'Bomb mastermind' still free
By Robert Mendick, Patrick Sawer and Andrew Alderson | September 13, 2009
A militant jihadist accused of playing a pivotal role in the liquid bomb plot to blow up transatlantic airliners is walking free on the streets of Britain.
Security sources have expressed concern about the activities of the man, whom authorities are convinced helped to plan attacks on planes as they flew between Britain and North America.
Home-grown terrorists – three of whom were convicted last week – had planned to kill thousands of people in the air and possibly more on the ground in a wave of attacks that would have been as devastating as the 9/11 attacks on America.
But a man who is accused of being one of the lead plotters remains at large, having been acquitted of all charges a year ago.
Police investigating the liquid bomb plot were forced to cut short their surveillance operation and make arrests earlier than they intended when Rashid Rauf, a close friend of the acquitted terror suspect and the alleged joint ringleader, was arrested in Pakistan in August 2006, after authorities there came under pressure from the US.
The early curtailment of the evidence-gathering mission has raised fears that police in Britain may not have had all the time they needed to collect the evidence necessary to prosecute the case successfully.
A senior security source said: "There is no doubt in my mind this man is potentially very dangerous."
The 28-year-old, who is originally from Birmingham, was accused during his trial of flying to Britain from South Africa to oversee the final stages of the plot. He moved into an unfurnished flat in Barking in east London.
He held several covert meetings with – and also telephoned – Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar, who were convicted last week of the plot in which bombs disguised as drinks were to be smuggled on to flights.
Sources indicated that the man was now living in Birmingham, where his family resides.
There is speculation he may be living under a strict control order, which regulates his movements and who he can and cannot have contact with. "You can certainly be sure he is under close surveillance," said one source.
The man fled Britain in 2002 with his friend Rauf following the murder of Rauf’s 54-year-old uncle, a delivery driver in a dispute over an arranged marriage.
By then, he had been radicalised after attending Portsmouth University where he studied alongside Rauf.
Professor Bruce Hoffman, an American intelligence expert, claimed in an academic paper that the suspect had also met Mohammed al-Ghabra.
Al-Ghabra, 29, a Syrian-born British citizen who lives in Forest Gate in east London, is on a United Nations list of terrorism suspects with links to al-Qaeda. He is suspected of arranging for key figures in the airline plot to travel to training camps in Pakistan.
The alleged ringleader flew back to Britain on a flight from South Africa on July 18, 2006.
His arrival coincided with the plotters’ purchase of a bomb factory and the buying and stockpiling of bomb-making ingredients.
Three weeks after his return to Britain, he was arrested. But in the ensuing court case in 2008, a jury decided there was insufficient evidence to convict him and he was found not guilty of one charge of conspiracy to murder and another of conspiring to cause an explosion on an aircraft.
The Sunday Telegraph understands he may now face further charges after the emergence of emails between the three convicted men – Ali, Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain – and their Pakistan handler, thought to be Rauf.
