Dick Cheney 'Put Airline Bomb Plot Case in Jeopardy With Arrest Order of Rashid Rauf'

[tekisui]

Source: Times Online

Dick Cheney, the former US Vice President, nearly destroyed Britain's efforts to bring the airline bomb plotters to justice, police and intelligence experts said today.

By ordering the early arrest of Rashid Rauf, the bombers' link man in Pakistan, Washington forced British police to detain the suspects in the UK before all the evidence had been gathered, it was claimed.

Yesterday three British Muslims - Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain and Assad Sarwar - were finally convicted of plotting to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-air in a co-ordinated attack intended to surpass the horror of 9/11. But the plotters were arrested before they had bought the airline tickets that would have been the ultimate proof of their intentions. Police fear that several key figures of the plot have remained free.

Andy Hayman, who was the Metropolitan Police's Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations at the time of the plot, said he believed that the White House had grown jittery as the British updated them of the mounting evidence of a plot targeted at American cities.

Although Britain was running the investigation, including a massive round-the-clock surveillance of 200 suspects, the UK was not warned that Rauf - the al-Qaeda facilitator who kept the English plotters in touch with bomb experts and terrorism trainers in Pakistan - was going to be arrested.

"We believed the Americans had demanded the arrest and we were angry we had not been informed," said Mr Hayman, writing in The Times today.

"We were forced to take action, to arrest a number of suspects, which normally would have required days of planning and briefing... Two of the ringleaders were picked up as they met to discuss plans, and throughout the night and the following morning officers were bursting through doors in East London and High Wycombe.

"The arrest hampered our evidence-gathering and placed us in Britain under intolerable pressure."

more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6825778.ece

[madokie]

1. By the time they get ole dickie boy in a court room

They'll have so much evidence to convict him three or four times over. That mo'fo is going down if he doesn't up and die on us that is

[dipsydoodle]

2. Not the least reason

for the UK's displeasure was that over 2000 police etc were involved in the investigation due to its importance.

Incase anyone hasn't figured it yet - if they had succeeded what they were using would've left no residue.

[CJCRANE]

3. It was probably politically timed

just like the terror alerts and arrests of al-Qaeda #2's.