The terror plot (London Liquids)

CANNONFIRE Joseph Cannon (cannonfiremail@yahoo.com)

The terror plot By Joseph These days, one expects the conspiracy theorists to show up earlier. After all, an alt.conspiracy.princess-diana newsgroup appeared within hours of that tragedy. Yet we've had a surprising dearth of "alternative" takes on the recent foiled plot to blow up airliners. Fortunately, "old reliable" -- Wayne Madsen -- has come through. He claims that Blair and allies literally cooked up the entire scenario, using the old Bojinka plot as a template. Unfortunately, most of his info comes from his usual unnamed sources, which means that we outsiders can do little but shrug our shoulders. Madsen: The London terror plan was "known" last Sunday by British and American authorities, according to the Indian press. American Airlines flight 109 from London Heathrow to Boston boarded a family of five, however, after the plane left Heathrow authorities determined that the father appeared on a British suspect list drawn up after the 7/7 London transit attacks. At first, the pilot was instructed to fly all the way to Boston where U.S. authorities could claim credit for apprehending the suspect. However, the pilot, fearing for the safety of his passengers and crew, refused and quickly returned to Heathrow without informing the passengers. The "Indian press" story (from DNA, Daily News and Analysis) Madsen cites is here. The incident was covered elsewhere, of course, albeit in a rather different way. This little-noted "precursor" event is undeniably strange, and may prove significant. Madsen does not prove his point by discussing Murdochian attempts to sandbag George Galloway and Scottish Socialist Tommy Sheridan. Neither am I sure of the relevance of the stories he tells about eavesdropping on Prince Charles and Prince William. The following, however, is germane: Not surprisingly, after Galloway tore into a Sky News reporter on a recent televised interview, The Sun, a Murdoch paper, is now reporting that one of the 24 British aircraft liquid bomber suspects now under arrest, Waheed Zaman, met with Galloway "many times." The paper quotes the sister of the suspect. A Galloway spokesman denies that Galloway knows the suspect. What is suspect is the Murdoch media empire that makes up news and commits illegal acts to provide cover for the false flag operations being conducted by Britain, the U.S., and Israel. Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency has helped provide the cover story for the alleged liquid bombers. Working with British and U.S. intelligence, the ISI says it broke up the plot after arresting terrorist suspects in Lahore and Karachi. However, the ISI claims that the men were affiliated with the Kashmiri terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba, a group that is run and funded by the ISI itself. We thus come to what should be the starting point for any alternative take on this incident. Many reports stress the help allegedly given by Pakistan's decidedly non-democratic government. This is the same country which helped give rise to the Taliban, which helped give rise to Osama Bin Laden, and which still harbors the leader of Al Qaeda. Moreover, Pakistan created the Islamic bomb, using Saudi money and -- some say -- a certain degree of American equipment. In an earlier post, we mentioned informant Randy Glass, who participated in an FBI sting operation against a Pakistani weapons dealer named R.G. Abbas, believed to have strong connections to the ISI. While dining with Glass and a government agent named Stolz in June of 1999, Abbas is said to have predicted the destruction of the World Trade Center. That was then. Now, we are told, the Pakistanis may have helped to prevent Bojinka 2. I urge readers to read Larissa Alexandrovna's take. She questions not the reality of the plot but the timing of the arrests: The arrests appeared sloppy. Scotland Yard was still involved in raiding and arresting suspects at the time the story broke, and the raids and arrests continued throughout the day and evening. The mastermind was still in Pakistan, when one would have hoped that authorities would have ensured his capture prior to the raids, as such a person could provide information about higher ups and financial backers. Why did the Brits suddenly move? This was the question that had experts completely confused. My opinion on this whole timing issue is that the White House played politics with classified information, again. Later, she gives her bottom line: Is it possible that the White House, eager to score political points with the American radical right (note, not actual Republicans, those having jumped ship eons ago), actually blew yet another classified program by yapping to reporters and talking point crafters? In my opinion, yes. In my opinion it was despite the Bush administration that the Brits managed to still secure the alleged plotters, not as a result of White House help in the matter. The timing is odd. One of the most intriguing stories about the plot appeared in Ireland On-Line: The arrest in Pakistan of a key suspect with alleged al-Qaida links, British national Rashid Rauf, prompted an unidentified associate of his to make the call from Karachi to one of the suspects subsequently arrested in Britain, the officials said. “This telephone call intercept in Karachi and the arrest of Rashid Rauf helped a lot to foil the terror plan,” a senior Pakistani security official. It wasn’t clear exactly when the call was intercepted, but officials have said Rauf – one of at least two Britons of Pakistani descent arrested in Pakistan - was held about a week before the plot was foiled in Britain on Thursday. The first question that pops into my mind after reading these words is: If the mastermind was in custody a week before, wouldn't the bad guys lie low, stash all incriminating evidence, and hightail it out of the U.K.? Later in the story, we learn that Rauf and his family had been under surveillance since December. The official said one of the suspects caught in Britain and named by British authorities, Tayib Rauf, is a close relative of Rashid Rauf. So the Brits must have known something was up for months. And the plotters must have known that the operation was blown. When the cops haul in your boss, that's a pretty clear sign that the jig is up. Grounds for crying "conspiracy"? Nope. Not yet. But something about this story does convey a funky smell. Perhaps the plot was genuine, but blown out of proportion for political purposes? Lord knows we've seen that sort of thing before... By the way -- I am wondering if the Rashid Rauf mentioned above is the same Pakistani advertising his services here? He is, we are told, a "Business Man, Entreprenuer, Author and Research Analyst." The page references a couple of restaurants in the U.K., as well as a firm called Healthwise, whose web page is here. I wonder if the products sold by this firm relate in any way to the stories we've heard of "liquid" weapons disguised as everyday items? I'd like to know more about this fellow -- and I would like to know if the two Raufs are one and the same.