BRITAIN: Both France and Saudi Arabia had advance warning that Britain was about to be attacked by al-Qaeda, according to a classified report and claims by the Saudi ambassador to London. The warnings came at a time when the British intelligence services had concluded there was no imminent attack planned.
In a classified report on the Pakistani community in France, presented to the French interior ministry in late June, the Renseignements Generaux, or DCRG, France's equivalent of the Special Branch anti-terrorist division, said Britain "remains threatened by plans decided at the highest level of al-Qaeda ... They will be put into action by operatives drawing on pro-jihad sympathies within the large Pakistani community in the UK." Three of the four July 7th London bombers were Britons of Pakistani origin.
The 20-page report, parts of which were published in the daily paper Le Figaro, was presented soon after British intelligence chiefs had lowered the al-Qaeda threat to "substantial" from "severe - general". At the time, a report by the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre concluded "there is not a group with both the current intent and the capability to attack the UK". An interior ministry official in Paris declined to comment and refused to say whether or not the DCRG's warning had been passed to London. UK security sources have consistently denied they received any specific threat on which it was possible to act before July 7th.
French intelligence on its Muslim community, Europe's largest at between five and six million, is generally considered highly reliable: the DCRG and other intelligence services have had suspected extremists and radical mosques under surveillance since 1995, when Algeria's Islamic Armed Group carried out terrorist attacks in France.
The report said it was now "vital" specifically to monitor France's 35,000-40,000-strong Pakistani community, so as to avoid an attack. France "is not immune from these violent groupings, when you realise the close links (family, trade or through associations) between the Pakistani community in Britain and many of their compatriots in France," it said.
According to the French report, "in recent years, we have observed more and more trips to France by Pakistani activists from southern Asia or London, as well as the establishment here of clandestine or official representations of the principal extremist movements", including the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure). Militant Pakistani groups had recently become increasingly critical of France, the report said.
Saudi Arabian authorities also informed the UK of a potential attack, it was confirmed this week. The Saudi ambassador in London, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said in a statement: "There was certainly close liaison between the Saudi Arabian intelligence authorities and British intelligence some months ago, when information was passed to Britain about a heightened terrorist threat to London." The threat warnings were not specific, however. - (Guardian service)