UK believes some Brits plotted with foreign Docs

Guardian:

Counter-terrorism officials said last night they believe British terrorists who are still at large were involved in the conspiracy to launch car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow.

Details emerged as it became clear that five of the suspects under arrest are doctors working and training in the NHS.

Seven of the eight people arrested so far are foreign-born nationals, including an Iraqi doctor trained in Baghdad, a Jordanian neurosurgeon, an Indian medic, and a Lebanese man. One, Mohammed Asha, 26, who lived in Staffordshire, is currently believed by counter-terrorism investigators to have been the ringleader of the cell. A counter-terrorism official said last night that "one of the plotters is a naturalised Briton".

Yesterday Britain remained on its third day at its maximum "critical" threat level after the discovery of car bombs in London and the attack on Glasgow airport.

Police revealed that they had arrested two more men, aged 28 and 25, in Paisley, west of Glasgow. They were detained at residences at the town's Royal Alexandra hospital, close to Glasgow airport. The eighth person to be arrested was detained abroad, although police would not say in which country. Scotland Yard said the suspect was being held in custody by foreign authorities on behalf of the Met.

Sources confirmed the Iraqi doctor is Bilal Abdulla, 27, who is alleged to have been a passenger in the flaming Jeep that smashed into the terminal at Glasgow airport. He worked at the Royal Alexandra hospital.

Police evacuated part of the hospital grounds as they staged two controlled explosions on parked cars after searching residential accommodation used by medical staff. Inside, the driver of the Jeep was under armed police guard, critically ill with 90% burns. Sources told the Guardian the injured man - seen dousing himself in petrol during Saturday's attack - is Lebanese.

While those under arrest reveal the international nature of the linked attacks, two sources with knowledge of the investigation said there was a belief that some of the cell were homegrown. Describing current thinking about the nature of those behind the conspiracy, a counter-terrorism source said: "Some are British." Another well-placed official said a British element "remained a possibility".

Part of the reason the country was at critical alert status, meaning a terrorist attack could be imminent, was because of a fear cell members are still at large. "The question is have they got them all ... they may not have done, so we work on the basis they have not," the source said.

Counter-terrorism officials suspect that at least some of the planning for the attacks was done in Scotland. One source said: "Scotland seems to be the hub of this. The Mercedes used in the attempted bombing of central London is believed to have started its journey in Scotland. Detectives have been able to track some of its movements and route down to London using number plate recognition software, which is linked to traffic cameras.

It is understood some of the suspects have been identified by an analysis of their mobile phone records, which has led detectives to believe they were in touch before last Friday. A source with knowledge of the inquiry said: "Most of them have been in touch on mobile phones."

None of those arrested has been charged with any offence.

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We can probably make room for them at Gitmo. It appears that the doctors plot was not as well conceived as its perps thought. The details of the accumulated evidence are beginning to tell a more coherent story now, but there are still things that need explanation. The Independent describes those who hve been detained as, " A suspected secret cell of foreign militants, believed to be linked to al-Qa'ida and using British hospitals as cover,..." It distinguishes this group from the home grown terrorist who have attacked in the past.

In a separate story the Independent says the cars and the phones found in them led to the arrests.

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The saloons parked outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub and in nearby Cockspur Street in central London had both been taxed, both had histories which could be traced, and contained mobile phones, fingerprints, DNA evidence and bomb equipment which yielded further information.

They have become the source of the most vital leads, providing alleged links to addresses in Newcastle-Under-Lyme with the Saudi-born Jordanian Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha, a neurosurgeon, the Renfrewshire home of the Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla, and other addresses in Liverpool including the home of a 30-year-old man who was disabled with a taser gun by police after they stopped his car.

In the immediate aftermath of the attempted bombings, both cars were swabbed for traces of DNA to build genetic profiles of the attempted bombers. The movements of the mobile phones left in the cars were tracked through their signals and their call records were examined. It was that examination that is believed to have led the police to apprehend Mohammed Asha and his wife on the M6 on Saturday.

The letting agent for Mr Asha's house in Newcastle-under-Lyne, Daniel Gardiner, said officers traced his company after tracking phone records linked to the foiled London car-bomb attacks. He said: "The police wanted to know why we had dialled a certain phone number. They had the phone records from the situation down in London. We had made a phone call in regard to the tenant at that house. We could find no record of contacting that number, but the police had got detailed phone analysis."

The police are also seeking any garages that may have had requests for unusually large sales, and are tracking the gas cylinders by their identifying marks.

The bombers had, according to a security source, tried to detonate the car outside Tiger Tiger with four telephone calls, and the one at Cockspur Street twice. But the bombs failed to explode due to a technical mistake made by the makers.

The two Mercedes had also been parked in an area with one of the highest concentrations of CCTV cameras in the country. The police are said to have found images of suspects who may have driven the cars to central London. Teams of officers have spent the past 72 hours sifting through all available CCTV footage.

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The burned Jeep also yielded evidence of value including the propane cannisters with serial numbers allowing them to trace where the were purchased. It is remarkable how quickly British investigators have been able to assemble the evidence in this case. While they haven't done it in 24 hours like Jack Bauer, I would say their are moving most ricki-tick.