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The Sunday Times has a brief summary of areas for further investigation:
QUOTE
The Sunday Times August 14, 2005
‘Tartan Taliban’ linked to bombers Abul Taher
A MUSLIM convert who was arrested on suspicion of being an Al-Qaeda terrorist is thought to have presided over Islamic study circles at a bookshop in Leeds where the 7/7 bombers were radicalised.
The Sunday Times has been told that Scots-born James McLintock, the so-called Tartan Taliban, preached at the Iqra bookshop in 2000, shortly before moving to Pakistan with his family.
His seminars are thought to have been attended by Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, the suspected ringleader of the July 7 suicide attacks on London, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the Aldgate bomber. Both had close links to the bookshop. Hasib Mir Hussain, 18, the bus bomber, was also regularly seen at the store, which sold violent anti-western videos and DVDs.
The Scot, who changed his name to Mohammed Yacoub, was arrested by the Pakistani authorities at a checkpoint near the Afghan border in December 2001.
Although he claimed to be working for a charity in the region, he was taken to a military prison and questioned by the CIA and anti-terrorism officers from Scotland Yard. Dundee-born Yacoub was released a month later.
Yacoub, 41, was arrested again while visiting Manchester in 2003. He was questioned by police investigating possible Al-Qaeda cells operating in the UK, but was released without charge. He has consistently denied having terrorist links or knowledge of terrorist activity.
Yacoub lived in Bradford during the mid-1990s. By 2000 he was working in nearby Leeds at a second Islamic bookshop called Rays of Truth with a fellow Muslim convert, Martin Abdullah McDaid.
McDaid, a former special forces soldier, was also closely linked to the Iqra bookshop and knew the three Leeds-based bombers. When The Sunday Times approached him about Yacoub last week, McDaid said: “Whether he was at the Iqra bookstore or not is none of your business — you should fear Allah.”
A former friend of Khan’s said: “Yacoub was definitely giving study circles. I remember walking past the Iqra shop one day. I asked who was giving the talk and a brother said it was Yacoub. Other brothers I know were also aware that Yacoub was giving study circles.”
It has also emerged that an extremist Muslim cleric, now in prison, preached at mosques in the district of Leeds where three of the four bombers lived.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal was jailed in 2003 for inciting followers in study circles, which he conducted across the country, to murder Jews, Christians and Hindus. He also encouraged teenage boys to train and die in the name of Allah.
Afzal Choudhary, a race equality worker in Leeds, said: “Sheikh Faisal came at least twice to Beeston. I should know, because I was one of the people opposed to his coming.”
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QUOTE
'Tartan Taliban' grilled by UK police January 25 2002 at 05:55AM
London - British anti-terror police are interviewing a Scot held in a Pakistani jail on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda member, Scotland's Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
James McLintock, 37, was reportedly arrested while trying to cross illegally from Pakistan to Afghanistan in December.
The Muslim convert, dubbed the "Tartan Taliban" in the British press, has said he was an aid worker with no links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The Herald said police from London's Scotland Yard police headquarters had interviewed McLintock at a government residence in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
"We can confirm that anti-terrorist officers have flown out to Pakistan, but we are not prepared to discuss further," said a Scotland Yard spokesperson.
A representative for Britain's Foreign Office issued a similar statement and refused to confirm the Herald report, which said officers were interviewing McLintock.
A British member of parliament said last Saturday he had written to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to ask him to intervene in the case.
"He has been held in Pakistan for almost a month and we're still not sure what, if anything, he's been charged with or what is to happen to him," said Scottish Nationalist MP Mike Weir, who represents the Angus constituency in the east of Scotland.
Weir said he had seen no evidence linking McLintock with radical Islamic groups.
British consular staff in Islamabad visited McLintock on Wednesday and said he was in good health. - Reuters
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The Trans-Penine Tartan Taliban Cunning Linguist who suffered mental health problems, fought the Russians and volunteered to fight in Bosnia:
QUOTE
Arrested Scot seen as hero in Bradford
James McLintock, the Scot arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of links with al-Qaida, was a hero in Bradford's Muslim community because of his exploits in Afghanistan fighting against the Russians.
Dr Rasjid Skinner, a consultant psychologist who met Mr McLintock recently, said yesterday it was widely known that the 37-year-old had fought in Afghanistan with the mojahedin 10 years ago, and he was thought to have volunteered to serve with Muslims in Bosnia during the civil war.
The Foreign Office was trying to confirm yesterday that a man detained on the Afghan border near an al-Qaida training camp recently was Mr McLintock. Dr Skinner said that Mr McLintock was a dignified man, modest about suggestions that he had been a hero in Afghanistan.
"He was obviously someone of good character. His parents are academics and he was a master linguist, speaking many European languages and also Pushto, Urdu and Arabic," said Dr Skinner.
"I felt I knew him before I met him, because he was such a hero to the community."
Mr McLintock, originally a Catholic, converted to Islam in the mid-1980s after reportedly suffering from mental health problems as a youth. His father, Dr Ian McLintock, a former Labour councillor and university lecturer, and his mother, Margaret, a teacher and Amnesty International activist, have gone to ground with their other two children.
Foreign Office officials have been unable to contact the family, whose house in Arbroath is deserted.
Mr McLintock took the name Mohammed Yaqub and settled in Bradford where he married and had two sons.
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I guess the authorities always have to claim that these informants - if that's what they are - are just innocent Muslims/Muslim converts just minding their own business, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense when they're not arrested, or freed after being arrested.
If James McLintock really pretended to be a Libyan and did all the things that Al-Araby is supposed to have done, then he's a very dangerous man indeed.
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Friends of McClintock/Yacoub deny he fought against the Russians.
QUOTE
BBC News Friday, 11 January, 2002, 15:29 GMT Fair trial fears for 'Taleban Briton'
A British man being held in Pakistan on suspicion of having links with the Taleban and al-Qaeda terror network may not receive a fair trial, human rights campaigners have warned.
James McLintock, from Dundee, is believed to have been arrested on Christmas Eve at a checkpoint south of the Taleban's Tora Bora mountain range hideout in Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border.
Pakistani prosecutors are said to be close to charging the 37-year-old with breaching laws prohibiting travel in sensitive areas.
But Fair Trials Abroad spokesman Stephen Jakobi said there were serious concerns over the Pakistani justice system.
"Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of those countries where you do not get a fair trial," he said.
"The lower echelons of the judiciary are oiled by police corruption."
Good health
Pakistani intelligence services are interrogating Mr McLintock at a Rawalpindi military complex, 14 miles from the capital Islamabad, according to the British Foreign Office.
The Scot, whose wife, Shaffia Begum, is Afghan, could face three years in jail.
Fair Trials Abroad will only consider taking up his case if there is a breach of international law.
"If he has been somewhere he should not have been then he must pay the penalty," Mr Jakobi said.
British officials in Islamabad have contacted Mr McLintock, who was educated at Dundee's Roman Catholic Lawside Academy, and said he is in good health.
The Foreign Office has also contacted Mr McLintock's father, Dr Iain McLintock - a former Labour councillor and Dundee University lecturer - and his mother, Margaret.
FBI agents are reportedly investigating if the charity he worked for in Afghanistan, Khuddam-ul-Quran, is linked to al-Qaeda.
Friends have denied Mr McLintock, who converted to Islam during the 1980s and changed his name to Yaqub Mohammed, fought with the Mujahideen in the Afghan-Soviet war.
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So let me ge this right.
A close friend of the alledged bombers was known to authorities in 2002, and yet his friends who alledgedly went on to bomb, were 'clean skins' in 2005?
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James Alexander McLintock, the "Tartan Taliban", aka Mohammed Yacoub / Yaqub / Yacoob
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