Operation Phantom Fury--Day 266 - Now Operations River Blitz; Matador--Day 161

Man Admits Role in Failed London Attack

Italian police officers hold up photos of a man identified as Somali-born Osman Hussain, a naturalized British citizen believed to be one of the four suspects in the July 21 bombing attempts in London, is seen after he was arrested in Rome Friday July 29, 2005. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Sunday July 31, 6:21 AM

A suspect in the failed London transit bombings admitted Saturday to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike, not a deadly one, a legal expert familiar with the investigation said.

Osman Hussain told interrogators he wasn't carrying enough explosives even to "harm people nearby," the expert told The Associated Press. The expert spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation, which under Italian law must remain secret.

Hussain, 27, one of four suspected bombers in the July 21 attacks, is suspected of trying to bomb the Shepherd's Bush subway station in west London, two weeks after the four deadly attacks on the city's transit system that killed 56 people, including the four suicide bombers.

Hussain was arrested Friday in Rome at his brother's apartment after police traced calls he made from a cell phone as he traveled across Europe.

Hussain was calm and coherent at a hearing in a Rome prison Saturday, but doesn't consider himself a terrorist and may be gearing up to fight his extradition to Britain, his court-court appointed lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa, said.

Grilled by a pair of Italy's top anti-terrorism prosecutors, Hussain said that months ago in London, his chief _ who he identified as "Muktar" _ taught him how to assemble explosives using fertilizers and stuff explosives and timers into backpacks, the Rome daily La Repubblica said.

Hussain was referring to Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, one of the other bombing suspects captured Friday in a London raid, the newspaper said. Ibrahim is suspected of planting explosives on a London bus on July 21.

"Muktar urged us to be careful" La Repubblica quoted Hussain as telling his interrogators. "We didn't want to kill, just sow terror."

He also reportedly told investigators the bombers were motivated by anger over the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Hussain also said his cell was not linked to either al-Qaida or the cell that carried out deadly bombings July 7, Italian media reported.

The lawyer described her client as "calm enough" during an initial extradition hearing at Rome's Regina Coeli prison and told AP he "probably would prefer to stay in Italy," suggesting he would fight Britain's bid to extradite him.

Opposing extradition could delay a decision on extradition, a process which can take weeks or months.

Sonnessa said no formal charges were lodged but "certain things are being said, certain accusations are being raised."

"He doesn't consider himself a terrorist," Sonnessa told Italian TV. Asked about what line he took when interrogated, she declined to be specific, but said: "He defended himself with extreme calm, coherence."

Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, briefing lawmakers, said Hussain counted on an extensive network from the Horn of Africa in Italy to protect him in his flight from London, through Paris and to Rome.

"During the investigation, it has been possible to pinpoint an extensive network of subjects from the Eritrean and Ethiopian communities in Italy considered to have played a role in covering for the fugitive," the minister said.

Top anti-terrorism investigators have said for years that Italy is a logistics base for international terrorists, including in providing false documents to help travel.

Police in Milan, while hunting down suspected accomplices in Hussain's flight, raided a center which was producing false documents, Pisanu said. Investigators were studying the seized material.

Police fanned out across Italy on the trail of Hussain's contacts Saturday. More than a dozen searches were launched in cities from north to south, including Venice and the port city Salerno, Pisanu said.

Pisanu said Hussain's flight from London began on Tuesday, July 26, at Waterloo Station, the main London terminal for Eurostar that carries passengers from Britain to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel.

A cell phone apparently used by Hussain was active in Paris on Wednesday, then its signal disappeared, Corriere della Sera reported. The signal next appeared on Thursday in the vicinity of Milan's train station, it said.

"We are facing a grave threat which must be dealt with all means of prevention and crackdown that we have," Pisanu told the Chamber of Deputies shortly before it approved a government decree tightening anti-terrorism measures.

Investigators were checking out what Hussain intended to do while in Italy. Corriere said he told his interrogators he had no intentions of carrying out attacks, and investigators said nothing discovered so far indicated otherwise, the paper said.

Newspapers said Hussain's real name was Hamdi Isaac. His brother, who was also reported arrested Friday after guiding police to Hussain's hideout in Rome, was identified in news accounts as Remzi Isaac.

Death toll from Iraq suicide bomb attack rises to 52

Sunday, July 31, 2005

BAGHDAD: Iraqi police said on Saturday that the death toll from a suicide bomb attack on army volunteers in a town near the Syrian border rose to 52, as some of the wounded died overnight.

Rabiah police commander Col Yahya al-Shammari said the number of the injured nearly doubled to 93 from 52 after officials added more patients who had been taken to a hospital in a different town.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded on Saturday near the National Theater in Baghdad, killing five people, including three policemen, and injuring nine, including a mother and her two children, police and witnesses said.

Police Maj Abbas Muhammed Salman said the injured also included three policemen, who appeared to have been the target.

In a separate incident, two British contractors guarding a consulate convoy were killed on Saturday by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq, and a prominent Sunni Arab leader escaped an assassination attempt on a Baghdad highway by assailants in military garb. The bombing on the British diplomatic convoy took place on a highway on the outskirts of Basra, killing the two security contractors who worked for the British security firm Control Risks Group.

Sheik Khalaf Elaayan, head of the National Dialogue Council, a Sunni political group with members on the constitutional drafting committee, said he was in his car on Saturday when gunmen wearing military uniforms like those “used by members of the Iraqi army” drove up alongside and opened fire. Elaayan said his bodyguard was injured in the attack, which took place near an Iraqi post.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government on Saturday confirmed the firing of one of the few top Sunni officials to urge Sunni Arabs to join Iraq’s political process.

Adnan al-Dulaimi was dismissed July 24 as head of the Sunni Endowment, the government agency in charge of the upkeep of Sunni mosques and shrines, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s office said.

In other developments in Iraq, the bodies of two Baghdad International Airport employees and their driver, kidnapped earlier this week, were discovered on Saturday in a field in southwestern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. agencies

'Battle Company' living up to its name

Spc. Archie Moore, with the M-14 rifle, and his spotter, Spc. Mick Sleik, watch a handful of Afghan men near a building as other members of Company B, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, clear a village and compound of Taliban fighters. (Jason Chudy / S&S)

By Jason Chudy - Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Saturday

July 30, 2005

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LAGMAN, Afghanistan — Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment lived up to their “Battle Company” nickname Thursday, killing five Taliban and capturing 10 others during fighting at a compound about 15 miles west of the base.

Aviation forces supporting the fight killed another enemy fighter.

The soldiers and members of the Afghan National Police were sent on the afternoon mission to capture a Taliban member who was believed to be living in the area.

“The dude we were going after was a Taliban money guy; he was the bankroller,” said Capt. Mike Kloepper, company commander. He said the financier was not one of the 10 people captured.

The soldiers were dropped close to the compound by a CH-47 helicopter from the Nevada Army National Guard’s Company D, 113th Aviation Regiment and two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the Germany-based 3rd Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment.

Almost immediately, the soldiers made contact with insurgents.

“A couple of people ran off,” explained Staff Sgt. Shayne Charlesworth, weapons squad leader, “but our aggressive actions were so fast they didn’t have a chance to get to their weapons.”

Soldiers detained seven men and collected a handful of weapons as other unit members cleared a nearby village that was believed to be a home to insurgents.

Nothing was found in the village, but soldiers back at the compound continued their search.

AH-64 Apache helicopters from 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, covered the troops from overhead, scouting the area for the enemy and finding trenches and fortified caves.

Soldiers from "Battle Company" walk through the Afghan desert to a blocking position during a Thursday afternoon mission to capture a Taliban financier. An AH-64 Apache from 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment covers their move. (Jason Chudy / S&S)

“Now I’ve seen all aspects of combat,” said Charlesworth, “woods, cities, wide- open spaces, mountains and now trench warfare.”

Soldiers killed two armed fighters in the trench line. Four other insurgents were killed nearby. This was the platoon’s first fight since returning from Kandahar, where they spent a month as the quick-reaction force for southern Afghanistan.

“We’ve been dry for two months,” said 1st Lt. Josh Hyland about the fight. “The biggest thing, at face value, was the morale for the platoon.”

“Our speed and aggression was built up over the past month,” Charlesworth said about their time in Kandahar, where they retrained their basic combat skills and spent hours working out.

“To see their aggressiveness, actually fight and see the guys’ reactions, I was really impressed,” said Charlesworth.

Staff Sgt. Carlos Navas watches as an Afghan National Policeman starts to climb down a hole after soldiers from "Battle Company" had thrown a grenade in it. The hole, which had small tunnels running from each side, was part of a chain of large holes that in the past had most likely been used for irrigation. Taliban forces have used tunnels and caves to hide ammunition and supplies. (Jason Chudy / S&S)

Secretary of Defense sheds new light on operations in Iraq

July 30, 2005

LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, Balad, Iraq -- How can servicemembers convey a more positive image about the operations in Iraq to the people of America? This question along with others was on the tips of many servicemembers’ tongues and a special guest was present to shade some light on this question, as well as, a host of many other subjects.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld paid a visit to Logistics Support Area Anaconda to speak with servicemembers and answer some of their questions they the military and the global war on terrorism at the East Morale, Welfare and Recreation Center here July 27.

Before answering any questions the secretary of defense had a few words for the servicemembers at LSA Anaconda.

"The American people and I are profoundly grateful to each of you for your service and for your sacrifice," Rumsfeld said. "I should also add that we are grateful to your family and loved ones who sacrifice as well."

During his address he spoke about the overall mission in Iraq and how troops are contributing to that mission on a daily basis.

"The mission of the Multi-National Corps in Iraq is to help create an environment where the democratically-elected Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces can contain and ultimately defeat the insurgents," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld concluded his message by telling the troops that they are part of a mission that has liberated 50 million people from a life of terror, repression and despotism.

The secretary of defense concluded his message to the troops of LSA Anaconda and the question and answer portion of the secretary of defense’s address began.

Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines were given the opportunity to ask questions to the secretary of defense and in return receive answers to help understand why certain things are done a certain way and what measures they could take to continue the positive and steady Iraqi diplomacy.

When asked about what servicemembers can do to convey a more positive image about the operations in Iraq to the American people, Rumsfeld confidently responded:

"The progress that is being made in Iraq is measurable and solid. And the best way to convey a positive message to people back home is to utilize all forms of communication back to the U.S. Through communication, ultimately the truth will come out."

Although the secretary of defense’s address took a serious tone, he lightened the mood with occasional jokes and humorous remarks.

In the end, the secretary of defense seemed to put many of the minds of servicemembers at ease with honest answers and a positive attitude. He praised servicemembers for their hard work and dedication and assured all of the troops that their hard work does not go unnoticed.

"You folks are really making the extraordinary seem routine," Rumsfeld said.

"Through your work you have touched the lives of thousands of people, certainly your fellow Americans, but also the Iraqi people," he said. "You have reached out to them with kindness and compassion that they will carry with them the rest of their lives."

Editor’s note: Pfc. Matthews is assigned to the 27th Public Affairs Detachment from Fort Drum, NY. He is currently deployed to Iraq in support of the 1st Corps Support Command at LSA Anaconda.

Story by U.S. Army Pfc. Mark B. Matthews - 27th Public Affairs Detachment

Security Forces seize weapons, detain 11

TFF Press Release

MOSUL, IRAQ (July 30, 2005) – Multi-National Forces from Task Force Freedom detained 11 suspected terrorists and seized a number of weapons during operations in northern Iraq today and Friday.

Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment detained five individuals suspected of terrorist activity during a cordon and search operation northwest of Tal Afar today.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment detained two individuals suspected of terrorist activity and seized a number of weapons during a cordon and search operation in southeastern Mosul Friday.

Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment detained one individual suspected of terrorist activity during a cordon and search operation in eastern Mosul today.

Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment detained one individual suspected of terrorist activity at a checkpoint in Rawah today. Suspects are in custody with no MNF injuries reported.

Anyone with information on anti-Iraqi insurgent activities should call the Joint Coordination Center’s telephone numbers at 513462 or 07701623300.

Third terror cell on loose

July 31, 2005

David Leppard and John Follain in Rome

Intelligence warns of new wave against soft targets

THIRD Islamist terror cell is planning multiple suicide bomb attacks against Tube trains and other “soft” targets in central London, security sources have revealed.

Intelligence about a cell with access to explosives and plans to unleash a “third wave” of attacks was the trigger for last Thursday’s unprecedented security exercise. The operation saw 6,000 police, many armed, patrolling across London.

Senior police officers say that there was “specific” intelligence from several sources that an attack was planned for that day. The disclosure contradicts official statements by Scotland Yard that Thursday’s security exercise — the biggest since the second world war — was simply a precaution aimed at reassuring the public.

The disclosures come as a suspected bomber detained in Italy apparently admitted to involvement in the attacks on July 21. According to Italian reports, Hussain Osman has alleged to investigators that the leader of the July 21 attacks was Muktar Said-Ibrahim, who was detained in London on Friday.

Osman claimed Ibrahim, the alleged bus bomber, had taught him how to make bombs. But he also claimed the incidents on July 21 were intended to be a political statement rather than to take lives.

Details of a “third wave” terror plot to carry out multiple suicide attacks were disclosed to senior police commanders at an emergency Special Branch conference held at Scotland Yard last Wednesday. All police leave was cancelled and hundreds of officers were instructed to book into central London hotel rooms.

Members of the third cell are said to be independent of the July 7 and July 21 terrorists but have “associations” with some of the suspects who have been arrested in connection with the July 21 attacks. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the anti-terrorist branch, said that despite capturing the four suspected bombers and a fifth man linked to the cell “the threat remains and is very real”.

Another officer, a member of the Yard’s firearms unit, which captured three of the suspected suicide bombers in two raids in west London, said: “What we did on Friday was just the tip of the iceberg. There is some big stuff coming in the next few months. There’s a big network that’s got to be cracked.”

Osman, a 27-year-old asylum seeker from Ethiopia who has British citizenship, was arrested by Italian police at his brother’s flat in Rome after an international manhunt.

He is reported to have travelled to France via the Eurostar and then to Italy. Shortly before his arrest, Osman made one phone call to a Saudi Arabian mobile number. Osman is also said to have confessed almost immediately to Italian police. “Yes, it is true, I was there on July 21. I’d been given a rucksack,” he reportedly told police.

Osman is said to have claimed the attacks had been planned by Ibrahim after the two had met at a gym in Notting Hill, west London. He said they had acted independently, had no links to the July 7 attacks, in which 56 people died, and had been taken by surprise by the suicide bombings two weeks earlier.

His group decided to carry out the attacks as a statement about the war in Iraq but was not linked to Al-Qaeda or any other terrorists. Contrary to some reports, he told his interrogators that the plotters did intend to explode their rucksacks but that they did not intend to kill anybody.

He is reported to have said: “Religion had nothing to do with this. We watched films. We were shown videos with images of the war in Iraq. We were told we must do something big. That’s why we met.”

Osman, who is suspected of the Shepherd’s Bush attack, claimed they had not meant to kill anyone. “I didn’t want to kill, ours was supposed to be a demonstrative act,” he is said to have told interrogators. “We planned to carry out an attack. We didn’t want to kill, only to spread terror.”

Osman appeared at a hearing yesterday where Italian magistrates received a British government request for his urgent extradition. He objected to extradition. His lawyer said it could take up to two months for him to be returned to London.

Ibrahim is being questioned at Paddington Green top security police station in London. Yasin Omar, the suspected Warren Street Tube bomber, was arrested last week. The fourth man, Ramzi Mohammed, the suspected Oval Tube bomber, was arrested with Ibrahim. Ramzi’s brother, Wahbi, 22, is being questioned about the discovery of a discarded fifth bomb.

Uzbeks Order U.S. From Base in Refugee Rift

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN and THOM SHANKER

Published: July 31, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 30 - Uzbekistan formally ordered the United States to leave an air base that has been a hub for operations in Afghanistan in protest over a predawn United Nations operation on Friday to spirit out refugees who had fled an uprising in Uzbekistan in May, senior State Department officials said Saturday.

The officials said Uzbekistan had given the United States 180 days to close the base, which has played a central role in rooting out fighters of the Taliban and Al Qaeda and in carrying out relief operations.

For several months, the Uzbek government said it wanted the United States to leave the base, the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, called K-2. But no specific timetable was set, and there was hope that the matter could be negotiated.

A top diplomat, R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, had planned to go to Uzbekistan to discuss that issue and a United States demand that Uzbekistan permit an international investigation into the violent suppression of a prison riot and public demonstration in Andijon in May. The Uzbek government estimated that 187 people had been killed in the crackdown, but the United Nations estimated that 200 to 700 people had been killed. Now, however, Mr. Burns said he probably would not go to the region for several weeks to let feelings cool.

"When we got notice of the Uzbek action Friday morning, we decided it would be inappropriate for me to go at this time," he said in an interview. "We were going to have a conversation about human rights, Andijon and the fact that the Uzbek government's failure to reform has put it in international isolation."

Mr. Burns said the United States had been "profoundly concerned" about the status of the Uzbek refuges in Kyrgyzstan who fled after the Andijon incident. "We have energetically supported the efforts to bring them to safety in Romania," he said, "because we feared they would be persecuted if they were sent back to Uzbekistan."

"We are not willing to overlook these very important human right concerns," he added.

Another State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of department ground rules, said, "Obviously we don't want to lose K-2." But he added that loss of the base was preferable to backing away from demanding that Uzbekistan start political and economic reforms and agree to an international investigation of the Andijon killings.

He said that position had been endorsed by top officials at the Pentagon, where Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has said that the base, while important, could be substituted if necessary.

The State Department official said that 450 refugees had fled to Kyrgyzstan after the uprising in May but that the Uzbek government had wanted them back.

The Kyrgyz government has picked up 29 refugees for detention because some were charged with crimes. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been working to get them to safety, the official said, and early Friday most were taken to an airport to be airlifted to Romania.

The official said that only 15 had been left behind, all but four of them designated as refugees and the others charged with crimes. "Our position is that they all have to come out," the official said. He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the phone on Thursday and Friday with Kyrgyz leaders to arrange for the flight out.

After the mission, the official said, Uzbekistan sent a note to the American Embassy in Tashkent formally ordering the eviction of the United States from the air base.

The eviction order was first reported by The Washington Post on Saturday.

The Uzbek government opened the base to American forces shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and it quickly became home for Green Berets of the Fifth Special Forces Group, light infantry soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, N.Y., and pilots and crews of AC-130 gunships and attack helicopters.

American money and construction teams quickly transformed the decaying, Soviet-era air base into a bustling hub for military and relief operations. One of the first tasks was eradicating thousands of poisonous snakes that had taken up residence in abandoned hangars.

The eviction note came at the end of a week in which Mr. Rumsfeld toured the region for discussions on alternatives in case United States lost access to the base.

Mr. Rumsfeld received assurances from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that the American military could continue to use bases in those Central Asian nations to support relief and counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.

"We feel we've had a good arrangement and good relationships in a number of those countries in the region," Mr. Rumsfeld said during his travels. "And obviously from time to time things may be adjusted one way or another."

The issue has been a test of the Bush administration as it has tried to balance two of its most prized foreign policy goals: democratization and counterterrorism.

Pentagon and military officials pointed out that it remained unclear whether the eviction from the Uzbek base would halt all bilateral relations with a nation on the rim of one of the most unstable regions in the world.

Those in the United States government and the military who argue for carefully managed engagement, even with dictatorial governments, note that without any formalized Western influence in places like Uzbekistan, there would most likely be influence from less-democratic sponsors, like Russia or China.

London attacks show global reach of terrorism

Saturday, July 30, 2005 Updated at 8:16 PM EDT

Associated Press

London — When the bomb he tried to detonate aboard a London Tube train failed to explode, police say Osman Hussain jumped out a carriage window, ran along the track, then hopped through back yards before melting into the city's bustle.

After going underground for five days, Mr. Hussain boarded a train at Waterloo station — possibly walking past his picture and those of three other suspected July 21 attackers on posters that blanketed the city. Then he slipped away, traveling from London through France to Rome.

His ability to escape a massive British dragnet, coupled with the arrest of another suspect in Zambia with al-Qaeda ties, raised fears about the global reach of today's terrorists and the depth of their networks.

"The way people fanned out after the bombings, it's brought it home to people ... that it is part of a kind of a network, interconnected — all the fingerprints are there," said Michael Cox, a professor at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs specializing in the post-Sept. 11 terrorism threat.

"They'd have to have a much wider support base than just those who are active suicide bombers."

Mr. Hussain, an Ethiopian-born Briton, was captured Friday at his brother Remzi Isaac's house in Rome, where police traced him through his use of a relative's cell phone. Italian newspapers said investigators suspected Mr. Hussain's real name was Hamdi Isaac.

He admitted to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike, not a deadly one, a legal expert familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press in Rome.

Mr. Hussain told interrogators he wasn't carrying enough explosives even to "harm people nearby," the expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation, which under Italian law must remain secret.

He also told investigators the bombers were motivated by anger over the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but said his cell was not linked to either al-Qaeda or the cell that carried out the deadly July 7 suicide bombings, Italian media reported.

The arrest sparked more than a dozen follow-up raids across the country, as Italian authorities tried to determine if any attacks on Italy were being plotted.

In addition to Mr. Hussain, at least two of the other July 21 suspects were of East African origin, and Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the country was watching the area closely.

"We are following the evolution of the overall situation in the Horn of Africa where, in stateless lands, al-Qaeda has arrived, has settled, and from where it tends, in various ways, to dispatch its followers into Europe and the rest of the world," Mr. Pisanu said.

Though officials have not yet said they found links between the July 7 attacks that killed 56 people, including four attackers, and the failed attacks exactly two weeks later — both of which targeted three subway trains and a bus — police chief Sir Ian Blair said there was a "resonance" between the two.

If it turns out both events had a single mastermind and a common bombmaker, experience shows they probably would have fled Britain before the attacks, said Alex Standish, editor of Jane's Intelligence Digest. A likely hiding place would be in western Europe, where they could flee without having to undergo tough border security checks.

"They'll go to ground in areas that they will not be conspicuous," Mr. Standish said. "Most European Union countries have a significant Muslim population where these guys can just sit there and fade into the background."

Britain was seeking Mr. Hussain's extradition and said it was seeking the return of one of its citizens detained in Zambia.

Though the Foreign Office has not released the person's name, it is widely reported to be Haroon Rashid Aswat, who Zambian officials have said was being questioned about 20 phone calls he allegedly made to some of the men suspected in the July 7 attacks, which killed 56 people, including four suicide bombers.

Mr. Aswat is implicated in a 1999 plot to establish a terrorist training camp in the United States and has told Zambian investigators he once was a bodyguard for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Zambian officials said.

Mr. Aswat's family said in a statement released Saturday they were "concerned, distressed and disappointed" by Britain's handling of the case.

"It is very worrying that after more than 10 days the British government is still unable to verify that the British citizen detained is actually Haroon," said the relatives, who live in northern England. "Our son, albeit estranged for many years, is surely entitled to the presumption of innocence as any other British citizen.

"We wonder whether the government's attitude would have been any different if it was a white, non-Muslim citizen detained in a foreign country?"

Before he was detained in Zambia, Mr. Aswat had been hiding in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was followed after entering the country from Botswana, the Zambian officials said.

"Every single terrorist event we've had, and the failed ones we've had, there usually are foreign connections, even though the cannon fodder may be home grown," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

"The Bouyeri network in the killing of [filmmaker Theo] van Gogh in the Netherlands, the Madrid bombings — all of these investigations have a foreign component to them, which makes them extremely complex," he said.

British authorities had good quality closed-circuit television pictures of the July 21 suspects. That could have spooked them into a "panic" response counter to known terrorist training methods, with three failing to immediately flee the country and Mr. Hussain using a cellular phone that could be traced easily, Mr. Ranstorp said.

If the attacks of July 7 and July 21 are linked, they show a worrying degree of preparation by a person or people making use of homegrown radicals from two distinct ethnic groups — with three of the four July 7 bombers of Pakistani origin, and at least three of the July 21 suspects with East African roots, Mr. Standish said.

That ensured that when police focus was on the Pakistani community after the July 7 attacks, the East African group could still move freely.

"It seems a very sophisticated level of planning went into it," Mr. Standish said. "What will the next one be — from Kashmir? From Nigeria? From Southeast Asia? From Saudi? — We just don't know."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050730.wbombs-reach30/BNStory/Front

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