Author: Elaine Sciolino and Don
Van Natta Jr.
Publication: The New York Times
Date: July 14, 2005
Scotland Yard called it Operation
Crevice. In late March 2004, a force of 700 police officers arrested eight
British-born ethnic Pakistanis in two dozen raids in southern Britain.
They also seized 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can
be used in making bombs.
The operation - one of the largest
British counterterrorism raids in years - was a terrifying alert for the
British police: longtime ethnic Pakistani residents of Britain, most in
their teens or early 20's, were accused of forming a sleeper cell that
intended to stage an attack here.
For years, senior counterterrorism
officials feared an attack by a home-grown terror cell on British soil.
Just as worrying was the fact that the threat had come from a new source,
British citizens with Pakistani roots. Until then, most of the terrorist
plots on European soil had involved cells involving ethnic North Africans
and other Arabs.
Now, the police say last Thursday's
bombings, which killed 52 people, were carried out by a sleeper cell that
included young British-born residents of Pakistani origin. And investigators
are trying to determine if there is a connection between the four bombers
and the men who were arrested in Operation Crevice, British and European
investigators said.
That part of the investigation is
at the earliest stages, and investigators caution that no link may be found.
But they say they have found some clues that require further inquiry. One
investigator said it was believed that at least one of the suicide bombers
on Thursday had telephone contact with one of the men arrested in the 2004
plot.
In addition, the British police
are focusing on a 25-year-old Briton named Zeeshan Siddique, who was arrested
in Peshawar, Pakistan, in May on suspicion of links to terrorism. Two investigators
said they were trying to determine if he had any connection to the men
responsible for the London attacks or their associates.
Investigators say exploring these
potential links is important as they try to understand the shape of the
plot in Thursday's attacks and whether the terrorists had support from
abroad.
"We have just begun to look at this,
but it's possible some of these men knew the men arrested last year," a
senior counterterrorism official said.
Operation Crevice and the London
bombing inquiry underscore the challenges that investigators face in trying
to uproot cells involving ethnic Pakistanis that have used Britain and
other parts of Europe as a base.
At an emergency European Union meeting
of interior and justice ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, Interior Minister
Nicolas Sarkozy of France told reporters that it seemed that "part of this
team" involved in the London attacks had been "subject to partial arrest"
in the spring of last year, apparently in Operation Crevice.
Charles Clarke, the British home
secretary, angrily denied the claim, telling the British Sky Television:
"It's completely and utterly untrue. I am absolutely staggered he should
make that assertion."
A senior French law enforcement
and intelligence official said Mohamed Sidique Khan, one of the dead suspects
in the London bombings, was not arrested in the 2004 operation but appeared
to have had contact with those who were.
"I can't tell you if he was part
of the group, or close to the group, but he had contacts with it," the
official said, adding that the contacts were "very likely by telephone."
Many of the suspects arrested in
the 2004 operation have been freed, according to senior French and Belgian
law enforcement and intelligence officials.
In Milan on Tuesday, the police
visited the home of a man of Pakistani origin as the Italians searched
for evidence to assist the London investigation. The man's phone was monitored
last year after he was found to be in contact with a relative of one of
those accused in Operation Crevice, but the Italian police judged the relationship
to be innocent.
Operation Crevice shows only one
example of how ethnic Pakistani cells have begun to work in Europe.
Last July, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan,
a 25-year-old Pakistani computer technician and communications chief for
Al Qaeda with ties to ethnic Pakistanis in Britain, was arrested secretly
in Pakistan in a joint operation with Britain.
The Pakistani authorities said they
had found a computerized archive of surveillance information on the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, the Citigroup tower in Manhattan,
the New York Stock Exchange and the Prudential Building in Newark.
That was followed last August by
the arrest in Britain of several other ethnic Pakistanis allied with Mr.
Khan who had been under surveillance. The police charged them and Mr. Khan
with conspiracy to murder and violations of the Terrorism Act, as well
as conspiring to use "radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals and
explosives" to cause fear, panic and disruption against unspecified targets.
Spain has also begun to confront
Pakistani-born radicals operating there since the terrorist train bombings
in Madrid on March 11, 2004.
One plot uncovered in September
involved a cell of Pakistanis in Barcelona whom police and intelligence
officials suspect of planning to destroy one or more landmark buildings
in the city.
After 10 Pakistanis were arrested
on suspicion of belonging to an Islamic radical support network, the Spanish
police discovered a video showing details of a number of buildings in Barcelona,
including the 40-story Mapfre Tower and the 44-story Hotel Arts, which
are known as Spain's "twin towers," a senior Spanish intelligence official
said.
The police also seized documents
and videos calling for an Islamic holy war, several pounds of cocaine and
more than $20,000 in cash.
In November, two more Pakistanis
were arrested, and in April, 11 were indicted on charges of raising money
and recruiting for terrorist cells in Pakistan loyal to Al Qaeda and of
conspiring to commit terrorist acts in Spain.
According to the indictment, the
suspected leader of the Barcelona cell, Muhammad Afzaal, a Pakistani, was
assigned in early 2004 by top Qaeda leaders to create a cell in Spain as
well as Norway or Denmark.
No direct link has been established
between the Barcelona plot and the London bombings, a senior Spanish official
said. But he added that there was every possibility some members of cell
were still at large and that Spain and British were pooling their information
on the London bombing investigation.
Stephen Grey contributed reporting
from London for this article, Douglas Jehl from Washington and Renwick
McLean from Madrid.
