Pakistan provided intelligence on latest hit

Independent:

A secret meeting on board an American aircraft carrier between the US General David Petraeus and the head of the Pakistani military laid the foundation for the killing of Britain's most wanted terrorist.

The Independent learnt that talks held on board the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf three months ago led to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani pledging to provide information on "high-value" targets such as Rashid Rauf, who died in a missile strike inside Pakistan on Saturday.

Senior UK security sources insisted that the lethal attack in North Waziristan on the 27-year-old Birmingham-born Rauf – accused of being involved in the plot to plant liquid bombs aboard transatlantic airliners – was "a unilateral American action" without any British involvement.

The disclaimer came after two senior MPs called on the British government to say whether or not it had been made aware in advance of the attack plan. Andrew Dismore, Labour chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, said: "We can investigate whether British security services had involvement in providing intelligence concerning British nationals in Pakistan." The former shadow security minister Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP for Newark, said: "This raises the question of how much co-operation the British intelligence agencies provided in ... the execution of a British subject."

However, American officials stated that the intelligence on the whereabouts of Rauf and a Saudi Islamist, Abu Zubair al-Masri, was provided by Pakistani authorities. The agreement on sharing intelligence came during the meeting on the aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea in the last week of August, US sources said.

General Kayani, who had taken over from General Pervez Musharraf as the head of the Pakistani military, was brought to the ship by American helicopters. He was told about grave American disquiet over the help being given to the Taliban by elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence service, the ISI. According to US officials an agreement was reached at the conclusion of the "heated" meeting with General Kayani, in which the Pakistanis promised to supply high-quality intelligence.

Rauf was initially wanted for questioning by police in England over the murder of his uncle in Birmingham. He fled to Pakistan but was arrested in August 2006 by the Pakistani police for his alleged involvement in the airliner plot. But in December 2007 he escaped.

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The Brits have been acting strange about the death of a mass murderer for Allah who wanted to use planes leaving Britain for his attacks. The Times reports:

Britain's intelligence services appear to have been kept in the dark about Saturday's US missile attack on a house in northwest Pakistan that reportedly killed Rashid Rauf, a top British al-Qaeda suspect.

Although his death will take a few days to be confirmed officially, the strike by a Predator drone, armed with Hellfire missiles and precision-guided bombs, was the first time that the US had targeted a British suspect hiding in the lawless North Waziristan region of Pakistan.

Two senior MPs yesterday demanded to know whether the British Government had been given notice of the planned attack, which was a CIA operation controlled from a US military base in Nevada.

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You would think that the government would be pleased to hear of the demise of a dangerous terrorist with British ties. Perhaps they are still hung up on the lawfare approach to dealing with he enemy.

The Telegraph reports that Rauf had ties to Zawahiri.

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A Pakistani intelligence official said that the US believed that Rauf was staying with a group connected to Zawahiri. Zawahiri is believed by American officials to operate from Pakistan's lawless, tribal border areas.

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It is unfortunate Zawahiri was not with Rauf. This is an important hit against al Qaeda's overseas operations, and the cooperation with Pakistan is important to the war effort. I think the Europeans will be surprised to see Obama continue these aggressive attacks, but i will not be surprised at all. It has been in his campaign message for two years.