A British Anglican cleric working in Baghdad has claimed a man he met in Jordan had issued threats that are now feared to be signs in the failed bombing attacks.
NEW YORK: A British Anglican cleric working in Baghdad has claimed a man he met in Jordan had issued threats that are now feared to be a dire portent in the aftermath of failed British bombing attacks.
Canon Andrew White told a television network that he spoke with the man in April in Amman at a meeting of Iraqi Sunni Sheikhs attempting to foster peace in Iraq.
"The man told me that 'those who cure you will kill you'," White was quoted as saying on CNN.
White, who would not name the man at the behest of US, British and Iraqi authorities, said the individual issued a litany of hostile statements about the United States and Britain and their role in Iraq.
Eight people have been arrested so far as part of the wide-ranging investigation into failed car bombings in London and Glasgow.
Seven are doctors or medical students and the eighth is a laboratory technician. Two other doctors are being questioned about the case but are not in custody.
US officials told CNN that some of the suspects were recruited by Al Qaeda while they were living in the Middle East. One of the suspects is an Iraqi doctor and another is a neurosurgeon from Jordan.
Militants, the man told White at the meeting, were no longer just going to be targeting Iraq. They were planning actions that would target Britain and America.
The comments, White said 'began to make sense in the last couple of days.'
White, who claimed he was appalled by the man's rhetoric, told the British Foreign Office about the general thrust of the remarks but didn't initially pass along the exact phrase, CNN said.
"He said so many awful things to me that I didn't remember every line to tell them," White was quoted as saying by the channel.
White referred to the man as 'devil' and said he broke off the conversation. "I knew he was one of the bad guys," White said.
"I met with the devil that day and in the end I would not continue my conversation with him."
According to White, the man was 'in his 40s, thin, very smartly dressed and very academic looking'.
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