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| US and UK Investigators Developing Many Leads to Terror Net |
| 2004-08-08 |
| From The New York Times .... On Saturday, American authorities said they were close to identifying the main figures who conducted reconnaissance of the financial centers. Armed with multiple leads stemming from arrests in Britain and Pakistan, and aided by a wealth of information from forensic studies of computers seized in Pakistan, the authorities have begun a large-scale investigation. .... Among those in custody is a suspect named Babar Ahmed, who was arrested in Britain this week at the request of the United States. ... Mr. Ahmed obtained detailed information about the movements of the Navy aircraft carrier Constellation ..... As part of the inquiry, Navy officials examined the record of a sailor aboard the Benfold, a destroyer that was part of the Constellation battle group. Officials said they had found an e-mail message from the sailor - who has since left the service - that was sympathetic to Al Qaeda. .... For reasons still not entirely clear, Mr. Hindi was under surveillance by the British authorities - believed to be acting on information supplied by the United States - even before he is said to have been identified as an operative in the surveillance of American financial institutions. One senior counterterrorism official said the outpouring of leads had mushroomed into a sprawling investigation in which agencies in the United States and overseas were struggling to coordinate and share the enormous volume of information. The inquiry has caused strains between the United States and Britain. There were signs that some British authorities might not have agreed with the White House decision to make public information about the surveillance operations. .... Officials at MI5, the British domestic intelligence agency, have warned that the intense news media coverage in the United States of recent arrests in Britain could interfere with legal efforts to extradite suspects to the United States. .... A report by Reuters in Pakistan said Mr. Khan had been secretly funneling information about Al Qaeda to Pakistani authorities and that his arrest and subsequent identification in news accounts may have cost the United States a valuable source. American officials contacted on Saturday would not confirm whether Mr. Khan was a mole or double agent. .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |