The UK government has defended itself against claims by Interpol’s head that it is failing to check visitors against a database of stolen passports. Ronald K Noble, the police agency’s chief, said there was a “clear link between stolen passports and al-Qaeda linked terrorist activity”.
Mr Noble told the BBC’s Today it was “extraordinary” the UK was not making use of the information at its disposal. The Home Office has insisted border officials were aware of the list.
It said any name on the list which was also regarded as a threat by police forces or the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) would be passed to border authorities.
Mr Noble said in an open letter that only 17 out of Interpol’s 186 member countries systematically checked the passport numbers of incoming travellers against the database. “On the other hand, all countries systematically check our bags to see if we are carrying bottles of water or other liquids,” he said. “These priorities seem misplaced.” He also warned that a British “watch list” had not been passed to Interpol.
BBC NEWS | UK | UK defends its border procedures
More about Australia connection:
Police in Australia have carried out further searches in connection with the suspected car bomb attempts in London and at Glasgow Airport.
Officers have searched the home of Mohammed Haneef, 27, who was arrested as he tried to leave Brisbane international airport late last Monday.
The Indian doctor is related to two of the six people being held in the UK.
Another man, Bilal Abdullah, 27, was remanded in custody on Saturday charged with conspiracy to cause explosions.
The Iraqi doctor is the only person charged over the suspected attack attempts. The charge carries a maximum life sentence.
Over the weekend, anti-terror police were also granted more time to question five of the six other people detained in the UK.
The sixth person, Kafeel Ahmed, is in a Glasgow hospital suffering from severe burns.
According to his lawyer in Brisbane, Dr Haneef has not been interviewed since a magistrate granted police 72 hours of so-called dead time – which allows them to review the evidence and pursue other lines of inquiry – three days ago.
Police will then have 12 hours of interviewing time left available to them, although they could seek a further extension.
However, they have returned to Dr Haneef’s top-floor apartment, close to the hospital where he worked on Queensland’s Gold Coast, to carry out further searches and have towed away his car, a blue Honda Jazz.
Thanks to Stefania, I reach a Daily Mail article: Eight Al Qaeda fanatics working for the police (but they don’t dare sack them):
The dossier was drawn up with the help of MI5 amid fears that individuals linked to Islamic extremism are taking advantage of police attempts to increase the proportion of ethnic staff.
Astonishingly, many of the alleged jihadists have not been sacked because – it is claimed – police do not have the “legal power” to dismiss them.
We can also reveal that one suspected jihadist officer working in the South East has been allowed to keep his job despite being caught circulating Internet images of beheadings and roadside bombings in Iraq.
He is said to have argued that he was trying to “enhance” debate about the war.
Classified intelligence reports raising concerns about police staff’s background cannot be used to justify their dismissal, sources said.
Australia has extended the terror inquiry on Haneef.
Also in UK:
Three men accused of taking part in an extremist Muslim plot to carry out a series of suicide bombings on London’s transport system in July 2005 have been convicted of conspiracy to murder.
Police issued these closed circuit television images of the suspects soon after the events of July 21, 2005 on London trains and buses.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29; Yassin Omar, 26; and Ramzi Mohammed, 25, were found guilty Monday of plotting to bomb London’s public transport system on July 21, 2005. Later, Hussain Osman, 28, was also found guilty of conspiracy to murder for taking part in the plot.
The jury, still deliberating on two co-defendents, was sent home for the night after failing to reach verdicts on Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, and Adel Yahya, 24.
Earlier, Judge Adrian Fulford told the jury of nine women and three men he would accept 10-2 majority verdicts on the remaining three defendants, The Associated Press reported.
[...] The July 21 failed attacks happened 14 days after the July 7 London suicide attacks, which killed 52 commuters and four bombers.
The defendants — all from London — denied charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.
Four of the men claimed the devices, made from liquid hydrogen peroxide, chapati flour, acetone and acid, were a hoax. Another claimed they were real bombs but that he was duped while the sixth man denies having anything to do with the alleged conspiracy.
During the trial the jury was told by prosecutor Nigel Sweeney that the conspiracy “had been in existence long before the events of July 7” and did not appear to be some “hastily arranged copycat.”
Each bomb was placed in a large plastic container in a knapsack and screws, tacks, washers or nuts, were taped to the outside to “maximize the possibility of injury,” Sweeney said.
Angel has more about Islam in UK.
Other news include:
- Chinese workers shot dead at Pakistan. Gunmen shouting religious slogans attacked the Chinese men at a small auto-rickshaw factory. A fourth Chinese worker was wounded in the attack. Officials believe the attack might be linked to the stand-off at an Islamabad mosque where students are barricaded.
- International silence about the death in prison of Cuban dissident Manuel Acosta, accused of being “precriminally dangerous”. More about Cuba by Stefania.
- Christians under persecution complain of the lack of protest held in Western Countries regarding their cause. A bitterness which the auxiliar bishop of Baghdad, Shlemon Warduni, expressed recently in some statements published by Catholic newspaper “Avvenire”: “The Christians are doing nothing, while here we are suffering kidnappings, we are obliged to convert to Islam, to pay for protection or to give your daughters to criminals to prevent retaliation or to migrate, leaving the job you’ve been doing all your life. From USA or Europa, nothing, only silence. No one has shown us solidarity when the assassination of the priest Ragheed Ganni [with three subdeacons]. Only the Pope has sent us a telegram and has risen his voice to make known the tragedy of the Iraqi Christians“.Another critical place is Sudan, with the civil war between Khartoum’s Islamic state which has killed thousands of Christian and animinist victims. In Holy Land, the Palestine civil war between Al Fatah and Hamas has complicated even more the situation for the Arab Christian minority. Here, as in other places, the main problem is the migration, provoked by the lack of a future. If in 1948 Christians in Bethlehem were 85% of the whole population, now they are only 12%. And in Jerusalem they represent only the 2%.
- Chávez’s interview: Western media tries to demonize Iran and other Muslim countries: an excerpt: (thanks to Kate): I have always said that we are in a transition period. Two days ago, I was discussing the fact with a group of congressmen. A new international order is being shaped and the Islamic Revolution and the Venezuelan Revolution are playing key roles in this process. Iran enjoys a very strategic geopolitical situation and Venezuela is considered as the most important nation in the Latin America. We can say that the two revolutions could contribute to a great dynamic transition. I believe new players will join the movement for a global revolution which are expected to rise from among the Arab, Latin American, Caribbean, European and even the North American nations. I think that the movement would save the world from the threat that comes from North American imperialism. Chávez has announced he wants a nuclear program for Venezuela.
- Measuring the Terrorist Threat: Pakistan May Return Detained Islamists to Germany: For the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, a government task force responsible for preparing for terrorist threats has met in Berlin. Indications that terrorists may be planning attacks on Europe are growing following a slew of arrests of Islamists in Pakistan. They had traveled from Germany. Germany was at the Iraqi war, you know.. ehem… The reason for the special meeting — which was chaired by Thomas de Maiziere, Angela Merkel’s chief of staff at the Chancellery, was a secret CIA analysis that presents a list of reasons why Germany is currently particularly at risk, in the United States government’s opinion. Besides Germany’s participation in NATO’s Afghanistan mission, the reasons include the high number of German Islamists with contacts to Pakistan and the good opportunities for traveling to Western Europe that people returning from the Hindu Kush region enjoy. Before the week was over, August Hanning, a state secretary in the Interior Ministry, alerted the public too, by means of an unusually drastic appeal. “We’re moving right into the spectrum of targets,” he warned.
DDP German-Pakistani terror suspect Aleem N.
