Posted on 10/27/2005 6:32:47 PM PDT by wagglebee
SUICIDE bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan was trailed by anti-terrorist forces a year before he carried out his murderous mission, it emerged today.
The suspected ringleader of the four London suicide bombers, who was living in Thornhill Lees, featured in a surveillance operation carried out by the intelligence services last year.
Khan, 30, was secretly filmed and recorded speaking to a UK-based terrorist suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, the BBC claimed - attributing the report to a "well placed source".
A joint investigation by BBC Radio 4's File on Four programme and BBC2's Newsnight also suggested that Sidique Khan had been in contact with al Qaida activists over the past five years.
It further alleged that Sidique Khan had travelled to Pakistan in 2003 and met an Islamic extremist who later admitted to being a "fixer" for Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terror network.
In the weeks after the London bombings on July 7, which killed 52 innocent people, Sidique Khan was linked in reports to the periphery of an anti-terrorism investigation last year.
It had at first been believed that the London bombers were all "clean skins" - sleepers who had never made any significant impression on the intelligence services' radar before. They included Jermaine Lindsay, 18, of Rawthorpe.
However, the BBC claimed that its new information, if true, would amount to a "serious failure" of intelligence and demonstrate that Sidique Khan had been allowed to "slip away".
Its report said a detainee held in Indonesia in connection with the Bali bombings had also alleged that Sidique Khan travelled to Malaysia and the Philippines in 2001 to meet with the notorious terrorist leader Hambali.
An academic researcher, Dr Rohan Gunaratna, told the BBC he had spoken to the detainee after the London bombings.
The detainee reportedly said he took Mohammad Sidique Khan to meet and train with leaders from the extremist Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah which is linked to al Qaida in the Far East.
Scotland Yard refused to discuss the claims.
The Home Office, which represents the intelligence services, also said it could not comment on specific aspects of the report.
However, a spokeswoman added that the Home Secretary had previously said there was no specific warning or intelligence to indicate the July 7 attacks.
Sidique Khan, who had been working as a "learning mentor" at Hillside Primary School, in Beeston, Leeds, was responsible for the blast at Edgware Road Tube which killed six people. Last month, a chilling video suicide message emerged in which he claimed that the British public were to blame for the terror attacks.
He said it was their support for the western governments which "continuously perpetuate atrocities" against the Islamic world that made them "directly responsible".
"We are at war and I am a soldier," the 30-year-old declared.
It is known that Sidique Khan visited Pakistan, and possibly Afghanistan, together with another of the suicide bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, last year. Security officials are trying to establish what they did during their visit.
A Dewsbury man is currently in custody in connection with the July 7 bombings. Detectives have until tomorrow to continue questioning him.
However, a spokeswoman added that the Home Secretary had previously said there was no specific warning or intelligence to indicate the July 7 attacks.
Somebody needs to be held accountable for this.
Ping.
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