Boston Globe : Terror inquiry expands globally

Terror inquiry expands globally

Financial support from Al Qaeda eyed

By Bryan Bender and Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | August 13, 2006

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."

Material from Associated Press was included in this report.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.