CIA identified key London bomber, claims book

DEMANDS for an independent inquiry into the July 7 London suicide attacks were stepped up tonight after claims that the CIA identified the leader of the bombers as a terrorist threat two years before the strikes on London.

Mohammad Sidique Khan was banned from flying to the US after the CIA discovered in 2003 he was planning attacks on US cities, a new book claims.

The claims are especially significant because MI5 has denied any previous knowledge of the threat the suicide bombers presented.

They are made by Ron Suskind in a book serialised by The Times in London, weeks before the first anniversary of the attacks, which killed 52 people.

Britain’s shadow home secretary David Davis said: “If true, this new information shows that there is an unarguable case for an independent inquiry that will enable us to ensure any weaknesses in our security and intelligence system are put right before we face any further threat.”

In his book, The One Per Cent Doctrine, Mr Suskind alleges the CIA shared information on Khan with a British intelligence official in London after agents discovered evidence he was in touch with extremists in the US.

Khan, a primary school assistant from Dewsbury in Yorkshire, allegedly made two trips to the US to organise attacks on synagogues on the east coast.

Suskind told The Times: “British intelligence was certainly told about Khan in March and April 2003.

“This was a significant set of contacts that Khan had, and ones of much less importance were exchanged on a daily basis between the CIA and MI5.”

Suskind’s book claims Khan had been in email contact with Omar Abu Ali, a student from Virginia who was this year sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for a plot to assassinate US President George W Bush.

The FBI placed Khan on a “no fly” list to stop him leaving Britain in March 2003 after a CIA agent identified him as “a very dangerous character”.

The Times also quoted an unnamed British security source dismissing the allegations as “one of the many myths that have grown up around Khan”.

A British Home Office spokesman declined to comment on the claims but said a public inquiry would be “a significant diversion of police and security resources at a time when continuing to put all efforts into safeguarding the public remains paramount”.

The CIA refused to comment on the book’s claims.