LONDON, 18 August 2006 — The pressure on British police investigating an alleged bomb plot targeting trans-Atlantic flights from the major UK airports to US cities is mounting. Out of 25 suspects arrested in connection with the plot, two have been unconditionally released.
On Wednesday evening, police were given an additional week by District Judge Timothy Workman to question 21 of the alleged plotters still held; and another five days to question two suspects. Lawyers Imran Khan and Gareth Pierce representing the alleged plotters challenged the continued detention of their clients without charges.
The next round of detention extension next Wednesday will be heard by a senior High Court judge and the burden of evidence will be much higher. These graded barriers to continued detention without charges and trial was a compromise on the passing of the new Anti-Terrorism Act 2006 in April this year.
The Blair government originally proposed a 90-day period for which police could detain terror suspects without charges on the basis that some of the investigations and evidence-gathering process could take weeks if not months, especially if foreign links are also involved. This proposal was defeated by a majority of MPs from all parties.
Last night, supporters and relatives of some of those detained held a public meeting on the week’s dramatic events and the resultant arrests in Walthamstow in London’s East End where many of the alleged plotters come from. The rumor on the streets is that police will be forced to release more than half of the detainees next Wednesday because of a lack of evidence.
However, local media reports quoting Scotland Yard sources stress that the raids which foiled the alleged terror plot is “definitely not a Forest Gate situation” and that police searching a piece of woodland called King’s Wood in High Wycombe, where at least two of the suspects come from, have discovered “items of interest,” reportedly explosive detonators the size of cigarettes. Police have now carried out a total of 46 searches at residential and business premises in London, Birmingham and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.
British intelligence and security officials are convinced that the alleged terror plot was linked to Al-Qaeda. The London Evening Standard, quoting unnamed Pakistani intelligence sources, yesterday reported that the foiled terror plot was masterminded by Al-Qaeda’s No. 3. Although the alleged plotters, according to the Pakistani authorities, were “inexperienced”, said the Evening Standard, they could have learned how to use the explosives from manuals downloaded from the Internet. Not surprisingly, British police raided a number of Internet cafes in Walthamstow and confiscated over 60 PCs which are now being processed.
Another report by The Associated Press, also quoting Pakistani intelligence sources, stressed that the alleged UK airport terror plot was sanctioned by Al-Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman Al-Zawahri. Pakistani officials have arrested a British national, Rashid Rauf, who they believe is the go-between and the planner of the alleged attacks. “We have reason to believe that it was Al-Qaeda sanctioned and was probably cleared by Zawahri,” said the Pakistani official. Pakistan has offered to extradite Rauf, whose brother Tayyib is one of the suspects detained in London and who has “long-standing relations” with the militant Jaish-e-Mohammed group. But it has not yet received any such request from the UK, according to sources at the Pakistan High Commission. On the travel front, despite two incidents of false alarms and four incidents of security breaches, flights are gradually returning to normal, with British Airways (BA) saying it has no plans to cancel any long-haul flights.
BA also said it hoped to return the 5,000 pieces of luggage misplaced in the confusion at Heathrow by today. Theft from luggage at Heathrow and Gatwick has also increased, raising fears among homeowners of burglaries because passengers were forced to put their house keys in their hold luggage following the introduction of the ban on hand luggage which included keys.
