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How MI5 let bombers through net

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posted on May, 1 2007 @ 05:07 PM
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Mohammed Siddique Khan was featured twice in MI5 terrorist reports and had even been bugged and surveilled since 2004 but still managed to avoid MI5's attention and led the largest single mass murder attack in Britain's history:


MOHAMED Sidique Khan's name featured twice in MI5 anti-terrorist operations more than a year before he went on to lead the 7/7 suicide attacks on London that killed 52 people in 2005.

The full extent of the missed opportunities that allowed the July 7 London bombers to slip through the net can be reported for the first time after the conviction of Omar Khyam, a close associate of Khan, for plotting to build a 600kg ammonium nitrate fertiliser bomb to blow up a crowded nightclub or shopping centre in London.

Far from being a "clean skin", Khan had been photographed, followed and bugged by intelligence officers more than a year before the July 2005 bombings, which ranked as Britain's worst act of mass murder.

Security sources said they had identified a Sidique Khan in 2004 as the owner of a mobile phone called by an alleged al-Qa'ida financier and of a Honda car that was tailed by investigators.

Despite those leads, which placed Khan in the company of high-priority terrorist suspects, he was not investigated further Source


This just shows how effective counter-terrorist intelligence and investigation really are. Here, MI5 had this man in their sights since 2004, had tied him to a cell phone known to have received calls from al-qaeda financiers, knew his car and had even bugged him at one time but still never followed up and the rest, as they say, is history. I would suspect that our intelligence and counter-terrorism skills are just as effective. Makes me very nervous to say the least.



posted on May, 2 2007 @ 03:38 PM
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Unfortuantly the security services cant be too quick to detain someone without serious evidence, if there is even a shadow of a doubt they will rarely be able to move on it. Add to the fact that they were probably following him to find out who else was in the cell, you need to take out an entire cell otherwise it just goes to ground and regrows somewhere else...



posted on May, 2 2007 @ 05:15 PM
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That's true, devilwasp. Counter-terrorism is a very slow and painstaking process... you have to nab the entire cell or they just go underground and try again another time.

There were reasons for not detaining Khan straight away. Though how the "clean skin" remark got out is a mystery as it's clearly wrong. That does seem to be the Home Secretary, though, as opposed to MI5 themselves.

Mind you, keep in mind that John Reid wasn't Home Secretary at the time of the bombings or before them (taking over the Home Office almost a year later in May 2006). It's possible he was mistaken or hadn't been shown relevant documents proving MI5 had actually monitored Khan in the past, so I would be careful before jumping in and blaming him.

Also, MI5 released some info on their site about the fertiliser plot and its links to the July 7th terrorists: The story (plus links) can be found here.



 
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