Posted on 02/27/2023 8:56:54 PM PST by RandFan
A Muslim preacher who was close to the Manchester bomber had been suspected by MI5 of being a radicaliser more than a decade earlier, the BBC can reveal.
A public inquiry into the atrocity will this week report on how Salman Abedi was radicalised, and whether security services missed chances to stop him.
The preacher, Mansour Al-Anezi, had been investigated before another close associate of his tried to carry out a suicide bombing in Exeter in 2008.
Al-Anezi died before the arena attack.
Twenty two people died in the bombing. Secret hearings, which excluded victims' families, discussed evidence from MI5 about Abedi and associates who were known to the security service.
A BBC investigation has identified information that did not appear in the public hearings - and might not have appeared in the closed sessions either.
Suicide bombings, both actual and attempted, are rare in the UK. In the past 15 years, the only two confirmed incidents were the Manchester and Exeter bombings.
An explosion in a Liverpool taxi in 2021, which killed the bomb maker, has not been publicly confirmed as an intentional suicide bombing.
The fact that both Manchester and Exeter involved associates of Al-Anezi could be a coincidence. But the BBC has discovered that the authorities were investigating him as a suspected radicaliser before the Exeter attack.
The officer who led the Manchester investigation, Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough, told the arena inquiry that the relationship between Al-Anezi and Salman Abedi was "clearly a connection of significance", but police were unable to establish exactly what it was.
The inquiry also heard Al-Anzei had been arrested in connection with the Exeter attack. But the public hearings were not told he was investigated by MI5 before that.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
So they just stood by while this fellow wreaked havoc.
Now they can point to terrorist acts and demand more money and power.
Sounds like the FBI of Comey and Wray re Antifa. We know a lot about nothing.
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