THE TELEGRAPH: An alleged al-Qaeda terrorist cell arrested in the North West was within days of launching an attack on Britain a senior officer in MI5 has told a tribunal.
The men, who were arrested in Manchester and Liverpool in April last year, were said to be in direct contact with al-Qaeda in Pakistan, using coded email messages that talked about cars and girls.
They were said to be “operating in a similar manner” to those planning the mass casualty attacks of July 7 2005 and the trans-Atlantic airline plot of 2006.
Sources at the time said the gang was targeting Easter shoppers but police found no sign of bomb-making equipment and they were never charged.
The operation had to be brought forward after Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, then Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, was photographed entering Downing Street with details of the operation visible.
Four of the men, who had all arrived from Pakistan on student visas, are now appealing against a government decision to deport them on national security grounds.
An MI5 officer, referred to only as “ZR” gave evidence behind a curtain at the beginning of a three-week hearing at the Special Immigration and Appeals Commission.
The officer, who refused to answer a large number of questions in open court, told the commission that the plot centred on a man called Abid Naseer, 23, and his associates.
He said they were “planning a terrorist attack on the UK, directed and orchestrated by al-Qaeda and part of that direction was by coded email passages and the attack was most likely to take place between 15 and 20 April 2009 on which basis the arrests came days before the attacks were due to take place. >>> Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Tuesday, March 09, 2010
