He was in US custody - why did Ashcroft let him go? Seems he's not the only double-agent that US intelligence has let run around plotting bomb attacks in the UK.
More than one related suspect has been in U.S. custody, and was inexplicably released, or had been known to US intelligence to be providing explosives to al-Qaeda in the UK and running terrorist training camps, but was allowed to run around the world doing this for many months.
There was a big flap in the UK on 7/15 over the US "outing" of Noor Khan -- could this be the American counter-spin? Until Landis linked Aswat to MI6, reporting pointed to apparent US-run double-agents involved with the 7/7 bombings. The Telegraph article merely highlights the growing split between US and UK intelligence over the (mis)handling of agents provocateur run by both agencies. Please see, below. My DU post of a few days ago on this below:
US-UK relations are being wrecked because London bombers are tied to US
Edited on Thu Jul-28-05 09:41 AM by leveymg
intelligence. Last year, DHS interfered with British and Pakistani counter-terrorism operations, outing an important informant. Not only was this apparently timed to advance Bush Administration partisan political interests, U.S. intelligence also failed to warn UK about details of the tube bomb plot.
Furthermore, there were at least two U.S. double-agents involved in planning the Tube bombing operation and providing explosives to al-Qaeda cells in London.
You need to read three articles:
1) "Tick, Tick Boom" (DHS Failed to Warn UK About Tube Bomb Plot)
http://www.radaronline.com/web-only/politics/2005/07/ti ...
In the wake of 7/7, the Brits are livid over their government's intelligence failures. Just wait until they hear about ours.
by John Aravosis
SNIP
The British public's ire over the bombings only increased after it was discovered that police had one of the suspects in custody months ago, but released him after determining he posed no threat. No doubt the Brits will be even more pissed once they realize the Bush administration twice botched efforts that could have helped prevent the attack. The first screw up was back in 2002. According to the Seattle Times, the US had in its custody at that time Haroon Aswat, a man federal prosecutors believe helped set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon in late 1999. For reasons no one can quite figure out, John Ashcroft's Justice Department blocked efforts by its own Seattle-based prosecutors to seek a grand-jury indictment of Aswat. Why is that relevant? Aswat has now been tied to the London bombings (the Brits think he was in cell phone contact with at least two of the bombers in the days preceding the attack).
The second screw up is even more astounding.
Last summer, just after the Democratic convention, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge issued another of his many Code Orange terror alerts. The secretary-who-cried-terrorist was facing increasing criticism for politicizing the terror warnings in the months before the presidential election, so this time he did something different. Secretary Ridge gave the public details, and lots of `em. "Reports indicate that Al Qaeda is targeting several specific buildings," Ridge said at an August 1, 2004 press conference, "including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia; Prudential Financial in Northern New Jersey; and Citigroup buildings and the New York Stock Exchange in New York." Those details were enough for the New York Times, in less than twenty-four hours, to uncover and break the rest of the story. The Times reported on August 2 that US officials had announced the terror alert after receiving hard evidence that Al Qaeda was targeting New York and DC financial centers. The evidence came from the laptop computer of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, the Times said, an Al Qaeda operative arrested in Pakistan several weeks prior who was now working as a US mole inside Al Qaeda. That's when all hell broke loose.
While it remains unclear who spilled Khan's name--the Americans blame the Pakistanis, and vice versa--the Times story created a panic in English and Pakistani law enforcement circles. Khan's Al Qaeda buddies in both countries, upon learning that their friend was a double agent, quickly went into hiding. Both British and Pakistani officials were "furious" with the Americans for helping to unmask their spy, according to the New York Daily News, and the Brits had to launch a series of high-speed chases to catch Khan's fleeing cabal. A senior Pakistani official told the Associated Press "this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some Al Qaeda suspects ran away."
Now back to 7/7.
There was an important piece of information not revealed last August by either Tom Ridge or the Times. As ABC News reported after the London bombing, Khan's laptop not only contained information about US financial centers, but also evidence that Al Qaeda was planning to target the London Tube. ABC, of course, forgot the clincher: How Bush's leaky goon squad sabotaged a multinational operation to thwart what would ultimately become the successful London bombings of July 7, 2005.
SNIP
2) Effort here to charge London suspect was blocked
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/20023 ...
By Hal Bernton and David Heath
Seattle Times staff reporters
The Justice Department blocked efforts by its prosecutors in Seattle in 2002 to bring criminal charges against Haroon Aswat, according to federal law-enforcement officials who were involved in the case.
British authorities suspect Aswat of taking part in the July 7 London bombings, which killed 56 and prompted an intense worldwide manhunt for him.
But long before he surfaced as a suspect there, federal prosecutors in Seattle wanted to seek a grand-jury indictment for his involvement in a failed attempt to set up a terrorist-training camp in Bly, Ore., in late 1999. In early 2000, Aswat lived for a couple of months in central Seattle at the Dar-us-Salaam mosque.
snip
"It was really frustrating," said a former Justice Department official involved in the case. "Guys like that, you just want to sweep them up off the street."
snip
At the time, however, federal prosecutors chose not to indict Aswat for reasons that are not clear. Asked why Aswat wasn't indicted, a federal official in Seattle replied, "That's a great question."
more
The Seattle Time story, updated version here:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/20023 ...
3) Pakistani American Aiding London Probe
Man in U.S. Custody Has Ties to Al Qaeda
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20 ...
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 25, 2005; Page A14
It is safe to assume that most people would not react to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in quite the same way as Mohammed Junaid Babar.
SNIP
Thus began the strange jihadist odyssey of Babar, 30, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Yankees fan who said he gave up a $70,000-a-year job as a computer programmer to join al Qaeda operatives in plotting attacks against U.S. soldiers and targets in Britain.
Now in U.S. custody . . . SNIP
The revelation that Babar is linked to the July 7 London attacks, which killed at least 56 including the four suicide bombers, is only the latest connection to emerge between the grandson of Pakistani immigrants and al Qaeda.
In addition to his connection to the London bombers, Babar has admitted in court proceedings to supplying bomb-making materials to a Pakistani cell in the United Kingdom that had plotted to blow up restaurants, pubs and train stations there. (When the cell was broken up in 2004, British authorities discovered more than 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the same material used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.) Furthermore, Babar said in federal court in Manhattan during a plea hearing last summer that he spent much of 2003 and early 2004 in the Waziristan province of Pakistan, supplying money and materials -- including night-vision goggles, sleeping bags and other items -- to "a high-ranking al Qaeda official" for use in the fight against U.S. and Northern Alliance forces across the border in Afghanistan. He also admitted to setting up a jihad training camp in the region, a court transcript shows.
Babar also is believed to have links to Issa al-Hindi, the operative involved in surveillance of financial buildings in the United States before the Sept. 11 attacks.
SNIP
Although his arrest and prosecution last year in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York went largely unnoticed, U.S. counterterrorism and law enforcement officials say they have long recognized Babar's importance as a link to major al Qaeda players.
SNIP
U.S. counterterrorism officials said Babar first hit their radar screen in late 2001, after the incendiary comments he made to ITN were broadcast. But it was not until April 2004, after Babar had returned to New York and was put under surveillance by the FBI, that he was arrested. Babar has told authorities that he recognized Khan, one of the London bombers, as a person he met in Pakistan and that he accompanied him to a jihad camp in the area, sources said. Although Babar could face as many as 70 years in prison, he is likely to receive a lesser sentence for cooperating with U.S. authorities, and a sentencing date has not been scheduled, officials said.
*****************
These revelations show how deeply entwined US intelligence operatives have become in the London cells. It also shows that MI-5 and DHS have a long way to go before they learn how to prevent international terrorist attacks. Obviously, allowing double-agents to run around the world isn't the way to do things. If I were a British MP, I would demand answers of Mr. Blair. If I were Mr. Blair, I might recall the Ambassador from Washington.
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