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Britain
Fake passports found at Heathrow
2005-08-01
LONDON: A bag stuffed with bogus passports, documents and bank cards was found abandoned at London’s Heathrow Airport, a newspaper said yesterday. The News of the World called the find a ‘potential terrorist goldmine’ and said anti-terrorist officers were urgently probing the discovery. The bag was spotted by a taxi driver on a verge near London’s main airport on Thursday. The paper said the fear was that the bag could have been meant to aid further bombers enter and exit the country.

The 19 passports inside were for Pakistani, British, Indian, Nepalese and South African nationals. The newspaper said pictures of the same men appear on different passports in different names. Many passports had fake visas in different shades of ink from genuine documents. The holdall, bearing a tag of a Middle East airline, contained a letter written to a man in Dewsbury, - home to July 7, London suicide bomber Mohamed Sidique Khan. Other documents were linked to nearby Leeds, where two other July 7, suicide bombers hailed from, and north London, another area involved in anti-terror investigations. An interior ministry source told the weekly: “The holdall could be quite a significant discovery. Somebody must have really panicked to have thrown away so much potential evidence.”
My guess, somebody was leaving town in a hurry. Grabbed the bag of phoney documents, took what he/she needed and dumped the rest to avoid them being found during a baggage search.

Posted by:Steve

#12  The al-Kaboomis are our generic terrorist family. When somebody turns out not to be who we thought he was, he's just some guy named Herb...
Posted by: Fred   2005-08-01 23:08  

#11  Every time I start to whine about cartoon net's nutty collection of zooom in, zoooooom out, move side to side, mouth move only animation, I think of Quick Draw McGraw and hold my tongue.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-08-01 21:35  

#10  Blush, thanks J
Posted by: Jan   2005-08-01 21:17  

#9  Jan:
Those are from the Rantburg regulars' stock photo collection. They have nothing to do with a particular case.

Al-Kaboom is as real as El Kabong.
Posted by: Jackal   2005-08-01 21:06  

#8  This is just nuts, the name they chose for the visa, "Al-Kaboomi".
This is a joke right? Found by a taxi driver? Folks aren't that dumb, or are they.
Posted by: Jan   2005-08-01 20:42  

#7  Ed, I also liked the passport of Al Kaboom (AKA Quicks Draw). Did the they find the one for Baba Louie in that bag?
I agree with Steve. The mook left this behind in error or in haste.
Posted by: GK   2005-08-01 17:30  

#6  Funny. He doesn't look Scottish...

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Posted by: BigEd   2005-08-01 16:53  

#5  since it just came in via a middle eastern airline (tag)

Just because it has a tag on it doesn't mean it just came in or that the passports or documents were in it when it came in. Bag could have been sitting around with a tag on it from the last time it was used. Article doesn't make clear what kind of luggage tag it was, could have just been one of those complimentary tags to write your name on. It'll take the cops awhile to go over it, the photos of the two guys on the id's should be a big help plus any fingerprints.
Posted by: Steve   2005-08-01 16:23  

#4  Could have been left there for someone to pick up since it just came in via a middle eastern airline (tag). But the cab driver saw it first. Delivery Mule probably had a round trip ticket.
Posted by: RG   2005-08-01 16:10  

#3  Additional: A BAG stuffed with fake passports and false IDs found abandoned near Heathrow airport may be linked to West Yorkshire. The black holdall, which contained false visas, forged Home Office documents, bank cards and work permits, was found by a
taxi driver on a grass verge close to the busy airport. It is feared the contents of the bag, which had a Qatar Airways luggage tag, were intended to assist other terrorists plotting similar attacks to those carried out in London on July 7 and 21, to help them get in and out the country.
Inside were 19 passports for Pakistani, Indian, British, Nepalese and South African nationals.
But it is understood also found among the items were letters linked to Leeds and Dewsbury. In particular the bag is said to have contained a letter written to a Muslim in Dewsbury, complete with an Islamic charm.
The contents were handed over to anti-terror police by News of the World reporters after it was given to them by the taxi driver. A spokesman from Scotland Yard last night confirmed they were investigating the contents. He was unable to confirm the existence of a letter to anyone in Dewsbury, or any other links to West Yorkshire.
Dewsbury was home to suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, who carried out the Edgware Road bombing on July 7, killing himself and six other people. The teaching assistant, who lived at Holm Lees with his wife and daughter, is said to have been the dominant influence over the other Yorkshire bombers – Shehzad Tanweer, 22, of Colwyn Terrace, Beeston, Leeds, who carried out the Aldgate Tube attack and Hasib Hussain, 18, who lived in Colenso Mount, Holbeck, Leeds and carried out the bus bombing in Tavistock Square. Khan lived in Beeston before moving to Dewsbury. Some of the documents and letters in the bag, which was discovered nearly a mile from Heathrow last Thursday, are also understood to be linked to north London – which has been at the centre of anti-terrorist investigations since the July 21 attacks.
Several of the passports contained fake visas in different shades of ink from genuine documents.
Photographs of the same two men appear on different valid passports in different names.
Other fake papers included a car log book and a driving licence.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard last night said: "The documents are now being assessed by detectives from the Met's Anti-Terrorist Branch."
He added that police would encourage anyone who has information that might assist the investigation into the attacks on the London transport system on July 7 or 21, to contact the Anti-Terrorist hotline on 0800 789321, or online via www.police.uk. A Home Office spokesman last night said he could not confirm any details with regard to the holdall find or its contents.
Posted by: Steve   2005-08-01 15:57  

#2  I hope they are looking for DNA on the bag. That could eliminate chasing their tail.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom   2005-08-01 15:45  

#1  Or to set up a false trail leading...nowhere.
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-08-01 15:40  

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