionalism in conducting today's operation.

Simon Hughes, the president of the Liberal Democrat party, said that it was "inevitable" that Britain's close links with the United States and its role in Iraq had made it "a greater target" for terrorists.

But he backed the government's action and said that passengers needed to be kept well informed.

Patrick Mercer, the Conservatives' shadow security minister, called on the government to issue a fresh round of public information pamphlets to ensure that the public knew "what to do" in response to the alert level change.

"It would be very helpful, rather than telling us it is 'critical', if people know what to do," he said.

    Blair praises security services for 'immense effort', G, 10.8.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1841292,00.html

3.15pm

US officials suggest al-Qaida link to 'aircraft terror plot'

Thursday August 10, 2006
Guardian
Oliver Burkeman in New York

US authorities announced a major tightening of airport security today, banning all liquids and gels from aircraft cabins except for baby formula and medicines, and raising the official terror threat level throughout the aviation system.

Michael Chertoff, the US homeland security secretary, said the crackdown was only the most prominent of a raft of measures, "some of them visible and some of them not so visible", in response to news of the apparently thwarted terrorist plot.

As international disruption began to cause delays at US airports, Mr Chertoff and Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, became the first officials to publicly suggest al-Qaida might have been involved. Speaking to reporters in Washington DC, Mr Chertoff repeatedly cited the British legal system as a reason for withholding details, but he did call the disrupted plans "suggestive of an al-Qaida plot". Mr Mueller also said the scheme "had the earmarks of an al-Qaida plot."

There was no evidence that any planning had taken place inside the United States, Mr Chertoff said, but he stressed that there was still "uncertainty about whether the British have scooped up everybody". The US attorney-general, Alberto Gonzales, hinted that prosecutions could yet take place "in this country".

Mr Chertoff said that while the investigation had been pursued by British authorities "for some considerable period of time", it had only been within the last two weeks that the plot had taken the direction of targeting the United States. By last night, he said, the potential attackers "had accumulated and assembled the capabilities they needed, and were in the final stages of planning for execution".

Asked by a reporter if the plot might have been scheduled execution on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 2001 attacks, he said: "I can't tell you that that was a particular date that was in the mind of the people involved in this plot. Nor can I tell you that they would have waited that long."

While the British home secretary, John Reid, declined to give any details of the identities of the 21 people arrested in overnight raids in the UK, the first clues began to emerge in the US. The terrorism expert Peter Bergen told CNN he understood the detainees to be Britons of Pakistani descent.

Mr Chertoff said the terror threat level had been raised to red, or severe - its highest level - for commercial flights originating in the UK and bound for the US. It was raised to orange, or high, for the aviation system as a whole. The general nationwide threat level remained unchanged at yellow, or elevated. It has never been clear what specific precautions are triggered by each threat level, leading to widespread criticism that the system causes panic among the public without making it clear how they should respond.

In this instance, Mr Chertoff said, passengers should "go about their plans confidently, while maintaining vigilance in their surroundings, and exercising patience with screening and security officials."

American airlines cancelled three flights bound for London from Chicago, Boston and New York, along with three flights in the opposite direction. The remaining flights were expected to run up to three-and-a-half hours late.

Additional armed air marshals had already been dispatched to Britain to provide extra security on US-bound flights, homeland security officials said. President George Bush was expected to make public comments on the British arrests later today.

    US officials suggest al-Qaida link to 'aircraft terror plot', G, 10. 8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1841817,00.html

1.30pm

Threat level at maximum

Thursday August 10, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
David Fickling

Today's raising of the terror threat level comes just over a week after the system was first made available to the British public.

Unlike America's homeland security advisory system, which has been in the public domain since 2002, Britain's terror alert status was previously only known to the government, police and security officials.

It was made public last Tuesday at a "severe" rating, the second-highest level, and today's threats have raised it to the highest level, "critical".

The five levels are explained on the government's intelligence website:

·Low - an attack is unlikely

·Moderate - an attack is possible, but not likely

·Substantial - an attack is a strong possibility

·Severe - an attack is highly likely

·Critical - an attack is expected imminently

The alert level is decided by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre on the basis of available intelligence, terrorist capability, terrorist intentions and timescale. The government's intelligence website has a more detailed explanation.

The previous non-public system had seven levels, splitting the "severe" grade into "severe general" and "severe defined" and having an extra "negligible" level as the lowest threat. It had stood at "severe general" since August 2005.

MPs called for the system to be made public following revelations that security officials had planned to downgrade the threat level to "substantial" on July 21 last year until the failed series of four bomb attacks on London that day.

The US system was this morning raised to its highest rating, "severe", as a result of today's bomb plot claims.

The colour-coded system had never previously been raised to red. Over most of the past four years, it has been at the yellow "elevated" status, although on eight occasions it has been raised to the orange "high" level. It has never dropped to the blue and green "guarded" and "low" ratings.

    Threat level at maximum, G, 10.8.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1841717,00.html

Bomb plan included sports drink, camera: ABC

Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:18 PM ET
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The suspects arrested in an airline bomb plot in Britain on Thursday had planned to conceal liquid or gel explosives inside a modified sports beverage drink container and trigger the device with the flash from a disposable camera, ABC News reported on its Web site.

The network, citing U.S. sources, also said five additional suspects in the airline bomb plot foiled by British police were still at large and being sought.

"The plotters planned to leave the top of the bottle sealed and filled with the original beverage but add a false bottom, filled with a liquid or gel explosive," ABC said. "The terrorists planned to dye the explosive mixture red to match the sports drink sealed in the top half of the container."

British police declined to comment on the report that five suspects remained on the loose.

"That hasn't come from us," a spokeswoman said. Fox News channel said as many as 10 more suspects were being sought.

A Department of Homeland Security official declined to confirm reports that suspects were still being sought.

"We believe that the British authorities have disrupted severely this particular operation. As in any such activity there's always a certain level of uncertainty," said Charles Allen, chief intelligence officer for the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

He was speaking on a conference call with reporters.

    Bomb plan included sports drink, camera: ABC, R, 10.8.2006, http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-08-10T191800Z_01_N10145992_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-BRITAIN-USA-SUSPECTS.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-newsOne-2

Seeking mega-attack, militants again target planes

Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:05 PM ET
Reuters
By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

BERLIN (Reuters) - A plot to blow up several airliners flying between Britain and the United States highlights militants' long-held obsession with planes and their hunger for a mega-attack to eclipse September 11.

Uncovered by British police and intelligence, the plot triggered the highest security alerts on both sides of the Atlantic since the 2001 attacks.

Washington said the operation was in some ways suggestive of al Qaeda, which specializes in simultaneous mass-casualty strikes but has failed in the last five years to come anywhere close to its 9/11 toll of nearly 3,000 victims.

"They are locked into this mentality of the 'spectacular'," said Sebestyen Gorka, a British terrorism expert who heads the Institute for Transitional Democracy and International Security in Budapest.

"Once you've done 9/11, it's very difficult to step down and to do conventional attacks ... What does the prestige of (Osama) bin Laden and al Qaeda look like, if in the next attack they kill only 600 people and not thousands like they did on