Ben Russell | June 5

The Independent - Lawyers for two men arrested in an anti-terror raid in east London spoke out angrily as mystery deepened about the circumstances surrounding the operation which left one suspect with a gunshot wound.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was shot in the shoulder during Friday's raid on an east London house, was released from hospital but was too ill to be questioned by police. His brother, Abul Koyair, 20, was being questioned.

Police have been given permission to hold both men until Wednesday but could apply to hold them for a total of 14 days.

Specialist officers continued to search the house in Forest Gate, which was raided in the biggest anti-terror operation in the capital this year - to thwart a suspected chemical attack in Britain; 250 officers, some wearing protective biological and chemical suits, were involved.

Solicitors for the two men protested their innocence yesterday, saying they denied involvement in terrorism after a weekend of speculation about a possible cyanide or sarin attack or a chemical vest device that reports said was thought to be "primed and ready to go".

Speaking outside the Paddington Green high security police station in London yesterday, Julian Young, the solicitor representing Mr Koyair, said: "The phrases 'cover up' and 'Stockwell' spring to mind," referring to the Tube station where the innocent Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes was killed by police.

On Friday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Terrorist Branch, had said the intelligence that led to Friday's raid was "very specific". There were suggestions yesterday that the intelligence indicating that a chemical device was being prepared may have come from America. But there was no indication that police had uncovered incriminating materials. Anti-Terrorist Branch officers also carried out searches in London's Tottenham and Whitechapel districts, at the brothers' workplaces.

It has also emerged that a family living in a house adjoining the scene of Friday's raid were questioned by police for 12 hours. They were released without charge. The family, who denied any involvement with terrorist activity, were represented by the Newham Monitoring Project, the group that represents the family of Mr de Menezes.

Investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Authority have started to interview the family of the two men to piece together what happened during the raid. It is unclear how long their inquiry will take.

Kate Roxburgh, representing Mr Kahar, claimed that police had failed to give a warning before opening fire on her client. She said: "He was woken up ... by screams from downstairs, got out of bed in his pyjamas obviously unarmed, nothing in his hands and hurrying down the stairs. As he came toward a bend in the stairway, not knowing what was going on downstairs, the police turned the bend up towards him and shot him - and that was without any warning." She said: "He wasn't asked to freeze, given any warning and didn't know the people in his house were police officers until after he was shot. He is lucky still to be alive." Ms Roxburgh added: "He is absolutely horrified and completely bewildered about how the police have come to this. He has had no involvement in this whatsoever."

Mr Young denied reports that Mr Koyair had caused his brother to be shot in a scuffle. He said: "There was a bang and a flash. He went down on to the next floor where his brother's room is and saw his brother on the floor. The client was upset, trying to find out what was happening. He was frightened. He then saw a man with a gun and, after a few seconds, the man with the gun shouted to get on the floor and pulled him away. A second gunman pulled the client to the ground." Mr Young added: "My client denies that he struggled and caused his brother to be shot. He knows nothing about cyanide or suicide belts or jackets or explosives or bombs or firearms.

"He is angry that this has happened to him but pleased police are doing their job. He denies the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. It is contrary to all his beliefs."

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, told Sky News that police had no choice but to act on information about possible terrorist activity. He said: "I actually think that the procedure of going in quickly and finding out what happened is importan."

Recent police raids in Britain

More than 1,000 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act in Britain since the US attacks on 11 September 2001 but only 121 have been charged and 23 convicted of terrorist offences

* 24 MAY: Eight Libyans arrested in raids in Manchester, Birmingham, London, Liverpool and Middlesbrough suspected of helping to plot and finance a Libyan terror group linked to al-Qa'ida. The investigation focused on the Sanabel Relief Agency, a charity which insists it merely channels funds for clean water and education projects in the developing world. Three men were held under the Terrorism Act and five under powers to deport people whose presence in the UK is "not conducive for reasons of national security".

RESULT: No charges or action so far.

* 6 MARCH: Four men arrested in a raid at a hall of residence at Bradford University on suspicion of involvement with al-Qa'ida.

RESULT: Four charged under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading material from the internet that could be used in terrorist activities.

* 8 OCTOBER 2005: Ten men arrested on suspicion of being Islamic terrorists and helping to finance Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, The head of al-Qa'ida in Iraq. The raids in south London, Wolverhampton and Derby followed intelligence that the suspects may have been about to strike.

RESULT: No known charges.

_{"at some point I'm hopeful I'll figure out something to put here"}

Times of India

According to reports the foiled terrorist spectacular planned to mark the first anniversary of the July 7 suicide bombings revolved around a potentially fatal chemical device that could produce casualty figures in double or even triple figures.

Meanwhile, conflicting reports, searing questions and urgent rumours continued to swirl around Friday's massive anti-terrorist swoop in London, which ended with 23-year-old postal worker Mohammed Abdul Kahar shot in the shoulder.

Kahar and his brother, 20-year-old supermarket employee Abul Koyair, were arrested under the Terrorism Act. But according to wildly differing accounts, it remains unclear whether Kahar was shot by armed police or by his brother in a scuffle.

(more at link}

_{"at some point I'm hopeful I'll figure out something to put here"}

I hope I'm wrong on the Brit case, but for now there seems to be less substance in the arrests (either bad info or just incorrect location) than in the Canadian case). And yet the July 11 anniversary is approaching.....

TimesOnline(UK} - THE rules of engagement for armed police are under renewed scrutiny today, after it emerged that the officer involved in the shooting of a suspected terrorist told independent investigators that it was an accident.

The armed officer who led the raid on a suspected chemical bomb factory in East London said that he did not deliberately fire the shot that injured Abul Kahar Kalam, but that his gun went off during a struggle on a staircase.

His evidence is at odds with that of Mr Kahar, 23, who said that there was no tussle and the officer from the SO19 firearms unit did not issue a warning before he was hit as he emerged unarmed from his bedroom, dressed in pyjamas. Mr Kahar was transferred yesterday under armed guard from hospital to Paddington Green high-security police station to begin questioning about his alleged role in building a cyanide bomb, which security chiefs are convinced is hidden in London.

His brother, Abul Koyair Kalam, 20, told his lawyer that he denies strenously reports that he was responsible for the lone shot being fired after grappling with the police during the 4am raid.

The police emphasised that this was an MI5-led operation. They were concerned that the intelligence services appeared to be relying on a single informant. They have until Wednesday to question the brothers without special permission from a magistrate.

Sir Ian Blair, the beleaguered Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is under pressure to give a public assurance on the tactics used by his armed officers. Crown prosecutors are expected to decide by the end of the month whether to bring charges against his officers over the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian who was mistakenly shot as a terrorist on July 22 last year.

It is understood that investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission were told that there was a struggle in the darkness during last Friday’s raid and that the Heckler & Koch sub-machinegun went off and the bullet lodged in the ceiling. A Scotland Yard source told The Times: “The officer is insistent he did not pull the trigger.”

The safety catch was off and the officer was wearing gloves and a bulky chemical and biological protection suit after intelligence warnings that there could be lethal materials hidden inside the terraced house in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate. Senior officers emphasise that weapons teams are given extensive training on handling guns while wearing the suits. Scotland Yard sources deny that the experienced officer panicked in the darkness when a figure appeared, running towards him on the stairs.

Julian Young, the lawyer for Mr Koyair, said after talking to his client: “My client is angry about these reports. He accepts he may have shouted but he says he did not struggle and did not cause his brother to be shot.”

Kate Roxburgh, who represents the wounded suspect, said that Mr Kahar was adamant that claims that he was shot by his brother were absolute nonsense. Ms Roxburgh added: “He is absolutely horrified and completely bewildered about how the police have come to this. He has had no involvement in this whatsoever.”

It emerged last night that the focus of the police search, expected to continue for most of this week, is the basement of the house, which the two brothers had converted into a gymnasium.

The lawyers for the two brothers are demanding to know why 250 officers raided their home. Both men deny any involvement in terrorism. Mr Koyair told his lawyer: “I am angry this happened to me but pleased police are doing their job.”

Senior police officers defended the decision to stage the raid. One source close to the counter-terrorist operation said: “What do we do? Ignore this bit of intelligence and risk a device going off somewhere? How do you not act on information like that? What would happen if later say we ignored that intelligence and 200 people died?”

_{"at some point I'm hopeful I'll figure out something to put here"}

Intelligence behind raid was wrong, officials say

Vikram Dodd, Sandra Laville and Richard Norton-Taylor
Tuesday June 6, 2006
The Guardian

Senior counter-terrorism officials now believe that the intelligence that led to the raid on a family house last Friday in a search for a chemical device about to be used to attack Britain was wrong, the Guardian has learned.

Counter-terrorism officials were under pressure last night after days of meticulous search of the house in east London failed to produce anything to link the two men they arrested to a chemical plot. But a senior police officer said they had been left with "no choice" but to force entry into the house because there was specific intelligence of a threat to public safety.

One official, with knowledge why police acted and what had been found from days of searching, said the intelligence had been acted on correctly, but added last night: "There is no viable device at that house. There is no device being constructed, or chemicals. There does not appear to be anything there or anywhere else."

As lawyers for the two arrested men continued to protest their innocence, it emerged that the man who had passed the specific information that led to the raid in which a man was shot last Friday was a police informant who had been providing intelligence about the activities of alleged Islamist militants for several weeks.

This was despite previous reports quoting police sources that suggested the informant was being handled by the security service, MI5. It was the police who passed the information from the informant to MI5 officers to assess it, the Guardian understands. MI5 and police then agreed the information was specific and credible and made a joint decision it had to be acted upon immediately.

It is understood that attempts to corroborate the information were not made because of the perceived need to act quickly. "If there was an immediate risk to public safety, there would not have been time to bug the house," an intelligence source said. A counter-terrorism official said: "If the intelligence was right there was a serious risk to the public. We did not know if it was right or not until we went in." Another official added: "Intelligence is patchy. Even if it suggests a 5% likelihood of something nasty, we can't take that risk".

But what remains puzzling is the reliance on a single apparently uncorroborated source for information that prompted a high-profile mass raid which, even without the shooting of one of the men, would have provoked a strong reaction. Andy Hayman, the Met's assistant commissioner specialist operations, refused to apologise for the raid yesterday while admitting that so far officers had not found the specific item they were looking for - thought to be a chemical device - in the terraced house in Forest Gate which was the subject of a pre-dawn raid involving more than 250 officers, including armed teams and government scientists.

more

to shoot for the upper body.

Now we know what we knew before- that somewhere, somebody is plotting something (perhaps Canada will be a diffferent story).

Or maybe it was a setup.

_{"at some point I'm hopeful I'll figure out something to put here"}

Wounded man is freed without charge
Shot during raid by anti-terror squad
Jun. 10, 2006
BETH GARDINER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON—A British-born Muslim man shot and wounded in an anti-terrorist police raid was released yesterday without charge along with his brother, apparently for lack of evidence.

The men, who were not identified, were arrested June 2 when police stormed a row house in east London after they received intelligence suggesting one of the men had built an explosive device that could release a toxic chemical gas.

Police shot the 23-year-old brother in circumstances that remain unclear before arresting him and his 20-year-old brother. Authorities have not said whether the shooting was a mistake. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the incident.

Police said only that the men were freed without charge but gave no further explanation of the reasons for their release. They said detectives were still developing the intelligence they had received and would "continue to exhaust all lines of inquiry."

Police also said they had completed their search of the home where the men were arrested and would hand the house back to its occupants. They did not say what, if anything, they had found.

Permission to hold suspects for up to two weeks is routinely granted in British terror cases.

The raid had outraged many British Muslims and the Muslim Council of Britain welcomed the releases.

"The nature of last week's raid and the circumstances surrounding the shooting ... had created considerable unease in the Muslim community, particularly among the younger generation," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the group's secretary general.

"This decision to release the two brothers without charge confirms their innocence and we hope that the appropriate lessons will be learned by all involved in this tragic incident."

Police last year shot and killed an unarmed Brazilian man they mistakenly believed to be a terrorist at a London subway station.

The police have apologized for that shooting, which came a day after four men unsuccessfully attempted to bomb the capital's transport system.

Two weeks earlier, four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in the transit system.

Toronto Star