Seth G. Jones - Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of Al Qa’ida since 9/11

ALSO BY SETH G. JONES

In the Graveyard of Empires: Americas War in Afghanistan

CONTENTS

LIST OF MAPS AND GRAPHS

A MODEL INVESTIGATION

S URVEILLANCE TEAMS FROM Londons Metropolitan Police and MI5, the United Kingdoms domestic intelligence agency, were staking out a brick house at 386A Forest Road in Walthamstow. It was late July 2006, and the weather was unusually hot in northeast London: 89 degrees Fahrenheit, with blue skies and a gentle breeze out of the southwest. Number 386A was a three-bedroom flat in a block of close-set houses. MI5 and the police were monitoring Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Tanvir Hussain, who had bought the flat on July 20 for about $250,000.

As Hussain and Ali walked into the flat, they sensed they were being watched.

How is the skin infection you were telling me about? Has it got worse or is the cream working? a contact in Pakistan asked Ali, using a Yahoo! e-mail account.

British and American intelligence agents, who were monitoring their communications, believed the e-mail was sent by Rashid Rauf, referred to by Ali as Paps or Papa. A known al Qaida operative, Rauf had once been a member of the Pakistani terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad and was married to a relative of the groups founder, Maulana Masood Azhar. Rauf was born in England to Pakistani parents, who brought him up in Birmingham, where his father was a baker. The CIA had been tracking Rauf on suspicion that he was involved in a number of terrorist plots overseas.

Listen, its confirmed, replied Ali a few days later. I have fever. Sometimes when I go out in the sun to meet people, I feel hot. By the way I set up my music shop now. I only need to sort out the opening time. I need stock.

Do you think you can still open the shop with this skin problem? Is it only minor or can you still sort an opening time without the skin problem worsening? came the reply from Pakistan the next day.

I will still open the shop, Ali responded. I dont think its so bad that I cant work. But if I feel really ill, Ill let you know. I also have to arrange for the printers to be picked up and stored... I have done all my prep, all I have to do is sort out opening timetable and bookings.

British intelligence officials, who had dubbed the investigation Operation Overt, believed that skin infection meant surveillance. Abdulla Ahmed Alis concerns were, of course, justified. British authorities hadnt yet figured out exactly what the cell was planning, but they knew enough to become alarmed, especially on the heels of the successful July 7 terrorist attack in London a year earlier, which had killed fifty-two people and injured more than seven hundred others. In domestic and international intelligence circles, anxiety was growing that Ali, Hussain, and several of their friends were planning a major terrorist operation.

A Flood of Martyr Operations

Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Tanvir Hussain had raised no red flags as students. They were normal boys, recalled Mark Hough, a teacher at Aveling Park School, a secondary school of six hundred students that Ali had attended ten years before. Ali was a good sportsman, a nice lad, and a typical fourteen-year-old. Qadir and several colleagues had established the foundation in 2003 to provide a haven for estranged youth at risk for violent extremism, and Ali and several friends had worked out at its gym.

Ali, whom his friends dubbed the Emir, was now twenty-five years old, a husband, and the father of a two-year-old son. He was taller than most of his friends and walked with a self-confident swagger. His charismatic personality and candidness attracted friends and frequently placed him at the center of attention. I would describe [Ali] as a strong character, someone whos upfront, which I liked about him, one of his friends later remarked. He would speak his mind.

Ali possessed a good education and a degree in computer systems engineering. Born in East London, he was one of eight children from a successful first-generation Pakistani immigrant family. He had been devout since age fifteen, when he had become a follower of the Tablighi Jamaat movement, which had been founded in 1927 in Delhi to encourage Muslims to adhere more closely to the practices of the Prophet Muhammad. Ali had short-cropped hair and brown eyes. He kept his beard neatly trimmed, though it became patchy below his cheekbones, and he had a pockmark just above the bridge of his nose. Ali wore Western clothes and looked like a typical British young man. But privately he had developed a profound rage at the United States and Britain for their military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other Muslim countries.

Thanks to God, I swear by Allah, I have the desire since the age of fifteen or sixteen to participate in jihad in the path of Allah, he bragged in a video produced in late July 2006, pointing his index finger at the camera. Stop meddling in our affairs and we will leave you alone. Otherwise expect floods of martyr operations against you, and we will take our revenge and anger, ripping amongst your people and scattering the people and your body parts and your peoples body parts responsible for these wars and oppression decorating the streets.

Alis friend Tanvir Hussain was also twenty-five years old. Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, he had moved with his family when he was a young child to Leyton, a high-density suburban area of East London that boasted sizable numbers of ethnic minorities, including Pakistanis. In previous days the neighborhood had been home to the film director Alfred Hitchcock and the soccer superstar David Beckham. Hussain met Ali in secondary school. He went on to work as a part-time postman and studied business and information systems at Middesex University in northwest London. He was educated, gregarious, and a respectable athlete, excelling at cricket and soccer. He had an olive complexion, a crew cut that gave him a boyish look, dark brown eyes, and a short beard. His nose, which was crooked and jutted to the right, looked like it had been broken in a bar fight.

Hussain had dabbled with drinking, drugs, and girls in college, before finding Islam. He blamed the West for killing Muslims abroad and vowed to commit suicide to kill Westerners. You know, I only wish I could do this againyou know, come back and do this again, he shrieked into the camera in his own video confessional, and just do it again and again until people come to their senses and realize, you know, dont mess with the Muslims.

Links to Pakistan

What most alarmed British and American officials, however, were the young mens connections with al Qaida operatives. One of the most notable was Rashid Rauf, who was the primary conduit between al Qaida in Pakistan and Abdulla Ahmed Ali and his colleagues. In 2003 and 2004, Ali had worked in Pakistan for a charity called Crescent Relief, which was run by Rashid Raufs family. He returned to the United Kingdom in January 2005 and then made several trips back to Pakistan in 2005 and 2006.

Ali kept in regular contact with Rashid Rauf and others in Pakistan via e-mail, text messages, and phone calls. The ability of the plotters to visit Pakistan, which many of them did in the years before 2006, and remain in contact with operatives such as Rauf transformed them from novices to professional terrorists. They became knowledgeable about explosives, including the use of hydrogen peroxide as a key component in bombs. Interacting with radicalized al Qaida operatives in Pakistan made them more committed to terrorism. They were savvier, utilizing countersurveillance techniques they had learned in training camps in Pakistan. They also had coaching, operational guidance, and encouragement from Pakistan during the planning process. Several of the e-mails, presumably from Rashid Rauf, prodded Ali and his colleagues to move faster. On July 20, 2006, Alis contact in Pakistan told him, You need to get a move on. Let me know when you can get it for me.