Daily Mail : Bomb plot traced back to Al Qaeda

Bomb plot traced back to Al Qaeda

Rashid Rauf is the link between the plot's planners and British-based Muslims, according to intelligence officials

By STEPHEN WRIGHT and DAVID WILLIAMS | August 12, 2006

A Briton held in Pakistan has been named as a key suspect in the airline bomb plot as links to Al Qaeda were revealed.

Pakistani intelligence officers say Rashid Rauf is the link between the plot's planners and British-based Muslims who were allegedly preparing to carry out attacks on transatlantic flights.

Rauf, 25, is the brother of one of 24 suspects arrested by Scotland Yard antiterror officers in raids across Britain.

Details of his arrest in the Pakistani port city of Karachi came as U.S. intelligence officials disclosed the plot had been masterminded by Matiur Rehman, an Al Qaeda commander said to have personally overseen the training of young British radicals.

It was unclear whether 29-year-old Rehman, who was known to be planning an atrocity to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, was among nine people held in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials said there was evidence Britons had been trained in Karachi in the use of explosives and that large sums of money had been transferred from the city to the bank accounts of suspects in Britain. They also suggested a link to Afghanistan where Al Qaeda used to be based.

Investigators would not say how long Rauf had been in Pakistan, where he is thought to have visited an area in which Rehman is known to have operated, in the tribal heartland of Al Qaeda.

Rauf, one of two Britons arrested in Pakistan, is said to have been absent from the family's Birmingham home since a relative's murder four years ago.

His brother Tayib is among 19 of the arrested terror suspects whose assets have been frozen by the Bank of England, acting under powers granted by the UN to tackle terrorism funding in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.

Some of those arrested at homes in Birmingham, High Wycombe and London are said to have recently received large sums of money to buy airline tickets so they could blow up jets over five U.S. cities.

Details of Al Qaeda links emerged as:

• The UK security threat level remained critical

• Chemicals and materials thought to be for bomb-making were found in at least one of the raided homes

• Anti-terror detectives continued to question the 24 suspects, aged 17 to 35

• It emerged that three of those being held recently converted to Islam

• U.S. intelligence said at least five people were being hunted over the plot

• Delays continued at British airports as a result of new security measures.

• A radical leader held in Pakistan over the plot was linked to a 7/7 bomber.

Police believe the alleged plot involved smuggling bomb components on board jets hidden in hand luggage. The devices would have been disguised as drinks and reportedly would have used triacetone triperoxide - TATP - known as the 'Mother of Satan' by terrorists.

The substance was used by the bombers who attacked London on July 7 last year - one of several emerging similarities between the plots.

At least two members of the July 7 attacks were British-born Muslims who trained in Pakistan in bomb-making and met Al Qaeda operatives.

Further claims of a possible link to Osama Bin Laden's terror network came from U.S. President George Bush's Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend.

She said the plot had 'all the hallmarks' of Al Qaeda and that potential links were being examined.

She added: 'The plotters intended this to be a second September 11.

'It's a frightening example of multiple simultaneous attacks for explosions of planes that would have caused the deaths of thousands.'

Most of those under arrest are of Asian origin but at least three are converts to Islam and several came from comfortable middle-class backgrounds.

One of the suspects was Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, from High Wycombe, who changed his name to Abdul Waheed after converting to Islam.

Home Secretary John Reid repeated yesterday he believed the main suspects were in custody but said it was right to 'err on the side of caution'.

Neither Mr Reid nor Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander held out any immediate prospect of a lifting of stringent security measures introduced at airports.

Mr Alexander said the measures, which include a ban on all hand baggage, would remain in place 'only as long as the situation demands'.

Police, who now believe seven planes were to be attacked, are seeking to establish who recruited, groomed and radicalised the Britons.

Investigators have been told that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to have been an influence on the young Muslims.

British authorities agree with U.S. intelligence that Rehman was involved.

He first emerged as an Al Qaeda commander last March as President Bush was about to make his first visit to Karachi.

Pakistani intelligence agents said then that they believed Rehman was in the early stages of planning a major attack on Britain and the U.S.

Rehman was known to be a vital link between Al Qaeda chiefs and militant Islamists in tribal areas, and Pakistan offered a 10million rupee reward - about £90,000 - for his capture.

Pakistani officials said Rehman had helped train thousands of fellow Pakistani militants at Al Qaeda camps in the late Nineties, with militants from Africa and the Arab world.

Meanwhile, Tony Douglas, chief executive of the airport operator BAA, said the restrictions at British airports would remain in force for 'some time'.

He added: 'Until the Department for Transport and British Government revise the status of the security problem, we will be maintaining working to these security precautions.'

He warned this weekend was likely to be busy and urged people to check with their airlines before travelling.

Voice of America : Pakistan Names Rashid Rauf as Main Suspect in Foiled Terror Plot

Pakistan Names Rashid Rauf as Main Suspect in Foiled Terror Plot

By VOA News | 11 August 2006

Pakistan has disclosed the name of one of the two British nationals of Pakistani descent arrested in connection to the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners from Britain.

A foreign ministry statement says Rashid Rauf is the main suspect in the foiled bomb plot and there are indications he has al-Qaida connections.

Pakistani officials say the two Britons were arrested last week in the cities of Karachi and Lahore. The officials say the suspects provided crucial information about the plans and that the information was passed on to British and U.S. intelligence.

On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the arrests were coordinated with British and American officials.

Pakistani investigators are still establishing the identities of the other five people arrested, but they say those suspects appear to be less important and just facilitators.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao told VOA Pakistan's key role in uncovering the alleged plot is part of its anti-terrorism policy and Pakistan is not doing it under foreign pressure. He said Pakistan will continue to help the international community in fighting terrorism.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.

Daily Mail : Britons arrested in Pakistan 'have Al Qaeda connections'

Britons arrested in Pakistan 'have Al Qaeda connections'

18:15pm 11th August 2006

There is evidence of an Al Qaeda connection to the plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US, it has been revealed.

Pakistani officials said there are indications of an 'Afghanistan-based Al Qaeda connection' to the planned attacks, naming Rashid Rauf as one of the two British nationals arrested in connection with the plot last week. Five other suspects were also detained.

In a statement, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said arrests made in Pakistan had triggered arrests in Britain on the night of August 9 and 10. It named British national Rashid Rauf, who was arrested in Pakistan, as a "key person" in the alleged plot.

The statement said the arrests underscored "the very important role that has been played by Pakistan in breaking this international terrorist network."

It said there were "indications of Afghanistan-based al-Qaida connection" in the case, but did not elaborate further.

Pakistani investigators were still establishing the identities of the other five people arrested.

Pakistan said the plot was thwarted after active co-ordination between Pakistani, British and US intelligence agencies, leading to the arrest of 24 people in Britain.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said, Pakistani citizens were not involved in the plot. Adding the suspects "had been monitored for quite some time" before they were arrested.

'Days from attack'

Suspected suicide bombers were just days from simultaneous attacks on aircraft flying from Britain to the United States, in what one British official said could have been "mass murder on an unimaginable scale". The plot bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, some security analysts said.

There were similarities to the September 11, 2001 hijacking of US airliners for the attacks on New York and Washington and "Operation Bojinka", a plan never carried out, to blow up passenger planes over the Pacific Ocean in 1995. Those conspiracies were hatched by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the Al Qaeda operations planner arrested in Pakistan in 2003.

Several Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in Pakistan or across the border in Afghanistan, and their network has forged links with some Pakistani groups.

At least two of the British Muslims involved in the bomb attacks on London underground trains and a bus that killed 52 people in July last year had visited Pakistan months earlier, raising suspicions they had ties to militants in the country.