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LONDON (The Scotsman) Dec. 14, 2006 — An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan ruled that there was not enough evidence to try a British man on terrorism charges.
Rashid Rauf, who had been charged with conspiracy to hijack planes, was identified by Pakistani officials as a “key person” in an alleged plot to blow up passenger planes flying from Britain to the United States.
But he is now facing charges relating only to possessing forged travel and identity documents.
A judge in the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi ruled Rauf’s case did not “fall in the category of terrorism”, and transferred the case to the district and session court, where criminal cases are normally heard, an official said.
Rauf’s lawyer, Hashmat Habib, said his client had been accused in the police charge-sheet of conspiracy to hijack planes, but no evidence had been presented in court to support such a charge. “The allegations that the police made against him did not prove terrorism,” Mr Hashmat said.
Dozens of suspects were arrested in Britain and Pakistan in August in connection with the supposed hijack plot.
Pakistani intelligence officials have claimed that Rauf had contacts with an Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda operative who was the mastermind behind the alleged scheme.
U.S. raises threat level at airports to RED
WASHINGTON (LA Times) Aug. 10, 2006 — The U.S. government raised its threat warning to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States in response to a reported terror plot in London and also stepped up the general level for all flights within the U.S. or entering the country.
“We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in announcing that the threat level for flights from Britain to the United States has been raised to the highest “severe or red” level.
LONDON (Daily Mail) Dec. 18 – Tony Blair made a “terrible mistake” by invading Iraq and failed to influence George Bush “in any significant way”, according to a devastating report by Britain’s leading foreign affairs think tank.
The report by Chatham House director Victor Bulmer-Thomas found that the “root failure” of Mr Blair’s time in charge was his inability to understand how little influence he had in Washington.
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The paper also condemned as “unforgivable”, the Prime Minister’s failure to predict the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the way they would flood the streets of Britain with heroin.
Mr Bulmer-Thomas concluded: “The post 9/11 decision to invade Iraq was a terrible mistake and the current debacle will have policy repercussions for many years to come.
LONDON (The Scotsman) Dec. 18 – Tony Blair’s foreign policy has made it harder for police fighting homegrown terrorism to reach out to Muslim communities, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair has admitted.
In a frank interview for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Ian Blair said many Muslims felt marginalised and dissatisfied with government policy, which forced police to “work harder”.
His assessment is in stark contrast to the Prime Minister’s insistence that foreign policy cannot explain the motivations behind terrorism.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
