www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1702411,00.html
The Times and The Sunday Times electronic paper The Times and The Sunday Times electronic paper London bombs July 21, 2005 Top al-Qaeda Briton called Tube bombers before attack By Zahid Hussain in Islamabad, Daniel McGrory and Sean ONeill THE British al-Qaeda leader linked to the London terrorist attacks was be ing questioned by police in Pakistan last night after the discovery of m obile phone records detailing his calls with the suicide bombers. Haroon Rashid Aswat has emerged as the figure that Scotland Yard have bee n hunting since he flew out of Britain just hours before the attacks whi ch killed 56 people. Aswat, 30, who is believed to come from the same West Yorkshire town as o ne of the bombers, arrived in Britain a fortnight before the attacks to orchestrate final planning for the atrocity. He spoke to the suicide tea m on his mobile phone a few hours before the four men blew themselves up and killed fifty-two other people. Intelligence sources told The Times that during his stay Aswat visited th e home towns of all four bombers as well as selecting targets in London. Aswat has been known to Western intelligence services for more than three years after the FBI accused him of trying to set up al-Qaeda training c amps in the US. When he was arrested in a madrassa (religious school), A swat is understood to have been posing as a businessmen and using a fals e name. He was picked up in a raid at a madrassa at Sargodha, 90 miles f rom Islamabad, by Pakistani intelligence officials and flown to a jail i n the capital. Security sources there told The Times that he was armed with a number of guns, wearing an explosive belt and carrying around 17,000 in cash. He had a British passport and was about to flee across the border to Afghan istan. Aswat, who is thought to have stayed in the madrassa with two of the Brit ish suicide bombers, is being questioned over claims that one Mohammad Sidique Khan telephoned him on the morning of the July 7 attack. Intelligence sources claim that there were up to twenty calls between Asw at and two of the bombers in the days leading up to the bombing of three Tube trains and a double-decker bus. A senior Pakistani security source said: We believe this man had a crucial part to play in what happened in London. Tony Blair has telephoned President Musharraf about the crackdown on mili tants which has led to more than 200 arrests in Pakistan since the weeke nd. Officials in Islamabad say that eight men are directly linked to the Lond on investigation, and were in telephone contact with Shehzad Tanweer, 22 , and Khan, 30, a former primary school assistant. Aswat is believed to have had a ten-year association with militant groups and met Osama bin Laden while attending an al-Qaeda training camp at Kh alden in Afghanistan. FBI documents obtained by The Times reveal details of how a London-based cleric sent Aswat to America in 1999 to set up camps in Oregon for US-bo rn recruits. The papers indicate that Aswat spent three months in America and engaged in firearms and poisons training but decided against using a remote ranc h in Bly as an al-Qaeda camp. The CIA is keeping in close touch with Asw ats interrogation and British detectives are seeking permission to spea k to him. The FBI is to question a number of figures held in the US, including Jame s Ujaama, an American convert to Islam who met Aswat, and a second al-Qa eda emissary in Seattle. Ujaama has pleaded guilty to assisting the Taleban and is now a co-opera ting witness who has given details of Aswats activities in the US.
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