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June 20, 2006

UK: Confusion Over CIA Claims Reported In Book On Islamist Threat

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind (pictured left), has produced a new book, called The One Percent Doctrine, and some of its claims are sensational. The book appears, by all accounts, to be accurate and well-researched. But there is currently a controversy in Britain about one of its claims. The claim is made that the CIA warned Britain that one of the bombers who led the attacks upon London Transport on July 7, 2005, Mohammed Siddique Khan, was a potential terrorist. I will discuss those claims and the counter-claims shortly.

Firstly, it is important to describe the recent extracts from the book which have been released, and have created only shock, and no controversy. Suskind describes in his book how an attack upon New York's subway nearly came to fruition. The excerpt, reproduced in Time and discussed in the UK Times and CNN.

As CNN states, two former US officials have confirmed that the account described by Suskind did happen. They disputed his statement that the plot was abandoned 45 days before being carried out, but the real horror of the story, that al Qaeda had planned to disperse cyanide gas on the New York subway, is authentic. The story is more horrific, knowing that a similar attack was carried out on the Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995, by the Aum Shinrikyo sect, using sarin, and also the subsequent bomb attacks on London's underground system.

The attack had been planned by Ayman Zawahiri who had told Yusuf al-Ayeri, a Saudi al Qaeda operative, of the plot in January 2003. The plot had been to have several operatives based on train carriages, and to have them release hydrogen cyanide simultaneously. This gas, deadly when inhaled, was used in the gas chambers of the Nazis. For some reason, Zawahiri, the second in command of Al Qaeda, called off the attack.

US authorities first got wind of the plot from the laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia early in 2003. But the US did become aware of the plan, and enacted high security, in the eventuality of the case being revealed. Yusuf al-Ayeri, who was a CIA mole working for Al Qaeda, was subsequently killed by Saudi authorities in a shoot-out at an Al Qaeda base. Suskind has said that though the New York operatives were called off, they were not called back. Apparently they remain in the United States.

Earlier this month, the Telegraph reported that MI5 in Britain believe that terror operatives in Britain are planning a chemical attack on London, probably in a tube (subway) carriage, similar to the Tokyo attack of March 1995, which killed 12 and injured 6,000 people. Intelligence expected such an attack, using sarin or a similar nerve agent, would happen close to the upcoming anniversary of the London 7/7 attacks. It is perhaps for this reason that police were so zealous in their raid at Forest Gate recently. But unlike the "chemical vest" that the police were then seeking, MI5 believe the gas would be released from a canister or flask.

The leader of the four-man team which carried out the 7/7 attacks was Mohammed Siddique Khan, (pictured above right, when he worked at a Leeds school). Khan came from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. By the time the 30-year old had finished his suicide attack, his body was stored in 52 separate bags.

The confusion arising from claims in Ron Suskind's book began in Britain on Sunday, 19 June, when the Telegraph and other UK news sources reported that Suskind had claimed in his book that the CIA had discoered in 2003 that Mohammed Siddique Khan was dangerous. They reported their information immediately to MI5.

In October we wrote about how Mohammed Siddique Khan was known to be dangerous already, since 2001, and that he was actually put under surveillance. Apparently Khan travelled to Malaysia and the Philippines in 2001, where he met extremist leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah. Mohammed Siddique Khan certainly was under surveillance almost a year before the 7/7 attacks, but it appears that his surveillance was stopped before the London Transport attacks took place.

Suskind claimed that the FBI did not have the resources to monitor Khan, and so they placed his name on a "no-fly" list, barring him from gaining entry to the United States.

However, today's Telegraph reports that Whitehall is now denying that the CIA ever alerted them about Khan. The parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee was informed by MI5 that Siddique was unknown to them until after 7/7. That statement has subsequently been found to be false. They were aware of Khan, through other terror inquiries, but had lacked the resources to perform the necessary investigations into Khan's activities.

But in what may be a large and very red herring, suspicions are now arising that the CIA may have informed MI5 about another Mohammed Khan, this time referring to Mohammed Ajmal Khan (pictured), who is the same age as Mohammed Siddique Khan.

Today's Guardian states that Suskind's revelation has provoked angry cries for a public inquiry into the July 7 bombings. David Davis, the shadow home secretary has said that if the claims ae true, the case for such an inquiry was "unarguable".

The claims undermine the credibility of Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director of MI5, who claimed to the Intelligence and Security Committee that Mohammed Siddique Khan was not regarded as a threat.

Suskind's source for his information was Dan Coleman, also known as the "Professor" for his knowledge of Al Qaeda sympathisers. The story that he had confused Mohammed Siddique Khan with Mohammed Ajmal Khan is proving attractive for Britain's security services.

Ajmal Khan was linked in a terror trial to the Falls Church jihadist, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who received a 30 year jail sentence on March 29 this year. Suskind claims that Ali was contacted by Siddique Khan, though it appears Ajmal Khan had visited him.

The book by Suskind claims that Siddique Khan visited the US and that the CIA and FBI had monitored him, but evidence for this is scant. Siddique Khan does not appear to have ever entered the US.

But Ajmal Khan, who lived in Coventry, in the Midlands, had visited the US and had spoken about blowing up synagogues. Ajmal Khan had been arrested in Coventry on Saturday, March 5, 2005, four months before the 7/7 attacks. He was accused of funding terror organisations, notably Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Kashmiri separatist group, responsible for the Delhi bombings of October 29 last year, which killed 59 people.

As we reported, Mohammed Ajmal Khan was March 17 to nine years' jail for his part in funding the terror organisation.

Yesterday, Mr Suskind said: "There is no doubt from the many sources that I interviewed in the US for my book, there is no doubt this incident involved Mohammad Sidique Khan."

Keywords: Mohammed Siddique Khan, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Tayba, Lashkar-i-Toiba

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 20, 2006 3:58 PM

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