Revealed: London bomber's links to Briton in suicide attack on Tel Aviv

[IndianaGreen]

Revealed: London bomber's links to Briton in suicide attack on Tel Aviv

Leeds man who blew up train at Edgware Road was associate of conspirators who murdered three in Israel bar in 2003
By Severin Carrell and Paul Lashmar
Published: 24 July 2005

British man who planned a suicide attack on Tel Aviv two years ago, raising fears that the network of Islamist hardliners is wider than first thought.

The Independent on Sunday has learnt that Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, who carried out the Edgware Road bombing, was friendly with Omar Sharif, one of two Britons who plotted a joint suicide attack in Israel in April 2003.

The disclosure comes as police continued their investigation yesterday into possible links between the four suicide bomb attacks on 7 July and the devices used in the botched attacks last Thursday. One theory is that the explosives used last week were either part of the same batch as those used on 7 July or made to the same formula - using commonly available chemicals to create the home-made explosive acetone peroxide.

Security experts believe Thursday's devices may have failed to explode because the explosives had degraded. Acetone peroxide is known to deteriorate quickly. Police now have samples from last Thursday's attacks to compare to unused explosives found in Leeds 12 days ago.

Police attempts to uncover the 7 July bombers' network of terrorist contacts are focusing on Khan's relationship with Sharif. Despite pre-recording a "suicide bombers" video in advance, Sharif failed to detonate his device; but his co-conspirator Asif Hanif carried out his attack, claiming three lives at Mike's Place in Tel Aviv. Sharif ran off, but his body was later washed up on a nearby coast.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article301235.ece

[Monkie]

1. arab man went on one day trip to Israel and doesnt raise suspicions

or get followed, bugged,arrested,renditioned and all the other things we do to suspected terrorists??
this after 9-11?
I think that is big news indeed.

from the article:
"A possible link emerged last week after it was disclosed that Khan had visited Israel for a day in February 2003, raising suspicions that he had been on a reconnaissance trip for Sharif and Hanif, both of Pakistani descent."

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Not 'arab', Muslim (British, of Pakistani descent) (n/t)

[Monkie]

4. oh lol, guilty as charged

and that from me :(
i just did the interchanging of arab for muslim
/me skips off to make a HUGE HUGE batch of HUMBLE pie!
i know better
thanks for the important correction (and distinction)

what i was trying to say was it would seem obvious to me in these days of heightened alert for a british born muslim who visits Israel for 1 day around the time 2 british born muslims partially succeed in a suicide attack which killed civilians for this to raise flags and trigger some kind of investigation.1 day visits by plane are a oddity in any country at any time (some business travel excepted).This would have raised flags even before the "war on terror" when we were in the "war on drugs"

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Not necessarily by plane

You can enter Israel by land from Jordan - see the Israeli webpage (and perhaps from Egypt too, I'm not sure) - and with a British passport, a one day visit might well be 'normal' (eg a visit to Eilat from Aqaba, or a tourist visit to the Israeli part of Jerusalem). In any case, entering that way wouldn't be obvious to British authorities, unless the Israelis pass on all their border information to the British for British passport holders.

[Monkie]

6. good point on eilat/jerusalem

it might not be obvious for british authorities,but after a terrorist attack by British muslims in Israel, Israel would have gone over all records?and liaised with the british authorities?
If we can think of them sneaking in through jordan i'm sure the israeli's will have done too.
it just seems like a really dumb thing to do if you are a muslim terrorist.

[IndianaGreen]

3. This is no Mafia with an internal structure

but there are valid questions that Blair has to answer, if he were to step behind the Union Jack, like for example why did the alert level was lowered in the UK prior to the bombings, and that despite the G8 meeting taking place.

The security services were more interested in protecting Bush and Blair than they were in protecting the people!