July 7th People's Independent Inquiry Forum -> Rashid Rauf: "an international enigma"

Rashid Rauf: "an international enigma", Dead or alive or disappeared?

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Sinclair

Posted: Sep 14 2009, 09:37 AM

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QUOTE

A US informant called Bryant Neal Vinas, who has admitted planning a suicide attack, was arrested by the Pakistanis last November and said he had met Rauf shortly before the missile strike.

More on Bryant Neal Vinas, an American Muslim convert, here.

numeral

Posted: Sep 27 2009, 09:57 AM

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Joined: 4-December 05

CODE

http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2009/09/27/birmingham-terror-suspect-linked-to-secret-al-qaida-training-camp-66331-24789439/

QUOTE

Birmingham terror suspect linked to secret Al Qaida training camp

Sep 27 2009 by Ben Goldby, Sunday Mercury

MI6 officers have uncovered a new terror training camp which may have been run by �dead� Brummie Al Qaida terror suspect Rashid Rauf.

New evidence recently emerged that the alleged mastermind behind a British-based plot to blow up transatlantic airliners was alive, despite US claims that he was killed in a predator drone bombing last year.

Now intelligence officers in North Western Pakistan have uncovered a major new training centre for jihadists, which reports suggest was the brainchild of Birmingham-born Rauf.

The base, one of the biggest terror training centres in the troubled Afghan/Pakistani border region, was discovered in the densely populated Punjab province.

A leaked report from the security services says the camp, in the town of Bahawalpur, has become a site for indoctrination and terror planning for foreign men training in Pakistan.

�This summer thousands of jihadists have been brought there to be mentally prepared, then sent to Afghanistan,� the MI6 report says.

The size of the recruitment camp is believed to have prompted Pakistani intelligence services to place the Brummie fifth on their top 10 most wanted terror list, adding to rumours he is still alive.

The CIA had claimed to have killed the baker�s son, 28, in a missile attack on a Taliban target in the border region of Waziristan in November 2008.

But other US intelligence sources are convinced Rauf � said to be the brains behind the liquid bomb plot to kill thousands of transatlantic airline passengers � is alive.

He has not been confirmed dead by Pakistani authorities and video footage taken by the US drone aircraft that launched the missile attack is inconclusive.

His family, who still live in Ward End, Birmingham, have also consistently denied that he is dead.

The former Washwood Heath High School student has been linked to a number of failed terror plots, including a plan [what plan?] earlier this year to attack a shopping centre in Manchester on Easter Sunday.

Rauf fled to the tribal areas of North Western Pakistan in April 2002 as West Midlands Police tried to question him over the murder of his uncle, Mohammed Saeed, in Alum Rock.

He married a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the notorious founder of Kashmiri terror group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, in 2003.

Intelligence reports claim he took an active role in planning terror �spectaculars� and was the ringleader of the liquid bomb plot.

Although charges against Rauf over the transatlantic plot were later dropped, he was held by Pakistani police as detectives in Birmingham sought his extradition over his uncle�s murder.

But he escaped custody after Pakistani guards allowed him to pray in a roadside mosque while being transferred from prison to court and he disappeared back to the Waziristan region.

Bridget

Posted: Oct 3 2009, 11:38 PM

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He's back, bigger and better than before:

QUOTE

'DEAD� TERRORIST ALIVE

Thought to be as 'dangerous as Bin Laden'

Sunday October 4,2009
By Gordon Thomas

A TERRORIST thought to have been killed in a missile attack last year has been discovered alive in Pakistan.

Birmingham-born Rashid Rauf, 28, was spotted with senior Al Qaeda members in the Punjab town of Bahawalpur.

An American drone attack last November on a house where Rauf was said to be hiding killed five people, but evidence has emerged that he was not in the building.

Last week the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 discovered that Rauf had set up a huge training base in Pakistan and fear he is planning attacks on Britain.

They have kept the heavily bearded terrorist on their wanted list, describing him �as dangerous as his mentor, Osama bin Laden�.

A senior officer in London said: �We believe Rauf is the head of a network that stretches from Britain to South Africa and across the Middle East.�]

Express

numeral	Posted: Oct 20 2009, 09:45 AM
Group: J7 Forum Team Posts: 3,977 Member No.: 5 Joined: 4-December 05	Winter Patriot: What Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri Do All Day, or Why I Cannot Talk About Politics With My Father

Bridget

Posted: Nov 1 2009, 10:17 AM

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A bunch of state-employed mercenaries or a ghost, I know who my money'd be on:

QUOTE

Birmingham's Rashid Rauf linked to new Pakistan terror attacks

Nov 1 2009 by Ben Goldby, Sunday Mercury

A MILITANT group headed by Birmingham-born terror mastermind Rashid Rauf has been linked to the new wave of deadly violence in Pakistan.

The country was rocked by a series of bombings on Wednesday � including a huge car blast in Peshawar � which have killed more than 100 people. Now it has emerged Rauf and his Jaish-e-Mohammed group had reportedly linked up with Taliban fighters for the attacks.

Around 300 Pakistanis have died in more than ten separate bombing raids in the space of a month, as the army looks to rid the disputed Kashmir Swat Valley of Taliban-backed insurgents.

Recent simultaneous attacks in Kohat, Lahore and Peshawar have been attributed to the Pakistani branch of the Taliban. They continue to defy security services despite their feared leader Baitullah Mehsud being killed in a US drone attack in August.

The bombings bear the hallmarks of Rauf�s �terror spectaculars�, which included the 2006 liquid bomb plot to down ten transatlantic planes using makeshift bombs made from Lucozade bottles.

The recent carnage in Pakistan has been launched from South Waziristan, where the Brummie is believed to be hiding out.

Last month we revealed the baker�s son survived a US drone attack in November 2008, despite claims he was among those who died in a missile strike on suspected Al Qaida militants. Pakistani papers have reported that Rauf, 28, is among a number of high profile Kashmiri militants to join the ranks of the Taliban in tribal borderlands.

His well-trained, battle-hardened Jaish-e-Mohammed fighters are also understood to be actively involved in the planning and execution of suicide attacks and car bombings.

The former Washwood Heath High pupil was named number five in a secret list of the top ten most wanted terror operatives in the lawless tribal regions of North West Pakistan.

The list, distributed to field commanders in September, showed for the first time that Rauf, a chief recruiter for Al Qaeda attacks in Europe, is still at large despite last November�s US airstrike.

The body of Rauf, whose arrest led to the capture of the three men convicted earlier this year of plotting transatlantic airline liquid bomb attacks, was never produced � and no DNA were samples taken to confirm that he died.

His family has consistently denied he is dead and signals intelligence intercepts by the CIA and other intelligence agencies suggest he is still on the run. Rauf turned to terrorism after fleeing to Pakistan in 2002 following the brutal murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed in Alum Rock, Birmingham.

He met and married a close relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the notorious founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, in 2003.

Since then he has risen to become a leading figure in the group and is reported to be Al Qaida�s contact for British men travelling to Pakistan to fight allied forces in Afghanistan.

Bridget

Posted: Nov 15 2009, 04:41 PM

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QUOTE

Birmingham's Rashid Rauf linked to new US terror plot

Nov 15 2009 by Ben Goldby, Sunday Mercury

TERROR mastermind Rashid Rauf has been linked to a fresh Al Qaida plot to launch attacks on the US.

The Birmingham-born extremist has been named by witnesses due to testify against Najibullah Zazi, who was arrested for plotting suicide bombings in New York.

MI6 officers have linked the plot to a complex terror network said to be directed from Pakistan by Rauf and fellow jihadists.

Zazi, 24, was identified through an intercepted communication, and was further implicated by US national Bryant Neal Vinas, who was captured in Pakistan last November.

Vinas, 26, allegedly admits meeting Rauf and receiving training to blow up a train on the Long Island Rail Road inside New York�s busy Pennsylvania Station.

Zazi, an Afghan national who has lived in the US for 17 years, is said to have flown to Pakistan�s North Western Province in August last year to gather information on bomb-making along with Vinas.

According to US court documents, Zazi returned to his home in New York in January and then moved to Colorado where he was working in an airport.

He is accused of buying large quantities of hydrogen peroxide from beauty suppliers to use in bombs.

He was arrested in an FBI sting in September, with Attorney General Eric Holder describing the alleged plot as �one of the most serious in the United States since September 11.�

The lawless North Western region of Pakistan where Zazi is thought to have trained is the alleged hiding place of Birmingham baker�s son Rauf.

The Islamist fanatic, said to be the mastermind of the failed 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up Trans-Atlantic airlines, is suspected of being Al Qaida�s chief recruiter for European attacks.

In September we revealed that signals intelligence received by spies in Pakistan confirmed that Rauf was alive, despite being reportedly killed in a November 2008 US missile attack on an Al Qaida stronghold.

The body of the former Washwood Heath High School pupil was never produced and no DNA samples were taken to confirm that he died. His family, from Ward End, has consistently denied he is dead.

And a leaked list of most wanted terror suspects compiled in September this year by authorities in North Western Pakistan lists the Brummie as the fifth most dangerous man in the region.

Rauf is believed to have turned to terrorism after fleeing to Pakistan in 2002 following the brutal murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed in Alum Rock.

He met and married a close relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the notorious founder of Kashmiri terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, in 2003.

Since then he has risen to become a leading figure in the group and is reported to be Al Qaida�s contact for British men travelling to Pakistan to fight the Allied Forces in Afghanistan.

Bridget

Posted: Nov 24 2009, 06:12 PM

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Posts: 10,496
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Joined: 26-November 05

From HRW's Cruel Britannia report:

QUOTE

Rashid Rauf

Birmingham-born Rashid Rauf, who held dual Pakistani and British citizenship, arrived in
Pakistan in 2002. At the request of the UK government, Pakistani authorities arrested Rauf in
August 2006 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up several airliners originating in
the United Kingdom. Rauf was held in Rawalpindi and charged with terrorism-related
offences.

Rauf's family told Human Rights Watch that he had reported being beaten and tortured while
in custody. �He was taken off a bus and beaten very badly,� said a family member.53

Hashmat Habib, his lawyer in Pakistan, told Human Rights Watch that he had seen scars all
over Rauf�s back and torso that indicated violence. Habib only had access to Rauf some six
months after he was detained. At first he was held in what he called a �grave cell,� as it was
like a coffin. Habib said that Rauf told him that he had been questioned by Westerners, but
that he did not specify their nationality.54

In December 2007, the prosecution in Pakistan withdrew its case against Rauf and the Anti-
Terrorism Court I at Rawalpindi ordered his same day release. Rauf�s relatives told Human
Rights Watch that upon hearing the news, they immediately went to the jail to collect him
but were told by the authorities that he was not being freed. According to Rauf�s uncle,
Akhtar, Mujahid Hussain, a senior Islamabad police official, indicated that Rauf was being
transferred to the UK. Another relative told Human Rights Watch that Rauf had made contact
with his family from the city of Bhawalpur in Punjab province, about 700 km from Islamabad,
and told them, �They are taking me away from here at 7 p.m., but I don�t know where.�55

Hashmat Habib, the Pakistani lawyer representing Rauf, told Human Rights Watch that no
legal formalities or paperwork had been followed for the transfer to the UK and it was unclear

under what law, if any, Rauf was being sent there. Any transfer under such circumstances
would be irregular and have no legal basis, said Habib, because Pakistan has no extradition
treaty with the UK. 56 However, the interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, reportedly had said
Pakistan would consider deporting Rauf if an extradition request was made.57 At the time,
Human Rights Watch spoke to the Islamabad police authorities, who denied any such
attempt. Human Rights Watch also informed the local and international media that an
attempt to surreptitiously transfer Rauf appeared to be underway. He was not transferred.

On December 17, 2007, Rauf �escaped� from custody in broad daylight from an Islamabad
courthouse while being watched by at least a dozen Pakistani police officials. At the time his
lawyer described his escape as �very suspicious� because it had happened at a time when
the �British government was trying to extradite him.�58 Both Pakistani and British
intelligence sources told Human Rights Watch that Rauf was beaten and mistreated while in
the custody of the ISI. While Pakistani intelligence sources maintain that the British were
aware that Rauf was being �dealt with� by the ISI with an �iron hand,� the British source did
not accept that any mistreatment occurred with British complicity or knowledge, but added
that the he was tortured so badly that it was a �disaster� that made any �successful
prosecution in Britain most unlikely.�59

According to Pakistani and Western intelligence sources, Rauf was killed in a US drone
missile attack on the village of Alikhel, in the North Waziristan agency of Pakistan�s tribal
areas on November 22, 2008.60 To date, neither Rauf�s body nor any other corroborating
evidence to support this claim has been provided by Western or Pakistani authorities.

52 Human Rights Watch interview with Pakistani law enforcement personnel (names, date and place withheld).
53 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Rauf�s family, December 14, 2007.
54 Human Rights Watch interview with Hashmat Habib, Islamabad, January 7, 2008.
55 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with three members of Rauf�s family, December 14, 2007.
56 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Hashmat Habib, December 14, 2007.
57 �UK seeks Briton�s extradition from Pakistan,� The Guardian, August 28, 2006,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/aug/2...kistan.politics (accessed November 16, 2009).
58 Massoud Ansari and Miles Erwin, �London Airline Bomb Plot Suspect Escapes,� The Telegraph, December 17, 2007,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ct-escapes.html (accessed July 6,2009).
59 Human Rights Watch interviews with Pakistani and British intelligence sources (dates, places and names withheld).
60 �UK militant �killed in Pakistan�,� BBC Online, November 22, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7743334.stm (accessed July 6, 2009).

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