#1 Looks like Paks are up to mischief with the investigation and the Brits are not buying their story
B Raman comments
* FACT 1: Four or five of those detained by the British Police had gone to Pakistan after the earthquake of October,2005, in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and in the Balakote area of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to do humanitarian relief work in camps run by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), the parent organisation of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET).
* FACT 2: The Jundullah (Army of Allah), a pro-Al Qaeda organisation, took them to its training camp in the Waziristan area, trained them in the fabrication and use of explosives and dropped them back in the JUD quake relief camps.It is not clear whether they contacted the Jundullah and sought training or whether Jundullah contacted them and motivated them to join its jihad against the West.
* FACT 3: Before returning to London, they met Omar Sheikh, who master-minded the kidnapping and beheading of Daniel Pearl, the US journalist in January-February,2002, in his jail in Sindh.Since nobody can meet him without the permission of the jail authorities, the latter must have been aware of their meeting with him and what was discussed. One does not know whether they immediately alerted the British authorities
The Pakistani authorities, in their official account, have sought to corroborate the British version of a Bojinka-type plot. At the same time, they have tried to project the whole plot, which, according to them, was to have been co-ordinated by Rashid Rauf, a British citizen of Mirpuri (Punjabi-speaking Kashmiri) origin, who has been arrested by them, as having originated in the mind of Afghanistan-based Al Qaeda elements. This claim has been rebutted by the Afghan authorities, who have rightly pointed out that the remnants of the Al Qaeda are in Pakistani territory in Waziristan and not in Afghanistan.The Pakistani authorities have denied any role of Maitur Rehman, the Amir of the Jundullah, who is a Pakistani citizen, in the plot as alleged by some British and American experts.
Whenever the Pakistani authorities had arrested any foreign terrorist suspect in the past, they had immediately handed him over to the US authorities, who flew him out of Pakistan for interrogation. The only instance in the past in which the Pakistani authorities did not do this was in respect of Omar Sheikh. For reasons which are not clear till now, they have adamantly refused to hand him over to the US for questioning in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Pearl.It may be recalled that police sources in Sindh had alleged that this was because he had told them during his interrogation that during a visit to Kandahar in the beginning of 2001 to meet Osama bin Laden, he had come to know of Al Qaeda's plans for the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US and he had conveyed this to Lt.Gen.Ehsan-ul-Haq, the then Corps Commander at Peshawar, who subsequently became the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The ISI authorities did not want him to mention this to the Americans.
15. Surprisingly, in the case of Rashid Rauf also, the Pakistani authorities have not taken action to immediately hand him over to the British for interrogation. Instead, they have produced him before a court, which they never did in the past in the case of terrorist suspects handed over to the Americans. One would have thought the British would have been eager to question him immediately in order to find out whether there are other members of the plot, who might be still at large.Similarly, one would have thought that the Americans would have been equally eager to take him into their custody and question him regarding the whereabouts of bin Laden and his No.2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. But till now, neither the British nor the Americans have shown any alacrity in wanting to do so. Why?
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Detained terror suspects told interrogators that al-Qaeda's top leaders approved a plot to blow up planes from Britain to the United States, a senior Pakistani intelligence agent said Thursday. Some of the suspects said No. 2-ranked Ayman al-Zawahri probably authorized the plan, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the investigation.