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Spies warned of Tube attack
By David Leppard
12/18/05 "The
Times" -- -- SPYMASTERS warned Tony Blair before the
July 7 suicide bombings that Al-Qaeda was planning a “high priority”
attack specifically aimed at the London Tube.
A leaked four-page report by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC),
which oversees all spying, is the first definitive evidence that the
intelligence services expected terrorists to strike at the
Underground.
The disclosure will fuel critics’ suspicions that Blair decided to
rule out a public inquiry into the bombings last week because it
could expose intelligence failings at the highest level.
The document, marked Top Secret and signed off by the heads of MI5,
MI6 and GCHQ, the government eavesdropping centre, was based partly
on the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al-Qaeda’s then
operations chief.
It stated: “The UK and its interests remain high in Al-Qaeda’s
priorities . . . Plans have been considered to attack Heathrow, the
London Underground and other targets.”
Ministers and senior security officials have insisted that there was
no warning of an imminent attack ahead of the July 7 bombings, in
which 56 people died.
While technically true, the leaked document dated April, 2003, will
be seized on by critics to show that ministers failed to disclose
that they knew Al-Qaeda was targeting the Tube.
A statement in September 2003 by the prime minister and Sir John
Stevens, the then Metropolitan police commissioner, that a suicide
attack was “inevitable”, did not name the Tube as a specific target.
The performance of MI5 has already been criticised because it lost
track of Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the suicide gang, whom it
placed under temporary surveillance 18 months before the bombings.
Officers judged that Khan was not an immediate threat to national
security and decided to stop monitoring him.
Blair ruled out a public inquiry on the grounds that it would
detract from the investigation into the July 7 bombs and the failed
July 21 attacks.
The report dated April 2, 2003 is entitled International Terrorism:
The Current Threat from Islamic Extremists. Mohammed, who organised
the 9/11 attacks, had been arrested in Pakistan the previous month.
In a key passage it states: “The UK and its interests remain high in
Al-Qaeda’s priorities. Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and
other detainees confirms this.
“It shows that plans have been considered to attack Heathrow, the
London Underground and other targets.”
The report adds that terrorist suspects with links to east Africa
are under surveillance.
“We do not yet know the full nature of their activity, but they do
not appear to be planning attacks here (some were questioned by the
police).”
Five men have been charged over the July 21 attacks. Four of them
came from either Ethiopia, Eritrea or Somalia.
JIC documents are circulated to a small group of senior ministers.
These include the home secretary, the foreign secretary and defence
secretary as well as top civil servants in Whitehall.
The Tories demanded the government publish the whole JIC document
and disclose what other intelligence there had been about threats to
the Tube. Patrick Mercer, the party’s homeland security spokesman,
said: “This leak underlines our demand for an independent inquiry.”
The police would consider shooting civilians to prevent contaminated
people leaving a cordoned-off area in a radiological, biological,
nuclear or chemical attack, Chris Fox, president of the Association
of Chief Police Officers, has said.
Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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