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.

Guardian : Specialist protest squads at centre of investigations into G20 police violence

Specialist protest squads at centre of investigations into G20 police violence

Police territorial support teams, used at demonstrations and marches, involved in previous controversy

Sandra Laville, crime correspondent | April 16, 2009

Officers from the Metropolitan police's specialist territorial support teams are at the centre of investigations over the use of unprovoked violence during the G20 protests.

Both of the officers who have been suspended in the last week were part of the force's territorial support group (TSG), a unit of 720 officers who operate in mobile squads to combat serious public disorder, work with other officers to tackle high-volume crime, provide the expertise to force entry into buildings, and carry out anti-terrorist arrests and stop and searches.

As the Independent Police Complaints Commission began an independent investigation into a TSG sergeant seen on the most recent video using his gloved hand to hit a female member of the public, the Met chief, Sir Paul Stephenson, announced that he had asked Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to review public order policing tactics in the light of the G20. He also ordered a review of all footage held by the police in order to establish whether any other officers should be subject to investigation.

Privately, Stephenson has in the last two days sent all his officers a morale-boosting video message saying that they should continue their good work. He labels Ian Tomlinson's death a "tragedy" and notes that while the controversy goes on into the policing of G20, a Metropolitan police officer injured last weekend in a separate incident still lies in hospital fighting for his life.

While trying to allay public concern over the G20 policing, Stephenson in his private message was addressing frustration within the Met rank and file that the policing of one demonstration, out of hundreds, has so spectacularly backfired.

Some rank and file officers, particularly those experienced in public order policing, said that the latest video footage of the TSG sergeant striking a woman was being viewed out of context.

At least one public order officer pointed out that striking someone with the back of a forearm or hand was a defensive tactic all officers in those circumstances are taught to use. TSG officers are trained to the highest levels in public order, and as such attract higher levels of complaints than other officers because they are dealing with fraught, tense, difficult situations, according to a police source.

But the TSG has been involved in serious controversy in the past. A judge said last month that six TSG officers had carried out a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" attack on a terrorism suspect, Babar Ahmed, six years ago. The team of six officers involved in the attack on Ahmed, who was arrested at his home by the TSG unit, had already been at the centre of as many as 60 complaints about unwarranted assaults on black or Asian men, the Guardian has revealed.

None of the officers involved in the assault on Ahmed has been disciplined and five of them are still working in the territorial support group. The Met said at the time that the complaints were investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.

According to The Job, the force's in-house magazine, TSG officers - who can be identified by a "U" on shoulder epaulette numbers - are better known as the "tough guys and girls" of the Met.

When policing events in which disorder is foreseen, they are issued with "Nato" helmets, flame-retardant overalls, stab vests, gloves, balaclavas and boots. All carry the standard batons, pepper spray and cuffs, but are also authorised to use tasers, and firearm-trained TSG officers carry pistols or submachine guns.

TSG officers operate in units of three Mercedes vanloads, each of which comprise six constables and a sergeant.

On the day of the G20 protest their role would have been defined by the main "gold" commanders who drew up the policing operation and stated in the days before G20 that the Met were "up for it". On-the-ground decisions in what was a fluid fast-moving situation would have been made by "bronze" commanders.

The TSG was created in 1987 after the controversy over its predecessor, the special patrol group, which received a number of complaints of police brutality. These complaints culminated in the death of schoolteacher Blair Peach, who was fatally injured in April 1979 during a demonstration in Southall, west London, by the Anti-Nazi League against a National Front march.

WSWS : The “anti-terror” arrests in northwest England: what really lies behind them?

The “anti-terror” arrests in northwest England: what really lies behind them?

By Julie Hyland | April 15, 2009

One week after a series of high profile arrests, little evidence has come to light of plans for the mass terrorist atrocity that supposedly triggered the detentions.

Eleven of the 12 people rounded up on April 8—all males aged between 18 and 42 years of age—remain in custody. Under Britain’s draconian anti-terror laws terror suspects can be held for up to 28 days without charge. An 18-year-old youth, one of the 11 Pakistani nationals held, was released at the weekend, but handed over to immigration officials.

Security sources have stated that they expect few, if any, terror-related charges to result from the arrests. Raids on homes and premises in the northwest of England have so far failed to turn up any evidence of bombs, chemical explosives, weapons or ammunition. One senior security source was cited in the Guardian as stating that “nothing of huge significance” had been uncovered.

This is a far cry from the hysterical claims that originally attended the arrests. Then police sources claimed that they had thwarted a massive Al Qaeda-directed operation to launch large-scale suicide bomb attacks over the Easter holiday.

Citing information from MI6 operations targeted on Pakistan, anonymous security officials claimed there had been a high risk of an “imminent attack” that would cause “mass casualties.” Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the apparent terror plot as “very big.”

Such is the subsequent backpedalling over the alleged terrorist conspiracy that the Guardian stated, “A central mystery remains how counterterrorism officials could believe such a serious plot existed when they were unsure of seemingly basic elements of the alleged conspiracy, such as the targets.”

Indeed. The “evidence” now being presented for the existence of a terror threat appears to centre on reports that several of those detained—most of whom were in the UK on student visas—had been seen taking photographs near a Manchester shopping centre and other public venues. This behaviour, it is argued, is consistent with terrorist reconnaissance. A surveillance team also reportedly heard discussions about certain dates over the Easter holiday, prompting the arrests.

But relatives and neighbours have refuted such claims. The majority of those arrested were students living in some of the poorest areas of Merseyside. One neighbour described how several of those detained had recently staged an impromptu street celebration during heavy snowfall, playing Hindi music, dancing and encouraging others to join in. “I never had suspicions about them,” she said. “They were jolly guys, not aggressive and never any trouble.”

The father of one of those held, speaking to the media from his home in Peshawar, said his son was in his third year of computer studies in Manchester, on a visa valid until next September. “We have done nothing wrong. We have nothing to hide,” the father stated, calling offensive the lurid press accounts of his son’s alleged terror-related activities.

The uncle of another man told the Guardian that the family regularly made financial contributions to help his nephew fund his education. “He was too ambitious about his life and his studies. He was not up to any mischief. So I say to the UK government, please don’t spoil his future,” he pleaded.

Sweeping police powers

It is not the first time that warnings of an imminent terrorist catastrophe, accompanied by mass arrests, have failed to live up to their claims.

In the years since 9/11 more than 1,000 people have been arrested under anti-terrorism laws, of which less than 50 have been convicted.

So sweeping are the anti-terrorism powers that people have been detained on the flimsiest of pretexts. Earlier this month, five people in Plymouth were detained under the Terrorism Act after a young man was seen spraying graffiti. “Political literature” was reportedly found in one of the homes raided and it was claimed at the time that the five had been planning to join the G20 protests in London. Held for several days, they were all released without charge.

All the while, the hysterical atmosphere generated by such arrests has been used to further strengthen police powers and undermine democratic rights. The brutal shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005 by undercover anti-terrorist officers exposed that police had covertly adopted a shoot-to-kill policy. Less than one year later another innocent man, Mohammed Abdul Kahar, was shot by anti-terror police in a raid on his home.

In the latest sweep, Muhammad Adil, a 27-year-old Pakistani student, told how he had been eating lunch outside Liverpool John Moores University when he and a friend were surrounded by armed officers.

Special forces with telescopic machine guns instructed them to raise their hands, and forced them to the floor. Adil’s hands were tied behind his back as he lay on the ground for one hour, while police kept their guns trained on him. Taken to a police station, he was released after several hours without charge.

Simultaneously, police were carrying out similarly spectacular arrests in other locations, starting at the 5 p.m. rush-hour.

Two people were detained while working as security guards at a DIY store. A worker at the store told how 80 officers had swooped on the building, and armed police had rushed into the shop, emerging 10 minutes later with the two men.

In the Wavertree district of Liverpool, residents described how unmarked black cars had sped down the street, stopping outside a flat, and a number of men wearing black combat gear had stormed the building. Three men were brought out handcuffed from the building. In a residential area in Manchester, meanwhile, a woman told how she had heard a lot of noise and opened her door to see “four or five policemen were on top of a man. They were dragging him along the street and he had no shoes on. They shouted at me ‘get inside, get inside’. There was a policeman on each corner of the street, with machine guns.”

The G20 protests

It looks increasingly likely that the lack of evidence of terror-related activities in the latest arrests will be attributed to the fact that the police operation had to be moved forward at the last moment.

Police have already claimed that the arrests were scheduled for 2 a.m. Thursday morning, but this was hurriedly changed after Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick of the Metropolitan Police was photographed the previous day entering Downing Street.

In full view of the cameras, Quick carried a briefing paper—marked top secret—with details of the intended raids. The government had issued a “D” notice preventing publication of the photograph, but concerned that it would be published on the Internet, hundreds of police officers were quickly scrambled for the northwest raids. Quick resigned the following day.

Quick’s “gaffe” is now being blamed for compromising an otherwise promising operation.

Just why Britain’s senior anti-terror officer was seemingly unaware that he was broadcasting details of a major police operation to the media is just one of many unanswered questions.

The Times speculated April 14 that indications that no terror charges would ultimately be laid against those arrested posed “questions about how real this threat was and whether the police were trying to cover their embarrassment over Mr. Quick.”

More pertinently, it should be noted that warnings of imminent suicide bombings on a major city came just as the government and Metropolitan Police faced mounting condemnation of police actions during the G20 summit of world leaders in London, which ended April 3.

During the protests, more than 200 people were arrested, houses were raided, and thousands of people detained for hours by police in London side streets in a practice known as “kettling.”

On April 1, Ian Tomlinson—who was making his way home from work—died in one of the side streets. At the time, it was claimed that his death was from natural causes, and unrelated to police measures to contain the protestors. (See “Britain: Evidence of fatal police assault at G20 demonstration”)

But on the evening of April 7, the Guardian released video footage showing how Tomlinson had been brutally struck from behind by a riot officer, causing him to fall and hit his head on the ground. He died minutes later.

The footage exposed the degree to which police, in collusion with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, had sought to cover over allegations of police brutality during the demonstrations, and fuelled demands for an independent inquiry.

Less than 24 hours later, Britain was faced with another alleged terrorist plot and civil liberties were under further attack.

At the weekend, it was announced that plainclothes, armed police units are to be deployed on the streets of Scotland for the first time.

No official statement, let alone discussion, accompanied this unprecedented move. But the Scotsman newspaper editorialised in support of the deployment, citing the alleged northwest terror plot, which it said could have led to “blood and suffering” on the streets of Manchester.

“As we assess our readiness against a terror attack we must also decide what concessions we are willing to make in our day-to-day liberties. To say we will surrender none is unreasonable,” it claimed.

Times : Terror arrests: police granted more time for ‘al-Qaeda plot’ interviews

Terror arrests: police granted more time for ‘al-Qaeda plot’ interviews

by Russell Jenkins and Andrew Norfolk | April 15, 2009

Detectives are still questioning 11 suspects in connection with an alleged al-Qaeda terror plot a week after they were arrested in a series of armed raids in the North West.

Forensic science officers are carrying out detailed searches of nine addresses in Manchester and Liverpool but have now completed their work at the Cyber Net Cafe in Cheetham Hill Road, Greater Manchester.

Investigators are sifting through evidence teased from computer software seized at the properties.

The hunt for an alleged bomb factory took a dramatic turn on Monday when army bomb disposal experts were called in by searchers to a student flat in Highgate Street in Liverpool, but they completed their work apparently without finding anything.

Officers concede that there is still a long way to go in the investigation. So far no charges have been brought against the men. The youngest man arrested last Wednesday, an 18-year-old, has been released into the custody of the UK Borders Agency.

Police have been granted a further week to detain the men, aged from 22 to 41, who are being held at undisclosed locations around the country.

The father of one man arrested at a house on Galsworthy Avenue, a red-brick terrace in Cheetham Hill, North Manchester, has insisted that his son was not involved in any kind of terror plot. He suggested that Abid Naseer, 22, has been mistaken for a terrorist because of his appearance.

Nasrullah Jan Khattak, his father, spoke from the family home in Peshawar, Pakistan, to describe how his son travelled to Britain on a student visa about 2½ years ago to study for a masters degree in information technology.

He and his flatmates had impressed neighbours in the largely Punjabi community around Cheetham for their religious devotion. They were said to attend the al-Falah mosque five times a day.

He said: “This is all his prayers and his beard. I am his father and I know him. He is not involved in any mysterious plot. We have done nothing wrong and we have nothing to hide.”

Mr Naseer’s family joined relatives of Abdul Wahab Khan and Muhammad Ramzan who suggested that they too were among the suspects still being held.

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

The relatives said they had been unable to reach the pair since the raids began, and claimed they had learnt of the young men’s arrests through their friends.

All three families said no government officials from either country had contacted them.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police, who have worked alongside the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said: “Officers continue to thank the local authorities affected by this operation for their co-operation and support.”

Press Association : Extra time to quiz terror suspects

Extra time to quiz terror suspects

April 15, 2009

Police have been given more time to question 11 men held for an alleged terror plot.

A total of 12 men were arrested on April 8 after officers raided 14 addresses in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire.

An 18-year-old man was released without charge last week into the custody of the UK Borders Agency, which regulates immigration and can investigate the status of those entering the country.

The North West Counter Terrorism Unit was given a further seven days to question seven of the men, aged between 22 and 37, and two further days to question the other four arrested men, aged 23, 41 and two aged 26. They are being held in various locations across the country.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police, who are leading the operation, said the extensions were granted at magistrates' courts.

The spokesman said: "Officers continue to thank the local communities affected by this operation for their co-operation and support."

Six addresses are still being searched by police across Merseyside and Greater Manchester including one in Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, and two in Cedar Grove, Liverpool, the spokesman added.

Copyright © 2009 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

Times : Bogus foreign students free to flout new laws

Bogus foreign students free to flout new laws

Home Office fails to vet hundreds of colleges

April 15, 2009

Thousands of bogus students remain free to enter Britain despite new laws aimed at tightening controls on immigration. The Times has learnt that hundreds of colleges recently approved by the Home Office to accept non-EU students have not been inspected by its officers.

Weaknesses in the student visa system have emerged following the arrest of 12 terror suspects last week. Ten of the men entered this country from Pakistan on student visas.

It has also emerged that the vast majority of non-EU students will not be interviewed by the Home Office but admitted on the basis of written applications and evidence of sponsorship, educational qualifications and bank statements.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “The more we learn about the way the Government has managed our student visa system, the more question marks there are.”

John Tincey, the chairman of the Immigration Service Union, said that the failure to include interviews could be exploited by terrorists.

Under the system, universities, colleges and schools must register with the Home Office to accept students from outside the EU. They must agree to alert the Home Office if a student fails to register, stops attending classes or if a course is shortened and keep copies of the students’ passports as well as up-to-date contact addresses.

The new regime came in two weeks ago and is intended to end a scam in which thousands of foreigners enrolled at bogus colleges to work here. So far, 2,100 establishments have been registered and 400 rejected. There are 14,000 establishments on an earlier database that need to register.

Today The Times highlights the abuses under the old regime, described by the Immigration Minister as the Achilles’ heel of the system.

At one college in Manchester that claims to have more than 100 students — most of them from North West Frontier Province in Pakistan — only two turned up for classes yesterday.

An international college in London with links to Pakistani businessmen was raided by the police and the UK Border Agency in December. It was alleged that individuals attached to the college earned £5 million processing up to 2,500 fraudulent visa applications.

Liverpool Echo : Terror suspects in cricket team

Terror suspects in cricket team

by Kevin Core, Liverpool Echo | April 15, 2009

TWO men arrested in the Mersey terror raids are talented cricketers who played regularly in a local team.

Students Abdul Wahab Khan, 25 and Shoaib Khan, 27, both played for Whitefield Cricket Club, based at Court Hey Park in Roby Road, Huyton.

Club official Shahbaz Ahmed said the team was shocked to hear the pair were seized in raids across the north-west last week.

It is believed they were arrested in the block of flats where they live separately near the Royal Liverpool hospital.

Mr Ahmed said: “They are both really nice lads, really friendly and excellent cricketers.

“No-one can believe what has happened. There is just no way they are terrorists.”

Both men are originally from Pakistan.

Wahab, who is from an area 100 miles outside Islamabad, studied computing and electronics while Shoaib, who is originally from Lahore City, studied engineering. Both are thought to be at Liverpool John Moores University.

It is believed Wahab worked as a security guard to support his studies.

Mr Ahmed said: “They travelled together and I would often pick them up from the ground and take them to away matches.

“I know a few of the other lads would often go to their flat for a meal or something.

“They were very popular members of the team. Everyone is saying that what happened is unbelievable.”

He said he feared both men – who would have paid up to £10,000 for their studies – would be deported even if no charges were brought.

Mr Ahmed said: “They were always broke because they spent all of their money on studying.

“They often struggled to pay match fees and I know Wahab only worked to pay for his studies.

“They are here on legitimate visas and if they get sent home all of their hard work and time spent studying will be wasted.”

He said he never heard either man express an extremist view.

“Shoaib is a practising Muslim – he has the beard and he doesn’t drink alcohol or eat pork.

“Wahab is a Muslim like me – we don’t eat pork but we can both be persuaded into having a glass of beer. It’s not that strict.

“If either of these men were found to be involved in terrorism then I believe they should face the death penalty, I have always believed that.

“But so many people have been arrested in these circumstances in the past few years and hardly anyone has been charged.”

The North West Counter Terrorism Unit has confirmed that although bomb disposal experts had completed their searches of addresses in Liverpool, police searches were continuing.

The addresses were two locations in Cedar Grove, two in Highgate Street and one in Earle Road.

They said 11 men arrested on Wednesday, April 8, remained in custody and an 18-year-old had been released into the custody of the UK Borders Agency.

Asian Image : 'We have nothing to hide'

'We have nothing to hide'

April 15, 2009

The father of a student arrested in terror raids in the North West has told reporters his son was not involved in any “mysterious plot”.

Abid Naseer, 22, was one of 12 men held after the North West Counter Terrorism Unit targeted alleged extremists in Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire.

Speaking to reporters outside his home in Peshawar, Pakistan, the student’s father, Nasrullah Jan Khattak, said: “This is all about his prayers and his beard. I am his father and I know him.

”He is not involved in any mysterious plot. We have done nothing wrong.

”We have nothing to hide.”

Naseer came to Britain on a student visa around two-and-a-half years ago and to study a Masters Degree in information technology.

It is understood his visa is due to expire next September.

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

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

Times : Stockport Road, Manchester, where colleges for Pakistani students cluster

Stockport Road, Manchester, where colleges for Pakistani students cluster

by Andrew Norfolk and Russell Jenkins | April 15, 2009


The bustling, shabby road of kebab shops and halal butchers does not immediately suggest a natural home for the dreaming spires of British academia.

Look above the cash and carry, however, and you will find the Oxford College of Management Sciences. Near the Hajj travel agency and the Lahore lunch house is the UK College of Arts and Technology.

Around the corner are the A6 Premier College and Lincolns College. Next to the Asian grocer’s is the UK Learning Academy.

All are clustered in or near Stockport Road, a mile south of Manchester city centre, and there is no evidence to suggest that any of them are less than shining pillars of learning.

Last week’s terror raids, however, lifted a stone beneath which some Manchester colleges catering for international students were revealed in a less than creditable light.

All but one of the 11 al-Qaeda suspects who are being held in detention were Pakistani nationals who came to Britain on student visas.

At least one, Abdul Wahab Khan, 26, was registered as an English language student at the Manchester College of Professional Studies, formerly in Stockport Road, which closed after a raid by the Home Office last year. The Times disclosed yesterday that the college sold hundreds of places on fake courses to young men in the North-West Frontier Province, who were seeking entry to Britain. The two 29-year-old Pakistanis who founded and ran the college, Fayaz Ali Khan and Asfandyar Bashir, are also closely linked to a new institution, the Bradford College of Professional Studies. Its head office is in Manningham Lane, Bradford, but it also operates a campus in Manchester, which reopened yesterday after the Easter break.

In recent weeks, it has been raided several times by the UK Border Agency and once by detectives seeking to question a Pakistani student.

Syed Naqvi, who described himself as an assistant to the college’s principal administrator, gave The Times a guided tour of the establishment, which runs along a corridor on the second floor of a business park that has known happier days. He claimed to have no knowledge of Mr Bashir or Mr Khan and appeared unaware of any links between the Manchester campus and its big sister in Bradford.

Mr Naqvi said the college had been in operation since January and had more than 100 students registered. Most, he said, were from Pakistan, the majority from North-West Frontier Province.

Of those 100, only two students had arrived for morning lessons. They sat in a bare classroom receiving instruction in management accounting from a nervous Ghanaian man, Thomas Ameyaw, who said he had been teaching there for the past three weeks.

Mr Naqvi explained that the other 98 students were probably not yet back from their Easter holiday.

He was keen to stress that it was a bona fide college, which would not dream of selling bogus course admission letters to foreign students who had no intention of studying when they arrived in Britain.

Those who failed to attend the college regularly were sent up to three warning letters before being thrown off their course and reported to the Home Office, he said.

That was not the way they used to run the business around the corner at Manchester College of Professional Studies, which sold admission letters from an office in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, for £50 a head. A former associate of Mr Bashir and Mr Khan has told The Times that the vast majority of its students came nowhere near the college because they were all working full-time to earn money.

When their fictional course came to an end and their student visa was about to expire, he claims they would pay up to £1,200 for a certificate confirming their impeccable attendance record and the successful completion of their academic work. That document enabled them to extend their stay in Britain for a further three years.

“They used to make £45,000 to £50,000 a month. It was like a fish market. People were coming in, buying papers and going out again all the time,” the former associate said.

After the college was shut down, Mr Khan became a director of the new Bradford College of Professional Studies Ltd. He was also director of another company with the same address as the college’s new Manchester campus, and both he and Mr Bashir are directors of a third company with the same address as its Bradford campus.

Further inquiries by The Times suggest the existence of a web of bogus or semi-bogus colleges operating in cities including Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool and London, all interconnected through a small group of Pakistani businessmen.

One of the colleges, the Cambridge College of Learning, lost its place on the Government’s approved list of education providers after it was raided by the police and the UK Border Agency in December. The two have confirmed that they are investigating a £5 million scam involving up to 2,500 fraudulent visa applications.

The Times has been unable to contact Mr Khan or Mr Bashir. Two of their former business partners are said to have fled to Nigeria and Pakistan. Another is said to be living in the North West of England as an asylum seeker, under an assumed name.

The Times has now visited several British colleges catering for international students. They have smart websites but are far less impressive in reality. Each features the same empty classrooms, the same bored secretaries and the same certificates pinned to the wall, boasting of their acceptance as tuition providers by obscure accreditation bodies. It is a small world.

In most cases, they face no allegations of impropriety. There is no suggestion that any were aware that the laxness of Britain’s student visa system would potentially prove attractive to suspected terrorists.

Yesterday two students studying at the Bradford College of Professional Studies Manchester campus insisted they were genuine students on proper courses. Abdul Kamal Khan, 28, said he came to Britain in 2006 on a student visa from his home near Peshawar. He claimed to be paying £3,500 a year to study for a diploma leading to a degree course in information technology. “It is a good college and I am trying to be a good student,” he said.

Many international students are as dutiful as Abdul Kamal Khan. Some exploit the student visa system to find full-time work in Britain. What no one knows is whether a few of them were planning to blow the system apart.

Liverpool Echo : Liverpool terror arrest: Friend’s plea for arrested suspect

Liverpool terror arrest: Friend’s plea for arrested suspect

April 14, 2009

A FRIEND of a Liverpool student arrested in raids on suspected terrorists today insisted he is innocent.

The Nigerian student, who only gave his name as Jamil, said Janas Khan, 25, and another student had been caught up in the raids because he had broken the terms of his visa.

It comes following a day of turmoil for city residents evacuated from their homes in Highgate Street, Edge Hill, yesterday after searches led to bomb disposal experts being called in.

No device has been found and police have now concluded their search of the property.

Residents said chemicals were mentioned by officers leading them from their homes which they finally returned to at 8.45pm.

Today Jamil told the ECHO: “We are studying for an international Masters in business management at Liverpool Hope University.

“We attended lectures and there was nothing to suggest in any way that they were terrorists.

“I have known them personally as friends, they will be acquitted.

“They lived together and were looking for a second hand car for their jobs as security guards.”

He said he believed they had been arrested by police because they were unable to find them at the time of checking their visas. Khan was one of several men understood to be staying at a £115,000 flat in Wavertree thought to be owned by Mohammed Benhammedi.

Property tycoon Benhammedi has been identified by the US as a “key financier” for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organisation described as being part of the “wider Al-Qaeda associated movement”.

During his time in the UK, Khan was working for a company that provided security for Liverpool and England footballers. Khan resigned from his job, but signed on with another company to work as a security guard at a new Homebase which opened in Clitheroe last week.

He was among 12 men arrested in the North West, including John Moores University student Mohammad Ramzan, 25 and Abdul Wahab Khan.

After being ordered to evacuate Highgate Street at around 2.30pm residents were allowed to return six hours later.

Mother-of-four Ann-Marie Bennett, 32, said: “I can understand that they don’t want to give a lot of information out but we had children with us and we were not told anything.”

MET : UK wants Pakistan to help arrest dead al-Qaeda terrorist

UK wants Pakistan to help arrest dead al-Qaeda terrorist

Amir Mir | April 14, 2009

LAHORE: The British authorities have sought intelligence cooperation from the Pakistani agencies for the arrest and extradition of Rashid Rauf, an alleged al-Qaeda linked British national of Pakistani origin and the in charge of the outfit’s external operations’ branch responsible for attacks in Europe, despite the fact that he is reported to have been killed in an American predator air strike in North Waziristan in November 2008.

According to well informed diplomatic sources in Islamabad, the British demand has been conveyed to the Pakistani authorities through non-diplomatic channels, saying the previous assessment that Rashid Rauf had been killed in a November 2008 predator attack in North Waziristan has now been revised keeping in view credible information which has come to surface recently. The British authorities have told their Pakistan counterparts that a key al-Qaeda operative detained in Belgium recently has claimed that Rashid Rauf had trained him and dispatched him to Brussels to conduct a suicide attack during a meeting of the European leaders.

The al-Qaeda operative has reportedly disclosed that Rashid had plotted terrorist attacks in Belgium, France, Holland and England. While seeking intelligence sharing and cooperation from the Pakistani agencies, the British authorities have reportedly described Rashid as al-Qaeda’s director of operations in Europe. He has been accused of forming multiple cells, comprising 12 terrorists each, which had been dispatched last year from the Pakistani tribal areas to conduct a series of bomb attacks in the major cities of several European countries. The British authorities believe that these terror cells have been acting under the direct orders of Rashid Rauf who had apparently survived unhurt in the November 2008 missile attack.

It was on the basis of this intelligence information that the British authorities had recently arrested 12 people, including 11 Pakistanis on student visas, in raids on Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire. These students have been detained after protracted surveillance by the British authorities during which their homes were bugged, their telephones calls were intercepted and they were followed day and night by officers from Mi5’s A4 surveillance division. All those arrested are being probed for their alleged involvement in a failed terror plot to bomb several major shopping centres in Manchester over Easter.

Approached for comments, an interior ministry official in Islamabad confirmed that the British authorities want intelligence sharing and other such cooperation from their Pakistani counterparts to get hold of all those who have been involved in a possible terror plot aimed at targeting Britain. However, the official doubted the authenticity of the British intelligence information about Rashid Rauf having escaped the November 2008 missile strike in North Waziristan. When reminded that the al-Qaeda operative arrested by the British authorities from Belgium has claimed being trained and dispatched to Brussels by Rashid to conduct a suicide attack, the interior ministry official maintained that the terror plot might have been set in motion before the American predator strike had targeted Rashid in North Waziristan.

Rashid Rauf was reported killed on November 22, 2008 after a missile fired from a CIA predator drone destroyed a mud-built bungalow in Alikhel village of the North Waziristan tribal agency. The house targeted by the missiles belonged to Khaliq Noor who had rented it out to some Pakistani militants a few weeks ago. However, their location had been betrayed, either by their own use of a mobile telephone, or by the spies tracking them. A day after the strike, the US authorities claimed that five people were killed in the attack, including two prominent al-Qaeda figures, Abu Nasr Al Misri and Abu Zubair Al Masri. The Americans had claimed at the time that the attack was aimed at these al-Qaeda men instead of Rashid Rauf. The American CIA and the British MI6 subsequently touted Rashid Rauf’s reported death to international media as evidence of the effectiveness of the US Predator strike program in Pakistan.

Interestingly, shortly after the November 2009 predator strike in Waziristan and the subsequent American claims about the death of Rashid Rauf, his family members as well as his lawyer had claimed that he was still alive. Describing media reports about the killing of Rashid as fake, his lawyer Hashmat Ali Habib told BBC radio on November 25, 2008: “We don’t believe that this story is true. It is a fake story. We still believe that my client, Rashid Rauf, is alive.” He had noted at the time that his requests for Rauf’s body to be returned to his family had not been answered. “This is a new technique of the government to dispose of the cases like Rashid or other missing people”, he had stated.

As a matter of fact, Rashid Rauf, a close relative of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, was wanted by the British authorities for being a central figure in an August 2006 plot to blow up some US-bound trans-Atlantic airplanes. According to the information the British authorities had provided to Pakistan while seeking his arrest in 2006, Rashid Rauf was born in Mirpur and he went to England in 1981 when he was hardly one year old. He returned to Pakistan in 2002 while carrying dual nationality of both Pakistan and Britain. The frequent use of text messages to Britain by Rauf, who left England after the April 2002 murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed, actually led to his arrest from Pakistan. Rauf’s arrest triggered the British authorities to launch a series of drone raids which netted 24 suspects across the UK. Rashid’s younger brother Tayib Rauf, 22, was among those arrested in raids on homes in Birmingham, England.

Rashid was subsequently arrested in Pakistan on August 9, 2006 after a tip-off from British anti-terrorism authorities, days before a series of August 2006 raids and arrests in Britain of men accused of conspiring to smuggle liquid bombs on board a series of Atlantic flights. Rashid was arrested from a Jaish-e-Mohammad run religious seminary – Jamia Dar-ul-Uloom Madnia, located at Model Town B Block area of Bahawalpur and being run by his in-laws. However, he had fled from the police custody on December 15, 2007 from F-8 Markaz, which is located in the heart of Islamabad while being taken back to the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after a court hearing. A subsequent inquiry had pointed out ‘inside help’ in his dramatic escape from the police custody.

The authorities subsequently arrested from Bahawalpur two of the five younger brothers of Masood Azhar and two of his six brothers-in-law. The arrests were made because of the fact that Rashid was the brother in law of one of Masood Azhar’s younger brother, Mohammad Tahir. Following the arrest of his two sons and two sons in law, Hafiz Allah Bukhsh, the father of Maulana Masood Azhar, reportedly told newsmen people in Bahawalpur that Rashid was a member of the Jaish but left it to join the rivals who were more interested in promoting al-Qaeda’s anti-Western agenda. “He was member of our group but later he deserted and joined Jamaatul Furqaan, led by a Jaish dissident, Maulana Abdul Jabbar,” Allah Bukhsh said at the Jaish headquarters in Bahawalpur in December 2007.

On August 17, 2007, a senior Pakistani official said in Islamabad that the British airport terror plot was sanctioned by Dr Ayman Zawahiri and that Rashid was the planner of the attacks. However, on December 13, 2006, the terrorism charges on Rashid were dropped as an anti terrorist court in Rawalpindi ruled there was no evidence of him being involved in planning any terrorist activity. Two days later, on December 15, 2007, as pressure mounted from the British government for his extradition, Rashid Rauf mysteriously escaped from the police custody. Almost nine months later, he was reported to have been killed in a US air strike.

amir.mir1969@gmail.com

Telegraph : Father of terror suspect accuses Britain of discrimination

Father of terror suspect accuses Britain of discrimination

The father of a suspect in the alleged Easter bomb plot to blow up shopping centres claimed his son is a victim of discrimination in Britain.

By Nick Allen, Duncan Gardham and Isambard Wilkinson | April 14, 2009

Abid Naseer, 23, is among 11 men still being questioned after a series of police raids in Manchester and Liverpool last week. Ten of the suspects are Pakistani nationals

His father Nasrullah Jan Khattak said: “My son prays five times a day and his only fault is that he has a beard. His only sin is that he is Muslim and Pakistani.

“I'm astonished how they could think that Abid has links with militant or terrorist groups. We are never involved in such activities. We only think about education and prayers and fasting and that's it.

“Ours is a religious-minded family but this doesn't mean that my son is part of a terrorist cell. He is peaceful, religious-minded and cricket-loving person.”

Mr Khattak, a contractor for the Pakistan government, was speaking at his home in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province.

The Daily Telegraph understands that at least five of those being questioned are from the North-West Frontier Province, close to the Afghan border.

It is also understood that four of the suspects – Abid Naseer, Janas Khan, Umar Farooq and Hamza Shinwari - worked as security guards.

Mr Khattak said his son studied at the Islamia College in Peshawar before going to the UK on a student visa two-and-a-half years ago. The visa was due to expire in September this year.

He was studying for a master’s degree in information technology at Bradford Professional Study College, based in Manchester.

The college is based in a suite of offices on the top floor of a Manchester business park.

College spokesman Syed Naqui told the Daily Telegraph: “This is a genuine college. If anyone applies for one of our courses we check their passport, their qualifications and their right to be in this country. If they meet all our requirements we enroll them.”

The North West counter terrorism unit are still searching 10 properties in Liverpool, the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester, and in Clitheroe, Lancashire.

They have not found any explosives or identified a clear target for the alleged bomb plot.

Officers have found images of Manchester’s Arndale and Trafford shopping centres, the Birdcage nightclub and St Ann's Square, it is understood. One man, aged 18, has been released into the hands of immigration officials and will be deported.

In Pakistan Khan Mohammad Burki, whose son Abdul Wahab is one of those still being questioned, said: “This is nothing but discrimination. My son has been detained on mere suspicion as the police have no proof against him."

Haji Hazrat Ali said his son Mohammad Ramzan, 25, traveled to Britain in 2006 and was studying for an masters in business administration when he was arrested.

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."

BBC : Bomb squad at terror search home

Bomb squad at terror search home

April 14, 2009

Officers from the North West's counter-terrorism unit have called in army bomb disposal experts to a building on Merseyside as a precaution.

A cordon has been set up around Highgate Street in the Wavertree area of Liverpool, and several homes were evacuated for a few hours on Monday.

The address is one of 12 searched as part of the anti-terror inquiry in north-west England.

Police are still questioning 11 people arrested during the investigation.

Another man, 18, who had been held by counter-terror officers, has been released to the UK Border Agency and is expected to be deported.

A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said: "At this stage the experts have been called in as a precaution.

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

Police have so far found no evidence of any explosives since raiding the properties in Manchester, Liverpool and Clitheroe in Lancashire, last Wednesday as part of a suspected bomb plot.

Officers discovered pictures of popular Manchester shopping centres and a nightclub, sources told the BBC.

They were named as the Arndale and Trafford Centre shopping complexes, Birdcage nightclub and St Ann's Square.

However, senior police have insisted that no specific targets have been identified.

The Peninsula : Families worry for students held in UK

Families worry for students held in UK

April 14, 2009

PESHAWAR: The families of three Pakistani students arrested in UK on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist plot have stepped forward in three cities of NWFP and declared that the detained men were innocent.

Nasrullah Khattak, the father of Abid Naseer who was named in sections of the British media as the ringleader of the group of 11 Pakistanis detained in northwest England last Wednesday, said yesterday that his son had no link with militants and terrorists. “My son has a beard and prays five times a day. Ours is a religious-minded family but this doesn’t mean that my son is part of a terrorist cell,” he stressed. Khattak said the British media had wrongly reported that Abid Naseer belonged to the tribal areas.

“We belong to Karak district [in North West Frontier Province] but I shifted to Peshawar in 1987 and started doing business as a property dealer, government contractor and builder,” he explained. He said his son had studied at the Islamia College, Peshawar and was a good cricketer.

He said Abid Naseer went to England two years ago to acquire a degree in IT from a university in Manchester. “His student visa was going to expire in September 2009.

Daily Times : ‘Manchester terror plot’ suspect’s picture released

‘Manchester terror plot’ suspect’s picture released

Daily Times Monitor | April 14, 2009

Lahore: Daily Telegraph has released a picture of one of the Pakistani students arrested as part of an alleged Easter bomb plot in Manchester along with the information that he stayed at a residence owned by a terrorism-finance suspect.

Janas Khan, 25, a student at Hope University in Liverpool, had moonlighted as a security guard. He worked for £6 an hour at building sites around Liverpool until his cousin was deported for alleged visa violations in January. Khan studied for a degree designed to prepare students for medical school at the Government Superior Science College, Peshawar. Haroon Khan who had employed him, said: “He is very slight, not a big guy at all. We have a gym here but he never used it... He was a very clever lad but a bit of a loner, always looking for attention or company.”

After he resigned from this job he signed on with another company that employed him to act as a security guard at a new Homebase that opened in Clitheroe, Lancashire last week. The place is close to a chemical plant that the police suspect was being scouted as a potential target. MI5 observed the suspects filming themselves outside shopping malls in Manchester and they also visited a number of second-hand car dealerships.

Khan is thought to have stayed at a flat raided in Earle Road in Wavertree, Liverpool.

Daily Times : UK to deport ‘terror plot suspects’

UK to deport ‘terror plot suspects’

Daily Times Monitor | April 14, 2009

LAHORE: Lacking evidence needed to prosecute most of the Pakistani men arrested last week on suspicion of a terrorist plot, Britain has started seeking assurances that they would be treated humanely if they are returned to Pakistan.

“The British wanted to be reassured that if some of these men were deported they would not face torture,” a Pakistani official told The Times newspaper.

Senior counter-terrorism sources in Britain told the paper most of them would be deported rather than charged.

One of the 12 has already been freed from anti-terrorist detention and is in the custody of immigration officials.

Investigators have not found firm evidence linking the men to terrorist attack plans. “There is already talk of coming up empty-handed and there is terrible infighting between the different forces involved,” an official said.

Mere deportations will embarrass the prime minister who announced police were dealing with “a very big terrorist plot”.

Meanwhile anti-terrorist agencies in Pakistan are holding a British convert to Islam. James McLintock, 44, was arrested in Peshawar and is being questioned about helping British Muslim militants to make contacts in Pakistan.

Pakistani as well as British officials have said that the arrest is not linked to the continuing terrorism investigation in Britain. The last time McLintock came to the attention of the British authorities was in late 2003 when he was questioned by anti-terrorism police in Manchester.

The News : Pakistan seeks details on British terror plot suspects

Pakistan seeks details on British terror plot suspects

April 14, 2009

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has asked Britain to provide complete details of Pakistani nationals arrested there over an alleged terror plot.

According to British newspaper, Pakistani officials asked British officials to provide names and addresses of 11 detained Pakistani students who were arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in a "major terrorist plot" linked to Al-Qaeda.

Pakistani High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan told British paper that Pakistan will protect the rights of arrested Pakistanis and proceedings will be carry out in accordance with Pakistani law.

Telegraph : Terror suspect was enrolled at college shut down by Home Office

Terror suspect was enrolled at college shut down by Home Office

A suspect in the alleged Easter bomb plot to blow up shopping centres was enrolled as a student at a college which had allowed hundreds of Pakistani men to enter the UK on student visas.

By Nick Allen and Nigel Bunyan | April 14, 2009

Manchester College of Professional Studies shut down last July after being raided by the Home Office which had picked up "irregularities" in the way it was run.

During the two years it operated the college allowed foreigners to pay for a letter of admission which enabled them to get a student visa.

One of its students was Abdul Wahab Khan, 26, who is among 10 Pakistani nationals still being questioned after a series of raids by anti-terrorist police last week in the North West.

Police made the arrests after intercepting information which led them to suspect that a group from Pakistan was close to launching attacks.

Khan carried a student card saying he was an English language student at the college until April last year.

The Manchester site where the college used to be located is now occupied by another educational establishment, A6 Premier College, which has no connection to its predecessor.

A6 owner Mohammed Rizwan Khan, who is Indian not Pakistani, told the Daily Telegraph: "I signed a lease here in September 2008 and I had no idea what had been going on before.

"We only have a small number of students. They had 2,600 students on the database but this premises could not cater for more than a maximum of 150. It's to make money. People sell papers and when they get closed down they go off and set up another college."

There was no suggestion that the defunct college was knowingly helping terrorist suspects into the UK.

Bogus colleges have become a major loophole in Britain's immigration laws. Many are set up in small offices with websites boasting of world-class qualifications for international students.

In reality, they allow foreigners to enter the country on student visas and move into low-paid, often cash-in-hand employment.

The Government has cracked down on them in recent years, denying licences to nearly 500 would-be colleges. However, Home Office officials believe up to 2,000 with little or no educational value are still operating.

To get a student visa foreign nationals only have to prove they are accepted by one of the licensed colleges, that they are qualified for the course and have funds to pay the fees.

There is only a voluntary scheme for colleges themselves to alert the UK Border Agency if foreign students fail to attend their courses after arriving in the country.

In the last four years around 42,000 student visas were granted to Pakistani nationals.

A second suspect in the alleged Easter bomb plot, Abid Naseer, was enrolled a different college in Manchester called Bradford College of Professional Studies, according to his father in Peshawar.

Nasrullah Jan Khattak said his son was studying for a masters in information technology there.

The college is based in a suite of offices on the top floor of a Manchester business park and has a certificate of accreditation from the Association of Business Executives in its reception.

It offers courses including a one-year advanced diploma in business management costing £3,000.

On its website it advises overseas students that the British Government allows them to work for 20 hours a week in term time and full time in the holidays.

College spokesman Syed Naqui told the Daily Telegraph: "This is a genuine college. It has nothing to do with the one that closed down.

"If anyone applies for one of our courses we check their passport, their qualifications and their right to be in this country. If they meet all our requirements we enroll them. We check with the Home Office and we check their original passport, not a copy."

Because of the long Easter break Mr Naqui could not confirm whether Abid Naseer was currently enrolled at the college.

An investigation has been launched into the colleges some of the suspects used to get their student visas, including the Manchester College of Professional Studies and Bradford College of Professional Studies.

Both the Home Office and the UK Border Agency, which is responsible for controlling migration, said they could not discuss the "ongoing investigation".

But a spokesman for the UK Border Agency added: “We take allegations about colleges and their alleged involvement in abuse very seriously. Those found to be abusing the system can face up to 14 years imprisonment.

“We think it is fair that those that benefit from the contribution made by foreign students also take responsibility for ensuring they play by the rules."

Daily Times : Terror suspect's father says Islamophobia to blame for son's arrest

Terror suspect's father says Islamophobia to blame for son's arrest

* Intelligence official dismisses reports linking the arrests in Britain to Rashid Rauf

zakir hassnain | daily times monitor | April 14, 2009

PESHAWAR: My son Abid Naseer has no link with any jihadi or religious organisation. His only crime is that he is a Pakistani Muslim, Nasrullah Jan Khattak, father of a Pakistani student arrested by the British police, said on Monday.

“My son prays five times a day and his only fault is that he wears a beard,” said Khattak while talking to reporters at his Hayatabad residence. The British officials arrested 12 men on April 8 of which 11 are Pakistanis. Abid hails from Yaghi Ghulam Khel, a village in Takht-e-Nusrati tehsil in southern district of Karak. Abid went to Britain on a student visa around two-and-a-half years ago and his visa expires in September this year. Abid is doing master’s in information technology at Bradford Professional Study College, Manchester.

Nasrullah, a government contractor, said the Pakistan government had not taken any measures for the release of the students. He requested the British government not to deport his son, who he insisted was innocent.

"This is all about his prayers and his beard. I am his father and I know him. He is not involved in any mysterious plot. We have done nothing wrong. We have nothing to hide," he told the Guardian in an interview in Pakistan. He denied media reports that his family had come from the Tribal Areas, where Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud holds sway and said they hail from Karak. "This is a great offence," Nasrullah said. "We are from an old district, with educated people. Not the tribal belt."

Meanwhile, the uncle of another suspect, told the Guardian that he and other relatives had regularly sent their nephew between £800 to £3,000 to help pay for his studies.

"He was too ambitious about his life and his studies. He was not up to any mischief. So I say to the UK government, please don't spoil his future," he said. Rahimullah Yousafzai, a veteran journalist, said: "Maybe some careless conversation or act has landed them in trouble. A few of them may be involved in this case, but I don't think it's a real terrorist plot."

Intelligence: A Pakistani intelligence official said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had no involvement in the case prior to last week's raids. He dismissed reports linking the arrests to Rashid Rauf, a British-Pakistani implicated in a previous alleged plot and believed killed in an American drone strike. Muhammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramazan Foundation, a Muslim youth organisation in Manchester, appealed for the local community to stay calm.

Daily Times : Dead men plotting terror?

Dead men plotting terror?

UK officials believe foiled attack was planned by Rashid Rauf

Daily Times Monitor | April 13, 2009

WASHINGTON: How could Rashid Rauf, a “high value” Al Qaeda target, be plotting terrorist attacks in Britain in April 2009 – as claimed by the British authorities – if he was killed months ago in a famous drone strike in Waziristan, as US officials claimed, in November 2008, the Nesweek magazine is asking.

According to one UK expert, some British investigators as well as Rauf’s family think that he may have survived.

Rauf, a former British resident, was allegedly a central figure in an August 2006 plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners. The plot was foiled after Rauf was arrested in Pakistan. But in December 2007, he escaped from custody. US officials suspected ‘inside’ help and the White House was delighted when a Predator operation supposedly took him out. Soon afterwards, however, Rauf’s Pakistani lawyer asked authorities to produce the body which they were apparently unable to do.

US officials talking to the Newsweek said US agencies still believed Rauf was killed in the strike.

“While it is not 100 percent confirmed,” said one of the officials, “there are good reasons to believe Rashid Rauf is dead.”

“And even if he’s dead,” the magazine says, “US and UK officials said it’s possible the Easter plot was hatched prior to November 2008 — meaning that Rauf’s reach may extend beyond the grave.”

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

LIverpool Echo : Liverpool street at centre of alleged terrorist plot evacuated

Liverpool street at centre of alleged terrorist plot evacuated

Helen Hunt | April 13, 2009

A LIVERPOOL street at the centre of a terrorist plot was evacuated today.

Resident of Highgate Street, Wavertree, and a few surrounding streets were told to leave their home this afternoon.

People in the area said the order came after police sniffer dogs had been sent into a house that was being searched in the aftermath of the alleged failed Easter bomb plot.

One man said: “The police came knocking on our door and nobody is now being allowed into the street.

“They haven’t said how long we are going to be out for.”

Bomb disposal experts are now at the scene.

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