LONDON - British Muslim groups said on Saturday Britain's policy on Iraq
and Lebanon was fuelling militancy, as Pakistan said it had arrested a British
al Qaeda member over an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.
A court gave British police more time to question 22 of the 24 suspects
arrested in swoops on Thursday when officials said they had foiled a plot to use
chemical bombs to bring down as many as 10 airliners flying from Britain to the
United States.
The police crackdown, 13 months after four British Islamist suicide bombers
killed 52 people on London's transport system, raised fears among British
Muslims they were being demonized because of the militancy of a few.
In an open letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, leading British
Muslim groups and politicians said his foreign policies on issues such as Iraq
and the Israel-Hizbollah war were putting civilians at increased risk of attack
in Britain and elsewhere.
"The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate
end to attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to
ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten
us all," they said in the letter, published in the Times newspaper.
Many Muslims are critical of Blair's decisions to commit British troops to
the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and not to call for an immediate halt to the
fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.
"We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and
extremism and change our foreign policy," said the letter, whose signatories
included six politicians from Blair's Labour Party.
Responding to the letter, Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander told
Britain's Channel 4 television: "Nothing justifies the kind of actions which
terrorists perpetrate."
AL QAEDA
Pakistan said it had helped thwart the alleged plot and that two Britons of
Pakistani descent were among seven suspects who had been arrested in the
country.
It said one of the Britons was an al Qaeda member who had played a leading
role in the foiled plot that would have involved chemical bombs being smuggled
on to aircraft disguised as drinks.
"He is a British citizen of Pakistani origin. He is an al Qaeda operative
with linkages in Afghanistan," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told
Reuters.
Sherpao said the arrest of the man, identified as Rashid Rauf, had led to the
arrests in Britain.
On Friday, British police released one of the 24 people arrested in
Thursday's swoops without charge. A court granted police a warrant to hold 22
suspects until next Wednesday. A decision on the other suspect will not be taken
until Monday.
Britain named 19 of those arrested, who were aged from 17 to 35, and ordered
their assets to be frozen.
British media said the suspects were mostly British-born men of Pakistani
origin, three were converts to Islam and one was believed to be a security guard
at London's Heathrow airport.
Friends of those arrested said the men had led ordinary lives and had jobs
such as being a taxi driver or pizza delivery man.
The Independent newspaper said Britain's security service and police believed
a Britain-based cell, assisted by al Qaeda members, had planned to start a
series of suicide bombings on U.S.-bound planes as early as Friday or Saturday.
It said officers investigating the plot had found bomb-making equipment.
Chaos at airports eased on Friday as travelers grew used to tough new
security measures, including a ban on liquids being carried on to flights from
U.S. or British airports.
But British Airways warned customers to expect further flight delays and
cancellations at Heathrow airport on Saturday.
