The Telegraph
Osama bin Laden planned Easter bomb campaign, files seized in US raid show
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that MI5 has been passed intelligence from their American counterparts linking bin Laden directly to the so-called “Easter shopping” bomb plot.
By Robert Winnett and Duncan Gardham
The information is contained in computer files seized by US special forces and is some of the first top-secret intelligence to have been passed back from the bin Laden operation, according to senior Government sources.
The Manchester terrorist cell – suspected of plotting to blow up landmarks in the city during the Easter holiday – was arrested in 2009.
But the police were unable to press charges because of a lack of evidence and their treatment at the time became a cause célèbre for MPs, lawyers and human rights groups.
An attempt last year to deport the alleged ringleader of the plot then failed on human rights grounds because he claimed he would be tortured if he was returned to Pakistan. Most of the alleged cell members have now left Britain.
The disclosure of the links to bin Laden is likely to lead to renewed concern over the British operation to apprehend the men – and the evidence which can be used in terrorist prosecutions in this country.
The new evidence is understood to have been discussed by the Prime Minister’s national security team.
It is hoped that discussions between David Cameron and Barack Obama during the American president’s trip to Britain next week will lead to more intelligence being shared between the two countries.
The Daily Telegraph understands that not all intelligence has been shared by the two countries over the past year – which Whitehall officials now suspect was because of American concerns over the secrecy of the bin Laden operation.
MI5 is said to be receiving “snippets” of information from the bin Laden files but is anxious to send people to America to receive full briefings. A Government source said: “The issue is expected to come up next week. In the past, we have had fleeting glimpses of al-Qaeda. But, if what we are already starting to see continues, it appears that the bin Laden files really will give us a comprehensive insight into the whole organisation and its operations.”
Last night, the White House said that counter-terrorism would be one of the key items on the agenda for a bilateral meeting between the two leaders on Wednesday in Downing Street.
The CIA has spent much of the past month processing the intelligence from the bin Laden raid, which is expected to be discussed at the meetings between Mr Cameron and Mr Obama this week.
The CIA has already told its British counterparts that it has found a list of names that included the men allegedly behind the Manchester plot.
The discovery is among the first evidence that bin Laden may have been playing an operational role in al-Qaeda from his hideout at a compound in Abbottabad, before his death on May 2.
The Americans have already disclosed that bin Laden was plotting to blow up US trains and he is said to have been “obsessed” with the anniversary of 9/11.
Last night, US intelligence officials also disclosed that the bin Laden files showed that al-Qaeda was interested in targeting oil and gas installations, including infrastructure.
The files should also shed new light on “spectacular” coordinated attacks planned by al-Qaeda’s external operations wing across the world on shoppers in Manchester, the New York subway system and a Danish newspaper.
The plots were foiled after a joint investigation by MI6 and MI5, which led to the arrest of 11 Pakistani students and a British man in Manchester in March 2009, and the arrest of three men in America in September that year. A third cell was arrested in Norway last July.
The intelligence services intercepted messages that they believed showed the British-based extremists were communicating with a commander in Pakistan to carry out bombings in Easter 2009.
However, the operation turned into a farce after Bob Quick, the head of counter-terrorism police at the time, was photographed entering Downing Street with details of planned raids under his arm. This forced detectives and intelligence agents to make arrests immediately. The 12 men arrested were released without charge, then detained on immigration grounds as a threat to national security.
Two Muslim Labour MPs wrote to the Home Secretary at the time to complain about the “gravely unjust” treatment of the men.
However, only one of the students, Abid Naseer, who is said to have been the ringleader, is known to have remained in Britain. He has since been rearrested under a US warrant, accused of providing material support to al-Qaeda and conspiracy to use a destructive device and is fighting his extradition in the European Court of Human Rights.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8527369/Osama-bin-Laden-planned-Easter-bomb-campaign-files-seized-in-US-raid-show.html
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