Intelligence

MI5 fears Christmas bombings

David Leppard and Nicholas Rufford
The Times

SECURITY services fear a possible Christmas bombing campaign by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Britain. Scotland Yard and MI5 are worried that Islamic fanatics may be preparing to carry out simultaneous attacks on “soft” targets, including shopping centres.
Big retail centres have commercial importance and publicity value for terrorists but little protection.

David Leppard and Nicholas Rufford

Security sources indicated that suspects under surveillance have carried out possible reconnaissance or “dummy runs” for attacks on commercial sites. Those around the M25 near London are thought to be at particular risk.

One senior official, a member of a team evaluating intelligence on Al-Qaeda in Britain, said: “The whole atmosphere is that there is something going on. Al-Qaeda’s way of operating seems to be simultaneous attacks. We don’t know the exact plan.”

Security services in Britain are on the highest state of alert since the September 11 attacks in 2001. In addition to shopping centres and airports, so-called “picture postcard sites” such as Tower Bridge in London are also considered to be at risk.

One official, who sits on a secret committee to monitor terrorist threats to the capital, said: “The police are very nervous and very, very jumpy.”

Earlier this month an Al-Qaeda spokesman warned that terrorists loyal to Osama Bin Laden would deliver “cars of death” against British targets. He suggested the attacks were a response to Britain’s support for America’s war in Iraq.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5, told ministers two weeks ago of intelligence that Al-Qaeda could be preparing attacks in Britain as well as overseas. Her agency recently circulated a warning that “British assets” were at risk, placing the country on the second from highest possible state of alert.

David Southwell, a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, said it was working closely with Special Branch and the intelligence services. However, he said they had not given any warnings that shopping centres were a specific target. “They are a potential target. There are lots of potential targets. In terms of soft targets, anywhere the public gathers could be a potential.”

Robert Clark, research director of the Retail Knowledge Bank, which provides corporate intelligence to retailers, said shoppers could be panicked. “If there is another incident — like more arrests or something actually happens — people will start to avoid city centres.”

The recent high state of alert, which was escalated 18 days ago, is in response to fears Al-Qaeda may have activated a number of “sleepers” in the provinces or veterans of its Afghan training camps.

MI5 received intelligence earlier this year about two British passport-holders who volunteered for a “martyr” squad and trained to carry out suicide attacks. The intelligence came from inmates in the high-security prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of terror suspects captured during the Afghanistan conflict are held.

One of the two Britons was recently arrested, but the other is believed still to be at large. He is said to be a black Muslim convert who served time in Feltham young offenders’ institution at the same time as Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. He has convictions for violence and prayed at the Brixton mosque where Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, also worshipped.

During interrogation by American authorities, the Guantanamo Bay inmates gave physical descriptions and helped compose artist’s impressions of the two men, with whom they had trained or fought alongside.

Khaled Sheik Mohammed, the captured top aide of Osama Bin Laden and a mastermind of September 11, confirmed details about the British men. One of Khaled’s roles was recruiting overseas fighters.

As part of a wide-ranging operation detectives are monitoring two suspected Al-Qaeda cells in the Midlands and the north of England. They suspect a third may be in place in a Yorkshire city. Each comprises four or five individuals.

Sajit Badat, a 24-year-old Asian Briton, was arrested during a police raid in Gloucester last week. Further arrests are expected. Detectives are also investigating whether the small amount of military grade explosives recovered in Gloucester is of the same type used by Reid.

Badat was still being questioned last night at Paddington Green police station in London. A 33-year-old man arrested under anti-terrorism laws in Birmingham was released yesterday. Another man arrested and released last week in Manchester has been named as James McLintock, the so-called Tartan Taliban briefly detained two years ago on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border Meanwhile the British embassy in Saudi Arabia said terrorists there may be preparing an imminent attack.

A Turkish court yesterday charged a suspect over the synagogue bombings in Istanbul two weeks ago. These preceded an attack on the British consulate and HSBC bank in the city which killed 32 people.

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the government listening centre, are to receive £25m emergency funding to counter terrorism in Iraq, newly released figures have revealed.

November 30, 2003 at 09:15 AM in Current Terrorism | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home