http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/530892/posts
Three more held in UK; Arrests Trio Questioned At High-security Police Station
by Paul Kelso, The Guardian (London); Guardian Home Pages, Pg. 4 September 24, 2001
British police were yesterday investigating the possibility that the al-Qaida terrorist network is active in the UK, as anti-terrorist branch officers continued to question three people of Arab extraction arrested at the weekend.
The arrests in London and Birmingham, part of the largest security operation in the UK since the Gulf war in 1991, were made following information received from the FBI, which is leading a huge global investigation into the attacks.
The suspects were being questioned about whether they had been directly involved in aiding and succouring those who had bombed the World Trade Centre, said the home secretary, David Blunkett.
Lotfi Raissi, 27, an Algerian pilot, and his wife Sonia, 25, were arrested at a flat in Colnbrook, Berkshire, near Heathrow airport, in the early hours of Saturday. Mr Raissi's brother Mohammed was arrested in Hounslow, west London, but was released without charge on Saturday afternoon. A fourth man, Abu Imard, 44, a mature student at Aston University in Birmingham, was also arrested. All three suspects were held under the Anti-terrorism Act 2000, and questioned at high-security Paddington Green police station in central London.
Under the act they can be held for up to seven days without charge, providing an order is sought from a magistrate. Yesterday police were granted an order allowing them to detain the suspects until Wednesday.
Mr Raissi was on an FBI watch list' of 200 people sought in connection with the attacks on New York and Washington. Before his arrest Mr Raissi said he was training at a flying school near Heathrow in order to qualify as a commercial pilot in Europe. Before arriving in the UK 18 months ago, he spent some time learning to fly in Arizona.
It's gone crazy. I've heard stories of FBI agents checking many trainee pilots out, here and in America,' he said. I am an airline pilot in Algeria but over here I am just a student. I have been living here nine months now, with my wife, training for my European conversion. I do have a relative in America who is training as a pilot and he has been interviewed by the FBI just because he is a Muslim.'
Speaking outside Paddington Green police station, Mr Raissi's uncle Kamal said his nephew was not guilty of any involvement in the terrorist plot. He has been in the UK for 18 months getting the qualifications to go with the exams he passed in Arizona. He only had one exam to pass before he became a fully qualified pilot. We are decent people, who have nothing to do with terrorist groups.' Sonia Raissi works for Air France on the customer service desk at Heathrow. Mohammed Raissi's wife works for Saudi Arabian airlines.
Mr Imard, a father of three, moved to the UK from the United States six months ago.
Mr Blunkett confirmed yesterday that the activities of individuals involved in the 21 organisations proscribed under the terrorism act were being closely monitored and action would be taken against them if they step over the line'.
In continental Europe, meanwhile, police made a number of arrests in connection with theUS attacks.
French police arrested three men in possession of what investigators believe is uranium-235, a material used in the construction of atomic weapons. The uranium is reported to have been supplied by members of the Russian mafia. Raymond Loeb, Serge Salfati and Yves Ekwella were in possession of air tickets to Kazakhstan at the time of their arrest.
Belgian police detained two men and seized bomb-making equipment in raids. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said 100kg of sulphur and 50 litres of acetone were seized. It is clear that we have foiled the plans of a European terrorist network, but we do not yet know which objectives were targeted,' he said.
To: Wallaby :
More info on the Raissi arrests here. It seems Lofti trained at same Arizona flying school (CRM Airline Training Center in Scottsdale, Arizona) and at the same time as Hani Hanjour, who investigators believe flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
6 posted on 09/24/2001 3:28:36 AM PDT by Lion's Cub
OPINION: Arizona's the place to be for good flying weather, I guess.
Thank you for finding and posting the additional information, all of it is needed.
I think we do not know even half of the facts, so much to learn.
Smiling at you.