[Mb-civic] CBC News - POLICE HUNT FOR MASTERMIND OF BOMBINGS

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POLICE HUNT FOR MASTERMIND OF BOMBINGS
WebPosted Wed Jul 13 11:50:15 2005

---British investigators are hunting for a fifth person suspected
of being the mastermind behind the deadly bombings of London's
transit system.


Top law enforcement officials raised the prospect on Wednesday that
another person organized the July 7 attacks, which killed at least 52
people and injured 700.

Police widened their search area in the evening, raiding a house in the
town of Aylesbury, about 65 kilometres northwest of London. Scotland Yard
said no arrests were made.

"I think the assumption of the police will be that there is all the
likelihood that there can be someone else out there," said Mike Granatt,
a former security advisor to the British government. "The network is
still out there, the people who tasked these people and supported them
and trained them and provided the bombs probably are still out there.


"So the police have to act on the assumption that there may be other
people out there waiting to do the same thing."

Details emerge about suspects

Police also removed material from homes in the Leeds area of northern
England as they searched for evidence in the neighborhoods where three of
the four suspected London suicide bombers lived.

Three of the four suspects are Britons of Pakistani descent. Hasib
Hussain, 18, lived with his parents and it was their anguished phone call
to alert police that he was missing that provided a vital clue.


Shahzad Tanweer was a 22-year-old cricket-loving sports science graduate
who also lived with his parents. Mohammed Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old
father of an 8-month-old baby, was a youth worker at a local mosque,
which is where he met Hussain and Tanweer.

Police have not confirmed any of the identities, which were reported in
various news outlets.

The police said they know the identity of the fourth man, but they
haven't made it public.

Police have said that at least three of the suspects came from Leeds. The
fourth was believed to be from the same area.

The searches have forced hundreds of neighbours from their houses.

West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn called the search
"very painstaking, very methodical, very measured."

"It's progressing well, but it is time-consuming and it will take as long
as it takes."

The British news agency Press Association said the men had driven a
rental car to Luton, 50 kilometres north of London, and boarded a
commuter train.

All four of the men then arrived in London by train on Thursday
morning, police said. Closed circuit television footage showed the men
at King's Cross station shortly before 8:30 a.m., 20 minutes before the
bombs exploded.

Police closed Luton's train station Tuesday and carried out nine
controlled explosions on a parked car, which contained explosives.

Early Wednesday morning, police took the vehicle away to do a more
comprehensive search.

Police launched a series of raids on six homes on Tuesday in
Leeds, hunting for explosives and computer files possibly linked
to the bombings.

One man was arrested and was identified by Press Association as a
relative of one of the suspected bombers.

Two militant Islamic groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings
but those claims have not been verified.



Blair tries to contain backlash against Muslims

British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to contain any backlash against
the country's Muslim community, telling the House of Commons that the
bombers represented a perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of Islam.

He said he would organize a summit with British Muslim leaders. But he
also said he wants new laws to increase the government's power to deal
with extremists.

"This legislation will focus on the measures the police and security
services say are necessary, and in particular focus upon measures to
combat the incitement and the instigation of terrorism as well as the
acts themselves."

Blair also met with Muslim MPs, who – like many in their community
– were stunned by the news that four British-born Muslims had
planted the bombs.

"People are appalled, they're shocked," said Shahid Malik, a British MP.
"What I'm sensing is there is a great appetite within the Muslim
community to move beyond condemnation of this, to actually confront some
of the rhetoric that manifested itself in the horrific terrorist
atrocities that we saw last Thursday."

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