Boston Herald : A tale of two brothers: International investigation zeroes in on family in Birmingham

A tale of two brothers: International investigation zeroes in on family in Birmingham

Associated Press | August 12, 2006

LONDON - The international investigation into a plot to blow up planes over the Atlantic zeroed in Saturday on brothers arrested in Pakistan and Britain, one named as a key al-Qaida suspect who left the family’s Birmingham home years ago and the other described as gentle and polite.

British authorities, meanwhile, warned against complacency, saying the detention of several dozen suspects here and in Pakistan has not eliminated the danger. The terror threat level in Britain remained critical’ _ its highest designation, and delays, flight cancellations and intense security continued to greet many travelers at London airports.

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

Among the leads British police were following was whether any of the suspects have connections to the July 7, 2005 London suicide bombers, or whether any others among them visited Pakistan in recent months. They are also examining Internet cafes near the suspects’ homes with the possibility of tracking Web based e-mails or instant messages, Scotland Yard said.

With US authorities urgently investigating whether the British plotters had links inside America, reports emerged that at least one of the men under arrest in Britain had contact in Germany with the wife of Sept. 11 fugitive Said Bahaji. The report in Focus, a German weekly, did not specify the suspect involved or say when the contact occurred.

A swirl of attention has focused on the role that the brothers Rashid and Tayib Rauf may have played in the plot. Their father, Abdul Rauf, immigrated to Britain from the Mirpur district of Pakistan several decades ago, and his five children were all born in Britain.

Rashid Rauf was arrested about a week ago along the Pakistan-Afghan border, and Pakistani officials have named him as a key person.’ They say there is evidence he was linked to an Afghanistan-based al-Qaida connection’ but have given no details.

His 22-year-old brother Tayib was taken into custody in Britain during the sweeps that nabbed 24 people here, and there were unconfirmed reports a third brother may have been detained.

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 Saturday’s Birmingham Post newspaper. No one can believe that he would be involved in such matters.’

Neighbors and friends of the Raufs also expressed shock that they were caught up in the inquiry, but the devout Muslim family is no stranger to the authorities. The Raufs’ terraced home was first searched during a 2002 investigation into the fatal stabbing of Mohammed Saeed, the Rauf brothers’ uncle, police said.

Rashid Rauf was reportedly a suspect in that slaying, and is believed to have left England for Pakistan shortly after Saeed’s death. The home was searched again in connection with a murder during race riots in 2005.

British authorities have released precious little information about the brothers, or the course of their investigation into the alleged terror plot in general. There were no briefings on Saturday for the second straight day, and senior government figures stayed largely out of sight.

But in Islamabad, where authorities are anxious to put a positive spin on a story that has again placed Pakistan at the center of a major international terror investigation, officials spent Saturday leaking details of the role the country played in cracking the case.

Pakistan is questioning at least 17 people, including Rauf and one other British national whose name has not been released. A senior Pakistani security official told The Associated Press that Rauf’s arrest prompted an accomplice in the southern city of Karachi to make a panicked phone call to a suspect in the United Kingdom, giving the green-light for the airliner plot to move forward urgently.

This telephone call intercept in Karachi and the arrest of Rashid Rauf helped a lot to foil the terror plan,’ the official said.

A second intelligence official described the accomplice as inexperienced,’ and said the caller alerted his associates about the arrest of Rashid Rauf, and asked them to go ahead.’ Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of their work.

While authorities in Pakistan believe they have nabbed the main players in the plot, the official said there are two or three people still at large, including Matiur Rahman, a senior figure in the al-Qaida-linked Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Rahman’s name was mentioned by one of the detainees during interrogation.

British police on Friday released one of the 24 people originally arrested. No charges have been filed yet against the others. Under tough new anti-terrorism laws, authorities can hold suspects up to 28 days without charge, but pressure is likely to mount for police to disclose at least some of the evidence.

Many in the Muslim community are deeply distrustful of the police following high-profile blunders in the past, including the killing of a man mistaken for a suicide bomber and the shooting of another man in a raid which resulted in no charges.

Prominent British Muslims, including three members of Parliament, also complained in an open letter Saturday that Britain’s intervention in Iraq and the failure to secure an immediate cease-fire between Israel and to release militants in Lebanon were providing ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.’

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Pakistan, Rob Harris in Birmingham, and Jennifer Quinn in London contributed to this report.