British say US gave terror suspects a heads up

A counterterror operation that started in Pakistan last month and rippled through the United States culminated in Britain Wednesday when eight suspects appeared in court charged with involvement in an alleged terrorist plot.

The eight, arrested earlier this month on the basis of intelligence gleaned from arrests in Pakistan, face charges of conspiracy to murder and to use hazardous materials to cause disruption or harm. Significantly, one was also charged with possessing reconnaissance plans of several public buildings in the US, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On the surface, the development suggests successful coordination of international counterterror efforts: A pair of suspected Al Qaeda lynchpins are nabbed in Pakistan; a few megabytes of intelligence retrieved from a computer point to a conspiracy and several plotters; the US raises its terror alert and warns the public; the British police and counterterror units swoop.

But intelligence experts say that privately there is great concern that the operation was jeopardized by US public pronouncements that were made before the British suspects were even apprehended.

"For reasons not so far satisfactorily explained, the US authorities decided to broadcast specific intelligence material upon which they must have known a vitally important future UK arrest operation would be based," says Charles Shoebridge, a former British counterterrorism intelligence officer now based in London.

"The broadcast would have inevitably compromised that operation and by implication the actual security of the United States itself."

The broadcast was made on August 1 by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, two days before the Britons were arrested. Mr. Ridge said the intelligence from Pakistan indicated that Al Qaeda was targeting several buildings including the IMF and World Bank, Prudential Financial in New Jersey, and Citigroup and the NYSE in New York.

Significantly, the charges levelled at one of the Britons in court on Wednesday mentioned exactly the same buildings. The implication, Mr. Shoebridge says, is that the suspects would have been startled by Mr. Ridge's pronouncements, alerting them that the net was closing.

As a result, subsequent arrests were dramatic and dangerous. Police, who remain tight-lipped about the case, have admitted that they swooped earlier than planned.

A spokesman confirmed Wednesday that some of the suspects were charged with having "reconnaissance material from America" but said the US pronouncements did not affect the operation.

"The operation was in place well before that weekend," he said. "There was an operational decision on when to move."

Yet some analysts believe that Washington's new-found openness with security intelligence could pose an operational risk.

"It's fair to say it can't have helped the development of transatlantic relations with regard to antiterrorism matters," Shoebridge says.

Page: 1 | 2