AL-QAEDA terrorists had to abandon a plan to fly hijacked airliners into Canary Wharf, the London skyscraper, and Heathrow airport after being "rumbled" by British and European intelligence services. The plot was made public this year but senior Whitehall sources gave further details yesterday of the intelligence work involved. Reports on ITV News and in a newspaper implied that the attacks had been thwarted recently. But, the sources said, the intelligence operation was in fact completed at least two years ago.
Plots against Canary Wharf, in London Docklands, and Heathrow were confirmed in July when intelligence officers in Pakistan found incriminating files on computers that belonged to one of al-Qaeda's members. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, 25, a suspected terrorist arrested after a raid in Lahore, Pakistan, was at the centre of al-Qaeda's computer communications hub. He encrypted and distributed messages between the network's leadership and agents around the world. Among the files on Khan's computers were a plan of the layout of Heathrow and information from reconnaissance of the Canary Wharf complex, including vehicle height restrictions for the underground car parks there. There were also suggestions for "picture postcard" targets, such as the Houses of Parliament and Windsor Castle, and discussions of potential assassination targets. But the plots referred mainly to planning that pre-dated the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. |