Author: Ian Morgan
Publication: 24dash.com
Date: August 18, 2006
URL: http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=7&newsID=9398
Police investigating the alleged airliner
bomb plot have found a suitcase containing components needed to make an explosive
device, it was reported.
The discovery is thought to have been made
in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, where specialist officers are combing King's
Wood for traces of explosives or evidence of explosive tests.
The BBC reported a police source as saying
the suitcase contained "everything you would need to make an improvised
device".
Scotland Yard has refused to comment on the
reports.
Earlier, intelligence officials in Pakistan
claimed Rashid Rauf - a key suspect in the alleged plot - had links with an
outlawed Pakistani militant group and met al Qaida figures inside Pakistan
in the lead-up to his arrest.
Rauf, a British national and the brother of
one of those detained in the UK, was held in Pakistan last week and is widely
believed to have triggered the police operation to smash the alleged plot.
Officials claimed he had been in contact -
through intermediaries - with a high ranking al Qaida leader at large in neighbouring
Afghanistan, and that he had met al Qaida figures inside Pakistan.
He also had links to the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed
and was related by marriage to its leader, it was alleged.
Scotland Yard officers have also flown to
Pakistan to liaise with the authorities there over the questioning of Rauf.
It is still unclear whether the Government has made a formal request for his
extradition.
A number of other people are being held in
Pakistan over the alleged plot.
The alleged bomb plot involved plans to blow
up US-bound transatlantic passenger jets in mid-flight using liquid-based
explosive devices hidden in hand luggage.
It has led to the introduction of tough new
security measures at airports.
Detectives have been granted more time to
question the 23 suspects being held in London over the alleged plot. They
have another week to continue questioning 21 of them, and another five days
to question the other two.
However, the complexity of the case means
they are likely to continue applying for a series of further extensions -
taking them close to limit of 28 days - before deciding whether to charge
or release the suspects.
A person arrested in the Thames Valley area
on Tuesday was released without charge.
The ongoing investigation in Britain has seen
searches being held at a number of residential and business premises across
London, the West Midlands and Thames Valley.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman disclosed that
a total of 49 residential and business premises plus one area of woodland
had been searched.
Of those, 36 searches were complete and 14
remained ongoing, including the search at the woodland, she added.
Meanwhile, a US airport terminal in Huntington,
West Virginia, was evacuated last night after two bottles of liquid found
in a woman's hand luggage tested positive for explosives.
One bottle contained a gel-type facial cleanser.
About 100 passengers and airport employees
were ordered to leave the terminal.
The 28-year-old woman, reported to be of Pakistani
descent, was being questioned by FBI officials.
