LONDON – Armed with new intelligence from Pakistan suggesting al-Qaida plotted to attack London’s Heathrow airport, police Thursday questioned a dozen terror suspects, including an alleged key al-Qaida operative, and announced the arrest of a man wanted in the United States on charges of raising money for terrorism.
Intelligence officials in Pakistan said they found images of Heathrow and other sites on the computers of two fugitives from Osama bin Laden’s terror network arrested in the country last month, and that this information was passed to British officials.
An official said that there are linkages between the arrests in Pakistan and the arrests of the 12 suspects in Britain on Tuesday. Among the 12 was a senior al-Qaida member, known as Abu Eisa al-Hindi or Abu Musa al-Hindi, who media reported was involved in plotting against Heathrow.
The official called al-Hindi “a key al-Qaida operative.” Authorities are looking into whether al-Hindi is connected to the radical London cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, whose extradition the United States is seeking on charges he attempted to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
Maps, photographs and other details of possible targets in the United States and Britain were found on computers belonging to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani – a Tanzanian indicted for his role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa – and a Pakistani computer expert identified as Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, said two Pakistani officials.
A Lahore-based intelligence official involved in the investigation following the July 13 arrest of Khan said his computer contained photographs of Heathrow airport, as well as pictures of underpasses that run beneath several buildings in London.
Associated Press
A police officer patrols London’s Heathrow Airport on Thursday after reports of a terrorist threat against the airport.
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