Air terror attack plotted in Dublin

[milmor_1]

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independe...4484&printer=1

Air terror attack plotted in Dublin


Sunday August 13th 2006


A KEY al-Qaeda bomb-maker, who devised the original plot to bring down airplanes over cities in the US, lived in Dublin for four years.

MI5, the British security service, believes the man, whose identity has never been fully established, carried out dummy runs at Dublin and Knock Airports.

The MI5 operation which led to last week's dramatic events in London began with the man's arrest in Belfast in 2003, the Sunday Independent can reveal.

Information on his computer showed he had advanced a method of adapting ordinary electronic devices to detonate explosives in a passenger aircraft.

'Abbas Boutrab', the identity which was used in his court case last December, was convicted of possessing information on bomb-making at Belfast Crown Court and sentenced to six years. Boutrab is now in prison in Belfast.

Boutrab was arrested, in a joint MI5-PSNI operation, on foot of a Garda warrant after he was traced to Belfast.

He had been the main suspect for a knife attack on another foreign worker at the bakery in west Dublin where he had worked.

A Garda source said: "There was no suspicion about him when he was here. He came to our attention as a result of the stabbing at Johnston Mooney & O'Brien's. Detectives at Lucan traced him to Belfast. It was only later that C3 [Garda intelligence] told us that he had been spirited away by MI5."

Shortly after the arrest of Boutrab, detectives in Lucan were told by Garda Intelligence that he would not be coming back to the Republic to face charges relating to the stabbing, and the case was dropped.

When the PSNI raided his flat on the Shore Road, north of Belfast, they found a large quantity of documents and computer disks which were handed over to MI5.

The plot outlined in Belfast Crown Court was exactly the same as last week's plan to carry out mass murder on aircraft flying out of Heathrow and two other British airports. Last week's plan was put together by a group of Islamic extremists who have also been linked to a key al-Qaeda figure in Pakistan.

Security sources here believe MI5 was able to track email traffic from Boutrab to al-Qaeda, almost certainly in Pakistan, culminating in last week's dramatic events.

It was the military security service in Pakistan which alerted MI5 that sums of money were being transferred to London to buy the airline tickets, which prompted last week's airport operation, which led to the arrest of 24 people, 22 of whom were still in custody yesterday.

The Sunday Independent can also reveal that last week's events thwarted plans to send three waves of three bombers on nine separate planes and have the aircraft blow up over three major US cities - Washington, New York and Boston.

The bombers intended to carry the explosives in liquid form in isotonic drink bottles, but with no electronic equipment in their bags. The plan was that they would then buy some device - anything from an MP3 player to a disposable camera - in a duty-free shop inside the perimeter security.

The adapting of such a common electronic device for use as a detonator was precisely what Boutrab was working on when he was arrested.

Evidence given at his trial stated that he was part of the al-Qaeda plot to smuggle the bomb onto an aircraft and detonate it as the aircraft circled over a major US city.

Donald Sachtleben, an FBI explosives expert, testified that he had built and detonated three bombs based on instructions found in Boutrab's home.

Sachtleben said the tests, involving a 7-ounce mixture of potassium chlorate, sulphur, sugar and baby powder, demonstrated the bottle bombs could be exploded in a car or on a plane.

He said such a bomb could "cause catastrophic failure" of a pressurised aircraft if exploded at high altitude.

During the sentencing of Boutrab, Judge Maurice Weatherup spoke about the threat of terrorism posed by Islamic extremists.

He said: "This new threat has an added horror because the terrorist stands amongst the innocent men, women and children. That's a feature in the material that was recovered here. It provides instructions for improvised explosives with the object of bringing down an aircraft and the lives of all those on board."

Last night, Progressive Democrats senator John Minihan said no country was safe from being used as a base for terrorist networks.

"Given Ireland's geographical location, our freedom of movement within the EU and our own terrorist networks, we have a responsibility to ensure we play our part in intelligence-gathering, monitoring and arrest of suspects where possible," he said.

Senior security sources here also expressed considerable concern that despite the declaration of a "critical" security state in our nearest neighbour, the Government has directed no form of increased security here.

The sources also said almost all the targeted aircraft would travel over or near Irish airspace as we are at the centre of the busiest flight path in the world, between Europe and the US.

The only two aircraft destroyed by bombs in flight, Pan Am 103 in December 1988 and Air India 182 in June 1985, were both destroyed within 100 miles of Irish airspace.

Senior security figures have warned that although Shannon Airport is also the most likely target here because of its use by United States military aircraft, the nearest Army bomb squads are in Cork city and Finner Camp in Donegal, up to four hours away. Senior sources said last week that both Garda and Defence Forces' intelligence units working on uncovering Islamic terrorists here are under-resourced.

Senator Minihan echoed that claim, saying the Government needed to "dramatically increase and resource our intelligence services".

He also encouraged the Government to consider the establishment of a single intelligence agency to evaluate intelligence gathered by both the Garda and the Army.

Investigators in the North discovered that while Boutrab was living in Lucan and subsequently in Whiteabbey, north Belfast, he visited Knock and Dublin airports apparently to carry out dummy runs for the bomb plot. Information on both airports was found in Boutrab's possession.

While Boutrab lived in Lucan under the alias 'Yocef Djafari', he attracted no suspicion. Papers discovered in Belfast showed he entered the Republic unchallenged and successfully applied for asylum status in 2001.

It was also discovered that he stole a passport in Dublin Airport in September 2001 from an Italian tourist, named Fabio Parenti, and had used this in the North.

If he had not been wanted for the stabbing in Lucan, Boutrab could probably have remained here and even applied for citizenship.

Several men now suspected of having al-Qaeda links have successfully acquired Irish citizenship, allowing them to travel throughout Europe.

Chilling evidence was given in Belfast which revealed that Boutrab ended his training manual with the words: "Blow the aircraft up with yourself and may God accept you."

Police and the security services in Britain believe the plot to detonate bombs on transatlantic flights had been under way for years. It was to be a rerun of a 1995 al-Qaeda plot uncovered in Indonesia which the terrorists had named 'Project Bojinka', Arabic slang for 'big bang'. That plot was to simultaneously detonate bombs on 11 US-bound aircraft.

Security sources say the plot uncovered in Britain last week was termed 'Project Bojinka-2006'. Instead of timer devices, this project involved the use of suicide bombers - all young extremists from Britain, almost all with family links to the Sunni Muslim population of Pakistan.

The leaders of the plot were linked by the Pakistan intelligence service to the imprisoned al-Qaeda leader, Omar Sheikh.

The origins of Boutrab have yet to be established, though it was discovered that the first trace of him in Europe was in 1992, when fingerprints matching his were found in Holland. The fingerprints belonged to a man travelling under the alias 'Maured Benali'. It is believed that he is of Algerian origin.

When Boutrab was arrested, he was found to have nine separate sets of identity papers. Garda sources say that al-Qaeda's main operations here concern the provision of fake identities for 'operatives', an unknown number of whom live here or pass through Ireland.

[Woodmonkey]

I'm glad this one was caught.

[milmor_1]

Yes I agree but I am concerned by the others he may have been working with.

the Irish Government is in a state of denial. They publish the statement regularly that Ireland is NOT a risk from attack.

Maybe we are NOT at risk, but I fear that Ireland may become like Greece in the 60's and 70's, a stepping off point for hijackers.

[Woodmonkey]

Originally Posted by milmor_1

Yes I agree but I am concerned by the others he may have been working with.

the Irish Government is in a state of denial. They publish the statement regularly that Ireland is NOT a risk from attack.

Maybe we are NOT at risk, but I fear that Ireland may become like Greece in the 60's and 70's, a stepping off point for hijackers.

Good point. Ireland is well situated for that. How easy is it to get into Ireland to live?

We have that situation with Canada which has a very liberal immigration policy.

[milmor_1]

Ireland is an open door despite what the government may say.

The number of legal immigrants is increasing rapidly.

Then also we have a massive increase in asylum seekers from many different countries. There is no doubting that there are genuine asylum seekers coming to Ireland but the fear is that some of the more radical political elements will get in thinking we are a safe haven.

The Irish Governments attitude that little old neutral Ireland is safe from attack is childish to say the least, and narrowminded at best.

We have US Military Flights coming through Shannon for their onward journey to Iraq (A situation that I agree with) and if that is not seen by radicals as being cause for attack what is.

I have NO real fear of an attack to be honest, its being used as a base for an attack that bothers me.

[Woodmonkey]

Interesting, and alarming. Western countries have got to control who comes into their country - look what happened with the UK? They are now dealing with home grown terrorists who's parents came over from countries which support/export terrorism and hate.

Originally Posted by milmor_1

I have NO real fear of an attack to be honest, its being used as a base for an attack that bothers me.

That would bother me too.