Time : A Terrorist's Network

A Terrorist's Network

By Bill Powell | Augist 20, 2006

Rashid Rauf, the 25-year-old Pakistani-born, British-raised baker's son fingered as the central figure in the foiled plot to bomb U.S.-bound flights from London, has been described as friendly and ordinary. But Pakistani security officials familiar with Rauf's interrogation tell TIME that the plan's real mastermind may be anything but--the man who gave Rauf his marching orders is believed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative who may be a top aide to the terrorist group's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They would not name the aide, but an official said it was a possibility al-Zawahiri himself may have approved the plane-bombing plan.

That hypothesis would add one more--and very significant--strand to the web of jihadist contacts Rauf maintained. The breadth of that network has gradually emerged since British authorities flagged Rauf as a "person of interest" about six months ago and notified Pakistani law enforcement, which tapped Rauf's phones and monitored his movements. Investigators tell TIME that Rauf--who was arrested in eastern Pakistan on Aug. 9, a day before British authorities rounded up 24 suspects in connection with the plot (one has since been released)--had close links with several known al-Qaeda supporters in Pakistan as well as with an Islamic militant who is one of India's most-wanted terrorists. Rauf's neighbors in Bahawalpur, the city where he lived after moving back to Pakistan in 2002, say he was constantly shuttling between his home and eastern Afghanistan, including the province of Paktia, a Taliban stronghold.

Rauf's arrest and other help from Pakistani authorities in connecting the dots to al-Qaeda may boost the counterterrorism cred of embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Although outwardly supportive of Musharraf's government, U.S. military officials have quietly been questioning just how intensely it is battling the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who cross routinely between Pakistan and Afghanistan. U.S. casualties in Afghanistan have increased in recent months. And some Pentagon officials have been privately critical of Pakistan for harboring al-Qaeda members in unpoliced areas along the border--the region where, according to Islamabad, the unidentified al-Qaeda mastermind believed to be behind the British plot is said to be hiding.

But Pakistan may have won points with the U.S. for its steadfastness in the Rauf case. British authorities had wanted to wait for the alleged plotters to do a dry run of their mission before striking. Washington vigorously disagreed, and while Pakistan was officially neutral in the spat, an Islamabad official points out, "The last thing we want is for something to happen and everyone says it's linked to Pakistan." According to one source, the U.S. threatened to take Rauf with Pakistan's help even if London didn't move. Washington won, the British swooped down on their suspects, and Pakistan delivered Rauf.

Rauf's networks haven't yet been fully mapped. For instance, investigators say his phone records show a number of calls to contacts in Germany. Who were they? He made numerous phone calls to South Africa. What were they about? Several of his 23 suspected co-conspirators being held in Britain are said to have attended Koranic study sessions run by a hard-line Islamic group known as Tablighi Jamaat (the name roughly means "missionary group"). Did they know Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer--who took part in July 2005's London subway bombings and are believed to have been regulars at a Tablighi Jamaat mosque? Were they acquainted with Richard Reid, the jailed, failed shoe bomber, who frequented a Tablighi Jamaat mosque too? Pakistani intelligence officials aren't done with Rauf but expect eventually to hand him over to Britain. "He can be extradited," says an official, "once we get the maximum out of him." One can imagine that will not be a pleasant process.