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January 7, 2006

UK: How Did Jobless Islamist Bomber Raise $190,000?

A curious report in the UK Telegraph discloses that Shehzad Tanweer, the 22-year old cricket-lover from Beeston who was one of the four bombers who killed 52 people on London Transport on 7 July, 2005, has left an estate with a net value of 120,000 pounds sterling.

The disclosure of his estate's value was reported in the Sun newspaper, and immediately raises questions. How come an individual who had held down no steady job since leaving school, apart from helping out in his dad's fish and chip shop on some evenings, and who only became a student shortly before he blew himself up, manage to accrue such wealth?

My own question here is, was it a financial inducement from those who ultimately organised the bombings? Tanweer had spent time at an Islamist training camp in Pakistan, run by Harkatul Mujahideen. The camp was at Mansehra, close to the Kashmiri border, and here Tanweer was trained in the use of explosives.

Tanweer was buried in Samoondran in the Punjab region of Pakistan on October 27, near the family's ancestral home. The first of the bombers to be buried, the Telegraph claimed a few days later that Tanweer's grave was guarded by police, in case it became a shrine for Islamic militants.

But the issue of the money, which should ultimately go to his family, is intriguing. His father, Mohammed Mumtaz Tanweer, 56, has consistently maintained the line that his Shehzad was "British" and he liked cricket, following the hackneyed notion that to like cricket is to exemplify Britishness. "As far as I can understand, my son was more British in his orientation than anything else. He had planned his career in sport. Even on the night before he died, he was playing cricket," Mr Tanweer said shortly after the blasts.

Tanweer junior was apparently miserly by nature on issues of money, or obsessive about money. On the morning of the attacks, before Tanweer killed eight individuals at Aldgate station, closed circuit TV showed him bickering with the cashier at a petrol station, claiming that he had been short-changed.

Tanweer had visited Pakistan twice in the company of Mohammed SIddique Khan, the leader of the cell, before the attacks. Security sources now acknowledge Tanweer as more of a "player" than had been previously realised, and investigators are now planning a full examination of his financial background.

His mother did not wish to answer questions about the reports, which included a statement from the probate office saying: "We have no information as to what the estate was worth before [deductions were] made. The only people who will know are the family and the solicitors".

Saddam Hussein used to pay Palestinian families of suicide bombers, before the Iraq invasion. It appears the money entered the account before the blast. Unless Tanweer was involved with drug-running or gun crime to accumulate such amounts, (which would contradict his family's rosy portrait of him), it seems that someone sent money to him for his role in 7/7.

The family may or may not be telling the truth. But if they are going to inherit this money, it would be in everyone's best interests if the exact sources of Tanweer's wealth are traced. It would be criminal to think that Tanweer's family may inherit blood money from terrorists. We will endeavour, as always, to keep you informed.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 7, 2006 9:56 AM

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Posted by: alastair sherringham at January 9, 2006 5:49 PM

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