Baghdad cleric influence one of Glasgow bombers

Guardian:

One of the suspected al-Qaida supporters who attacked Glasgow airport had allegedly fallen under the influence of an Iraqi cleric who lavishes praise upon suicide bombers, his family said yesterday.

Bilal Talal Abdulla, an Iraqi doctor working at a hospital near the airport, had met Sheikh Ahmad al-Qubeisi at a mosque in Baghdad and would later describe him as "my best friend".

An uncle of Dr Abdulla, who has lived in the UK for almost 20 years, said: "When Ahmad came on television he would say that he knew him. He called him his best friend. I think he brainwashed him." He said Dr Adbulla was related to al-Qubeisi through marriage.

Al-Qubeisi, who has a regular television show on Dubai television, spoke of suicide bombing in 2004 telling viewers "those who commit martyrdom operations who are, by Allah, the greatest martyrs in Islamic history".

Dr Abdulla was also deeply angered by the war in Iraq, the family said, and he had been delighted to be able to flee the country. "Of course he was angry. He was so glad to leave all these troubles. He was so happy to come here. He was so anxious to leave Baghdad, and here he was moving towards a goal."

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The uncle added: "The type of friends he associated with, I would not want. They were very religious, too religious. He met them in the mosque." Together, he said, they would make occasional trips to the Lake District; alleged Islamist militants are said to have conducted clandestine training exercises there.

Police searched a number of properties in Cambridge yesterday, including a house owned by the Abu Bakr Siqqid mosque, the city's only mosque, where Dr Abdulla stayed seven years ago. They also interviewed a number of his friends and relatives.

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The story goes on to explain the relationships with the others under investigation including the doctor who was detained in Australia. There appear to have been some extended family connections.

US and Oraqi authorities need to round up Sheikh Ahmad al-Qubeisi at his mosque in Baghdad most ricki-tick. He has some explaining to do and he may be a conduit for al Qaeda operations in Baghdad. The report did not indicate any attempt to contact al-Qubeisi. Nor does the paper explain the doctors irrational reaction to the liberation of Iraq. Did he favor leaving the genocidal despot in charge? We know the Guardian favored that approach, but they should not assume that it makes any sense.

The Independent has more on the connections:

As the Home Secretary announced yesterday that the threat level of a terrorist attack in Britain has been reduced from "critical" to "severe", security forces were beginning to trace an intricate series of links between the eight suspects arrested.

It has emerged that Khalid Ahmed, who is said to have carried out both the London and Glasgow attacks along with Dr Bilal Abdulla, is the brother of Dr Sabeel Ahmed, 26, who was arrested in Liverpool.

Dr Ahmed and Dr Abdulla, 27, carried out the attack at Glasgow airport, and are believed to have driven the two Mercedes "bomb cars" down to central London. Dr Ahmed is suffering from 90 per cent burns and is being treated at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, near Glasgow, where he used to work.

Sabeel Ahmed, said to have been born in Bangalore in India, worked at the Runcorn Hospital in Cheshire and is also said to be a friend of Dr Mohammed Haneef, also from Bangalore, who worked at the same hospital before moving to Australia where he was arrested on Tuesday.

In a further link, Dr Haneef and Dr Khalid Ahmed are both former students at the the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in Bangalore. Dr Haneef, according to police sources, had been in mobile and email contact with Sabeel Ahmed and Khalid Ahmed while in Australia in the lead up to the two bombings.

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It has also emerged that the families of Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, and Dr Abdulla had known each other in Amman and the parents had told the two young men to "look out" for each other in Britain.

Dr Abdulla was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. His father, Talal, a Sunni, studied as a rheumatologist in Britain and ran a private clinic in Baghdad until two years ago. He then fled to Arbil, in the north of the country, after being intimidated by Mahdi Army militiamen of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Around the same time a close friend of Bilal was killed by a Shia death squad, adding to his bitterness, according to Shiraz Maher, who met him while studying in Cambridge.

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The network appears to be almost tribal in character. This permitted them to operate without raising suspicions are having to worry about one of the members of the conspiracy turn them in to authorities. The story indicates the parents of some are still in denial. It also appears that at least two of them are children of doctors.