Hunt for plot mastermind will be global, claim experts

THE investigation into who masterminded and bankrolled the plane bombing plot will be a global and multifaceted probe led by British, US and Pakistani authorities but reliant on intelligence from other countries, counter-terrorism experts said yesterday.

Investigators are working on three key fronts: combing through forensic evidence, interrogating suspects and sifting through seized assets to see where the money trail leads.

“We already know the Pakistanis and the US provided key information, so the investigation is already worldwide in that sense, but you may find other countries come into the frame,” said Colonel Christopher Langton, a London-based terror analyst.

Interpol has asked British authorities to provide details of the plot to help other countries boost security and “share any information they have which could help other police agencies”.

Counter-terrorism chiefs said the thwarted plan to blow up US-bound aircraft appeared to bear the fingerprints of al-Qaida, and may have been “the big one” they have been dreading since September 11, 2001.

More than 20 people have been arrested, terror threat levels have been raised to some of their highest levels, and hundreds of flights have been cancelled worldwide.

“In terms of scale, it was probably designed to be... a new September 11,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French private investigator who works with lawyers of September 11 victims.

Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore’s Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, said everything known so far pointed to involvement by Osama bin Laden’s terror group.

“It is a hallmark of al-Qaida to carry out co-ordinated, simultaneous attacks, and the aviation domain is certainly known to al-Qaida,” he said.

British officials have praised their counterparts in Pakistan — where seven arrests have been made — for helping break the plot. But they stress the investigation which unfolded over more than a year was British-led, and that it is ongoing.

“Most of the work was driven and conducted here in the UK,” said British Home Secretary John Reid.

British police were interviewing 24 suspects over the plot, and have raided homes in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham. Those raids could yield forensic evidence into the liquid explosives investigators believe the terrorists planned to smuggle aboard and detonate by using common electronic devices.

They might also lead to more arrests. British and US officials believe they have the ringleaders, but more suspects might be at large.

Frances Townsend, US President George W Bush’s homeland security adviser, also said: “We are looking for connections between anyone in the United States and the plotters in Britain, but we don’t have any evidence there is an active threat or cell here.”

Investigators trying to determine who masterminded the plot will also focus hard on “the money trail that enabled the equipping of the operation,” Col Langton said.

“The clues will be in the area of where the finances came from, although no doubt those details will be carefully camouflaged.”

He said authorities should take heart that a such a lengthy investigation helped foil the plot days before it was to be carried out, and that Britain’s decision to more than double its intelligence budget after the July 7, 2005, attacks was a key factor.