Row over French bomb arrest claim

[Minstrel Boy]

Row over French bomb arrest claim

13 July, 2005

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has denied some of the London bomb suspects were arrested last year. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the UK delegation made the claim at an EU terrorism meeting.

Mr Clarke said the comments were "completely and utterly untrue", and said there had been no conversation on the issue. Officials are adamant the men were not arrested and then released in order to break a wider network.

Mr Sarkozy said: "It seems that part of this team had been subject to partial arrest."

...

(Clarke) added: "I'm not aware of the allegations that Mr Sarkozy has made.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4680155.stm

[Laughing Mirror]

1. French intelligence claims the bomb suspects belong to same group

of 13 presumed terrorists British police identified last year, and on March 30, 2004, arrested 8 of them, 5 escaped the operation which allowed the police to discover 600 KG of explosives.

Among the missing 5 was Mohammed Kahn, one of the suspects in the London underground bombing. He was on Scotland Yard's list at that time although using a different age and name, but "it's the same man," according to the French.

http://libe.fr/page.php?Article=311133

Apparently, all Sarkozy meant was that part of the group to which the "kamikazes" belong had been arrested last year. Perhaps Sarkokzy's English was not clear enough and was misunderstood.

Also, Lindsay Jermaine, a Briton, is the fourth bomb suspect, according to the French.

[Nihil]

2. OK, whatever

> Among the missing 5 was Mohammed Kahn, one of the suspects in the
> London underground bombing. He was on Scotland Yard's list at that
> time although using a different age and name, but "it's the same man,"
> according to the French.

Ever thought that "Mohammed Kahn" might not be that unique a name in
the Pakistani world?

Oh, look, shiny thing over there ...

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Doesn't sound like the same 'Mohammed Khan' to me

The suspected bomber seems to have been in Leeds a long time:

Mohammed Sadique Khan had married for love. Flouting the cultural conventions of his community, he rejected an arranged marriage. Instead, the 30-year-old learning assistant and mentor married Hasina, the girl he met and fell in love with while studying at Leeds University.

His parents were from Pakistan, hers from Gujarat in India. But despite the differences, they married four years ago and only a few months ago set up home close to Hasina's widowed mother in a council housing estate in Dewsbury, away from Khan's normal stamping ground close to where he was born in a run- down part of south Leeds.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10335789

All the 8 arrests last year were down in the south of England:

Two were arrested in Uxbridge, west London, three in Crawley, West Sussex, and one each in Ilford, east London, Slough, Berkshire, and Horley, Surrey.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3584009.stm

So it's a different name, different age, and different area. It all might be possible, I suppose, but it's a big stretch.

On edit: we do have this from The Times:

Police sources also admitted that the name of one of the bombers had emerged during a major anti-terrorist operation last year. But he was neither arrested nor questioned.
...
The fourth bomber was named unofficially last night as Ejaz Fiaz, thought to be in his early thirties. His home in Leeds was still being searched.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1693463,00.html

[Monkie]

4. Lindsay Jermaine now named on BBC as likely 4th bomber

it was on BBC tv news just now,interrupted for this as "breaking news",he is british of Jamaican decent i believe was said.
they say the only reason they couldnt confirm as certain was that dna evidence was still needed to prove it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. And he was living at the house in Aylesbury being searched

but that leaves the question of how Ejaz Fiaz was involved. According to The Mirror, "A 30-year-old man from Beeston died in the Russell Square explosion. His brother, aged 33, is being quizzed".

From Leeds:

Schizophrenic Elvis Presley fan Ejaz Fiaz is now understood to have been the fourth man to take part in the terrorist attack on the capital.
Originally from Beeston in Leeds, Fiaz is thought to have moved initially to Leicester and then to Luton with his wife and two children two years ago.
Chillingly, Fiaz's favourite Elvis song is Make the World Go Away, which he played constantly.
Fiaz, known to many people as Jaxy, is now thought to be the man who joined the three Leeds men at Luton before setting out on the deadly mission.
His younger brother, Naveed, was arrested at his Stratford Terrace home on Tuesday morning when officers from the Metropolitan and West Yorkshire police forces carried out a massive co-ordinated series of raids on a number of homes in the Leeds and Dewsbury area.
Ejaz, together with his two younger brothers and three sisters, lived for many years at an address in Stratford Street. The property was stripped bare when Ejaz moved to Luton.
However, it is believed the mid-terrace home was used as a venue for meetings of the terrorist cell, with gatherings of up to 10 people taking place at the property starting as late as 3am.
It is now screened off from public view and is the subject of a detailed forensic investigation.

http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=39&ArticleID=1085108

[Monkie]

6. you couldnt sell this as fiction

thxs for that bit of info
what can i say,has elvis been found alive after all as the mad bomber mastermind?
and that was the most sensible thing i could think of,the mind boggles..

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. One more thing - 'Rashid Facha'

who appears to be the same as 'Mohammed Sidique Khan' - even when they're mentioned in the same article:

The Times names the three of the suspected suicide bombers as Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, the married father of an eight-month-old baby, who is believed to have planted the bomb at Edgware Road
...
In Dewsbury, police raided a redbrick council semi in Lees Holme and a modern bungalow in Thornhill Park.

Farida Patel, an Asian woman, is believed to live at the bungalow with her daughter, Hasina, and son, Arshad. Later yesterday police took away a Honda and a silver Ford Escort from the house. The Independent says Mrs Patel's daughter Hasina, 23, had been living in Lees Holme since January with her husband Rashid Facha - in his late 20s and of Pakistani extraction - and their eight-month-old daughter. A neighbour said Mr Facha had been missing since last Thursday.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/unmasking-the-bombers/2005/07/13/1120934290683.html

On the whole, 'Rashid Facha' seems to have been used in earlier reports. But it definitely seems to be the same person, lived in Dewsbury with a wife surnamed Patel and an 8-month-old child, and a mother-in-law living close by.

[CJCRANE]

7. any links?

not seeing anything on bbc website or coming up in google

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Slight spelling mistake

Lindsey Germaine (one or two foreign sources are saying 'Germail')