Issue of the week December 17, 2006

There is a big question as to why Rauf was touted as the "smoking gun" by both Pakistan and Britain. Why did Islamabad not extradite Rauf when London made a request to that effect?

An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, this week dropped charges against Rashid Rauf, the alleged mastermind behind a plot to blast 10 transatlantic aircraft.

The alleged plot came to public light when the British police announced on August 10 this year that an al-Qaeda terror cell operating in Britain had been busted and several suspects arrested.

While Britain arrested 25 suspects, Pakistan announced that it was the arrest of Rauf that provided a lead to thwart the terror plot.

Rauf, father of a suspect arrested in connection with last years' London bombings, is alleged to have confessed that the plot involved blasting of at least ten aircraft. He is reported to have said that they were planning to use liquid bombs which would be made in the toilets of the aircraft by mixing hydrogen peroxide with other chemicals to be smuggled in as food or cosmetics. Rauf arrived in Pakistan in 2002 and is alleged to have had links with the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Kashmiri militant group, suspected of being involved in the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliamentary complex.

Authorities in Britain and Pakistan claimed that they had been keeping a close watch on the movements of the suspects before they swooped on them. The arrests and the announcement of the alleged terror plot led to strict security measures at airports in Europe, the United States, Canada and elsewhere — causing flights delays and inconveniencing tens of thousands of passengers who remained stranded for days in airports.

Pakistani officials said Rauf, who is said to have had close links with Kashmiri militant groups, had been placed under surveillance for six months with his telephone calls and internet communations being monitored.

Britain said several of the suspects arrested had visited Pakistan prior to their arrests and had met suspected al-Qaeda operatives and Rauf.

British officials claimed that the suspects were planning a dry run when they were arrested.

When the British officials were pressed for solid evidence that there actually existed a terror plot, they cited Rauf's confession.
What are they going to say now after the Rawalpinidi anti-terror court this week ruled that there was not enough evidence to back the terror charges against Rauf. He was handed over to another court where he faces criminal charges not amounting to terrorism.

The announcement of the plot came at a time when Israel was blasting Lebanon into smithereens. This column then asked whether Britain was coming out with an alleged terror plot just to shift the world's attention from Israel's war crimes which had the tacit support of both Washington and London.

President George W. Bush in a brief statement said the plot was a "stark reminder that this nation (the US) is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom." He said what he said because he apparently believed that if he refreshed the minds of the Americans about the boogey of terrorism, he could bolster his flagging support and help his party win the November elections. Did the Bush camp prod the British authorities to come out with the terror plot story to save Bush and Israel's Ehud Olmert, the baby killer of Lebanon?

The Western media, reflecting Bush's interpretation of the plot story, also went to town with the news which hit headlines in the aftermath of Israel's massacre of civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana where missiles and shells signed by Israeli children killed scores of Lebanese children.

The Western media, barring a few, said it was a "chilling reminder" that the war on terror was still on. The fact that there were many holes in the British and Pakistani stories did not matter.

For instance, western law enforcement authorities had been aware that terrorists would one day use liquid explosives ever since the Philippines authorities in 1996 arrested a terror suspect and alleged tha the had in his possession material that could be used in the making of liquid bombs.

However, chemical experts say it is impossible for anyone to make a liquid explosive under normal conditions. A liquid bomb could only be made in high-tech labs under sub zero temperatures, they say.

Besides, of the 25 suspects Britain arrested in August, many did not have even passports. So how did the British authorities come to the conclusion that they were planning to board aircraft to carry out their plans? Eight of the suspects were later discharged and the cases against others are still continuing.

Now that Rauf has been cleared of terror charges, the cases against other suspects are likely to weaken. There is a big question as to why Rauf was touted as the "smoking gun" by both Pakistan and Britain.

Is there collusion between London, Washington and Islamabad?

Why did Islamabad not extradite Rauf when London made a request to that effect? It only allowed British police to question him in Pakistan on the basis that there is no treaty on extradition between the two countries. Probably, Rauf may be privy to some secrets that Pakistan does not want Britain to know about.

It is suspected that prior to his arrest Rauf had been used by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence for some secret operations. That intelligence agencies use terror operatives as double agents and even treble agents is nothing unusual.

The plot thickens, doesn't it? Most of the suspects Britain arrested were members of the now outlawed Al-Muhajiroun group.

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, executive director of the Brighton-based Institute for Policy Research and Development, in an article on the terror plot said that Omar Bakri Mohammed, the leader of the London-based Al-Muhajiroun group, which operated under the names of the Saved Sect and al-Ghuraaba, was recruited by MI6 in the mid-1990s to recruit British Muslims to fight in Kosovo.

Ahmed said that despite being implicated in the 7/7 London bombings, the British government exiled Bakri to Lebanon where he resides safely outside of British jurisdiction, and thus effectively immune from investigation and prosecution. One inevitably wonders about the nature of Bakri's corrupt relationship with British intelligence services today, he said.

According to Syed Shahzad, Pakistan bureau chief of Asia Times, Al-Muhajiroun was handled by ISI. The plot thickens further, doesn't it?