East Meets West On High Alert For Fresh Al-Qaeda Bombings

June 12, 2002
By Michael Evans, Daniel McGrory, Dominique Searle and Roland Watson

THE West was on heightened alert last night after the discovery of two al-Qaeda plots against America and Europe and warnings that other attacks may be imminent.

President Bush ordered a full-scale manhunt for terrorists acting alone or in concert with Abdullah al-Mujahir, the American accused of plotting to explode a radioactive “dirty bomb” in America. “We will run down every lead, every hint,” he said.

At the same time, British sources revealed that Royal Navy warships in the Mediterranean had been on high alert since last month after receiving a warning from the Moroccan intelligence service of an al-Qaeda bomb plot.

The disclosure came after the Moroccan Government announced that it had arrested three Saudi Arabians who were allegedly planning to use speedboats laden with explosives to attack British and American naval ships.

British intelligence sources said the two plots showed that al-Qaeda remained a very serious threat despite its heavy losses in Afghanistan. “They may be down but they are not out,” one said.

Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French Defence Minister, said that Europe faced the threat of biological or even nuclear attack. “France is under threat, as are all the big European countries,” she said. “We are in a period of great uncertainty; I would even say danger.”

The alarm also spread to India, where the Government warned Bombay financial institutions that terrorists were planning a big attack within the next ten days. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, arrived in Delhi last night and the presence of top American officials has often been marked by militant attacks The Royal Navy has been on alert since the al-Qaeda suicide bomb attack on the American warship USS Cole in Aden in October 2000, killing 17 people. But since the Moroccan authorities began interrogating the three Saudi suspects it has ordered round-the-clock armed patrols on all vessels sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Defence sources said that Moroccan drug smugglers also used fast patrol boats in the Strait, and it was difficult to distinguish between craft speeding across the narrow waterway. Dozens more vessels cross from Morocco to the Spanish coast each night carrying immigrants and drugs.

A number of European intelligence services, including MI6, played a part in helping to uncover the suspected al-Qaeda suicide plot, but the success of the operation was said to be mainly due to the efforts of Morocco’s domestic security service, the Direction de Surveillance du Territoire.

Yesterday five people aged between 25 and 35 were being held in Morocco, including two wives of the Saudi al-Qaeda suspects, and further arrests are expected.

The suspected al-Qaeda cell is believed to have been established long before the September 11 attacks. Cell members were said to have moved freely between their homes in Casablanca, Rabat and Sale, while the two wives are suspected of carrying messages for them.

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