http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
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Tube bomb suspect fled Britain by Eurostar
By George Jones and John Steele
(Filed: 01/08/2005)
In pics: Siege in west London
The Government was under pressure last night to reintroduce
permanent passport checks at all British border points after it
emerged that one suspect in the botched July 21 suicide bombings was
able to flee to the Continent unchallenged by stepping on to a
Eurostar train at Waterloo station.
Geoff Hoon, the Leader of the Commons, admitted that there
was "concern" in the Government that Hussain Osman, accused of being
the Shepherd's Bush Tube bomber, was believed to have slipped away
by train last Tuesday when border security was supposed to have been
at its tightest.
Hussain Osman: tracked by mobile phone calls
He indicated that the Government was urgently considering
reintroducing permanent checks by immigration officers on the
passports of those leaving and entering at the Eurostar terminus and
other embarkation points.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said Osman's escape showed
the "vital and immediate necessity" of getting a grip on the
country's "porous" borders.
Osman, 27, who was born in Ethiopia but who has a British passport,
fled to Paris then to Rome, where he was held on Friday after being
tracked by mobile telephone calls.
Mr Hoon promised that the circumstances would be investigated
urgently but the Home Office refused to comment on reports that
Osman's passport was checked only by French immigration officials
based at Waterloo.
Osman, also known as Hamdi Isaac, apparently got through despite
CCTV pictures of the bombing suspects being displayed prominently at
Waterloo.
But police sources said the image of Osman was the least distinct
and helpful of the four suspects. If he left the country on Tuesday,
it could have been nearly 24 hours before the police had positively
identified him by name.
His escape and the prospect of a lengthy extradition process to
secure his return to stand trial in Britain is a serious
embarrassment for the Government.
Outgoing British passport checks were abandoned at the Eurostar
terminus last year. The Home Office said that checks by British
immigration officials at embarkation points were reintroduced at the
request of the police after the July 7 bombings but lifted on July
17. They were introduced again after the July 21 attacks and were
still in force.
Asked on BBC News 24 whether the passports of passengers leaving
Waterloo were not checked, Mr Hoon said: "I understand that concern
and I am aware that the Home Office will be looking at that."
He said it was important that Britain was able to identify those
coming into the country as well as leaving it. That was one of the
arguments the Government had used to support the proposal for
identity cards "because it is vitally important that we are able to
say who is in the UK at any given time".
The arrest of the July 21 suspects was a welcome development, Mr
Hoon said. But the public should not drop its guard.
Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, defended police plans to
pick out young Muslims for stop-and-search as part of the security
response to the bombings.
Miss Blears, who is in charge of the department while Charles
Clarke, the Home Secretary, is on holiday, told the BBC that she
believed the Muslim community would accept such searches as a
necessary response.
Ian Johnston, the chief constable of British Transport Police, made
clear in a newspaper interview that his officers would not shy away
from concentrating on those groups most likely to present the
greatest danger.
He told the Mail on Sunday: "We should not bottle out over this. We
should not waste time searching old white ladies."
Mr Johnston said he was confident there was every sign that the
Muslim community understood the predicament that officers faced and
that it would continue to support the police even if young Asians
became the focus of most searches.
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the civil rights group Liberty,
said that "racial profiling" was a disaster and could play into the
hands of those who wanted to recruit terrorists.
She said: "If you search people of a particular race or description
while letting others through, it does not take long for a terrorist
group to learn ways of placing their lethal cargo with those who do
not meet the profile."
The Home Office said it was launching a series of meetings with
Muslim community leaders across the country to try to foster good
relations after the bomb attacks.
MPs are also being asked to consult local Muslim communities over
the summer holiday and to provide information on their views to the
Home Office.
A further seven suspects were arrested in the early hours in
Brighton yesterday as part of the investigation into the attempted
bombings on July 21.
Six men and one woman were held after unarmed officers from Scotland
Yard and Sussex police raided two homes in the resort.
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