"Terror inquiry expands globally"

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Terror inquiry expands globally
Financial support from Al Qaeda eyed
By Bryan Bender and Susan Milligan
The Boston (MA) Globe


LONDON -- The probe into an alleged plan to bomb US-bound airliners expanded
to Germany, India , and other countries yesterday as investigators searched
for individuals with possible links to Al Qaeda who may have provided
support to the British and Pakistani plotters -- and who might be planning
other attacks.

British police yesterday raided Internet cafés where the suspects may have
communicated with conspirators -- including one near Heathrow Airport -- and
for a third day searched the Muslim neighborhoods where many of the alleged
plotters lived.

Investigators are especially interested in two British brothers -- one
detained in Pakistan and said to have ties with Al Qaeda -- who were among
those arrested in a series of sweeps in recent days. The two are suspected
of playing a central role in the alleged plot to smuggle liquid-explosives
on board aircraft bound for the United States.

But authorities on three continents were also searching for any other
co-conspirators or facilitators involved in what intelligence officials
believe could have been the most deadly terrorist attack since Sept. 11,
2001, if it had not been uncovered. Leaders warned that the threat of an
attack remains high despite the arrest of dozens of suspects in Britain,
Pakistan, and Italy.

``No one should be under any illusion that the threat ended with the recent
arrests. It didn't," British Home Secretary John Reid told police chiefs at
a breakfast meeting yesterday. ``All of us know that this investigation
hasn't ended."

President Bush said in his weekly radio address that, ``We believe that this
week's arrests have significantly disrupted the threat. Yet we cannot be
sure that the threat has been eliminated."

Security remained at its highest level for air travel in the US and Britain,
which maintained its indefinite ban on liquids in carry-on luggage. And as
the investigation progressed, those measures were instituted elsewhere.

Citing a new threat that emerged from the London probe, the government of
India, which has suffered numerous terrorist attacks at the hands of
Pakistani militants, banned liquids in carry-on luggage, while intensifying
security at airports and other public places.

The move came a day after the US Embassy sent an e-mail to Americans in
India warning that foreign militants, possibly Al Qaeda terrorists, could be
planning bomb attacks there.

``A new threat has emerged from the unearthing of the terror plot in London
. . . we have taken note of this fact," Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad
was quoted as saying. India's Civil Aviation Ministry advised passengers
yesterday to reach airports well in advance because of the new security
requirements, the Press Trust of India reported .

The Philippine government also ordered a ban on liquids and gels for all
international and domestic flights.

Meanwhile, investigators were trying to piece together additional clues
about the possible role of Al Qaeda 's network in providing financial and
logistical support for the London airplane plot.

A news report said that at least one of the men arrested in Britain had
contact in Germany with the wife of a fugitive from the Sept. 11, attacks,
Said Bahaji . A German of Moroccan descent , the 30-year-old Bahaji is
alleged to have been the link between the Hamburg Al Qaeda cell that
masterminded the 9/11 attacks and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Bahaji has been on the run since the World Trade Center attacks . The report
in Focus, a German weekly, did not name the London suspect involved or say
when the contact occurred.

Germany's deputy interior minister, August Hanning , was quoted in the local
media as saying that the suspected suicide bombers in Britain ``had
apparently some contact to Germany. We are investigating these contacts."

In London, Scotland Yard searched Internet cafés near the homes of 23
suspects in an effort to track Web - based e-mails or instant messages about
the alleged plot to smuggle liquid explosives onto US-bound airliners at
London's Heathrow Airport. One-third of flights scheduled out of Heathrow
were canceled yesterday. Police also continued to search the homes of the
suspects for evidence, and 23 of the 24 men arrested last week are still in
custody in Britain.

Meanwhile, Pakistan continued to question at least 10 suspects it has
detained in the case, including British national Rashid Rauf , who along
with his brother Tayib has been described by Pakistani officials as a key
leader of the plot.

Rashid Rauf was arrested about a week ago along the Pakistan-Afghan istan
border, and Pakistani officials have characterized him as a ``key person" in
the airline plot. They said evidence linked him to an ``Afghanistan-based Al
Qaeda connection" but gave no details. His 22-year-old brother, Tayib , was
taken into custody in Britain during the sweeps that nabbed 24 people here,
and unconfirmed reports said a third brother might have been detained. One
of the 24 arrested in Britain on Thursday was released Friday.

A great-uncle of the Rauf brothers said Tayib is partially deaf due to a
childhood illness.

``He is very, very polite, the kindest person you could hope to meet," Qazi
Amir Kulzum was quoted as saying in yesterday's edition of the Birmingham
Post. ``No one can believe that he would be involved in such matters."

Neighbors and friends of the Raufs expressed shock that the brothers were
caught up in the inquiry, but the devout Muslim family is no stranger to
authorities.

The Raufs' terraced home was first searched during a 2002 investigation into
the fatal stabbing of Mohammed Saeed, an uncle of the brothers, police said.
Rashid Rauf was reportedly a suspect in the slaying and is thought to have
left England for Pakistan shortly after the death.

Among others believed to be still at large is Matiur Rehman , a senior
leader of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Rehman is wanted
in Pakistan for several attempts to assassinate General Pervez Musharraf,
the Pakistani president. And US intelligence officials have linked him to
the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed , who was arrested
in Pakistan in 2003 and is now in US custody.

The political fallout from the plot was on display in Britain, where
relations with the Muslim community have been strained since the July 7,
2005, suicide bombings on trains and buses killed more than 50 people.

Muslim leaders in Britain blamed ``the debacle of Iraq" and violence against
Muslims in the Middle East for fueling radicalism.

In an open letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who is on vacation
in the Caribbean -- Muslim political and community leaders said that ``it is
our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at
increased risk both in the UK and abroad."

The letter, published in yesterday's editions of The Times of London, said
that ``attacking civilians is never justified." But ``the debacle of Iraq
and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on
civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people
in that region; it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all,"
said the letter, which was signed by three members of Parliament as well as
other community leaders.

The Foreign Office dismissed the charges. ``No government worth its salt
would change its policy in response to terrorism," UK Foreign Office
minister Kim Howells told Sky News in response to the letter.

In Pakistan, the US embassy yesterday warned Americans that ``Al Qaeda and
Taliban elements continue to operate inside Pakistan, particularly along the
porous Afghan border region."

The advisory said, ``Their presence, coupled with that of indigenous
sectarian and militant groups in Pakistan, continues to pose potential
danger to American citizens. Continuing tensions in the Middle East also
increase the possibility of violence against Westerners in Pakistan."

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