01► Financial Sanctions
02► Chemical Mix
03► Muslim Leaders Informed
04► Plot Echo’s Bojinka
05► Pakistani Intelligence Helped

FINANCIAL SANCTIONS: TERRORIST FINANCING

Aug 11 2006 - This news release is issued in respect of the financial measures taken against terrorism.

The Bank of England, as agent for Her Majesty’s Treasury, has today directed that any funds held for or on behalf of the individuals named in the Annex to this News Release must be frozen, and that no funds should be made available, directly or indirectly to any person, except under the authority of a licence.

Financial institutions and other persons are requested to check whether they maintain any accounts or otherwise hold any funds, other financial assets, economic benefits and economic resources for the individuals named in the Annex and, if so, they should freeze the accounts or other funds and report their findings to the Bank of England.

The names in the Annex are in addition to those listed in previous Bank Notices containing directions under Article 4 of the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001 (S.I. 2001/3365) and under Article 8 of the Al-Qa’ida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/111, as amended).

Previous Notices and news releases related to Terrorism, Al-Qa’ida and the Taliban and a consolidated list of individuals and entities subject to these and other UK financial sanctions regimes are available from the Financial Sanctions pages of the Bank of England’s website.

1. ALI, Abdula, Ahmed
DOB: 10/10/1980
Address: Walthamstow, London, United Kingdom
2. ALI, Cossor
DOB: 04/12/1982
Address: London, United Kingdom, E17
3. ALI, Shazad, Khuram
DOB: 11/06/1979
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
4. HUSSAIN, Nabeel
DOB: 10/03/1984
Address: London, United Kingdom, E4
5. HUSSAIN, Tanvir
DOB: 21/02/1981
Address: Leyton, London, United Kingdom, E10
6. HUSSAIN, Umair
DOB: 09/10/1981
Address: London, United Kingdom, E14
7. ISLAM, Umar
DOB: 23/04/1978
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
8. KAYANI, Waseem
DOB: 28/04/1977
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
9. KHAN, Assan, Abdullah
DOB: 24/10/1984
Address: London, United Kingdom, E17
10. KHAN, Waheed, Arafat
DOB: 18/05/1981
Address: London, United Kingdom, E17
11. KHATIB, Osman, Adam
DOB: 07/12/1986
Address: London, United Kingdom, E17
12. PATEL, Abdul, Muneem
DOB: 17/04/1989
Address: London, United Kingdom, E5
13. RAUF, Tayib
DOB: 26/04/1984
Address: Birmingham, United Kingdom
14. SADDIQUE, Muhammed, Usman
DOB: 23/04/1982
Address: Walthamstow, London, United Kingdom, E17
15. SARWAR, Assad
DOB: 24/05/1980
Address: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
16. SAVANT, Ibrahim
DOB: 19/12/1980
Address: London, United Kingdom, E17
17. TARIQ, Amin, Asmin
DOB: 07/06/1983
Address: Walthamstow, London, United Kingdom, E17
18. UDDIN, Shamin, Mohammed
DOB: 22/11/1970
Address: Stoke Newington, London, United Kingdom
19. ZAMAN, Waheed
DOB: 27/05/1984
Address: London, United Kingdom, E17

CHEMICAL MIX COULD CREATE DEADLY FLIGHT BLAST
► Timesonline
Aug 10 2006 - The most effective way of smuggling explosive liquids onto a commercial airliner without detection would be to use two stable fluids that can be mixed together in a toilet cubicle to make a bomb, chemists said yesterday.

While most conventional liquid explosives are too unstable or easily detected to be suitable, several fluids that are not themselves explosive can be readily combined to trigger a blast.

A prime candidate for this would be triacetone triperoxide (TATP), the explosive used by the July 7 bombers. Its two raw ingredients are both liquids, which could be carried on board in in containers such as bottles of soft drinks or contact lens solution. A small detonator could be hidden in an i-pod or mobile phone, drawing power from its battery.

The two chemicals would be mixed to make TATP, which is a crystalline white powder. Normally, this has to be done at low temperatures to make the explosive more stable, but this would not necessarily be an issue if the aim was to ignite it immediately.

A problem is that the solid has to be dried before it becomes a reliable explosive, and it can be difficult to detonate, as attested by the failure of the attempted suicide attacks on London on July 21 last year. Some formulations, however, would be relatively easy to set off with a simple detonator, or even with a match or lighter.

Andrea Sella, senior lecturer in chemistry at University College London, said: "It would be difficult, but I could certainly conceive of these people taking individual compounds, and mixing them together in the loos. These people are so motivated that they might be nuts enough to set up a chemistry lab in the toilets.
"TATP is something I imagine might be possible to make on an aircraft. You need two lots of liquid, and though these are pretty runny and you'd have to disguise them, it could be possible. Contact lens solution is runny. You then get a solid material that is explosive."

Ehud Keinan of the Technion Institute in Israel, a leading authority on terrorist explosives, said: "It is clear to me that the 'liquid chemical' device is an improvised explosive device (IED), simply because all conventional explosives are solids.

"There are a number of ways to make liquid explosives. My guess is that the terrorists have chosen the most dangerous one, the peroxide-based family of improvised explosive such as used in the London bombings last year.

"First, it is very easy to initiate such explosives - there is no need for a detonator and a booster, a burning cigarette or a match would be sufficient to set them off. Second, the raw materials needed for their preparation are readily available in unlimited quantities in hardware stores, pharmacies, agricultural supplies, and even supermarkets. Third, quite sadly, most airports are not yet equipped with the appropriate means to detect those explosives. Practically speaking, there is no efficient way to stop a suicide bomber who carries peroxide-base explosives on his body or in his carry-on luggage."

The practical difficulty of assembling and then detonating such a bomb on an aircraft mean that many attempts would be likely to fail. "I do wonder how easy it would be to do in practice," Dr Sella said. How someone gets up and goes to the loos, with other passengers banging on the door, and does everything right. There would be no guarantee it would work."

This may explain why so many planes appear to have been targeted, to raise the odds of at least one or two successful attacks. Several commercially available explosives also work on the principle of combining two liquids to ignite a blast. Some liquid explosives would also be powerful enough to bring down an airliner, but most are too unstable and easily detected to readily evade security checks.

Most liquid explosives, such as nitrogylcerin, are nitrogen-based, and are relatively unstable. This makes their use practically difficult, as they are liable to go off prematurely. The class is also reasonably easy to detect with a technique known as neutron activation analysis, though this is not generally used to screen hand luggage.

Nitroglycerin can be stabilised by combining it with other materials to make a gel, such as nitrocellulose. It would need a larger detonator, which would add to the risk of detection.There is a precedent for terrorist use of nitrocellulose: it was found in dolls' clothes in the possession of Ramzi Yousef, one of the masterminds of the 1995 Bojinka plot to blow up aircraft over the Pacific Ocean. While it would be difficult to blow a plane up completely from within with a small, liquid-based bomb, it could be done by concentrating on weak points such as windows, or by combining several bombs on the same aircraft.

Professor Peter Zimmerman of King's College, London, said: "Many kinds of explosive can be used to destroy an airplane in flight, because the air pressure in the cabin will add to the destructive power of the explosive. An airliner is a very fast-flying big balloon, and - speaking very figuratively - if the cabin is ruptured and the fuselage skin torn by an explosion at cruising altitude, the aerodynamic force on the rip and the air trying to escape the cabin can greatly multiply the destructive power of a bomb."

If positioned correctly by someone with knowledge of aircraft operating systems, a small device could also sever hydraulic control cables with catastrophic consequences. "You wouldn't get the spectacular effect of the plane falling apart in the sky, but if it becomes uncontrollable it is going to end up in the sea five minutes later," Dr Sella said.

MUSLIM LEADERS INFORMED, BUT WARY, OF ANTI-TERROR RAID
► Timesonline
Aug 10 2006 - Muslim community leaders were contacted by the police and Government officials early this morning as the first statements were released to the press. Khurshid Ahmed, leader of the British Muslim Forum was rung by a chief superintendent from the Metropolitan Police and a senior official from the Department for Communities and Local Government just before 7am to be told the arrests had taken place.

The police also contacted Dr Muhammed Abdul Bari, General Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, at 6.54am. He was told that a number of arrests had taken place "for the public's safety" but given few details.

Mr Ahmed said that he felt the operation had been handled well but he warned that if the police failed to find any evidence to incriminate the people concerned then relations between the government and the Muslim community would deteriorate further.

"I was woken up by the police who said there was a threat to blow up a plane and that a number of arrests had been made," he said. "Since then I have been in contact with people from the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to find out what has been happening."

Mr Ahmed said he had spent the morning contacting local authorities, police authorities and Muslim community groups to ensure there was no "backlash" when further information was released about the identity of those arrested. He had already spoken to leaders in Bradford, London and the Midlands.
"As events unfold we will have to be prepared for how to deal with this. At the moment it is being handled very efficiently and competently."

But he admitted that it was very difficult to know whether there had been an overreaction, until further details emerged: "I have no information about that whatsoever." He said that if the arrests turned out to have been based on faulty intelligence, as happened after the arrests and shooting at Forest Gate, the community would react badly.

"It would be very unfortunate. It would further cloud relations between the Government and the Muslim Community and would reinforce the perception people have got that the police are targeting the Muslim community. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen and we do find there is substance in the allegations."
The Muslim Council of Britain said the police had gone out of their way to ensure that the arrests were low key and had not attracted undue attention.

But Labour MP Mohammed Sarwar said parliament should now be recalled. He has already demanded that Parliament should debate the crisis in Lebanon, but said today's events made this more urgent. "I think it's imperative that we discuss national disasters and international disasters in the parliament," the MP for Glasgow Central said.

"The people in this country expect the members of parliament, at a time of crisis, to take the lead." Ali Miraj, member of the Conservative's policy commission on international and national security said he would personally support the police action to ensure public safety. But he said that the mood amongst the Muslim community at present was very antagonistic. He also said current events in the Middle East would only encourage radicalism among disaffected young Muslims.

"I just hope they find some stuff on these guys. If they don't they will seriously dent confidence with the Muslim community in future. Otherwise people will think they are crying wolf and it's a Forest Gate Mark II. If they find nothing when they raid these people then there will be a real fear the police are deliberately targeting our people.

"The botched terror raid at Forest Gate, East London, in June was regarded as a very disproportionate response. Two hundred police uncovered nothing and the community was unfairly targeted," he said.

Mr Miraj said there was huge anger amongst the grass roots and he was not surprised that some were prepared to take drastic action. Many would not help the police with information about suspicious behaviour, he said. "One Muslim said to me recently outside a mosque: 'What is grassing on our Muslim brothers going to achieve?'"

Fahad Ansari of the Islamic Human Rights Commission said that many Muslims would be sceptical about the police statement. High profile arrests in the past,including Forest Gate had failed to produce any evidence of terrorist activity. "I think you will get cynicism from the community," he said.

"Over the last few years we have seen many high profile raids like this plastered over the press to terrify the public. "We have seen it time and time again. It has been hit and miss on too many occasions. It is causing a lot of mass hysteria."He suggested that the raids could even have been timed to distract attention from the criticisms of the Government's stance on the Lebanon crisis.
"There has been so much pressure on the Government, it could be a way of diverting attention away from its policy on the Middle East," he said.

He accused Tony Blair of being in a "persistent state of denial" on the impact Britain's foreign policy - from Afghanistan and Iraq to the Middle East - was having on Muslims in Britain. "He has to realise that there was a relationship between 7/7 and British foreign policy," he said. Birmingham Labour MP Khalid Mahmood appealed to local communities to help provide as much extra information as possible to help the police thwart the terrorists.

He said he believed the arrests were based on "fairly good intelligence" and would not prove unfounded and increase tensions fuelled by recent events in Forest Gate.Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, warned against any attempt to blame the Muslim community at large. "Only a united London can help defeat terrorism, which means that all London's communities have their part to play," he said. "No community in London can or should be targeted or blamed because of the actions of people who are pure criminals."

PLOT ECHOES ONE PLANNED BY 9/11 MASTERMIND IN ’94 – BOJINKA
► NY Times / by Raymond Bonner
Aug 10 2006 - The plot to blow up several airliners over the Atlantic, uncovered by British authorities, bears a striking resemblance to a plot hatched by Al Qaeda operatives 12 years ago to simultaneously blow up airliners over the Pacific.

That plot was hatched in Manila by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was starting his climb to be a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, and by Ramzi Yousef, who was the mastermind of the first bomb attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. It was financed by bin Laden.

Mr. Mohammed gave the operation the codename "Bojinka," which was widely reported to have been adopted from Serbo-Croatian, and to mean "big bang." But Mr. Mohammed has told Central Intelligence Agency interrogators that it was just a "nonsense word" he chose after hearing it on the front lines in Afghanistan, where he was fighting with Muslim rebels against Russia, according to "The 9/11 Commission Report." Mr. Mohammed was seized in Pakistan in 2003, and is now being held by the C.I.A. at an undisclosed location.

The Bojinka plot was anything but nonsense. At an apartment in Manila, Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Yousef began mixing chemicals, which they planned to put into containers that would be carried on board the airliners, as the London plotters are said to have been planning to do. In those days, it would have been relatively easy to get liquid explosives past a checkpoint. Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Yousef studied airline schedules and planned to sneak the liquid onto a dozen planes headed to Seoul and Hong Kong, and then on to the United States.

The plot was foiled in early 1995, when a fire broke out in the apartment where some of the plotters were working. Among the things found when the police investigated was Mr. Yousef's laptop computer, containing a file called Bojinka. The police also found dolls wearing clothes containing nitrocellulose, according to the 9/11 report.

Mr. Yousef also was later captured in Pakistan, turned over to the United States, tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Mr. Mohammed has told interrogators that after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which involved explosives in a truck and which failed to bring down the building, he "needed to graduate to a more novel form of attack," according to the 9/11 report. That led to Bojinka, and the first thoughts about using planes to bomb the World Trade Center.

PAKISTANI INTELLIGENCE HELPED FOIL BOMBING PLOT
Times / by Zahid Hussain and Steve Bird
Aug 10 2006 - Pakistani intelligence agencies helped the British authorities foil the terror plot to blow up aircraft travelling between Britain and America, highly placed sources in Pakistan said today.

The agencies have been working closely with British anti-terror police in monitoring the activities of the suspected terrorists for some time, many of whom have links with Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups, The Times has learnt.

Today Pakistani security forces put Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, leader of the outlawed Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, (LeT) under house arrest. The largest of the separatist groups fighting the Indian forces in Kashmir, the LeT has also been blamed by Indian authorities for last month's train bombings in Bombay which killed more than 200 people. Throughout the night and early morning police carried out a series of raids in London, Buckinghamshire and Birmingham, arresting 21 people.

One of the properties was in Walthamstow, north east London. At 10.30pm last night around twenty officers burst into a rundown three storey building that is believed to contain three flats. John Weir, 50, who lives opposite the terraced house said plain clothed officers in unmarked cars silently lined up opposite the house before the raid at about 10.30pm.

He said: "About 11.50pm two vans came up the road and parked at either end of the street. Then about 20 officers, four of them were in uniform, ran up and bashed the door in.

"None of them had weapons on them although they weren't local police. I know that because our local police station is just up the road and it wasn't the officers from there. They did everything very quietly."

Mr Weir said officers headed upstairs to a first floor flat, which they proceeded to search by torchlight.

He said: "The only light they turned on were the ones just inside the front door. When they went upstairs they didn't turn any lights on and you could see the torches flashing as they started their search. They were swarming all over the place. "There must have been forensic officers there because I saw them taking tool boxes and lots of equipment in."

However, Mr Weir said he did not see police take anyone out of the house or remove any property.

He said the flat involved had been sold about a month ago.

"It was sold overnight. One day it was up for sale and the next it was gone. I think two men moved in the following weekend. No furniture was moved or anything, it was really strange."

Mr Weir said he believed two north African men had been living in the flat for about a month.

He said: "They were in their mid-thirties. They were dressed quite normally in T-shirts and trousers. I haven't seen them in the last couple of weeks. There is not often anyone there at that house." Mr Weir said he originally thought police were carrying out a drugs raid as the property had been searched for cannabis about three years ago.

This afternoon uniformed police officers were still guarding the front and back entrances to the property.

Damage to the front door where police had rammed it open could be clearly seen.

In Buckinghamshire police swooped on three homes in a quiet residential area of High Wycombe early this morning. Two of the addresses in High Wycombe are within a quarter of a mile of each other. At one house police have extended their cordon, keeping everyone well away from the premise.

Residents woke to find dozens of officers swarming outside their houses. One man woke to find police had sealed off one of his neighbours' homes. He said: "We've got loads of police over the road. My wife was going out to work and she said: 'There's loads of police out there.' They've sealed off the house."

He said he believed the occupants of the house were off Asian or Middle Eastern origin.

Another house in High Wycombe was today being guarded by officers.

The house was believed to be occupied by a Mohammed Farwar. A neighbour said police had been at the property "for most of the night". She said: "This is a very quiet road, nothing happens here. The police won't tell us what has happened inside the house. "A foreign family has lived their for about ten years and they have never caused any bother. They've got five grown-up children. They keep themselves to themselves-We don't really converse with them because they don't speak much English."

The London Terror Gang II

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