Posted on 08/07/2004 5:34:09 PM PDT by blam
Terror mastermind lived in flat under Heathrow approach By Daniel Foggo and Massoud Ansari (Filed: 08/08/2004)
An al-Qaeda "communications chief" who is believed to have been co-ordinating a plot to bomb Heathrow spent three weeks living near the airport late last year, the Telegraph can reveal.
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, 25, who is under arrest in Pakistan, lived in a ground floor flat in Reading, Berkshire. The address, on Wensley Road near the centre of town, lies below a western approach flight path to the airport.
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan: reconnaissance
He lived there with his grandmother, Batool Begum, and his aunt, Arifa Noor Khan, who last week told this newspaper that the al-Qaeda suspect was very private about his movements while in Britain.
"My brother Hayat, Naeem's father, asked if he could come and stay with me last year," Mrs Noor Khan said.
"He said he was doing a computer course and was studying, but didn't say where. He just went out in the morning and came back in the evening. When he came back late he said he had been studying."
Mrs Noor Khan, a divorcee, said that she had been unaware that her nephew had been arrested by the Pakistani intelligence service. Nor had she or Khan's grandmother any knowledge of his alleged involvement with al-Qaeda.
The fact that Khan stayed near Heathrow in November and December will add credence to claims by Pakistani intelligence that he had been helping to reconnoitre the airport for a possible terrorist attack.
Files found on his computer showed detailed information about the infrastructure of Heathrow and other high-profile sites.
After his interrogation, Khan, who was used by al-Qaeda to send messages to cells in Britain and elsewhere, agreed to contact them to enable police to find them.
The Army respond to a terrorist alert at Heathrow in 2003
That resulted in a number of raids around Britain last week and the arrests of 12 men, one of whom has since been released without charge. The suspects were said to be under the command of an alleged senior British al-Qaeda agent, Abu Eisa al-Hindi, who is reportedly one of those still being held. Five other suspects are understood to have avoided capture and are on the run.
Babar Ahmad, a British man arrested last week in a separate operation, is facing extradition to the United States on charges of fund-raising for terrorists. He has been named in the US media as a relative of Khan.
Ahmad, 30, from Tooting, south London, was said in a hearing at Bow Street magistrates' court on Friday to have been in possession of US navy battle plans and to have contact with a Muslim "traitor" currently serving on board a vessel.
Ahmad, a computer administrator for Imperial College in London, was first arrested by British police in December but he was released without charge six days later. He was seized again last week and is now accused of being a major fundraiser for Muslim extremists. He is also said to have links to the Chechen leader who orchestrated the attack two years ago on a Moscow theatre. He was remanded in custody until August 13.
I wonder why these women were living under the Heathrow approach. I don't trust any of these SOB's!
He lived there with his grandmother, Batool Begum, and his aunt, Arifa Noor Khan, who last week told this newspaper that the al-Qaeda suspect was very private about his movements while in Britain..............
Would be justice for these women to be given the boot. I don't care if they didn't know what Khan was up to. Just boot them and let them blame the will of Allah.
Maybe grandma plans to fire at approaching planes with her shoulder-fired missile launcher. I'm serious.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.