Posted on 09/25/2001 6:29:41 PM PDT by vannrox
Eleven of the 19 hijackers involved in the recent devastating air strikes on the United States spent time plotting their attacks in Britain, according to The Times on Wednesday. The paper, citing intelligence chiefs, said that five of the hijackers left London airports in June to fly to America after possibly partaking in "a vital planning meeting". According to the broadsheet, the FBI has asked Scotland Yard to discover who sheltered and funded the team during its stay in Britain in the hope of uncovering a cell of Al Qaeda -- the organisation of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect behind the September 11 strikes on New York and Washington. The paper said that three hijackers were on each of the two aircraft that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and three were on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. It added that two were on the airliner that hit the Pentagon. The 11 hijackers were joined in America after their stay in Britain by eight others, including three from a cell in Germany, the paper said. Police here are reportedly checking London hotels and addresses bordering the capital, trying to establish where the hijackers stayed. Investigators believe that the 11 collected funds while in Britain, The Times said. On Tuesday, police arrested three men in central England under anti-terrorist legislation they believe may be linked to anti-American terrorist activities in Europe. The three -- aged 29, 35, and one believed to be in his 20s -- were arrested at two houses in Leicester and were being questioned by anti-terrorist police. According to British terrorism laws, suspects can be detained for 48 hours without being charged. Police then must seek courts' permission to extend this time to up to a week. The men were not suspected of being involved in the the US strikes. But their detention was believed to be linked to recent arrests and charges of suspected Islamic extremists carried out in France, Belgium and Holland. French police charged seven suspected Islamic extremists in connection with planned terrorist attacks on US interests in France, a source close to the investigation said late Tuesday. French authorities believe the seven suspects to be linked to a network in Europe close to Saudi dissident bin Laden. The suspects, aged between 20 and 32, had all been placed under surveillance prior to the terror kamikaze attacks in the United States and were ordered detained in the wake of the attacks out of fear they might flee. Other arrests were made in Belgium and Holland soon after the terror attacks in New York and Washington, which saw the loss of thousands of lives. In London, police released one of three people being questioned since Friday about the terror attacks, Scotland Yard said early Wednesday. Police said that Sonia Raissi, 25, was released without charge shortly after 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) Tuesday. Anti-terrorist officers were continuing to quiz her husband Lotfi Raissi, 27, and a second man in his mid-40s, who was arrested in Birmingham, central England, on Friday. Magistrates have granted police an extension, allowing them to question the two men until an unspecified time on Thursday. Sonia Raissi was arrested with her husband at their home in Colnbrook, Berkshire, west of London, on Friday under the Anti-Terrorism Act. A fourth suspect, Mohamed Raissi, 29, was released without charge over the weekend. Majority of hijackers spent time plotting in Britain: report
LONDON, Sept 26 (AFP);
By the way, I wonder if Mohamed Atta was at this meeting. Probably not, because he was presumably one of the three members of the German cell that the people at this meeting joined in America, and, anyway, for all Atta's travels, I haven't heard yet of his having gone to England. But then, I wonder what Atta was doing spending 12 days in Spain in July.
For these different groups to join together, somebody was obviously coordinating the matter. Somebody who maintained control, because of how well-coordinated the four hijackings were. How do we find out who that was, and who else he has been communicating with?
I don't think "harbouring" them means that they just might have been in the country. Harbouring means state sanctioned, methinks.
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