LONDON, 5 July 2007 — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his debut Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons yesterday ordered an immediate review of recruitments to the National Health Service (NHS) following attempted bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
The review comes after eight alleged terrorist suspects with links to the NHS were arrested over the attacks. Seven of the suspects are doctors or medical students and one a laboratory technician. Police believe that they have now rounded up the full sleeper cell mandated to carry out the latest terror campaign. As such security chiefs at the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC) may recommend that the level of alert be changed to the second highest “severe” level from the current highest “critical” level.
Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism unit yesterday also identified a house in Houston, just outside Glasgow, where they believe the bomb factory was located. Neighbors yesterday confirmed that they saw two Mercedes and a Vauxhall Vectra — the two types of vehicles involved in the alleged foiled plot — parked outside the house a day before the failed attacks.
Meanwhile, in Australia, a judge yesterday granted the police 48 hours more to hold Dr. Mohammed Haneef, an Indian with links to those arrested in the UK, without charge, with the possibility of a further extension if there are "reasonable grounds" to do so. Dr. Haneef was boarding a flight, believed to be to India via Malaysia, on a one-way ticket. Australian police have also released a second man who was being questioned in connection with Dr. Haneef, who worked at a hospital in Liverpool in England before taking up his current post as a registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital in Queensland last September.
A Scotland Yard counterterrorism expert yesterday left London for Brisbane to help interrogate 27-year-old Haneef.
In Bangalore, India, Haneef’s family strongly protested his innocence and stressed that he is incapable of carrying out terrorist acts. In an emotionally charged voice, his sister Sumaya Ain told the BBC that “he is truly innocent and he is no terrorist. There must be some mistake. Since our father passed away, he is the head of our family and takes care of all of us. He is a responsible citizen of the country and the Indian government should help us get him back. His aim has been to be a good doctor.”
She added that he was on the way to visit his wife and their newborn baby, and had intended to return to Australia, despite the fact that he had a one-way ticket.
Dr. Haneef came on the security radar because he had been in mobile phone contact with those suspected of involvement in the London and Glasgow incidents.
