London Evening Standard : Wedding emails sparked terror swoop

Wedding emails sparked terror swoop

Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor | August 14, 2009

Seven Pakistani terror suspects were arrested after MI5 decided that their emails contained codewords for a deadly bomb plot.

One email suggested that a girl called "Nadia" would be involved in a "nikah", a wedding, between 15 and 20 April this year - part of an exchange which defence lawyers claim was entirely innocent.

The message, and others sent between the alleged plotters, triggered a major anti-terrorist operation after MI5, which had been monitoring the men for some time, decided that the girls' names were code for explosive ingredients and the "wedding" was the intended attack.

The details were disclosed today following a hearing at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission last month at which five of the men, who are all facing deportation on the grounds that they pose a threat to national security, applied to be released on bail.

The judge in the case, Mr Justice Mitting, refused their application, saying there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that MI5's view was "plainly wrong", in a decision which means that the men will stay in custody until next year.

Giving the reasons for his decision today, Mr Justice Mitting said a series of emails exchanged between an address attributed to one of the men and another attributed to an al Qaeda associate were "central to the open case against the appellants".

The emails from the man, identified only as XC, to "Sohaib" appear to refer to a "nikah".

Mr Justice Mitting added: "They appear to refer to XC's interest in named girls and to a nikah (wedding) after 15th and before 20th April 2009 with one of them, Nadia.

The assessment of the security service is that references to named girls could be to ingredients from which an explosive device could be made and that the reference to the nikah is 'most likely' reference to an intended attack."

He continued: "The first, and ultimately determinative issue is, therefore: is the assessment of the security service plainly wrong?"

Richard Hermer QC, for XC, told last month's hearing the security service's account of the emails was far-fetched and the emails were no more than innocent social discussions.

Mr Justice Mitting said, however, that he could approve the men's release only if it was clear that MI5's judgment was "plainly wrong" and because this was not currently the case, the detainees would have to remain in custody.

He said the final interpretation of the emails would have to wait until a full Special Immigration Appeals Commission hearing takes place next year and added: "On the information, open and closed, which we have now, we are not satisfied that the assessment by the security service of their likely meaning is clearly wrong."

The men's bail application was opposed by the Home Office, which submitted evidence that the five attended one or both of two meetings on 23 March and 1 April in which the "nikah" was also discussed.

Of the five men, students Abdul Khan, 26, and Shoaib Khan, 27, from Liverpool, have waived their right to anonymity.

They were among 12 terror suspects arrested in April in a high-profile police operation across the North-West.

Three of the other men originally arrested were later released. A further two have also since been freed but have been electronically tagged and are due to be removed from the country for alleged visa irregularities.

The raids had been rushed forward after the Met's then anti-terror chief, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, was photographed carrying details of the planned operation into Downing Street.

He resigned the following day because of the blunder.

The failure of the raids to result in any prosecutions led to concern from some critics that police and MI5 had overreacted and unfairly targeted the men detained.

But security sources insist that the raids successfully disrupted a potentially major plot.

Times : Oops! Building firm blurts out secrets of hush-hush MI5 HQ

Oops! Building firm blurts out secrets of hush-hush MI5 HQ

David Leppard | June 14, 2009

DETAILS of one of Britain’s most sensitive spy bases have been revealed after they were posted on the internet by the company that built it.

In a security blunder that has irritated MI5, a publicity brochure placed online contains the address and full-colour pictures of its northern operations centre.

The building was opened amid great secrecy last year. It was used as a base for Operation Pathway, when 12 terror suspects thought to have been planning attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, were arrested. They were later released for lack of evidence.

In recent years MI5 has been happy to acknowledge the existence of its headquarters in London and Northern Ireland. They are large and located in cities, so spy chiefs considered it impractical to pretend they did not exist. By contrast the agency had been hoping to keep the existence of its £20m northern headquarters a secret.

MI5 decided to build the spy base after a review of the intelligence failures leading up to the suicide bombings in London on July 7, 2005.

Three of the four bombers came from the Leeds area and MI5 realised its coverage of regions outside London was inadequate.

Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5, disclosed the existence of the centre in secret testimony to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee last year.

Evans said it would have helped to speed up its response to incidents such as the Glasgow airport attack in June 2007. “If we had forward-mounted some of the equipment and surveillance in the north . . . our response would have been considerably quicker in getting to Scotland, particularly some of the equipment, because we had to find some way of getting the stuff up to Glasgow,” he told the MPs.

The committee’s report omitted the cost of the building on the grounds that it was a secret. The builders’ website reveals that it cost £20.2m.

The company describes the development as “a high specification state-of-the art commercial office” completed in February last year. “It’s a very nice building,” a senior Whitehall security official said this weekend.

That view is not shared by local residents who objected on the grounds that it was “an eyesore”. Planning files at the local council, which The Sunday Times has agreed not to name for security reasons, show that more than 60 local people raised objections.

A council official said information about the project was “classified” and it had no record of the plans. In fact, they were withdrawn from the council last year after MI5 discovered they had been publicly available for several months.

Nelson Mail (NZ) : Police defend terrorism raids as suspects freed

Police defend terrorism raids as suspects freed

Reuters | April 23, 2009

British police have denied making an embarrassing mistake after releasing all 12 men seized in raids to foil a suspected al Qaeda plot that were brought forward due to a security breach.

The 11 Pakistanis and one Briton were arrested around northwest England on April 8 as part of an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called at the time a "very big terrorist plot."

Police said all the suspects had been released although 11 had been handed over to immigration officials and face deportation on national security grounds.

Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to justify holding them any longer or bringing charges, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.

"This is not a mistake. I do not feel embarrassed or humiliated by what we have done because we have carried out our duty," GMP Chief Constable Peter Fahy told reporters.

"We do not carry out this sort of operation or make these sorts of arrests on a wing or a prayer or a whim. We can only operate to one standard, and that standard is that people are innocent until they are proved guilty."

The raids were mounted several hours ahead of schedule after a blunder by Britain's top counter-terrorism officer Bob Quick.

A document on the operation was photographed by journalists as Quick carried it to a briefing for Brown. Quick resigned a day later but Fahy said the mistake had not compromised the operation.

Police have been on high alert since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and especially after four young British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport network in July 2005, killing 52 people.

Dozens have been convicted of plotting bombings since 2001 and currently 68 people are on trial or awaiting trial for terrorism offences, said Fahy.

However, it is not the first time that suspects have been freed after claims that a major terrorism plot had been foiled.

In 2004, GMP arrested 10 people in raids involving some 400 officers amid media speculation of a plot to blow up Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium during a high-profile game.

They were all freed without charge.

The most notorious case occurred in 2006 when officers, some wearing chemical, biological and radiological protection suits stormed a house in east London looking for a suspected bomb, and shot one of the occupants.

No bomb was found and police later admitted their intelligence had been faulty.

"When we look at the record of the anti-terrorist police across the whole country but especially Scotland Yard, their record is actually very, very good," said security consultant Peter Ryan, a former national director of UK police training.

The Muslim Council of Britain said arrests were understandable but criticised Brown, who had also angered Pakistani officials by calling on Pakistan to do more to "root out the terrorist elements in its country."

"We would hope that senior ministers and the Prime Minister will understand that it is completely unfair to make prejudicial and premature remarks in cases like this," said spokesman Inayat Bunglawala.

He added the decision to deport the men following their release was "very dishonourable."

Mohammed Ayub, a defence lawyer for some of the suspects, said: "This seriously damaged police credibility. The arrests happened in a blaze of publicity but finally amount to nothing."

Pakistan Times : All Pakistani students released without charge in UK

All Pakistani students released without charge in UK

'Pakistan Times' Foreign Desk | April 23, 2009

LONDON (UK): In a major embarrassment to the British Government all of the 12 suspects, ten of whom were Pakistani students, arrested by the UK counter terrorism unit in north west England have been released without any charge Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening, the authorities in Manchester released nine of the suspects and handed them over into the custody of the UK Borders Agency for deportation. This morning, on the expiry of the remand period, the remaining two were also freed and released to immigration authorities.

These men were arrested on April 9 in a major swoop termed by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a “big terrorist plot.” One suspect believed to be an Afghan national was released much earlier and also handed over the Borders Agency. The other was a British national who has been allowed to return to the community.

The remaining 11 men were questioned and the evidence gathered presented to the Crown Prosecution Service who advised there was insufficient evidence gathered within the permitted timescales which would have allowed a warrant of further detention to be gathered or charges to be pursued.

Under the rules, it is not possible to bail people under terrorism legislation so the men were released. The Manchester Police head Peter Fahy defended the arrests which he said was done on the information received. He said: “As there are ongoing issues of matters of national security around this investigation, it does limit what we are able to say.

“This has been an extremely complex investigation that has involved officers working closely with other agencies to gather and examine large amounts of evidence. “We had a duty to act on 9 April to protect the public and a subsequent duty to investigate what lay before us.

“When it comes to the safety of the public we can’t take any chances, we must act on information we receive. We don’t take these decisions lightly and only carry out this kind of action if it was wholly justified.”

The Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan welcomed the release of the students but stated that they have asked the British government the reasons to deport them even though they hold valid visas. “We are ready to extend the students all legal assistance as they came to UK on valid visas and have the right to stay here and complete their studies now that all charges against them have been dropped.”

Meanwhile, one of the lawyers representing the students has demanded public inquiry into the whole episode saying that the reputation of his client has been hurt.

Details

Another report says that after apparently failing to find any solid evidence linking to terrorism, the British Police has released nine out of ten Pakistani students arrested on April 8 on suspicion of terror and transferred them into the custody of UK Borders Agency for possible deportation.

The Manchester-based North West Counter Terrorism Unit has released nine of those arrested as part of a national operation. The men, aged 30, 38, 22, 25, 28, 26, 26, 22 and 25 have all been handed over into the custody of the UK Borders Agency. Two men remain in police custody.

On April 8 officers from anti-Terrorism Unit arrested 12 men under the Terrorism Act. One was subsequently released into the custody of the UK Borders Agency. The remand of the arrested students was due to expire on Wednesday.

The Manchester Police in a statement said these arrests were carried out after a number of UK agencies gathered information that indicated a potential risk to public safety. Protecting the public is the main focus of the police, the statement added. It said that the officers are continuing to review a large amount of information gathered as part of this investigation and investigations of this nature are extremely complex.

Anti-terror police raided at least 14 properties in Liverpool, Manchester, and Clitheroe, Lancashire, on April 8. Searches are continuing at an address at Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

According to a Home Office spokesman the UK was now seeking to remove the men 'on grounds of national security'. Of the 12 men arrested in the raids, 11 were Pakistani nationals, 10 held student visas and one was from Britain. The spokesman said: 'The government’s highest priority is to protect public safety. Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country we will seek to exclude or to deport, where this is appropriate.'

The raids in north-west England had to be brought forward following a blunder by the UK’s most senior counter-terror officer. Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick quit his post a day after the operation, when he was photographed carrying the document to the Downing Street which revealed operational details.

Lawyer [Reacts]

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing three of 10 Pakistani students arrested on suspicion of terrorism and released Wednesday without charge, has said his clients are neither extremists nor terrorists and have the right to demand unreserved apology and will also challenge orders to remove them from the UK.

Mohammed Ayub, who represents three men facing deportation after being handed over to the UK Borders Agency, said in a statement that Sultan Sher, Mohammad Rizwan Sharif and Muhammad Umer Farooq were arrested in a blaze of publicity and speculation. He said: “Today, after 13 days in custody, during which no evidence of any wrongdoing was disclosed, they have now been released without charge. Our clients were arrested in a blaze of publicity and speculation. Their release without charge and the wrong that has been done to them deserves to be accompanied by a similar amount of publicity.

Ayub added that his clients have no criminal history, they were here lawfully on student visas and all were pursuing their studies and working part-time. “Their arrest and detention has been a very serious breach of their human rights. Now, adding insult to injury, attempts are being made to deport them. We intend to challenge the deportation orders and, if necessary, will take our fight to the highest courts.

“Our clients are entirely innocent and are entitled to complete the studies they came here for. We call for an independent inquiry into Operation Pathway so that lessons can be learned as to how this investigation could have got it so terribly wrong and so that no other innocent person should have to suffer the ordeal that our clients have.

The UK Border Agency has issued deportation orders on the basis of their being involved in extremist activity and therefore their presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good on the grounds of national security, he said by adding; his clients intended to appeal the deportation orders and their basis for the orders is not acceptable. “As a minimum our clients are entitled to an unreserved apology and no further action should be taken against them.”

Crime Central : Turf wars over terror fiasco

Turf wars over terror fiasco

April 22, 2009

The blame game over the North-West terror arrest fiasco is in full swing. The intelligence folks say the cops went too early. Scotland Yard says that despite Bob Quick's infamous blunder all the operational decisions were down to Greater Manchester Police, who run the North-West Counter-terrorism Unit. Greater Manchester says there are no disagreements and it acted to protect the public. Lord Carlile, who is going to review the whole sorry affair, will have quite a job on his hands.

Meanwhile, Crime Central would just like to point out that if you went on to the GMP website just a few short months ago and typed the word "terrorism" into the search box, up would pop an anti-terrorist surveillance video. Shot from a car, the rather fuzzy footage showed the "target" running around a Manchester park. Top secret stuff, out there on a public website for all too see.

Al Jazeera : UK police release al-Qaeda suspects

UK police release al-Qaeda suspects

April 22, 2009

British police have released all 12 men arrested in raids earlier this month over a suspected al-Qaeda plot.

Officers did not charge the men, 11 Pakistanis and one Briton, who were seized on April 8 in a raid that had been brought forward due to a security breach.

The arrests, which took place in northwest England, were rushed through after Bob Quick, Britain's senior counter-terrorism officer, was photographed holding notes on the operation.

The security blunder led him to resign a day later.

Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister, said at the time of the raids that police had foiled "a very big terrorist plot".

Insufficient evidence

The men, 10 of whom held student visas, were arrested in raids in Manchester, Liverpool and Clitheroe in Lancashire.

But prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to justify holding them any longer or bring charges against them.

Peter Fahy, chief constable for Greater Manchester police, defended the operation.

He said: "We had a duty to act to protect the public and a subsequent duty to investigate what lay before us.

"We don't take these decisions lightly and only carry out this kind of action if it is wholly justified."

All but one of the suspects are expected to be deported on national security grounds.

A lawyer for three of the men said they would fight to stay and continue their education in the UK.

Mohammed Ayub said: "Our clients have no criminal history, they were here lawfully on student visas and all were pursuing their studies and working part-time.

"Our clients are neither extremists nor terrorists. Their arrest and detention has been a very serious breach of their human rights."

Clitheroe Advertiser : Two arrested in Clitheroe are among nine terrorism suspects now released

Two arrested in Clitheroe are among nine terrorism suspects now released

Ten Pakistani nationals face deportation

April 22, 2009

NINE of the 12 men arrested in counter-terrorism raids across the North West on April 8th have been released without charge, but are likely to be deported.

It is understood that the two men arrested in Clitheroe are among those nine Pakistani nationals.

All 12 men were arrested in synchronised raids at addresses in Liverpool, Manchester and at Clitheroe's new Homebase store, where the two men had been temporarily employed as security guards, supplied by an outside firm. They had been staying at a guest house in Pimlico Road, which was also searched by police forensic teams.

Of the 12 arrested, 11 were Pakistani nationals, 10 were in the UK on student visas and one was from Britain. One of them, an 18-year-old, was previously handed over to the UK Border Agency for possible deportation and two are still being questioned by police – the Briton and one of the Pakistani nationals.

It is understood the two men arrested in Clitheroe were in the UK on student visas, despite working for the security firm. Police have stressed that they had no connection with Clitheroe other than that they were staying in the town for the duration of their work in the run-up to the opening of the new Homebase store, which took place as planned the morning after the arrests.

Commenting on the release of the nine men, a Home Office spokesman said: "We are seeking to remove these individuals on grounds of national security. The government's highest priority is to protect public safety. Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country we will seek to exclude or to deport, where this is appropriate."

However, a lawyer for three of the men has said thety should be allowed to remain in the UK to complete their studies. In a statement, the lawyer, Mohammed Ayub, said: "After 13 days in custody, during which no evidence of any wrongdoing was disclosed, they have now been released without charge.

"Our clients have no criminal history, they were here lawfully on student visas and all were pursuing their studies and working part-time. Our clients are neither extremists nor terrorists."

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police, which led the joint counter-terrorism operation involving three forces, said searches were continuing at a property in Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

The spokesman added: "These arrests were carried out after a number of UK agencies gathered information that indicated a potential risk to public safety. Officers are continuing to review a large amount of information gathered as part of this investigation.

"Investigations of this nature are extremely complex. We remain grateful to the support and co-operation of the communities affected."

The raids had been planned for the early hours of Thursday April 9th, but had to be brought forward and carried out in broad daylight after details of the operation were revealed in a blunder by the UK's top anti-terrorism police officer, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick. He was photographed visiting Downing Street with details of the operation clearly visible on a document carried under his arm.

He has since resigned, but Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told MPs this week that the blunder had not damaged the effectiveness of the operation, despite it being hastily brought forward by several hours.

Clitheroe Advertiser : Wild 'terror plot' rumours are entirely unfounded

Two arrested in Clitheroe are among nine terrorism suspects now released

Ten Pakistani nationals face deportation

April 22, 2009

NINE of the 12 men arrested in counter-terrorism raids across the North West on April 8th have been released without charge, but are likely to be deported.

It is understood that the two men arrested in Clitheroe are among those nine Pakistani nationals.

All 12 men were arrested in synchronised raids at addresses in Liverpool, Manchester and at Clitheroe's new Homebase store, where the two men had been temporarily employed as security guards, supplied by an outside firm. They had been staying at a guest house in Pimlico Road, which was also searched by police forensic teams.

Of the 12 arrested, 11 were Pakistani nationals, 10 were in the UK on student visas and one was from Britain. One of them, an 18-year-old, was previously handed over to the UK Border Agency for possible deportation and two are still being questioned by police – the Briton and one of the Pakistani nationals.

It is understood the two men arrested in Clitheroe were in the UK on student visas, despite working for the security firm. Police have stressed that they had no connection with Clitheroe other than that they were staying in the town for the duration of their work in the run-up to the opening of the new Homebase store, which took place as planned the morning after the arrests.

Commenting on the release of the nine men, a Home Office spokesman said: "We are seeking to remove these individuals on grounds of national security. The government's highest priority is to protect public safety. Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country we will seek to exclude or to deport, where this is appropriate."

However, a lawyer for three of the men has said thety should be allowed to remain in the UK to complete their studies. In a statement, the lawyer, Mohammed Ayub, said: "After 13 days in custody, during which no evidence of any wrongdoing was disclosed, they have now been released without charge.

"Our clients have no criminal history, they were here lawfully on student visas and all were pursuing their studies and working part-time. Our clients are neither extremists nor terrorists."

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police, which led the joint counter-terrorism operation involving three forces, said searches were continuing at a property in Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

The spokesman added: "These arrests were carried out after a number of UK agencies gathered information that indicated a potential risk to public safety. Officers are continuing to review a large amount of information gathered as part of this investigation.

"Investigations of this nature are extremely complex. We remain grateful to the support and co-operation of the communities affected."

The raids had been planned for the early hours of Thursday April 9th, but had to be brought forward and carried out in broad daylight after details of the operation were revealed in a blunder by the UK's top anti-terrorism police officer, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick. He was photographed visiting Downing Street with details of the operation clearly visible on a document carried under his arm.

He has since resigned, but Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told MPs this week that the blunder had not damaged the effectiveness of the operation, despite it being hastily brought forward by several hours.

Reuters : Police defend terrorism raids as suspects freed

Police defend terrorism raids as suspects freed

By Michael Holden | April 22, 2009

LONDON (Reuters) - Police on Wednesday denied making an embarrassing mistake after releasing all 12 men seized in raids to foil a suspected al Qaeda plot that were brought forward due to a security breach.

The 11 Pakistanis and one Briton were arrested around northwest England on April 8 as part of an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called at the time a "very big terrorist plot."

Police said all the suspects had been released although 11 had been handed over to immigration officials and face deportation on national security grounds.

Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to justify holding them any longer or bringing charges, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.

"This is not a mistake. I do not feel embarrassed or humiliated by what we have done because we have carried out our duty," GMP Chief Constable Peter Fahy told reporters.

"We do not carry out this sort of operation or make these sorts of arrests on a wing or a prayer or a whim. We can only operate to one standard, and that standard is that people are innocent until they are proved guilty."

The raids were mounted several hours ahead of schedule after a blunder by Britain's top counter-terrorism officer Bob Quick.

A document on the operation was photographed by journalists as Quick carried it to a briefing for Brown. Quick resigned a day later but Fahy said the mistake had not compromised the operation.

Police have been on high alert since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and especially after four young British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport network in July 2005, killing 52 people.

Dozens have been convicted of plotting bombings since 2001 and currently 68 people are on trial or awaiting trial for terrorism offences, said Fahy.

However, it is not the first time that suspects have been freed after claims that a major terrorism plot had been foiled.

In 2004, GMP arrested 10 people in raids involving some 400 officers amid media speculation of a plot to blow up Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium during a high-profile game.

They were all freed without charge.

The most notorious case occurred in 2006 when officers, some wearing chemical, biological and radiological protection suits stormed a house in east London looking for a suspected bomb, and shot one of the occupants.

No bomb was found and police later admitted their intelligence had been faulty.

"When we look at the record of the anti-terrorist police across the whole country but especially Scotland Yard, their record is actually very, very good," said security consultant Peter Ryan, a former national director of UK police training.

The Muslim Council of Britain said arrests were understandable but criticised Brown, who had also angered Pakistani officials by calling on Pakistan to do more to "root out the terrorist elements in its country."

"We would hope that senior ministers and the Prime Minister will understand that it is completely unfair to make prejudicial and premature remarks in cases like this," said spokesman Inayat Bunglawala.

He added the decision to deport the men following their release was "very dishonourable."

Mohammed Ayub, a defence lawyer for some of the suspects, said: "This seriously damaged police credibility. The arrests happened in a blaze of publicity but finally amount to nothing."

(Additional reporting by William Maclean; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.

Guardian : Nine men arrested over suspected terror plot released to UK borders agency

Nine men arrested over suspected terror plot released to UK borders agency

Mark Tran | April 21, 2009

Britain tonight moved to deport nine men arrested earlier this month following one of the country's biggest anti-terror operations since the July 7 attacks in 2005.

The men have not been charged with any offences nearly two weeks after being arrested in raids across Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire. Two other men remain in custody. The nine men, aged between 22 and 38, were tonight released by Greater Manchester police into the custody of the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) in preparation for deportation to Pakistan.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are seeking to remove these individuals on grounds of national security. The government's highest priority is to protect public safety. Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country we will seek to exclude or to deport, where this is appropriate."

The arrests were mired in controversy as the operation had to be rushed forward following an embarrassing security leak by Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the then head of Scotland Yard's specialist operations wing.

Quick was photographed clutching sensitive documents as he arrived in Downing Street. Clearly visible on top of a large bundle of papers under his arm was a white document marked "secret" that carried an outline for briefing on a current counter-terrorism operation.

Realising the existence of the ­photos of the ­document – which included the names of several senior officers, sensitive locations and details about the nature of the overseas threat – a "D notice" was imposed by the government to restrict the media from revealing the contents of the picture. Quick resigned days after the arrests and the security blunder.

Counterterrorism officials at the time of the arrests said they believed an alleged al-Qaida terror plot against the UK, designed to cause mass casualties, was to have been carried out within days. Twelve men were arrested. Eleven of them were Pakistani nationals, 10 of whom were on student visas. A twelfth man was transferred to immigration officials earlier this month.

A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman (GMP) tonight said that searches are continuing at a property in Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham Hill, Manchester.

The GMP spokeswoman said: "Protecting the public is the main focus of the police. These arrests were carried out after a number of UK agencies gathered information that indicated a potential risk to public safety.

"Officers are continuing to review a large amount of information gathered as part of this investigation.

"Investigations of this nature are extremely complex. We remain grateful to the support and cooperation of the communities affected."

Officials have not released details about the reported terror plot but the prime minister, Gordon Brown, called it "very big."

The 12 men were taken at seven locations across north-west England, and at least another eight addresses in the region were searched. Scores of students witnessed one arrest, carried out at Liverpool John Moores University.

The arrests were carried out in daylight because of the security leak, in direct contravention of the usual practice of arresting people while they sleep.

Moves to deport the nine men could lead to friction between Britain and Pakistan. Earlier this month the head of Pakistan's interior ministry, Rehman Malik, said Britain should charge and prosecute the suspects if it has enough evidence.

CNN : Nine of 11 England terror suspects released

Nine of 11 England terror suspects released

* Border officials want men deported despite lack of evidence to charge them
* Agency: We want to remove men "on grounds of national security"
* Men had been held in association with alleged terror plot in northern England
* Widespread arrests made after police official photographed with name of suspects

April 21, 2009

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nine of the 11 Pakistani nationals being held in an alleged terror plot in northern England were released Tuesday, according to police.
Police officers guard a house in Manchester, England, following raids and arrests of terror suspects.

The arrests were made the week before Easter and came quickly after Britain's chief terrorism officer, who has since resigned, exposed a list of people who were suspected of planning an al Qaeda-linked attack.

Britain's Greater Manchester Police said the men were released into the custody of the U.K.'s border agency, which will determine whether they can legally remain in England. Police and the border agency said they want the men deported, even though investigators apparently were unable to find enough evidence to charge them with crimes.

"We are seeking to remove these individuals on grounds of national security. The government's highest priority is to protect public safety," said a statement from the agency. "Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country, we will seek to exclude or to deport, where this is appropriate."

Twelve people originally were arrested April 8, and one had been released before Tuesday. Two people remained in custody, authorities said.

Police said that at the time of the arrests, their investigation compelled them to take action, even without the blunder made by Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick.

The document he was carrying when photographed outside 10 Downing Street contained the names of those to be arrested, and a source said photographers were able to easily read the names when they enlarged the photographs.

Once the word was out, police rushed to make the arrests. Authorities said those actions would have been taken in the following 24 hours anyway.

The men -- ranging in age from 18 to 22 -- were arrested in Manchester, about 200 miles northwest of London. They had been held for 13 days without being charged. Police will need to seek an extension by Wednesday to be able to continue holding the two remaining suspects without charges.

Police say they are continuing to review evidence collected in the case and are searching at least one more house

CNN's Paula Newton in London contributed to this report.

NYT : Britain Prepares to Deport 9 Terrorism Suspects

Britain Prepares to Deport 9 Terrorism Suspects

By JOHN F. BURNS | April 21, 2009

LONDON — Two weeks after hundreds of police officers staged raids in northern England and arrested 12 men in what Prime Minister Gordon Brown described as “a very big terrorist plot,” the police released nine of them on Tuesday and handed them over to Britain’s border control agency for deportation to Pakistan.

Two other men remained in police custody for further questioning under Britain’s Terrorism Act. Another man had been handed over previously to the border agency for deportation.

A Home Office spokesman, referring to the transfer of the nine suspects to the border agency, said the government was “seeking to remove these individuals on grounds of national security,” suggesting that some kind of plot was still under investigation. A police spokeswoman in the northern city of Manchester, which the British news media had portrayed as the focal point of the plot described by Mr. Brown, said the investigations were continuing.

But Britain’s security agencies appeared to have pulled back from earlier suggestions that they had foiled a major imminent attack involving infiltrators with Al Qaeda sent to Britain from Pakistan on student visas. After the arrests on April 8, senior officials were quoted in British newspapers as saying they had moved against the 12 men after deciding that a bombing attack involving mass casualties was only days from being carried out, probably against a target in Manchester, possibly a crowded shopping center over the Easter weekend.

The Manchester police spokeswoman who announced the transfer of the nine men to the border agency said the arrests had been carried out after security agencies “gathered information that indicated a potential risk to public safety.” That was a far more guarded formulation than Mr. Brown used in the immediate aftermath of the arrests, in a statement in which he demanded that Pakistan do more to root out terrorism. He also said that Britain would tighten up on student visas for Pakistanis.

The police operation on April 8 was one of the most elaborate in the lengthening history of British counterterrorism crackdowns since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States and the transit bombings in London in July 2005 that killed 56 people, including the four suicide bombers. Hundreds of police officers, many armed with submachine guns, staged daylight raids in at least 10 locations, including a university library in Manchester. Eleven of the 12 men they arrested, who were 22 to 38 years old, were Pakistanis, 10 of them in Britain on student visas.

The arrests followed a blunder by Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism chief, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, who arrived for a meeting with Mr. Brown holding a dossier in his hands with details of the planned police raids visible in pictures taken by news photographers. The Home Office issued an order banning the publication of the photographs, and ordered the raids carried out 12 hours sooner than planned. Mr. Quick resigned his post after being told he had lost the government's confidence.

Liverpool Echo : Jacqui Smith claims public safety was main factor in terror raids

Jacqui Smith claims public safety was main factor in terror raids

By Ian Hernon | April 20, 2009

HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith today claimed that "public safety" was the main factor in terror raids across Merseyside and the wider region earlier this month.

In a Commons statement she refused for "operational reasons" to be drawn on thye nature of the bomb plot allegedly underway when 12 suspects were seized.

Speculation has centred on Liverpool, a Manchester shopping centre and a night club as the primary targets.

She said: "These arrests were pre-planned as the result of an ongoing joint police and security service investigation.

"The decision to take action was an operational matter for them, but the prime minister and I were kept fully informed of developments.

"The priority at all times has been to act to maintain public safety."

Ms Smith also denied that the April 8 raids were compromised by the blunder by anti-terrorist chief Bob Quick, who has pictured in Downing Street carrying clearly visible briefing papers of the impending Operation Pathway.

She said that because of the gaffe the police brought forward the raids.

"The fact that these papers were inadvently made public did not make any difference to the decision to carry out arrests - it simply changed the timing by a matter of hours," she added.

Of those arrested 11 remain in custody and have had their detention extended to Wednesday. The 12th is an Afghan who is now in the hands of the immigration authorities and is expected to be deported.

Ms Smith praised all those involved in the operation, including Merseyside Police, saying: "They are to be commended for [the] professional manner in which they carried out the arrests."

Daily Express : MI5’S Grannies Fight al Qaeda

MI5’S GRANNIES FIGHT AL QAEDA

MI5 feared a shopping area in Manchester was a prime target

By Gordon Thomas | April 19, 2009

MI5 used some astonishing new weapons in its action against suspected terrorists in the north of England last week.

Playing a leading role were teams of women who kept an eye on the suspects during the long investigation into what is believed to be the biggest campaign plotted by Al Qaeda since the London bombings.

Created by the Security Service’s A4 surveillance division, the teams were tested for the first time in the operation, code-named Pathway, which was directed by MI5’s 50-year-old head Jonathan Evans.

They worked in two groups: one, made up of 72 elderly women, the other, young mothers with babies in prams.

Both had undergone a crash course in surveillance techniques.

Some of the elderly women walked the streets of the northern cities where the suspects lived, ostensibly walking their dogs or going shopping.

But miniature recorders hidden in their hair or beneath a headscarf were monitored by surveillance vans nearby.

These were linked directly to another unit specialising in locating a suspect’s mobile phone by triangulating its signal between two or more transmission masts.

The recorders used by the “granny squad” were also linked to GCHQ, the Government eaves-dropping centre in Cheltenham, Gloucs.

The mothers’ prams were also wired for surveillance. Beneath the real babies was a range of recording equipment that turned the prams into self-contained mobile surveillance units.

A further development by the MI5 scientists was also used. This is a colourless chemical that can be “painted” on a suspect’s clothing.

Another MI5 team, known as ­BS-1, the Burglar Specialists, break into a suspect’s home and spray the long-lasting chemical on to a shoe, skirt, jacket or trousers, which can then be detected by specially trained dogs.

It was these dogs who pursued the 12 Pakistani students now in custody, as they photographed the smart shopping area in Manchester, which MI5 feared was to be a prime target.

It was the grannies who picked up crucial details of ­e-mails exchanged by suspects.

During the long operation, which culminated in MI5’s swoop last week, they filed regular reports to a committee of senior MI5 officials based in a sound-proof room in the Security Service’s headquarters in Thames House, London.

It was one of the young mothers pushing her baby through a Manchester street who picked up details of a possible attack over the Easter holidays.

Analysts who studied her tape noticed a reference to the arrest in December last year of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists in Brussels, who were said to be plotting to launch an attack against a two-day summit in the city.

That assault was never launched, however. One possible reason was that it had been replaced by the Manchester plot.

This had all the hallmarks of Rashid Rauf, one of Osama Bin Laden’s top terrorist plotters. He was the mastermind behind the London bombings in July 2005.

Last November, he was reportedly killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a pilotless Predator drone by the CIA on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

A shroud-covered body was removed from the rubble. It was purported to be Rauf, but that is now thought unlikely.

The young mother pushing her pram in Manchester had picked up a snatch of conversation that led GCHQ to believe that Rauf was still alive, probably in Pakistan.

He would almost certainly have pulled off the latest attack except for the undercover operation ­inadvertently exposed by Bob Quick, the Metropolitan police chief who was Britain’s senior anti-terrorist officer. The blunder cost Quick his job.

It may also have enabled details of Rauf’s plan to escape detection. MI5 boss Evans has told his officers that if Rauf is still alive: “The further we are from his last crime, the closer we are to the next.”

NewsMax : Arrest of Pakistani Students in Britain Angers Families

Arrest of Pakistani Students in Britain Angers Families

By Kaswar Klasra | April 16, 2009

PESHAWAR -- Wednesday was supposed to be a happy time for the family of Abid Naseer. His parents had made elaborate plans for the young man’s 23rd birthday party, right down to the gourmet chocolate cake from a well known neighborhood bakery.

Instead, the occasion was “a day full of sorrow,” according to Naseer’s family. Before he could return to Peshawar for a birthday vacation, the university student was among 12 men arrested in Great Britain last week on charges of planning terrorist attacks there. Ten of those arrested were, like Naseer, Pakistanis who entered Britain on student visas.

All but one of the men is still being held and interrogated, sources say.

The arrests have sparked outrage in Pakistan, where government officials have issued a formal complaint against British law enforcement for refusing to reveal the suspects’ identities or grant Pakistani diplomats consular access to the men. Pakistan’s High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, accused British officials not of leaking details of the allegations against the men, but of failing to hand over the evidence against them, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

The diplomatic fireworks are little consolation to Naseer’s, father Nusrullah Khattak. With tears in his eyes, he insists his son is an innocent youth who went to the U.K. seeking an education in information technology at a college in Manchester.

“It is unjust to arrest Naseer, whose only sin was that he was a Pakistani Muslim with a long beard who prays regularly,” Khattak tells Newsmax. “Naseer was never associated with any religious organization. He never met any religious scholar, and I am sure he was nothing to do with terrorism.”

Khattak tells Newsmax the only details he’s received about his son’s arrest and incarceration have come through media reports. “I kept calling him on his cell phone, however I got no response,” the distraught father adds.

The arrests have caused a bit of a sensation in Britain as well. The raids were carried out in broad daylight after the government’s top anti-terror police officer, assistant commissioner Bob Quick, was photographed carrying clearly legible details of the operation.

He has since resigned over the blunder, according to an AFP report.

The father of six concedes that there are Pakistanis involved in terrorist activities in the U.K. But Khattak urged British authorities focus on eliminating the root causes of terrorism activities and not punish innocent foreign students.

“You cannot imagine the pain of this unfortunate family whose loved one is in illegal detention thousands miles away from home,” Khattak says while dabbing at tears with tissue.

“Britain claims to be a role model state, however, by arresting an innocent student Britain has exposed itself,” he adds, “It is not fair to arrest innocent people whose only sin is that they are Muslims and love their Islamic traditions.”

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Times : Pakistani 'terror plot suspects' to be deported rather than charged

Pakistani 'terror plot suspects' to be deported rather than charged

Sean O’Neill, Zahid Hussain and Michael Evans | From The Times | April 13, 2009

Most of the Pakistani men arrested last week in an anti-terrorist operation will be deported rather than charged, senior counter-terrorism sources told The Times last night.

Officials in London and Islamabad said that Britain had begun seeking assurances about how the men would be treated if they were returned to Pakistan. “The British wanted to be reassured that if some of these men were deported they would not face torture,” an informed source in Pakistan said.

One of the 12 men detained, an 18-year-old, has been freed from anti-terrorist detention and is in the custody of immigration officials.

Investigators are concerned that they have not found any firm evidence linking the men to terrorist attack plans. A source close to the inquiry said: “There is already talk of coming up empty-handed and there is terrible infighting between the different forces involved.”

Operation Pathway, the codename for the inquiry, has already led to the resignation of Britain’s most senior anti-terrorist officer, Bob Quick, after he accidentally revealed details of the arrest plans to photographers in Downing Street. If it results in deportations rather than charges, it will also embarrass the Prime Minister, who said that the police were dealing with “a very big terrorist plot” and had criticised Pakistan for not doing more to tackle Islamist terrorism.

The latest discussions between London and Islamabad were disclosed as news emerged from Pakistan that its anti-terrorist agencies had been holding a British convert to Islam for two weeks. James McLintock, 44, was detained in Peshawar, from where many of the men arrested in Britain come, and is being questioned about helping British Muslim militants to make contacts in Pakistan.

Pakistani and British officials said that the arrest of Mr McLintock, from Dundee, was not linked to the continuing terrorism investigation in Britain. The last time he came to the attention of the British authorities, however, was in late 2003 when he was questioned by anti-terrorist police in Manchester, the city at the heart of the plot allegations.

The family of a man studying at Liverpool John Moores University said they believed that their son had been arrested and appealed for his release. Relatives of Mohammad Ramzan, from Dera in Pakistan, said that they had been unable to contact him since last week. Haji Hazrat Ali, his father, told Associated Press that Mr Ramzan, 25, travelled to Britain in 2006 and was studying for an MBA. Mr Ali said: “He is a very humble, gentle boy and always concentrates on his studies. I firmly believe he simply cannot be involved in any negative activity.”

The operation in Britain has been running covertly for several weeks and went public last Wednesday, within hours of Mr Quick’s blunder, with dramatic daylight raids in Manchester, Liverpool and Clitheroe, Lancashire. The remaining 11 detainees, 10 of whom are believed to be Pakistani nationals visiting Britain on student visas, are being questioned at police stations across the North of England.

Detectives have been granted a further seven days to detain the suspects, who range in age from 22 to 41. They can be questioned for a maximum of 28 days before they have to be charged or released.

The investigation is a joint operation between the North-West Counter-terrorism Unit, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command and MI5, and involved Merseyside and Lancashire constabularies. The involvement of so many forces is said to have led to infighting and confusion over the command and direction of the inquiry.

NZ Herald : Police lack 'hardware' from plot

Police lack 'hardware' from plot

April 13, 2009

LONDON - The full extent of the damage caused by Metropolitan anti-terrorism chief Bob Quick's blunder has been revealed, with details that intelligence services were possibly several weeks away from breaking a suspected plot to bomb British targets.

Eleven men arrested in raids in the northwest of England remained in detention yesterday after magistrates gave police a further seven days to question them.

But there are extreme concerns within the security services that there may not be enough evidence amassed to build a case against them, because the raids were rushed forward as a result of Quick's mistake.

The Independent was told by security sources that a number of those being held were identified as possible terrorist plotters by intelligence agencies before they left Pakistan, and were "allowed to run" to Britain through the student visa system, where they were tracked for several months.

Quick, Scotland Yard's head of counter-terrorism, had been snapped clutching a dossier headlined "secret" and bearing details of a police operation as he arrived at the Prime Minister's office at No 10 Downing St. Although the Government was quick to issue a "D notice", preventing the UK media from publishing the photograph, there was a threat it would appear on the internet.

"It was a disaster," said a Government source. "This guy's sitting at this desk and every day he's studying surveillance photos brought in by his officers. He knows the power of the camera. After the microphone, it's the most powerful tool they've got; he must have been aware he would be photographed going into Downing St."

As Quick realised his career had been finished in the click of a camera lens, he faced a brutal dilemma. Originally the plan had been to make the arrests in the dead of night.

Security sources told the Independent that the raid was only one option and in fact the planned raid was possibly several weeks away.

The operation would have involved a minimum amount of fuss and was unlikely to have inflamed tensions among the local Muslim communities in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Instead, with the alleged plot in danger of becoming public knowledge, Quick was forced to bring the arrests forward, sending in armed teams to pick up the 12 suspects - 10 of whom were from Pakistan and had entered the country on student visas - in public places.

The Government source said: "The difficulty was that they weren't at home in their beds where they wanted them to be. It was a huge risk - to go to a public place such as a shopping centre and detain them."

It was also highly embarrassing. Following a slew of stories in which officials had left top secret documents in public places, the country's counter-terrorism high command was an international laughing stock.

"We lecture the Pakistanis on taking a tough line against al Qaeda then we go and do this."

But questions are now being asked about whether the decision to bring the arrests forward after Quick's bungling compromised the intelligence gathering process. Counter-terrorism squad officers have dismissed claims that an attack was about to be launched when the suspects were arrested.

A source close to Scotland Yard said the evidence indicated any plot was still at the discussion stage, and none of the hardware necessary to carry out an attack had been acquired.

"This could turn out to be similar to cases in the past, where we have stalked groups who have made serious claims picked up in recorded conversations or in email traffic, but when we get down to it they did not have the necessary hardware to actually do it," the source said.

Some are concerned that the decision to launch a raid on Thursday after Quick's security gaffe has reduced the possibility of successful convictions. A counter-terrorism source said: "Intelligence officers will always tell you the longer you leave these things the better. There's always a balance between maximising evidence and public safety."

There have been unsubstantiated claims that the alleged plot focused on several sites including a nightclub and a shopping centre in Manchester. But no bomb-making equipment has been found so far and one man has been released into the custody of the Borders Agency.

The security services are believed to have been monitoring the situation for more than a month after their US counterparts intercepted suspicious emails and calls between Pakistan and the UK.

"For the last two or three months, we have been getting reports of Pakistani groups planning something in the UK, so some kind of operation was widely expected," said Mohammad Rana Amir, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, a think-tank in Islamabad.

British intelligence sources describe the tribal areas along Pakistan's western frontier with Afghanistan as "the Grand Central Station" of modern international militancy. A growing threat has been some of the groups that reside there such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or Jaish-e-Mohammed. Though once focused on Kashmir, they are increasingly turning to international targets.

LeT is suspected of being behind November's attack in Mumbai, India and that on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last month.

Another potential new player in international terrorism is the Pakistani Taleban. Though their Afghan counterparts have refrained from making any threats outside their homeland, Baitullah Mahsud, leader of the Pakistani Taleban, has repeatedly threatened Western interests. While intelligence services believe such threats are largely bluster, there is a possibility of some kind of alliance with another more capable group.

In recent months, Western security services have become more positive about the battle against al Qaeda in Pakistan. Drone strikes - though they have deeply angered many ordinary Pakistanis - have killed senior militants and upset their operations.

- OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT

The First Post : Bob Quick didn’t know the law, says Davis

Bob Quick didn’t know the law, says Davis

April 13, 2009

Bob Quick, the senior police officer in charge of counter-terrorism who had to resign last week after carelessly allowing Downing Street photographers to picture a top secret document he was carrying into a meeting with the Prime Minister, has been firmly put in his place by David Davis, the former Shadow Home Secretary.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Davis recalled how Quick came to see him about raising the period of detention without charge for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days - something the police and the Government wanted, but which Davis and other Conservatives were firmly against.

Quick was seeking to explain to Davis why 28 days' detention was sometimes not enough time to put together their evidence and how the police could end up releasing a terrorist onto the the streets, thereby endangering the public.

Wrote Davis: "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 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... did not know a fundamental piece of law about charging terrorist suspects. And he came to lecture me!"

This was bad enough, Davis went on, but then came the 'Keystone Cops' arrest of Tory MP Damian Green last November for his alleged involvement in the leaking of Home Office documents about immigration.

A new Official Secrets Act in 1989 had removed from criminal law the offence of leaking confidential information if it did not affect national security. So, by arresting Green, Quick "was not enforcing the law, he was inventing new law", wrote Davis.

It was little surprise, concluded Davis, that no one rushed to Quick's defence when he made his blunder in Downing Street last week. "At least he did the honourable thing by resigning."

The National (UAE) : Poor Bungling Bob, the policeman thrown to the lions

Poor Bungling Bob, the policeman thrown to the lions

Michael Simkins | April 13. 2009

If you have a moment this week, please spare a thought for Bob Quick. A mere seven days ago, as Assistant Commissioner (Specialist Operations) with the Metropolitan Police in London, he was the UK’s senior counter-terrorist police officer. But with evidence mounting of an imminent terrorist attack, and a covert police operation to round up suspected participants only hours away, Mr Quick arrived at Downing Street to brief the prime minister: and in the mere act of emerging from his car, 30 years of climbing up the greasy pole of career progress were swept away.

Any Hollywood starlet will tell you that getting out of a stationary vehicle in front of waiting photographers is an operation fraught with difficulty if your most personal details are not be captured for global consumption. But even they couldn’t have imagined the hash of things “Bungling Bob” (as his critics have dubbed him) would make of the manoeuvre.

As he clambered out, the front page of a dossier marked Secret and containing the most sensitive details of Operation Pathway was clearly visible in his hand, and before you could say “smile please” the shutters had clicked. Within minutes newspaper chiefs were warning the government of a security breach with potentially disastrous consequences.

In many ways Mr Quick’s blunder was the sort we all make at work from time to time, and from which we hope to escape with nothing more than a severe ribbing from our colleagues. But counter-terrorism is no laughing matter. In the case of Operation Pathway the implications were severe, necessitating as it did the raid having to be brought forward.

It’s a salutary lesson for all those in the public spotlight nowadays that no detail is safe from the modern camera lens, be it a bead of perspiration, a bobble of cellulite or a stray nasal hair. Pity the poor celebrity who nips out to the shops in anything less than full glamour make-up and designer clothes.

Indeed, only last week the tennis star Maria Sharapova was gleefully pilloried in celebrity magazines after she was photographed in a party dress with a couple of stray threads dangling from the hem. Mr Quick may have blown the cover on a top-secret intelligence operation, but goodness knows the vitriol that would have been heaped upon him had he arrived outside No10 with a loose cufflink. As it was, a mere 24 hours after his schoolboy howler Mr Quick had done the decent thing, and was an ex-commissioner.

The possibility that he might learn from his mistake and subsequently develop into a better officer as a result seems not to have been considered. As in so many facets of life nowadays, something must be done and somebody must be to blame.

If I seem to have an undue amount of sympathy for Bungling Bob’s plight, it’s only because I once committed a similar gaffe myself: although thankfully the implications were less severe. The occasion was a poetry recitation competition at a school last year, at which I had been asked to adjudicate.

Like Mr Quick, my decisions that day were controversial: I had decided to award the first prize (a book token) to the girl with the lisp who had tackled an unfashionable poem by Rudyard Kipling, instead of going for the popular choice, Hilaire Belloc’s Jim. Who ran away from his nurse and was eaten by a lion, performed to much acclaim by the school joker with the spiky hair and the ready smile.

I left my scrawled deliberations on show for only a second while I levered myself out of the knee-crushing desk and chair combo I had been occupying in the centre of the hall, but a second was all it took. Eagle-eyed school kids in the audience read my musings, and by the time I reached the front, news of my imminent announcement had already spread like a virus. Like the embattled Mr Quick, I too was forced into an unseemly scramble to preserve what little surprise element was still left in the event.

The frosty reception in the staff common room afterwards left me in no doubt that questions about my competence were already being asked at the most senior level. Thankfully forgiveness prevailed, and last month I was invited back to judge this year’s contest: sadder, wiser, and with my notes now written in code. Having this time avoided any mishap, I can report operational efficiency fully restored.

So for those who were so keen to condemn Mr Quick and to replace him with an individual who may know how to climb out of a car but who has little direct experience of the murky world of intelligence, the final stanza of Belloc’s award-winning poem on poor Jim’s demise at the hands of the lion is worth quoting: “And always keep ahold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse.”

Michael Simkins is an actor and author based in London

Daily Mail : Bomb disposal squad called in to site at centre of Liverpool terror arrests

Bomb disposal squad called in to site at centre of Liverpool terror arrests

By Charlotte Gill and Jaya Narain | April 13, 2009

Army bomb disposal experts have been called in by counter-terrorism officers investigating the suspected terror plot which saw 12 men arrested last week.

An area around Highgate Street in the Wavertree area of Liverpool was cordoned off as a precaution and a number of homes nearby were evacuated.

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police stressed no dangerous device had been found but experts were brought in to help with the search of the property, which is continuing.

'At this stage the experts have been called in as a precaution.

'Cordons have been set up and a small number of homes evacuated.

'Officers are working to ensure this is resolved with minimum disruption to local people and appreciate the community's cooperation and understanding.'

Meanwhile sources said a number of the suspects arrested last week could be deported rather than charged due to lack of evidence against them.

The Pakistani men, most of them on British student visas, will be thrown out for breaching the terms of their entry if the police cannot find enough material to try them in court.

It is understood that the UK has already begun seeking assurances that the men would not face torture if they were sent back to Pakistan.

Deportations rather than charges would be humiliating for the police and M15 and embarrassing for Gordon Brown who said that arrests involved a 'very big terrorist' plot and criticised Pakistan for not doing more to tackle Islamist terrorism.

Extensive searches of properties have so far not believed to have led to the discovery of any bomb-making equipment or materials.

Yesterday police at one property in Manchester were seen removing sachets of sugar - sometimes used as a component in homemade explosives.

Police remain hopeful that information coming out of Pakistan coupled with emails, computer data and forensics found in the searched premises will lead to some charges.

Sources have said that the raids were brought forward after intelligence suggested that the group could strike as early as the Easter holiday.

Surveillance officers reported seeing some of the men filming buildings including the Trafford Centre, the Arndale Centre and the Birdcage nightclub in Manchester.

The terror raids in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside were planned for last week but had to be rushed by 12 hours after police anti-terror chief Bob Quick was photographed holding a secret document detailing the targets.

The blunder led him to resign the following day.

Twelve men - 11 Pakistani nationals and a UK-born Briton - were arrested. One, an 18-year-old Pakistani man, has since been released and is in the custody of immigration officials.

The family of a man studying at Liverpool John Moores University said they believed that their son had been arrested and appealed for his release.

Relatives of Mohammad Ramzan, from Dera Ismail Khan in north west Pakistan, said they had been unable to contact him since last week.

His father Haji Hazrat Ali said the 25-year-old travelled to Britain in 2006 and was studying for an MBA.

He said: 'He is a very humble, gentle boy and always concentrates on his studies. I firmly believe he simply cannot be involved in any negative activity.'

The family of Abdul Wahab Khan, 26, who lived with Ramzan while they studied at the university, have also voiced concern that their he may be among those arrested.

Khan's older brother, Gulzar Jan, said he came to Britain in 2006 and was studying for a master's degree in IT.

He said: 'My brother is for sure innocent. He doesn't deserve the treatment he might be getting in custody in the UK.'

Relatives of the two men said deportation would be a 'great disgrace'.

Nasrullah Jan Khattak, the father of Abid Naseer who was named as a suspect, said: 'Ours is a religious-minded family but this doesn’t mean that my son is part of a terrorist cell.'

He said Naseer went to England two years ago to study IT at a university in Manchester. His student visa was due to expire in September.

Details of a third man said to be one of those arrested also emerged.

Janas Khan, 25, is a student at Hope University in Liverpool and was working as security guard at Homebase in Clitheroe, Lancashire along with another terror suspect.

He is thought to have stayed at a flat in Liverpool owned by an suspected terror financier, Mohammed Benhammedi, who is alleged to have raise funds for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which is associated with al Qaeda.

Officers have been granted a further week to detain the 11, who range in age from 22 to 41 and are being held in various locations across the country. They can be questioned for a maximum of 28 days before they have to be charged or released.