9/11 ties suspected in plot

LONDON -- US, British, and Pakistani investigators suspect the foiled plot to bomb airliners bound from London to the United States was organized with support from surviving elements of the Al Qaeda network that launched the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, government officials and terrorism specialists said yesterday.

Dozens of arrests were made in Italy and Pakistan yesterday as investigators pressed their probe in Europe and South Asia. The new arrests brought the total of those in custody in the case to more than 70. In Britain, law enforcement authorities searched the homes of those arrested in connection with the bomb plot and froze their bank assets.

No specific link has been disclosed between the plot and fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin laden or his deputy Ayman al- Zawahiri -- who are believed to be hiding along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

But Pakistani authorities said they detained a leading suspect in the London plot who is a ``key person" in the Al Qaeda inner circle. US and Pakistani officials identified him as British national Rashid Rauf, and described him as a suspected facilitator of the plot.

Meanwhile, US and British officials disclosed they believe that two of the British suspects met with a senior Al Qaeda bomb-maker in Pakistan who has ties to the 9/11 planners, and who remains at large.

Intelligence officials were focusing on signs that militants trained in the terrorist camps created by bin Laden in the 1990s later recruited the London plot suspects and helped them plan the foiled operation.

``There are suspicions that there is a real Al Qaeda connection -- not just Al Qaeda wannabees or inspire-ees," said a senior US intelligence official who asked not to be identified because the interrogations of dozens of British Muslims and other suspects are ongoing. ``There still is a core group that is Al Qaeda. They still remain capable."

The sophistication of the plot and details of the planning bore striking similarities to both the 9/11 hijackings and an earlier Al Qaeda plot to bomb American airliners over the Pacific Ocean that was aborted in 1995. Intelligence officials in Washington said the similarities fueled the search for how the Al Qaeda leadership may have helped establish, fund, or support home-grown cells in Britain, including giving advice on making explosives out of liquids that could be smuggled onto planes.

London remained on high alert yesterday, with police in bullet-proof vests manning subway stations near the Muslim neighborhoods where 24 suspects were arrested Thursday. Frustrated air travelers packed heavily-guarded Heathrow airport, awaiting new flights to replace those canceled Thursday and yesterday. No carry-on luggage was permitted on flights leaving the British capital, and liquids and gels continued to be banned on hand luggage aboard flights leaving or within the United States.

British police obtained warrants to keep 22 of the 24 suspects in custody. Another suspect was released, and a decision was still pending on the final suspect. The Bank of England named 19 of the suspects, and said it had frozen their assets to prevent them being used in illegal activities.

Meanwhile, details began emerging about some of the suspects, who ranged in age from 17 to 35. Many of them were of Pakistani descent but were born or grew up in Britain, often in Muslim immigrant neighborhoods. British media reports said at least one of the suspects is a mother of a small child, two were converts to Islam, and one worked at Heathrow airport.

Londoners went about their day without panic. But Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott , who is in charge of the government while Prime Minister Tony Blair vacations in the Caribbean, urged Britons to stay on guard.

Indeed, the dragnet grew yesterday. Ten additional suspects were detained in Pakistan's Bhawalpur district, about 300 miles southwest of the capital of Islamabad, according to Pakistani government officials. Based on intelligence gleaned from the London arrests, meanwhile, 40 people were arrested in several cities in Italy, though it was unclear that they were directly tied to the London plot. The Italian Foreign Ministry announced that the arrests were made at ``Islamic gathering places" in several cities and that the charges included violating residency rules.

Separately, US officials warned that other attacks are being planned. In New Delhi, the US embassy took the unusual step of warning Americans of an imminent threat of attacks against transportation targets -- possibly timed to coincide with Indian Independence Day on Tuesday -- and similar to the train bombings perpetrated by Pakistani militants in Mumbai last month, which killed nearly 200 people.

But authorities on three continents began to focus their investigation on where the London airliner plot was hatched and who was calling the shots.

Growing signs pointed to the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier, where Al Qaeda's leadership is believed to be in hiding.

Rauf was arrested this week at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told the Associated Press. Five other suspected facilitators of the plot were arrested in Pakistan last week.

US and Pakistani authorities described Rauf as an Islamic militant associated with Al Qaeda.

Rauf was arrested hours before British officials began raids this week to break up the plot. American and Pakistani officials said the raids were conducted quickly after Rauf was picked up because of fears that his arrest might drive the suspects underground, The New York Times reported today.

Meanwhile, US and British officials said that two of the British plotters are believed to have met with Mateir Rehman , described as an Al Qaeda explosives expert who is still at large.

Rehman was an aide to Al Qaeda planner Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of both the 9/11 attacks and the foiled 1995 bombing plot involving American airliners. Rehman is now considered Al Qaeda's planning director, with access to an Al Qaeda address book of perhaps thousands of militants who trained in Al Qaeda's training camps before US forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001, according to US intelligence officials and specialists on the organization.

At the same time, investigators were focusing on money that was wired to two of the British plotters from Karachi, Pakistan, where Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, was arrested in 2003.

The series of terror attacks in recent years, against trains in London and Madrid and other Western targets, have been attributed mostly to home-grown militants inspired by bin Laden's vision of global holy war.

But US intelligence officials have been warning for months that Al Qaeda's ``core" organization is still planning attacks and looking to recruit disaffected Muslims in Europe and elsewhere to carry out sophisticated attacks to match -- or top -- the death and destruction of 9/11.

Bender reported from Washington. Material from wire services also contributed to this report.