London terror plot: Pak connection prime focus of US security agencies

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has portrayed itself as a reliable ally in the war on terror by helping uncover the London aviation plot but remains the prime focus of US intelligence and security agencies, a media report said on Saturday.

 

"The Pakistan connection is the big focus now. Everything is coming out of there," an intelligence source told a US daily.

 

Drawing upon American and European officials, the media report said the British men now in custody for the plot drew financial and logistical support from sponsors in Karachi and Lahore.

 

At least 17 suspects in British custody for the aviation plot have family ties to Pakistan and several had travelled there in recent months to seek instructions and confer with unknown conspirators, intelligence officials told the 'Washington Post.'

 

Pakistan Government has portrayed itself as a reliable ally against the war on terror and said it had made at least seven arrests connected to the plot but insisted that the conspiracy was centered in Afghanistan. Two of the men in custody there are British citizens.

 

American intelligence officials are also not entirely sure if the entire conspiracy ring has been busted, the report said.

 

"There is serious concern about potential operatives still out there plotting. There are people we are still concerned about and people we want arrested and questions we need answered," an unnamed senior administration official told the Post.

 

American and British investigators were also looking into the potential role of a Pakistani identified as Matiur Rehman with several intelligence officials saying that Rehman is not a member of al-Qaeda but may have some links to Osama bin Laden's group.

 

"His possible role in the plot is being looked at. People are interested in it, but it is not resolved," an official said.

 

Intelligence analysts in the United States, according to The Post, believe that the principal remaining leadership of al-Qaeda is hiding in Pakistan and that in spite of increased cooperation between Islamabad and the West since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the number of extremists inside the country may be on the rise and elements of Pakistan's intelligence services remain sympathetic to their cause.

 

Unnamed US officials have been cited in the Post as saying that five years into 9/11, Pakistan is far from countering or even understanding the level of threat emanating from its lawless regions and bustling cities.

 

But the unnamed senior administration official said that the situation was better today than it was five years ago.

 

"Prior to 9/11, the whole region was a safe haven. You see attempts from Pakistan to affect this, but it's still part of a long-term element of our battle against terrorism," the senior official has been quoted.

 

Giving a glimpse of what it all meant to American intelligence and law enforcement authorities, including how they went about in the days prior to the break up of the London plot, the Post said that more than 200 FBI agents followed up leads inside the United States looking for potential connections to British and Pakistani suspects.