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Scotland Yard: Britain was logistics base for Al Qaida

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, June 28, 2002

LONDON Ñ British officials have acknowledged that Al Qaida and its allied organizations have used the country as a financial, communications and recruitment base for nearly 10 years. The assessment is shared by Scotland Yard.

Assistant commissioner David Veness, head of special operations at the London police department, said Tuesday that authorities have "growing, darkening" concerns over Britain's role in promoting Al Qaida, Middle East Newsline reported.

"London, above all other UK cities, had been a focus of communication activity for Al Qaida," the police commander said.

Veness said authorities have obtained evidence that Al Qaida used Britain as a base for communications, recruitment, propaganda and logistical support. He said these activities began in the mid-1990s.

The British official said the information on Al Qaida was uncovered during the investigation that followed the Sept. 11 Islamic suicide attacks on New York and Washington. He said the investigation, the biggest in the history of his department, did not determine that the attacks in the United States were planned in Britain.

But the British investigation confirmed assertions by several Arab countries that Al Qaida used Britain as a logistics base. This included the purchase of equipment and the delivery from Britain to Al Qaida bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Britain was also said to have been used to recruit hundreds of people to train in Al Qaida bases.

British officials said authorities are most concerned by the prospect that Al Qaida has deployed hundreds of sleeper agents waiting for orders to launch attacks. They said similar cells might also exist in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Several Arab countries, particularly Egypt, have called on Britain to extradite their nationals linked to Al Qaida. One Egyptian national is now fighting such an attempt in a London court.

"There were people Ñ I have to choose my words with care Ñ who essentially we were neither able to detain because we were not able to bring them in front of the courts to obtain a conviction but, because of the country from which they had come and the state of affairs there, we could not return them to that country," State Police Minister John Denham told parliament on May 22.

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