Bottle and Baby Used in Plot

Bottle and Baby Used as Bomb

Daily Telegraph

By Fiona Hudson



August 14, 2006

A Husband and wife arrested in the British terror raids
allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a
mid-air suicide mission.

Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and
his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use
their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.

The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now
insisting mothers taste babies' milk at check-in desks
before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights.

The pair are among up to 23 suspects being questioned over a
plot to bring down nine airliners over five US cities,
killing thousands of people in the air and on the ground.

The questioning of the group comes as British Government
sources yesterday revealed many of those suspects posed as
relief workers to travel to al-Qaeda training camps in
Pakistan.

It has also been revealed that security services are
secretly monitoring "dozens" of fresh plots involving
hundreds of suspects which could be unleashed at any time.

One government source said at least 30 priority cases were
under urgent investigation.

"All those 30 are seen as serious, determined attacks that
will happen unless we stop them," the source said.

Police spent yesterday combing through the Alis' east London
housing commission flat for clues.

Cossor took her baby with her to the police station during
last week's raids but her son is now being cared for by
grandparents.

Cossor's grandfather, Nazir Ahmed, 84, said Abdula had
travelled to Pakistan about four weeks ago.

"We didn't understand what the hurry was and why he needed
to go," Mr Ahmed said.

A neighbour at the flats where the married couple lived said
he would be stunned if claims were true.

"I simply cannot believe he could have been involved in a
plot like this. He is religious and seemed to love his
family," the neighbour said.

"I would never have dreamed he could have been involved in
anything like this."

A family friend of Cossor said she had known the arrested
mother 12 years and believed her to be innocent.

"I think it is a case of mistaken identity. The last thing
she'd be interested in is terrorism. They are just simple
day-to-day people going about their own business," she said.

Police in England have reportedly recovered bottles
containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from
a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the
arrested suspects.

It has emerged MI5 agents launched covert intrusions on the
homes of some suspects several weeks ago in "sneak and peek"
operations to plant listening devices and gather evidence
ahead of the arrests last week.

Links between suspects in the jet bomb plot and those behind
the London 7/7 attacks have also come to light.

There are reports as many as five of those arrested attended
the same terror training camp in Pakistan as two of the July
7 London suicide bombers.

And US intelligence sources said they believed at least two
of the suspects had trained in Karachi and met al-Qaeda
operatives in the lead up to the 7/7 attacks.