SECURITY sources believe that a man arrested in last weeks anti- terror raids in Britain is Al-Qaedas leader in this country.Home Office officials say that one of those arrested is suspected not only of masterminding the foiled plot to bring down up to nine transatlantic airliners, but also of involvement in other planned atrocities over the past few years.
| Ah, a mastermind! |
| He is described by counter-terrorist officials at MI5 as the senior figure in a British terror network involving Kashmiri, north African and Iraqi cells... He is suspected of being behind two pipelines which saw potential terrorist recruits being sent for training at camps in Pakistan and to join the holy war in Iraq. |
The investigation into the suspected Al-Qaeda leader in Britain and his UK associates was considered by Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5s director-general, to be the security services single most important line of inquiry. He is suspected of being behind two pipelines which saw potential terrorist recruits being sent for training at camps in Pakistan and to join the holy war in Iraq.
The Al-Qaeda leader who cannot be named for legal reasons acts as a suspected hub in a network of extremist groups. These include Kashmiri and north African groups based in this country. He is linked to a second suspect also in Britain who has played a major role in facilitating support for the Iraq jihad.
A third associate is an Iraqi who came to Britain in 2004 and worked on providing support for British extremists who wanted to travel to Iraq to fight the holy war. MI5 said he acquired weapons in preparation for an unspecified attack in Britain. He was detained in January last year pending deportation to Iraq.
| Deportation? Why not imprisonment? |
| Probably because they had intel-flavored goods on him, not courtroom-flavored. |
Contrary to claims by the Pakistani government, the arrest was not anticipated in London. There were also conflicting reports about the reasons for the suspects arrest. One Pakistani official said he had been under surveillance for several weeks following a tip-off from Britain. He was said to have been monitored visiting radical imams and seminaries that had been linked to terrorism. The official said he had travelled to some of the same places as Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the July 7 bombers.