[Telegraph-UK] Duncan Gardham and Gordon Rayner - On Monday, British police admitted that up to five would-be bombers may still be on the loose, as a bugged conversation between the plotters in their east London bomb factory revealed they had recruited up to 18 people. To date, only 13 people have been arrested in connection with the plot. Police were forced to move in early to arrest the gang after a jittery President Bush put pressure on the Pakistani authorities to arrest Rashid Rauf, their al-Qaeda contact in Pakistan. MI5 had hoped to continue gathering intelligence on the remaining members of the cell. Ironically, Rauf escaped from Pakistani custody 16 months after he was detained and remains on the run. Intelligence services believe Abdul Hadi al-Iraq, said to be al-Qaeda's number three, was behind the July 7, July 21 and liquid bomb plots and that members of all three plots may have met each other in Pakistan.
2008-09-09 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive