“British officials knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner,” NBC reported. 13
Was the U.S. urgent for British authorities to move in on the suspects because their involvement with the group was close to being exposed? Were they possibly nervous about being complicit in a major terrorist attack?
Adding further intrigue, according to Bahukutumbi Raman writing for the South Asia Analysis Group, the purported Jundullah trainees, prior to returning to London in 2005, met Omar Sheikh at his jail in Sindh. 14
Omar Sheikh, who has been linked to Pakistani, British, and U.S. intelligence agencies, reportedly wired at least $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, prior to the 2001 attacks. He is currently being held in Pakistan for the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. 15
“Since nobody can meet him without the permission of the jail authorities, the latter must have been aware of their meeting with him and what was discussed,” Raman noted, adding, “One does not know whether they (the Pakistani government) immediately alerted the British authorities.”16
FOOTNOTES
1. Brian Ross and Christopher Isham, “ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran,” ABC News, The Blotter, April 3, 2007, <http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/abc_news_exclus.html>.
2. Stephen Wright and David Williams, “Bomb plot traced back to Al Qaeda,” The Daily Mail, August 12, 2006, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=400189&in_page_id=1770&ico= Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=NEWS&ct=5>.
3. Praveen Swami, “Evidence mounts of Pakistan links,” The Hindu, August 12, 2006, <http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/12/stories/2006081205941200.htm>.
4. Bahukutumbi Raman, “BOJINKA 2006: Focus On OMAR SHEIKH, RASHID RAUF & PROF.SAYEED, International Terrorism Monitor-Paper No.105,” South Asia Analysis Group, August 16, 2006, <http://www.saag.org/%5Cpapers20%5Cpaper1915.html>.
5. Ibid.
6. Michel Chossudovsky, “he Foiled UK Terror Plot and the ‘Pakistani Connection’,” Global Research, August 14, 2006, <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060814&articleId=2960>.
7. “Agent infiltrated terror cell, U.S. says,” CNN, August 11, 2006, <http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/index.html>.
8. Jason Lewis, “Terror plot suspects bugged by MI5 'sneak and peak' teams,” The Daily Mail, August 12, 2006, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=400310&in_page_id=1770>.
9. Ibid., 1, 3, 4.
10. Ibid., 8.
11. Aram Roston, Lisa Myers, and the NBC News Investigative Unit, “Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests,” NBC News, August 14, 2006, <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/>.
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