Inside al Qaeda's UK terror plot

Telegraph:

One man was stopped by immigration officials at Manchester Airport last week as he arrived from Pakistan, but was allowed to enter the country despite his visa documents being "all over the place", according to one source.

Another suspect was threatened with deportation after immigration officials discovered he was working as a security guard instead of studying, but he was nonetheless allowed to stay.

The revelations will intensify pressure on the Government to carry out a complete overhaul of the student visa system after it emerged that all but one of the 12 suspects being held on suspicion of plotting an "Easter spectacular" bombing campaign had come to the UK from Pakistan on student visas approved by the Home Office.

Patrick Mercer, the chairman of the parliamentary counter-terrorism subcommittee, described the UK Border Agency's failure to act as "a disgrace" and a "frightening" lapse of immigration controls.

...

UK's immigration services have made the US counterpart look efficient. This is just the latest failure on their part.

The Daily Mail has more details on those beleived to have been plotting with al Qaeda:

Members of the alleged Al Qaeda cell suspected of plotting a Bank Holiday terror atrocity worked for a firm based at Manchester Airport.

At least one drove vans for a cargo company which has access to sensitive locations.

A further two had passed security industry checks which enabled them to guard premises overnight, further raising fears that members of the gang - all but one of them Pakistani students - were planning to infiltrate high-profile targets before an attack.

The revelations came as police continued to question the 12 suspects and search properties across the North West, including one being examined as a possible bomb factory.

It was further claimed that some of the men have links to the terror group accused of the devastating Mumbai attacks in India which left more than 170 dead. The group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Righteous, was also blamed for the Lahore cricket atrocity.

...

At least two of the arrested men had worked for Manchester Airport-based delivery firm Cargo2Go, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Hamza Shenwari, who was seized by an anti-terror squad while driving down the M602, and another suspect are believed to have worked on a selfemployed basis, using their own vans to deliver packages for the firm, which serves airports around the country.

...


The Guardian reports that much of the information on the suspected attackers came from MI6 intelligence in Pakistan. MI6 is the external security agency in the UK similar to our CIA.

The Brits are still looking at evidence gathered from searches of the suspects homes. With all but one being Pakistani nationals it suggest just how much influence al Qaeda and other terrorist have in that country.

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