| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Europe | |
| Fears arrested CERN scientist was planning nuclear attack on UK | |
| 2009-10-12 | |
| MI5 learn he worked at top-secret British lab, investigate brilliant scientist's links to world-famous Rutherford Appleton nuclear research centre Last night fears were growing that Dr Adlene Hicheur — who was a researcher for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire for a year — could have been planning a nuclear attack in the UK. His brother Dr Halim Hicheur, 25, carries out research at similar high-security scientific institutions around Europe. The brothers' council flat was stormed at 6am last Thursday by eight masked officers from the elite Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (CDII), the French equivalent of MI5, and 20 armed riot officers. A battering ram was used to break the lock and the warning 'Armed police!' shouted. Large-calibre machine pistols and other weapons were aimed at those inside the flat, including the brothers' parents and sisters. The family has had the same flat for 30 years.
Mr Hortefeux said the apparently mild-mannered, highly religious brothers were a 'high-level threat' who were suspected of 'criminal activities related to a terrorist group'. Last night, MI5 was understood to be examining their British links amid fears that they were plotting to launch a nuclear attack in the UK. A spokesman for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory refused to release details about Adlene Hicheur's time there. Fears were growing that the men may have been in a position to smuggle nuclear material out of a secure lab for use in a 'dirty bomb' attack, or to plant explosives inside the sensitive facility. According to European intelligence sources, MI5 had been warned that the suspects 'are outstanding scientists who had been honing their techniques in nuclear fusion across the world. 'There are genuine fears that they were locating terrorist targets, especially in countries like France and Britain. Their level of expertise in nuclear fusion was improving all the time, leading to the terrifying scenario of a terrorist nuclear attack.' The arrests followed surveillance that had logged the French-Algerians' 'every word and every move', including frequent visits to England. The police will want to question anyone who has worked with or studied alongside either man at Britain's scientific research centres or universities. The brothers first came to the attention of French anti-terrorist officers when their names cropped up in an investigation trying to identify French jihadists fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan. The decision to arrest them followed the interception of internet exchanges with people identified as having links to terrorists in Algeria. The messages reportedly included information on potential targets in France and elsewhere in Europe. The brothers' British links included Adlene's work for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, as well as research at university cities including London, Manchester, Durham, Edinburgh and St Andrews. They had also spent time studying at Ivy League universities in the US. European intelligence sources said that Adlene Hicheur, who studied at Stanford University in California before moving to Oxfordshire, had expressed a 'very strong wish to carry out attacks anywhere where Western security interests can be damaged'. This included 'countries like Britain and any others where Americans are well represented', the source added, making it clear that neither brother had yet 'carried out an attack nor put the material into place to do so'. The Mail on Sunday has learned that Adlene Hicheur used to work at another atomic collider — the two-mile long Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) at Stanford University in 2001. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #3 Wow, Splodeydopes on a grand scale. |
| Posted by: Jefferson 2009-10-12 18:32 |
| #2 mild-mannered, highly religious brothers Methodists? |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-10-12 14:08 |
| #1 Poverty and lack of education breed terrorism. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-10-12 03:13 |