British Inquiry Shifts Away From Foreign Aid for Plots
By RAYMOND BONNER, STEPHEN GREY and DON VAN NATTA JR. New York Times July 31, 2005 This article was reported by Raymond Bonner, Stephen Grey and Don Van Natta Jr., and written by Mr. Bonner and Mr. Van Natta. LONDON, July 30 - As police officers investigating the two London bombing attacks questioned suspects rounded up in London and Rome, they have begun to explore the possibility that both were largely homegrown efforts with minimal outside support, senior British investigators said Saturday. They also said they had not established any solid evidence linking the attack on July 7, which killed 52 along with the four bombers, and the failed bombings on July 21. The British officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing criminal investigation, emphasized that their investigation was still in its early stages and that their analyses might change. "The point is simply that so far there is not a foreign connection that is the major focus of our inquiry," a senior police official said. Three arrests on Friday, two in London and one in Rome, meant that all four suspects in the attempted attacks on July 21 are now in custody, along with a fifth man who might have also been involved. Scotland Yard is now trying to determine whether either team was helped by a support network. In particular, they are focusing on the question of whether a Britain-based mastermind or bomb-maker helped with the July 7 and July 21 plots. Questioning of the suspects may take time, and their comments may have to be carefully weighed, the police said. Meanwhile, the investigators are looking closely at the July 21 bombs, which failed to detonate. Forensic evidence shows that the bombs used in both attacks were crude, homemade devices that were not highly sophisticated. So far, the police have little evidence pointing to a foreigner entering the country and helping either group build the bombs. "Everything that we have suggests that these could have been made with knowledge in this country," a police official said. "These are the type of devices you can make yourself with information you could acquire from the Internet, or other extremist training manuals." Photographs of several homemade bombs, including a milk bottle with nails attached, have appeared on television and in newspapers. The devices are strikingly similar to bombs found in Indonesia recently, a security official based there said. "They are very common, very easy to make," the official said. The explosive material is triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. Making bombs with that material requires little more than millimeter measuring glasses, a well-calibrated thermometer and a stove - and patience. Because of the high volatility of the chemicals, it must be done with care, but it does not require lengthy training or a degree in chemistry, experts say. "It is very unsophisticated, and that is one of the scary bits," said Paul Beaver, a defense analyst in London. British officials also minimized the importance of two men they initially believed might have played roles in the July 7 attacks. One is a suspected terrorist arrested in Zambia last week, Haroon Rashid Aswat; the other is the Egyptian chemist, Magdy el-Nashar. Mr. Aswat fell under suspicion early in the investigation because he had trained at camps for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and had been a senior aide to Abu Hamza al-Masri, the blind militant cleric who preached vitriolic anti-Western sermons at the Finsbury Mosque in northern London. Investigators also found that calls had been made from his cellphone to West Yorkshire, where three of the July 7 bombers lived. But investigators said they now had determined that none of the calls were to the bombers themselves. "For now, this man or any role he may have does not figure, to any degree of importance, in our inquiry," said a British security official. "Of course, this could change." Investigators also initially suspected that Mr. Aswat had entered Britain two weeks before the July 7 attacks, on a ferry from Belgium, and left the day of the attacks or the day before. But officials said they were now almost certain that the man who entered the country was not Mr. Aswat, and that Mr. Aswat was in South Africa at the time. Several weeks before the July 7 bombings, the South African government alerted the Americans that Mr. Aswat was in their country. Mr. Aswat is also wanted in the United States on allegations that he had tried to set up an Al Qaeda camp in Oregon in late 1999. The Americans asked South Africa to arrest Mr. Aswat and turn him over to the United States without going through formal extradition proceedings. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has taken at least 100 men into custody under the policy of rendition, and many have been sent to foreign countries, like Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Uzbekistan, countries known to use torture. The South Africans contacted the British government, because Mr. Aswat is a British citizen. The British balked at the United States' request for his arrest and deportation to the United States. A British Foreign Office official said the government was strongly opposed to extralegal renditions. "The U.K. would not stand in the way of any legitimate request to arrest anyone suspected of involvement in terrorism or any crime, but we would expect that arrest to be conducted through a proper legal process," he said. "That is by way of a proper extradition warrant." The British government will send a consular official to see Mr. Aswat, but will not send any police officials to question him, British officials said. They did not exclude the possibility that British intelligence officials might question him, and a European intelligence official said it was his government's understanding that they would. The chemist, Mr. Nashar, was originally suspected as a possible bomb-maker. But a Scotland Yard official said he was "no longer an active part" of the police investigation. The police might still want to talk to him as a witness, the official added. Mr. Nashar, a graduate student in chemistry at Leeds University, had come under suspicion because he had lent the keys to his apartment to one of the men who carried out the July 7 bombings, and he left for Egypt 10 days before the blast. He was arrested in Cairo, but he insisted that he had gone to Egypt on vacation. Egyptian officials have said repeatedly that Mr. Nashar has denied any involvement. He is still believed to be in custody in Cairo. Souad Mekhennet and Heather Timmons contributed reporting from London for this article. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h9dbs81/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1122909257/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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