Posted on 09/03/2005 7:55:09 PM PDT by Qaz_W
The chilling video message of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the British suicide bomber, was recorded in Pakistan after he was given orders to attack London, MI5 investigators suspect.
According to senior Whitehall officials, the Security Service is probing the theory that Khan, 30, was filmed during a three-month visit to Pakistan with fellow bomber Shehzad Tanweer, which began in November last year.British investigators are working with security services in Pakistan to try to identify where the video was recorded - possibly Rawalpindi, a hotbed of terrorism close to Islamabad.
The video was broadcast last Thursday by al-Jazeera, the Arabic television station. Khan, in his native Yorkshire accent, said: "We are at war and I am a solider." He blamed Britain's involvement in Iraq for his intended suicide mission.
In part of the video not yet given to al-Jazeera Khan is reported to have been filmed with Tanweer, 22, the second member of the July 7 suicide team that killed 52 other people and injured more than 400. Al-Qaeda often staggers the release of video footage to gain maximum publicity.
In an interview in The Sunday Telegraph today, Tanweer's uncle confirmed that the two men had spent a great deal of time together in Pakistan before returning to Britain in February.
Tahir Pervez, Khan's maternal uncle, said: "They used to be up all the night talking to each other whenever Khan visited Tanweer during this period." He said his nephew travelled away from his home village of Samoodran in Faislabad, with Khan. "Both times Tanweer went out with Khan, he told us that he was going to Rawalpindi to meet Khan's relatives," he said.
Rawalpindi, a bustling city seven miles from Pakistan's federal capital of Islamabad, is notorious as a hotbed of Islamic militancy. Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda's suspected third in command and the alleged architect of 9/11 attacks on the United States, was arrested there two years ago.
Intelligence experts believe that the 7/7 attacks on London were the handiwork of al-Qaeda. One official said: "Even the picture background used when the interview of Khan is recorded before he carried out his suicide bombing is a typical al-Qaeda signature. They have used a cloth on the wall and this is what al-Qaeda guys do whenever they have to record a statement."
Pakistani intelligence agents believe that Khan was connected to a division known as the Osama Group. The theory came to light after the authorities smashed an arm of the group last month that was using a call centre to channel messages to Britain and other Western countries.
In Britain, MI5 is investigating the possibility that Khan, believed to have been his cell's leader, travelled to Pakistan to get final instructions on what target to attack in the United Kingdom. The Security Service also believes that he may have attended a training camp, possibly in Afghanistan.
A Whitehall official told The Sunday Telegraph: "Khan could have travelled to Pakistan and received instruction on what type of target to attack, was given the go-ahead to launch an attack and then returned to brief the remainder of his team. It is also possible that he was still recruiting at the time the video was made."
He said that MI5 had no evidence to support reports that the video was produced in Leeds on the eve of the July 7 attacks on three Tube trains and a bus. He said the absence of all the members of the terrorist cell lent weight to the theory that it was produced outside Britain. "If this video was made in the UK, in a back room in Leeds, then why are all the bombers not pictured together?
"There are only two real facts on this tape: fact one is that Khan was prepared to commit suicide in an act of terrorism and fact two is that al-Qaeda have got their hands on it."
He said that even if the cell had not had a direct link with al-Qaeda, the video was evidence that the bombers had been inspired by the group.
It also emerged that reports this weekend that the security services had forewarning of the existence of the video were exaggerated. The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that MI5 and Scotland Yard found out about the tape only three hours before its broadcast.
Investigators are studying the footage that was broadcast last week and are also trying to obtain a copy of what sources in Qatar claim is the "full video".
It is understood that al-Jazeera has been told that it contains a further commentary from Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second in command, in which he allegedly refers to the Queen and to other planned attacks. He claims that Muslim leaders in Britain are taking orders from the Queen in her role as the head of the Church of England, saying they "imitate her and issue fatwas in accordance with her religion".
Evan Kohlmann, a consultant to the US government on terrorism in Europe, said of the broadcast footage: "There is zero per cent doubt that this is al-Qaeda." He suspected that it was shot by an Arabic film company that has produced other al-Qaeda videos.
Patrick Mercer, the Conservative homeland security spokesman, said yesterday he was concerned that al-Jazeera is providing a platform for terrorists. "Al-Jazeera has now specifically named Britain through two tapes, one by al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri and now by Mohammad Sidique Khan," he said. "These messages are definite acts of war by our enemies to encourage suicide bombers."
As investigators study his video, the headless body of Khan, a father of one from Dewsbury, Yorkshire - who killed himself and six other people in the Edgware Road bomb - remains in a London morgue.
Khan lived in Dewsbury, eight miles from the Leeds home of the other three bombers. Police are investigating whether he had any connections with the Tablighi Jamaat mosque in Dewsbury. Extremists have previously tried to infiltrate the mosque, which was built in 1978 and dedicated to spreading Islam around the world.
One wonders why President General Musharraf cannot even control his own back yard.
INTERNET-HAGANAH.US: "VIDEO OF LONDON BOMBERS CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Produced by Al Qaida's Al Sahab production company, presumably in Pakistan or Afghanistan, aired by Al Jazeera, and distributed on the internet by dear old Irhabi[Terrorist]007.") (September 2, 2005)
Correct - common sense says that these terrorist acts are planned and sanctioned by the Pakistani elite. What's even more treasonous is if our governments know about this and do not act. Worse if they keep piling taxpayer money and sophisticated arms into this terror enterprise.
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