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Soddies passed intel on to the UK concerning 7/7
Specific details of a plot to bomb the London Underground involving a terror cell of four people were passed to MI6 last December, raising fresh questions about whether the 7 July atrocity could have been averted.The plot involved a Saudi Islamic militant who fought with insurgents in Iraq and was financed by a Libyan businessman with links to Islamic extremists in the UK. Highly-placed Saudi security sources have passed to The Observer details of the plot to bomb the tube in the first six months of 2005. The news coincides with the release of a video of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the suspected ringleader of the 7 July cell, giving the first indication of a direct link to al-Qaeda, which originated in Saudi Arabia. In the video, Khan praises Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Saudi intelligence claim they passed the information to the British authorities in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Details were also given to the CIA and FBI. British and US intelligence are understood to be trying to trace the businessman. Saudi authorities claim they obtained the information after a Saudi militant was arrested returning to the Gulf kingdom from Iraq, where he was fighting with insurgents. He was held after arriving with a false passport in the name of a fellow Saudi jihadi known to have been killed in Iraq. The Saudis claim that during his interrogation the militant told them he was on a mission to fund a plot to target the Underground or a London night club within six months. He handed over a Syrian telephone number that he had been given in Iraq, which he said was for the contact who would give him orders. He described the main 'disperser' of funds to Islamic extremists in Britain as a Libyan businessman, who is the subject of an international intelligence operation. His current whereabouts are unknown, but he is understood to have been in Britain recently. While the militant did not provide names of any potential British terrorists or an exact date, Saudi intelligence believe the details should have alerted the security forces to an imminent attack. A Saudi source told The Observer: 'When we heard about the bombs in London we immediately recalled the warning we had given Britain - in particular the fact that four individuals carried out the attack and that it happened almost in the timescale we were told about.' The revelation will raise serious questions about the decision to lower the threat level to Britain just three weeks before the London attacks. It will also heighten fears that the network funding Islamic extremists in Britain is directly linked to elements in the Iraqi insurgency movement. UK security sources have questioned the Saudi briefings, insisting they were given no specific information relating to an attack on 7 July or the individuals involved. Some believe the briefings are part of a Saudi back-covering exercise in case the British investigation eventually proves a direct link to al-Qaeda. The Observer understands that the focus of the investigation has shifted back to Pakistan and the possibility that cell members were radicalised during trips to visit family and friends. Khan is thought to have been in Pakistan from December 2004 until early 2005. Investigators are thought to be looking closely at possible links to a summit held by al-Qaeda in the tribal territories of Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan in March 2004. The meeting is alleged to have drawn up a list of future targets. Meanwhile, investigators are looking closely at the outdoor pursuits activities of the bombers and their associates in the months leading up to the attacks. It has been widely reported that two members of the cell, Khan and Shahzad Tanweer, attended an adventure centre at Canolfan Tryweryn, North Wales in June 2005. Now French intelligence officers working on the case have discovered that one associate on the white-water rafting trip with Khan and Tanweer also organised a walking and mountain-biking trip to Chamonix in the French Alps in April 2005. Detectives are still undecided about the nature of the trips, but are investigating if they were some kind of bonding exercise for the cell. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-09-04 |
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