MI5 foils al-Qaeda's London cyanide plot; Underground thought to be

AN al-Qaeda terror plot in London that could have killed thousands has been foiled by MI5 agents after a six-month undercover operation.

It is believed a terrorist cell was planning to build a chemical or gas bomb and release it in the London Underground.

Three North African men were in police custody last night. Another three have been released without charge. The men were said to belong to the North African Front, an Islamic extremist group with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

They had appeared in court at Bow Street last week - but the significance of what they were charged with has only now been explained by Scotland Yard.

The planned attack is now believed to have prompted Tony Blair's Mansion House speech last week, in which he warned of the possibility of terrorist attack in Britain and warned the public to be vigilant. It also looks likely to have triggered the initial release a fortnight ago of a specific warning from the Home Office on the potential dangers of a biological or nuclear attack. The fact the warning was immediately withdrawn and replaced by a general alert indicates the uncertainty within government ranks about how to deal with the situation.

A warning from bin Laden, delivered in a tape to the al- Jazeera satellite news channel, is also an indication that attacks were imminent.

The three men in custody are thought to be of either Tunisian or Moroccan background. They are Rabah Chekat-Bais, 21; Karim Kadouri, 33, and Rabah Kadris, in his mid-30s. They are all of no fixed abode.

They were charged under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000 with the possession of articles for the preparation, instigation and commission of terrorism acts.

Last night the Prime Minister's office confirmed the factual details of the arrests. After being briefed by MI5 and anti-terror officers, Downing Street said that the accused men had been in possession of "documentation", but that no specific targets or locations were uncovered in the MI5 operation.

Unemployed Chekat-Bais appeared before Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London on Monday, and Kadris and Kadouri, also both unemployed, appeared in court on Tuesday. All three will all appear in court again tomorrow.

But the detailed documentation must have proved conclusive and dangerous enough for MI5 officers to arrest the men - rather than, for example, letting the operation continue in a bid to discover their paymasters. It is understood that no chemicals were recovered during the investigations.

One theory about how the attack was to progress has couriers bringing in the different constituents of a gas or chemical weapon that would be "mixed" at the chosen location - perhaps on an underground train or in a shopping mall or other enclosed busy public arena.

With none of the materials recovered, its is thought they could be still on the continent awaiting shipment.

Last night a Home Office spokesman, attempting to ease the potential panic that the arrests could bring, said: "The Prime Minister has made it clear that there are threat reports every day and these are assessed. If the government or police thought it was necessary to give the public a specific warning about any venue, including the underground, it would do it without hesitation."

Paul Wilkinson, director of the University of St Andrews centre for the study of terrorism and political violence, said the North African Front was probably a nomme de guerre for a group aligned to al-Qaeda - probably the Algeria-based Armed Islamic Group or the Salafist Group for Preaching Call and Combat.

Wilkinson said the Salafists were closely linked to bin Laden. "Both these groups recruit in north Africa. Many were trained in Afghan terror camps.

"These groups have explored using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as part of their terror campaign. We have seen videos of terrorist training showing them using poison gas - probably cyanide on dogs - in Afghanistan."

Wilkinson said it was this group that attempted to poison the water supply of the US embassy in Rome with cyanide. "An attack on the London Underground would be entirely compatible with al-Qaeda's record. We all know after September 11 that al-Qaeda use transport systems for acts of terror. We've had aviation, maritime and now rail systems targeted. A plot like this is the very definition of 'asymmetrical warfare' - where terrorists use our own infrastructure against us."

Seven years ago a nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway killed 12 people and injured 5000 others. The attack, by a Japanese religious cult called Aum Shinrikyo, served as a wake-up call of the threat posed by terrorists with access to chemical and biological weapons.

On Thursday a (pounds) 1.5 million Christmas advertising campaign that wafted the scent of the almond liqueur Amaretto through the London Underground was dropped, as it smells similar to cyanide.

Copyright 2002 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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