Times : Ghost in the terror machine

Ghost in the terror machine

Last week's raids were the result of a long investigation into a wider campaign plotted by an Al-Qaeda chief before his apparent death

David Leppard | From The Sunday Times | April 12, 2009

Early last Wednesday evening, Phil Harrow, a blood service courier from Toxteth, Liverpool, was sitting in front of his computer in his living room, his attention occasionally distracted by the sounds of the local children playing football on the street outside his front window on Cedar Grove.

At about 5.30pm, the peace was shattered and the children scattered in terror. “Eight armed officers, dressed in black from head to toe and wearing body armour and ski masks, jumped from an unmarked white van, screamed at the children to get out of the street and battered their way into the house two doors down from mine,” recalled Harrow.

Within minutes three unmarked police cars and four large yellow police vans had cordoned off the street and about 30 more officers were shouting at residents to stay indoors with their doors and windows shut.

Three Asian men were arrested and quickly driven off. The officers also took away a blue Nissan Micra and a black Vauxhall Corsa after neighbours told them the vehicles belonged to the men.

It was a pattern repeated across the city and the northwest of England as police swooped simultaneously as part of Operation Pathway, which was targeting an alleged Al-Qaeda-driven terror plot aimed at unspecified targets in Britain.

Elsewhere in Liverpool, a man was hauled out of a flat above an off-licence on Earle Road, Wavertree, about half a mile from Cedar Grove. At Liverpool John Moores University across the city, a student was dragged from the library and arrested.

In Manchester two men were picked up in a flat in the Cheetham Hill area, another couple were seized in a cybercafe and a fifth man was arrested on the M602 motorway. Two other men were held in Clitheroe, Lancashire, where they had been staying at a local B&B.

The arrest of the 12 men — 11 Pakistanis and one Briton — had been rushed forward because of a career-ending blunder earlier that day by Bob Quick, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner who was Britain’s chief anti-terror officer.

Quick had been running late for a morning meeting with Gordon Brown at No 10, at which he was to tell the prime minister about the raids which had been planned for 6am the next day. In the taxi on the way, he was reading a document headed Secret: Briefing Note Operation Pathway. Quick was in such a rush that he forgot to put the document back in its buff folder before he got out of the cab.

A photographer snatched a picture of the document which was then transmitted to media outlets around the world. The operation had to be hastily brought forward by 12 hours.

Thankfully, Quick’s error had serious consequences only for himself — he resigned on Thursday morning — but it added unnecessary drama and danger to an operation that had already been a close-run thing — and which security sources fear is part of a much bigger threat.

THE trail to the Manchester raids is thought to have begun last December with the arrest of 14 suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists by Belgian police.

Officials believed a suicide bombing aimed at a two-day summit of European leaders, including Brown, was imminent after learning that one of the suspects had received a green light from his paymasters abroad.

During their detention, few of the men were prepared to co-operate with the Belgian authorities but one — whose identity remains a closely guarded secret — was willing to talk. In a series of interviews he described how he had been personally “tasked” to carry out a suicide attack in Belgium. His instructor was Rashid Rauf, a fugitive on the run from British police in Pakistan.

The would-be suicide bomber said that the Belgian plot was just one of a number of large-scale attacks that Rauf had planned across Europe. The targets were unidentified cities in Belgium, France, Holland and the UK.

Interviewed later by a member of MI5, the supergrass said that all he knew was that Rauf had dispatched a mastermind — whose pseudonym he gave — to a British city to make preparations for an attack. His tip-off was vague but it sparked one of the largest manhunts in MI5’s recent history.

Rauf, who was born in Pakistan but was brought up in the Midlands, has already been linked to a series of alleged high-profile Islamist terror plots, including the failed July 21 suicide bomb plot that targeted London in 2005.

Despite this known track record, Rauf’s real importance had been underestimated. About four years ago he became Al-Qaeda’s director of European operations.

Last November Rauf was reportedly killed when three American Hellfire missiles from a CIA predator drone destroyed a mud-built bungalow in a village in North Waziristan, in the lawless tribal lands that span the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Aerial photographs taken by the Americans after the missile strike show a body, originally thought to be Rauf’s, covered in a shroud being carried from the rubble. But original assessments that he is dead have been revised. “There is nothing definitely to say he’s actually dead,” said a senior western intelligence official last week.

“It may take a long time to find out. We honestly don’t know.”

Pakistani intelligence officials remain convinced that he was killed in the strike.

A few months earlier Rauf had sent several cells to Europe to carry out a series of linked attacks which were driven by Al-Qaeda’s hatred for Barack Obama — “a house negro” as Osama Bin Laden’s deputy has called him. Informed sources said it is now believed that the alleged northwest cell was part of this Europe-wide network.

The suspected members of the northwest cell had first came to the attention of MI5 about two months after the thwarted Brussels attack in December.

At any given time MI5 monitors about 2,000 people in Britain who form an estimated 230 networks suspected of links to violent extremism. Each individual is subject to a sliding scale of monitoring depending on the agency’s assessment of the threat they pose and how close they are thought to be to “attack planning”.

Each week a committee of senior MI5 officials meet at the agency’s headquarters in Westminster to review the status of each operation, upgrading and downgrading different investigations as appropriate.

Well placed officials say the alleged northwest cell had been the subject of investigation for several weeks since January. About a month ago that was suddenly stepped up after fresh information indicated that the members of the cell might be serious about attack planning. Operation Pathway was moved to the top of MI5’s priority list. Hundreds of police and MI5 officers were assigned to the investigation.

A number of suspects, many of them Pakistanis on student visas, were put under full-time surveillance. Their homes were bugged, their telephone calls were intercepted and they were followed night and day by officers from MI5’s A4 surveillance division.

This department specialises in covert surveillance. At terror camps in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, Al-Qaeda terrorist recruits are routinely trained in counter-surveillance tactics. This can include switching back on their route, stopping suddenly in the street and generally being aware of everybody around them.

To circumvent this, MI5 employs people who look the opposite of the stereotypical spy. The agency has at its disposal an army of elderly women — many in their sixties and seventies — and young mothers with babies in prams.

There is also a range of James Bond-style devices which are the agency’s most closely guarded secrets. It is rumoured, for example, that MI5 has developed a colourless chemical which is “painted” on a suspect’s clothing or shoes during a covert entry of the suspect’s home while he or she is out. The suspect will then leave a trace of the chemical wherever he goes, allowing a trained MI5 dog to follow his trail.

It is not known whether any of these tactics were used in Operation Pathway. But about a fortnight ago surveillance officers reported that the suspects had been taking photographs of four locations in Manchester. These included the Arndale shopping centre, the smart shopping area of St Ann’s Square, the Trafford shopping centre and the Birdcage nightclub.

Critically, their e-mails were monitored — a highly sensitive task usually assigned in such operations to technical experts at GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping agency at Cheltenham.

The turning point came about a week ago when a series of e-mails thought to have been received by at least one of the suspects indicated a specific timeframe for the alleged plot. The e-mails suggested that the cell had moved into the stage of attack planning. They showed a “window” for a possible attack of about five or six days from Good Friday. “Dates around the Easter holiday were mentioned,” one senior police source said this weekend.

Yet there remained serious gaps in the Pathway investigation. Despite the photographs, police say they had no definite evidence of the planned target. Neither had Pathway uncovered any evidence that the suspects had acquired explosives, arms or ammunition.

There was no indication, either, as to whether the planned operation was a suicide attack, or how many of those arrested would be directly involved and which of them were simply supplying logistical support such as purchasing materials or acting as drivers and reconnaissance scouts.

For MI5 officers running Pathway from the agency’s Northern Operations Centre (opened amid great secrecy last year in a northern city), these were good reasons to watch and wait. But the risks of letting the suspects run overrode that.

“There is always a challenge to balance the need to gather more intelligence with the need to protect the public. There was clear intent and signs of organisation, very clearly something was going on, so we acted to protect the public,” said a security source.

Early last week senior police and MI5 officers met at Scotland Yard and agreed that the suspected members of the cell should be arrested. The date for “executive action” was set for 6am last Thursday when the suspects would almost certainly be at home and asleep. But then came Quick’s unwitting intervention.

AS the police questioning of the arrested men continues at three separate locations, few details have emerged of their lives in Britain. Neighbours in Liverpool spoke last week of cars coming and going from addresses late at night and the playing of loud Islamic music from a flat occupied by one of the men, but the suspects appear to have had little interaction with people other than at work.

Two of the men worked as security guards at the Homebase DIY store in Clitheroe, but had been there for only two weeks. Two more were believed to have worked as contractors for Cargo2go, a delivery firm based at Manchester airport, because one of the men was driving one of the company’s vans when he was arrested.

However, Ian Southworth, a director, said yesterday that he was mystified at the suggestion. “All our drivers are owner-drivers. It could be a driver that used to work for us that’s left and sold the vehicle and the logo’s still on it, or it could have been a lost or stolen vehicle,” he said.

A number of the 11 Pakistanis arrested were from the tribal areas and had been admitted to Britain on student visas.

This has stoked up a political row, with Islamabad and Downing Street trading blows over who was responsible for lax checks on immigrants, especially those entering Britain on student visas which are notoriously abused.

Gordon Brown said Pakistan “has to do more to root out terrorist elements in its country”. The prime minister had said previously that two out of three terror plots uncovered by MI5 and police were hatched in Pakistan. But Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the Pakistan high commissioner, retaliated by saying the problem was “at your end”.

This weekend a senior immigration judge dismissed as “bluster” claims by Phil Woolas, the Home Officer minister, that the system for checking student visas had been recently tightened up and was “one of the best in the world”.

The judge pointed to the six-month closure, on security grounds, of the main visa office at the British high commission in Islamabad, which meant that cases were being channelled through an outpost in Abu Dhabi, 1,300 miles away. He said that at 50% of the appeals, by those on student visas refused entry to Britain, there was no Home Office representation. In many cases the only documentation produced as evidence was that provided by the appellant, “which can often be forged or inadequate”, said the judge.

His comments were echoed by John Tincey, chairman of the Immigration Service Union which represents border staff, who said that the proposed introduction of the e-borders system involving automated checks on visitors was fraught with danger.

“Foreign nationals could be allowed into Britain without being interviewed by an immigration officer,” he said.

“There is real danger that our immigration controls will be able to catch only those who are already known to the authorities and will be helpless to detect first-time terrorists and illegal immigrants.”

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: “This is a completely shambolic system.”

THE arguments about the immigration system will continue for some time but this weekend the police priority was the continuing search of 10 properties in Manchester and Liverpool.

Yesterday police released an 18-year-old, the youngest of the suspects, into the custody of the UK Border Agency. They have 28 days to hold the 11 other men, who are aged between 22 and 41, before either charging them or releasing them.

The fate of Operation Pathway will hinge on whether they can gather enough evidence from the interviews and seized property for prosecutors to press charges.

Rauf’s plans for Europe-wide attacks leave intelligence agencies rushing to locate and defuse a group of ticking timebombs. Whether he is dead or alive, those ticking bombs are his real legacy.

Additional reporting: Kevin Dowling, Philip Cardy, Daud Khattak in Peshawar

Telegraph : UK should distance itself from US drone attacks in Pakistan, says minister

UK should distance itself from US drone attacks in Pakistan, says minister

Britain should distance itself from US missile attacks on al-Qaeda strongholds in the tribal areas of Pakistan, a Government minister has said.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | April 12, 2009

Sadiq Khan, the minister for community cohesion, said Britain needed to rebuild its reputation in Pakistan where anger is mounting over the attacks launched by unmanned drones.

Mr Khan, who was in Pakistan on an official visit when counter-terrrorism raids took place in Manchester and Liverpool last week, said many young men there were angry with the attacks which have been blamed for killing innocent people as well as terrorists.

Rashid Rauf, the man said to be behind the alleged plot to target shopping centres in Manchester, was reported by the US as being killed in one such attack last year.

The attacks, which have been stepped up in recent months, are highly controversial in Pakistan, partly because they are seen as an American incursion on Pakistani sovereignty.

Mr Khan said the Government needed to make clear that Britain's foreign policy was different from Washington's.

The minister said: "In Islamabad, I spoke to university students about being British and Muslim, the values we share in the UK and the freedom to practise faith freely, be treated equally, protected against discrimination, and be active citizens with the freedom to voice our concerns and disagree without fear.

"In return, I listened to the anger and pain over the challenges that young Pakistanis growing up in Pakistan face, including the anger and frustration over US drone attacks.

"It is clear, in many Pakistanis' eyes, the UK is considered in the same terms as the US.

"One of the lessons of the Iraq war is that we need to ensure we are better at explaining our foreign policy, especially when it is distinct and different from [policy in] the US."

Mr Khan was later forced to clarify that he believed Britain needed to “stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are fighting terrorism” including both the US and Pakistan.

Times : Minister hits out at attacks by US drones

Minister hits out at attacks by US drones

David Leppard and Abul Taher | From The Sunday Times | April 12, 2009

A GOVERNMENT minister has called for Britain to distance itself publicly from the American policy of launching attacks on Al-Qaeda terrorists with pilotless drones to avoid inflaming Pakistani opinion.

Sadiq Khan, the community cohesion minister, said he had listened to the “anger and frustration” of students in Islamabad over US attacks inside Pakistan. “It’s quite clear in many Pakistani eyes that the UK is considered in the same terms as the US,” said Khan. “We want to explain that our foreign policy, especially on the issue of drone attacks, is distinct from US foreign policy.”

Khan’s comments came as the full extent emerged of what investigators believe is Pakistan-based control of the alleged Al-Qaeda plot to bomb shopping centres in Manchester over Easter.

Rashid Rauf, a fugitive British terrorist identified by MI5 as Al-Qaeda’s “director of operations” in Europe, is suspected of planning the bombing as part of a “master plan” for attacks on European cities.

Multiple cells, comprising at least 12 terrorists each, were dispatched last year from Pakistan’s tribal areas to conduct a series of atrocities in the UK, France, Belgium and elsewhere, an Al-Qaeda informant has told MI5. The cells are said to have been acting under the orders of Rauf, 27, from Birmingham, who has previously been linked to the failed suicide attack on London in July 21, 2005.

The plan was set in motion just weeks before a US Preda-tor missile strike targeted Rauf in a remote Pakistani village. Officials are still unclear whether he survived the attack last November.

Details of the plan were uncovered by MI5 last December after the arrest of 14 suspected Islamist terrorists in Brussels. Belgian prosecutors said at the time they believed the men were planning a suicide attack to coincide with a European Union summit attended by Gordon Brown.

A senior Scotland Yard official said one of the suspects had confessed that he had been “personally tasked” by Rauf to carry out the bombing. In an interview with MI5 he disclosed that Rauf, who fled to Pakistan seven years ago, had ordered a series of European attacks.

He said the Al-Qaeda chief had dispatched a cell leader to a British city to plan an attack there. Sources say the alleged Easter bomb plot is likely to have been that attack.

Last week 12 men, including 11 Pakistanis on student visas, were arrested in raids on Manchester, Liverpool and Clitheroe, Lancashire.

Long War Journal : Al Qaeda operative Rashid Rauf survived US strike

Al Qaeda operative Rashid Rauf survived US strike

By Bill Roggio | April 12, 2009

A senior al Qaeda leader who was reported to have been killed during a US airstrike in Pakistan's tribal areas is now thought to have survived the attack and has been plotting terror attacks in Europe.

Rashid Rauf, an al Qaeda leader who is in charge of al Qaeda's external operations branch responsible for attacks in Europe, survived the November 2008 Predator strike in North Waziristan that was also thought to have killed Abu Zubair al Masri and two other al Qaeda operatives.

US intelligence believes that al Qaeda has reconstituted its external operations network in Pakistan's lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal areas. This network is tasked with hitting targets in the West, India, and elsewhere. Al Qaeda is particularly interested in recruiting westernized Muslims with western passports, which would allow them to more easily enter their target countries. The Predator campaign is largely designed to prevent al Qaeda from conducting another major attack in the West.

The assessment that Rauf had been killed changed, after an al Qaeda operative detained during a raid in Belgium claimed that Rauf had trained him and dispatched him to Brussels to conduct a suicide attack during a meeting of European leaders, The Times Online reported. The operative also said Rauf had plotted attacks in major cities in Belgium, France, Holland, and England. Rauf has also been implicated as being the director of the failed plot to conduct attacks in England on Easter Sunday.

Unnamed intelligence sources from the Central Intelligence Agency, Britain's MI6, and Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency have touted Rauf's death to the media as evidence of the success of the Predator strike program in Pakistan. The CIA directs the covert Predator program. Rauf is among ten other al Qaeda leaders identified as being killed in strikes in Pakistan since January 2008.

But The Long War Journal has long been skeptical of the claims that Rauf had been killed. US military and intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal several times that Rauf's death was never confirmed and that reports that he was killed in the November strike in South Waziristan were premature.

Shortly after the November strike, Rauf's family and his lawyer claimed his was still alive. Taliban fighters close to Rauf also said he was alive.

Background on Rashid Rauf

Rashid Rauf has a long pedigree in Pakistan's terror circles. Rauf's family is well immersed in Pakistan's radical jihadi community. He is a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, a terror outfit that operates in Indian Kashmir. Rauf's sister-in-law is married to Azhar's brother. Rauf himself is a member of Jaish-e-Mohammad, which has merged with al Qaeda and moved a large number of its fighters into Pakistan's tribal areas.

Rauf's father-in-law and sister-in-law run the radical Darul Uloom Madina, one of Pakistan's largest Islamic seminaries in Bahawalpur. More than 2,000 students attend the Darul Uloom Madina.

His father founded Crescent Relief, a Muslim charity that collected funds for earthquake relief and is currently under investigation for funneling money to fund the failed 2006 London airlines plot.

Rauf and senior al Qaeda leader Matiur Rehman were the architects of the London airline plot. Al Qaeda intended to destroy a dozen aircraft while en route to the United States from London. Rehman is a senior al Qaeda leader who is known to manage the "jihadi rolodex," the list of the tens of thousands of operatives who have passed through terror training camps over the years.

Rauf was captured by Pakistani security forces in August 2006 in the city of Bahawalpur. On Dec. 15, 2007, he escaped from Pakistani custody, under dubious circumstances. Police escorts claim Rauf broke free of his handcuffs as he was visiting a mosque while being transported from a court appearance in Islamabad to a jail in Rawalpindi. Rauf's uncle had convinced police to transport Rauf in a van and had driven the van himself. Several police were charged with being complicit in Rauf's escape.

At the time of Rauf's escape, the British government was attempting to extradite him. A senior US intelligence official told The Long War Journal that Rauf fled to South Waziristan immediately after his escape.

Tayib Rauf, Rashid Rauf's brother, was arrested in Britain for his involvement with the London airline plot along with 22 other suspects. The British government froze the bank accounts of Tayib and 18 other suspects. Most of the suspects arrested in Britain were British nationals of Pakistani origin.

FOX : Easter Attack Plot Traced to Operation by Al Qaeda Chief Before His Death

Easter Attack Plot Traced to Operation by Al Qaeda Chief Before His Death

April 12, 2009

Early last Wednesday evening, Phil Harrow, a British blood service courier from Toxteth, Liverpool, was sitting in front of his computer in his living room, his attention occasionally distracted by the sounds of the local children playing football on the street outside his front window on Cedar Grove.

At about 5:30 p.m., the peace was shattered and the children scattered in terror. “Eight armed officers, dressed in black from head to toe and wearing body armor and ski masks, jumped from an unmarked white van, screamed at the children to get out of the street and battered their way into the house two doors down from mine,” recalled Harrow.

Within minutes three unmarked police cars and four large yellow police vans had cordoned off the street and about 30 more officers were shouting at residents to stay indoors with their doors and windows shut.

Three Asian men were arrested and quickly driven off.

It was a pattern repeated across the city and the northwest of England as police swooped simultaneously as part of Operation Pathway, which was targeting an alleged Al Qaeda-driven terror plot aimed at unspecified targets in Britain, to be carried out as early as Easter.

The arrest of the 12 men — 11 Pakistanis and one Briton — had been rushed forward because of a career-ending blunder earlier that day by Bob Quick, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner who was Britain’s chief anti-terror officer.

Quick had been running late for a morning meeting with Gordon Brown, at which he was to tell the prime minister about the raids which had been planned for 6 a.m. the next day. In the taxi on the way, he was reading a document headed "Secret: Briefing Note Operation Pathway." Quick was in such a rush that he forgot to put the document back in its folder before he got out of the cab.

A photographer snatched a picture of the document which was then transmitted to media outlets around the world. The operation had to be hastily brought forward by 12 hours.

Thankfully, Quick’s error had serious consequences only for himself — he resigned on Thursday morning — but it added unnecessary drama and danger to an operation that had already been a close-run thing — and which security sources fear is part of a much bigger threat.

The trail to the Manchester raids is thought to have begun last December with the arrest of 14 suspected Al Qaeda terrorists by Belgian police.

Officials believed a homicide bombing aimed at a two-day summit of European leaders, including Brown, was imminent after learning that one of the suspects had received a green light from his paymasters abroad.

During their detention, few of the men were prepared to cooperate with the Belgian authorities but one — whose identity remains a closely guarded secret — was willing to talk. In a series of interviews he described how he had been personally “tasked” to carry out a homicide attack in Belgium. His instructor was Rashid Rauf, a fugitive on the run from British police in Pakistan.

The would-be bomber said that the Belgian plot was just one of a number of large-scale attacks that Rauf had planned across Europe. The targets were unidentified cities in Belgium, France, Holland and the U.K.

Interviewed later by a member of MI5, the suspect said that all he knew was that Rauf had dispatched a mastermind — whose pseudonym he gave — to a British city to make preparations for an attack. His tip-off was vague but it sparked one of the largest manhunts in MI5’s recent history.

Rauf, who was born in Pakistan but was brought up in the Midlands, has already been linked to a series of alleged high-profile Islamist terror plots, including the failed July 21 homicide bomb plot that targeted London in 2005.

Despite this known track record, Rauf’s real importance had been underestimated. About four years ago he became Al Qaeda’s director of European operations.

Last November Rauf was reportedly killed when three American Hellfire missiles from a CIA predator drone destroyed a mud-built bungalow in a village in North Waziristan, in the lawless tribal lands that span the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Aerial photographs taken by the Americans after the missile strike show a body, originally thought to be Rauf’s, covered in a shroud being carried from the rubble. But original assessments that he is dead have been revised. “There is nothing definitely to say he’s actually dead,” said a senior Western intelligence official last week.

“It may take a long time to find out. We honestly don’t know.”

Pakistani intelligence officials remain convinced that he was killed in the strike.

A few months earlier Rauf had sent several cells to Europe to carry out a series of linked attacks which were driven by Al Qaeda’s hatred for Barack Obama. Informed sources said it is now believed that the alleged northwest cell was part of this Europe-wide network.

The suspected members of the northwest cell had first came to the attention of MI5 about two months after the thwarted Brussels attack in December.

Daily Mail : Terror raid house owner's Al Qaeda links

Terror raid house owner's Al Qaeda links [1st article at the link]

By Alan Rimmer and Daniel Boffey | April 12, 2009

At least one of the men arrested in the counter-terrorist raids this week was living in a property owned by a man on the run for allegedly financing groups working alongside Al Qaeda.

Mohammed Benhammedi, who appears alongside Osama Bin Laden on Interpol’s wanted list, is accused of channelling money to terrorists through his British companies.

A property Benhammedi owns in Liverpool was raided on Wednesday as part of an investigation into what Gordon Brown described as ‘a very big terrorist plot’.
Offlicence

Arrests: This flat, over an off-licence, was raided by police. It is owned by Mohammed Benhammedi who is wanted by Interpol

Witnesses said one man was arrested by police as he entered the £115,000 flat, but it is believed two of the other 11 men detained this week were also tenants in Benhammedi’s property.

Benhammedi is accused by the US Treasury and the United Nations of funding the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organisation described as being part of the ‘wider A Qaeda associated movement’ dedicated to jihadi. The group is banned here under terrorism laws.

Yesterday, officers continued to search the property, a three-bedroom flat above an off-licence, as those detained faced further questioning.

An 18-year-old arrested in connection with the plot was released into the custody of the UK Borders Agency, possibly for deportation.

Police have a further seven days to detain the 11 men they still hold, who range in age from 22 to 41, most of whom are believed to have come to Britain from Pakistan on student visas.

Sources have claimed police believe that one of the possible targets for the plot was Manchester’s Piccadilly train station while packed with holiday travellers over the Easter break.

The police operation was rushed forward on Wednesday following a blunder by Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, who inadvertently revealed confidential details of the raids while leaving his car for a Downing Street meeting.

Benhammedi’s flat on Earle Road, in Liverpool’s Wavertree district, was one of ten properties being searched. He bought it with Asaad Shalash in 2004 as part of a business partnership called Ozlam Properties Ltd.

But in 2006, Mr Benhammedi, 42, had his assets and three property firms frozen for his alleged role in financing the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organisation that the US Government claims attempted to install a hard-line Islamic state in the African country.

A press release from the US Treasury accused Benhammedi of being a ‘key financier’ of the terrorist group, adding that he was believed to provide funds through three property companies, including Ozlam Properties Ltd.

The statement claimed he had first come to the attention of authorities when he was detained in 2002 by Iranian officials as he attempted to illegally enter Afghanistan.

Benhammedi was subsequently arrested in 2006 in the UK under terrorism legislation for alleged activities in Iraq and was due to be deported.

Last night it was unclear whether Benhammedi had been forced to leave the UK. However, Interpol has appealed for anyone with information on the Libyan-born businessman, who operates under a number of aliases including the westernised name of Ben Hammedi.

Mr Shalash, who was a co-director with Benhammedi in Ozlam Properties, claimed ‘complete innocence’ of any links with terrorism.

He said he first met Benhammedi in 2004 when he was running a rival property firm called Sara Properties.

He said: ‘I was running a company called Ozlam Properties on the same road in Liverpool. We became partners and shared some work, mainly maintenance work and property lets.

‘In about 2006, Mr Hammedi was arrested and I understand he was in custody for about five months on terror charges. As a result of that, his business assets, including his interest in my company, were all frozen by the United Nations. The whole thing ultimately cost me about £180,000.

‘He was a flamboyant character and would drive around in limousines with lots of women. He controlled a property empire of some 300 properties in the Liverpool area. I don’t know whether he is a terrorist or not. But as he was released from custody after being arrested, I assumed he was innocent.

‘The last time I saw Mr Hammedi was about 18 months ago. But to be honest with you, I do not want to know him.’

Mr Shalash, 46, added that the men living in his property had only recently moved in, each paying a month’s rent in advance. He said: ‘The police interviewed me for three hours. They went over all I knew about the men. I told them I knew nothing about them, apart from the fact that they were students.’

This week’s raids caused a diplomatic row between Britain and Pakistan, with Mr Brown calling on Pakistan to do more ‘to root out the terrorist elements in its country’.

Daily Mail : The day I knew Bob Quick was flawed

The day I knew Bob Quick was flawed [2nd article at link]

By David Davis | April 12, 2009

It has been an open secret for some time that I harboured doubts about Bob Quick as head of our counter-terrorism police. My initial concern started at our astonishing first meeting.

New to the job, he had come to persuade me of the merits of New Labour’s latest mad idea, namely 42 days’ detention without charge.

He started reasonably enough. ‘The problem comes when we have to release a suspect at 28 days who we know is a risk to the public but for who we don’t have enough evidence to give a better than 50 per cent chance of conviction,’ he said. ‘We could end up releasing a terrorist on to the streets and endanger the public.’

I looked quizzical at this. ‘So then you charge him using the threshold test,’ I said.

This was a piece of law that allowed police to charge suspects, in special circumstances, with a lower level of proof. Police have to have an expectation that they will get enough evidence in the near future. I explained this to Mr Quick. ‘Oh no, it doesn’t work like that,’ he said, and as he went on I realised that he simply did not understand the law.

My heart sank. The new head of Special Operations at the Yard, the past Chief Constable of Surrey, did not know a fundamental piece of law about charging terrorist suspects. And he came to lecture me!

The rumour was that Mr Quick was Jacqui Smith’s choice. Then came the Damian Green affair. Put to one side the Keystone Cops elements of police surrounding the wrong house, or needing nine officers to search a house occupied only by his wife and child, or the illegal taping of his conversations.

To understand the sheer depth of the constitutional outrage represented by the act of arresting a Tory MP for doing his job – telling the truth on immigration – you have to know a little legal history.

In 1989, a new Official Secrets Act removed from criminal law the offence of leaking confidential information if it did not affect national security. Even under the old law, no MP was ever arrested. So in the arrest of Damian Green, Mr Quick was not enforcing the law, he was inventing new law.

Then, when The Mail on Sunday carried a story about his family’s commercial sideline, he lashed out, wrongly accusing the Tory Party of briefing against him.

So it was no surprise that, when he made a potentially life-threatening error this week, nobody rushed to his defence. At least he did the honourable thing by resigning after revealing a document detailing terrorist targets as he stepped from a car in Downing Street.

Mr Quick’s replacement John Yates should learn three lessons.

First, do not get closely associated with politicians or politics of either party. Second, put old-fashioned police operational management ahead of media manipulation. The practice of lying to the Press has got to stop. We saw it after the De Menezes case. Finally, enforce the law, do not invent the law.

* David Davis quit as Shadow Home Secretary last year to force a by-election in his Yorkshire constituency – which he won – on the issue of civil liberties.

TeleText : Families fear men being held

Families fear men being held

April 12, 2009

The relatives of two Pakistani men studying in Liverpool have expressed concerns they are among 11 people being held over an alleged al Qaida plot.

Twelve men were arrested after raids in the North West. One has been released into the custody of UK Border Agency.

Relatives of Abdul Wahab Khan and Mohammad Ramzan fear the pair are among those still detained.

SANA : Pak trying to approach arrested Pakistanis in UK: Durrani

Pak trying to approach arrested Pakistanis in UK: Durrani

April 12, 2009

LONDON (SANA): Pakistan Acting High Commissioner in UK Asif Durrani the diplomatic efforts were being carried out to access the arrested Pakistani student.

Talking to a private TV channel here on Sunday, he said that it was premature to comment about their arrest and final say could be given regarding their hometowns in Pakistan after reaching to them through diplomatic means.

It is pertinent to mention that these students were handed over to London police on day-seven physical remand and earlier they were arrested from different parts of the UK as they were living over there on the student visa.

Earlier, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told media men that Pakistan High Commission based in the UK was directed to access the held Pakistani student to get details and evidences regarding the case.

However, UK had already contacted the Pakistan concerned authorities on high level after their arrest.

According to the media reports that British police took the action against the students on the basis of some secret information; however, the Foreign Office spokesman rejected the news published in the some section of media regarding secret information.

Daily Express : More Terrorists Linked To Bomb Plot

MORE TERRORISTS LINKED TO BOMB PLOT

By Eugene Henderson and James Murray | April 12, 2009

DETECTIVES believe more than 30 people were involved in an alleged Al Qaeda plot to bring carnage to the centre of Manchester. Senior officers say 11 suspects they are questioning were at the heart of a terror cell as it prepared for a huge Easter holiday bombing campaign.

However, they believe other “key players” are still at large – and could provide the key to the group’s bomb making capabilities.

Police were yesterday given more time to interrogate the 11 suspects – all Pakistanis except one UK national – who remain in custody after an 18-year-old suspect was handed over to immigration officials.

The men were arrested in Liverpool, Manchester and Clitheroe, Lancs, in an operation sparked by Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick’s blunder last Wednesday.

The anti-terror supremo was photographed carrying highly classified documents with the text clearly showing details of the planned raids as he went to brief Gordon Brown.

Senior detectives realise there is growing public concern that after such high-profile arrests, no bomb-making equipment has been found.

They admit they are facing a race against time to uncover the other members of the network as they continue to interrogate the men arrested during the raids.

Last night a senior police source said: “These people are known as second and third-tier players. They are on the periphery, but we can’t be sure how much they know or if they are capable of carrying out the attack.

“We haven’t found any explosives and we don’t know if these other men know where they are.”

The suspects came to the attention of intelligence sources after the arrest and questioning of four terror suspects arrested in Pakistan three months ago. That led to a watch on their emails and phone calls.

It is understood a list containing the names of at least 36 potential terrorists living in the UK has been handed to British intelligence from their counterparts in Pakistan.

Sources said police had arrested a 22-year-old man suspected of being the ringleader in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. Two other men were arrested at a nearby internet cafe.

At least two of the arrested men had worked on a self-employed basis for Cargo2Go, a delivery company based at Manchester Airport.

It is understood they used their own vans to deliver packages around the country.

The police source added: “Some of the suspects had a level of access to airports that would heighten our concerns, but as yet we haven’t found any ­evidence that they have used that to their advantage.”

Two other suspects were seized while working as security guards at a Homebase DIY store in Clitheroe.

As detectives continue their hunt, it can also be revealed that the processing of highly sensitive visas in Pakistan has been farmed out to a private commercial company.

Although there is a huge risk of suicide bombers and Al Qaeda supporters coming to Britain from Pakistan our High Commission in the capital Islamabad outsources the vital administration of visas to a company called Gerry’s International.

After being informed of the astonishing situation, the Tories immediately called on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to make sure all the work was done by High Commission staff only.

“This is highly sensitive work and clearly should not be outsourced,” said Tory MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of a Home Affairs sub committee on terrorism. “The Government has to wake up to the fact that the system is a mess and needs tougher procedures with greater scrutiny.”

Nobody at the company or the High Commission was available to comment yesterday.

The demand comes after it was revealed that one of the suspects seized over the alleged terror plot to bomb Manchester got into the country from Pakistan with the wrong documents.

Damian Green, the Shadow Immigration Minister, said: “Ministers for years have failed to crackdown effectively on bogus colleges and courses. Their recent efforts have been too little too late.

“This another symptom of the wider failure of the Government’s immigration policy.”

The News : Arrested students in UK punished for being Pakistanis: Parents

Arrested students in UK punished for being Pakistanis: Parents

April 12, 2009

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Parent of two of the students arrested in Britain have said that their children, studying in foreign countries, are being punished due to their Pakistani nationality.

The arrests have left a question mark on their future life, the somber-looking parent told newsmen at a press conference in press club here on Sunday.

It may be reminded here that 11 Pakistani students were arrested in Britain on April 8 over suspicion of plotting terrorism.

“We spent million of rupees to seek study visas for our children so that they could get higher education in Britain,” parent of the two arrested students, Muhammad Ramzan and Abdul Wahab, said.

They said: “Our children are being punished for non-committed sins because they hail from Pakistan.”

“We called on the government to provide education and security to our children as only a few months are left in completion of their study program,” they further said.

“Our children should not be deported and given the chance to complete the study there.”

Daily Times : Terrorists at large in UK?

Terrorists at large in UK?

daily times monitor | April 12, 2009

LONDON: British counter-terrorism police believe that a team of Pakistan-born Al Qaeda suspects is still at large in the UK.

It is feared that as many as three dozen potential terrorists may have slipped through security nets and may be waiting to strike.

A police official told The People: “We think there were two teams on this – one doing the preparation and another to come in right at the last minute to carry it out.

The worry is that the second team may be in possession of explosive material. Officers are looking at the possibility of a ‘dead drop’ to transfer material.

“If there are two teams, it is a clever tactic. It means any compromise in the first team leaves the second free to finish the job.”

Daily Times : UK police get more time to quiz suspects

UK police get more time to quiz suspects

AFP | April 12, 2009

LONDON: British police were on Saturday granted a further seven days to question 11 men arrested over an alleged Al Qaeda-driven major terrorist plot, while an 18-year-old was released without charge.

Twelve men, among them 11 Pakistani nationals – 10 in Britain on student visas – and a Briton were arrested in raids across northwest England on Wednesday.

“The North West Counter Terrorism Unit was last night given warrants for the further detention of 11 men arrested,” a Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said.

The Hindu : One of 12 suspects arrested in UK over al-Qaeda plot freed

One of 12 suspects arrested in UK over al-Qaeda plot freed

April 12, 2009

London (PTI): One of the 12 suspects arrested by the British police over a "very big terrorist plot" linked to al-Qaeda has been released as police quizzed the remaining detainees, most of them Pakistanis.

The 12, including 11 Pakistanis, were arrested in raids across northern England on Wednesday last after a covert surveillance operation against al-Qaeda suspects in Britain was inadvertently revealed by top counter-terrorism expert Bob Quick, who was then forced to resign as Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Police have released one of the 12 detained persons, the media here reported, adding that the others were still being grilled.

Soon after the arrest of the suspects, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had said that they were held over "a very big terrorist plot".

He also took up the issue of the arrest of the 11 Pakistanis with President Asif Ali Zardari.

Press Association : Family concerns after terror raids

Family concerns after terror raids

Apr 12, 2009

The relatives of two Pakistani men living in the UK expressed concerns that the pair are among 11 people being held in connection with an alleged al Qaida plot.

Twelve men - 11 Pakistani nationals and a UK-born Briton - were arrested after officers raided properties in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire on Wednesday.

Armed police swooped on at least 14 addresses, including Liverpool's John Moores University, during six hours of frantic activity.

Officers have now been granted a further week to detain 11 of the men, who range in age from 22 to 41 and are being held in various locations across the country.

An 18-year-old man was released into the custody of the UK Border Agency, police said on Saturday.

Relatives of Abdul Wahab Khan and Mohammad Ramzan said they believe the two men are among the 11 suspects still being held.

The families, who live in the town of Dera Ismail Khan in north west Pakistan, said the two lived together and studied at John Moores University.

The relatives said they have been unable to reach the pair since the swoops were reported, and claimed they had learned of the young men's arrests through their friends.

Both families said no government officials from either country had contacted them. Abdul Wahab Khan's name was mentioned in several newspaper reports as one of the men alleged to have been arrested during Wednesday's raids.

His older brother, Gulzar Jan, said Khan came to Britain in 2006 and was studying for a master's degree in information technology. He said Khan, in his mid-20s, was not involved in politics and spent most of his energy on his studies.

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