Pakistan said today that its security forces had arrested a "key person" in the alleged transatlantic terror plot, who is the brother of one of the 24 men held by police in a dramatic dawn swoop in the UK yesterday.
Rashid Rauf was arrested in the Punjab on Wednesday, hours before the simultaneous raids in Birmingham, Buckinghamshire and London that brought Britain’s airports to a standstill yesterday.
Among the two men arrested in Birmingham was Tayib Rauf, Mr Rauf’s brother.
In total, Pakistani security forces arrested seven people, including at least two British nationals, thought to be connected with the alleged plot to blow up US passenger jets heading from Britain to the United States.
John Reid, the Home Secretary, has said that the alleged plot could have been more destructive than 9/11 had it gone ahead.
A Pakistani Foreign Ministry statement named Mr Rauf as a "key person" in the plot and said that the arrests underscored "the very important role that has been played by Pakistan in breaking this international terrorist network".
Without elaborating, the Foreign Ministry said there were "indications of Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda connection".
The arrests in Pakistan came after weeks, even several months, of surveillance on the basis of information provided by MI5, which had been monitoring the UK end of the plot since last year.
Last night US officials told reporters that substantial sums of money had been wired from Pakistan to two of the alleged ringleaders in Britain, so that they could purchase airline tickets.
One report said they were planning a "dry run" to see if the mechanics of the plot worked - and hinted that this was what decided the security services and Special Branch to move in, ending a huge surveillance operation that had lasted a year.
Today further details were emerging about the 24 UK suspects being questioned by detectives at Paddington Green police high security station in West London.
The majority of those arrested in the UK are understood to be young British Asian men of Pakistani descent, many holding dual nationality.
At least two of the suspects are believed to be British males who have converted to Islam, including Umar Islam, 28, from High Wycombe, who was born Brian Young, and Abdul Waheed, 21, from High Wycombe, formerly known as Don Stewart-Whyte, who is believed to be the son of a former Conservative constituency agent.
Today the police were refusing to confirm the identities of any of those arrested, or reports that at least one is a woman. The names of 19 men aged between 17 and 36 were however released last night by the Treasury, which has frozen their assets, using United Nations powers to tackle the financing of terrorism. Several are understood to have had thousands of pounds in their bank accounts.
Meanwhile forensic officers were continuing their searches at homes and businesses in Walthamstow, High Wycombe and Birmingham. Unconfirmed sources reported that a "martyrdom" video, of the type made by suicide bombers, had been found at one address.
The Evening Standard reported that two airline tickets for United Airlines flights from London to America today and Wednesday had also been discovered, but this was not confirmed. The Standard speculated that the second ticket indicated that next Wednesday - August 16, or 16/8 - was to have been the date of the alleged plot.
Mr Reid today thanked the Pakistani authorities for their help and said today that Britain's security level would remain at "critical", the highest level. He said that although police believed they had arrested the main suspects, he could not rule out further arrests.
ABC, the US television network, was however reporting sources in Washington saying that five suspects were still at large.
Some in the British Muslim community have voiced scepticism about the existence of the plot, claiming that the timing was too convenient in drawing attention away from the crisis in the Middle East.
Mr Reid today urged all communities in Britain to make common cause against terrorism, stressing that ordinary people had shared values of tolerance, democracy, and the peaceful resolution of problems. Causing the deaths of innocent civilians was never justified, he said.
Air travellers were reported to be experiencing fewer difficulties today, although more than 300 flights from London airports were cancelled.
Airlines said that most passengers had heeded the warnings in the news media that all hand baggage had been banned, except for wallets, travel documents, and limited medicines, sanitary items and baby food carried in a clear plastic bag. As a result, the delays were much shorter.
A meeting of the National Aviation Security Committee this afternoon will discuss how long the current heightened security measures will last, and what other measures were needed to stay ahead of the terrorists, said Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary. He promised that the draconian measures were being kept under constant review.
Gatwick reported that 44 flights had been cancelled, British Airways cancelled 120 flights from Heathrow, including six long haul flights to the United States, EasyJet cancelled 112 flights - mainly to UK destinations that could equally be reached by train - and Ryanair cancelled more than 30 flights. Many regional airports were however reporting near normal levels of service.
The alleged plot which has been intercepted was intended to "commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale", Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday.
Meetings of the Government’s Cobra emergency unit were told that the first wave of bombings was to have targeted five aircraft leaving British airports in the next few days. The destinations, US officials said, were New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. The plotters are said to have studied the timetables of three US airlines: American, Continental and United.
Security sources said that a second wave of attacks had been considered, with as many as 12 aircraft to be attacked.
Surveillance on internet traffic between the suspected terrorists indicated that they had considered setting off their devices simultaneously in mid-Atlantic but had also discussed trying to blow up the aircraft as they circled above the destination cities. The aim was to cause maximum death and destruction in the air and on American soil.
US sources said that the main fear of British authorities was that terrorists planned to hide micro-bombs in false bottoms built into opaque energy drink bottles, enabling them to still drink the contents.
The devices may have been liquid explosive but experts said that it was more likely to have been a more stable peroxide material similar to that used in the 7/7 attacks last year.
The apparent intention was to explode the device using a detonator concealed in the flash mechanism of a disposable camera to puncture a hole in the aircraft skin. MP3 players or electronic key fobs could also have been used to trigger an explosion.
Michael Chertoff, the US Homeland Security Secretary, said: "The conception, the large number of people involved, the sophisticated design of the devices that were being considered and the sophisticated nature of the plan, all suggest that this group that came together to conspire was very determined, and very skilled, and very capable."
Mr Chertoff said that the plan had many of the characteristics of an al-Qaeda operation — a so-called terrorist spectacular aimed at multiple targets. He added that it was "well advanced" and "really quite close to the execution phase".
The plot, which at first was considered too far-fetched, had echoes of an al-Qaeda plan, codenamed Bojinka and discovered in the Philippines in the mid-1990s, to use explosives in bottles in attacks on aircraft.
Reports from Pakistani intelligence, suggesting the direct involvement of senior Kashmiri militants linked to al-Qaeda, convinced British intelligence that the plot had to be taken seriously. Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch was brought in to the operation last December.
"We have been looking at meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people," said Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commisioner and head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch. "This has involved close co-operation, not only between agencies and police forces in the UK, but also internationally."
Pakistan has repeatedly been accused of not doing enough to stamp out terror groups, that are alleged to have provided training, expertise and support to terror cells planning atrocities in Western countries.
Several al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal territory in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Their network has forged links with some outlawed Pakistani terror groups, including Jaish' e Mohammed, Harkat ul Mujahideen and Lashkar-i-Taiba.
There are strong links between Pakistani emigrant communities living in Britain and the three groups, thanks to the large Kashmiri diaspora living in Britain. A steady and substantial supply of funds flows from Britain to the banned groups, and young British-born Muslims have been recruited to carry out terror operations in Kashmir and Afghanistan.
At least two of the British Muslims involved in the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks, that killed 52 innocent people last year on the London Tube and bus network, had visited Pakistan months earlier, raising suspicions they had ties to militants in the country.
Pakistan retorts that it is co-operating fully with Western security agencies, and has arrested hundreds of al-Qaeda members since joining the US-led global war on terrorism following the 9/11 attacks. Despite those efforts, President Pervez Musharraf’s government still struggles to change perceptions that Pakistan is a haven for militancy.
Nato countries with troops in Afghanistan are frustrated that Pakistan has not done more to staunch the flow of Taleban fighters involved in a cross-border insurgency, diplomats say.
UNDER ARREST
These are the names of 19 men being held by the police after the foiled plot and whose assets the Treasury has sought to have frozen.
Umir Hussain, 24, London E14
Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17
Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17
Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17
Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe
Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17
Cossor Ali, 24, London E17
Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham
Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17
Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17
Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington
Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17
Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe
Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10
Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe
Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe
Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17
Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5
Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest
Plus: Abdul Waheed, 21, from High Wycombe (formerly known as Don Stewart-Whyte)
