Over this weekend there has been the reporting of two absolutely astonishing pieces of news regarding the London 7/7 bombs of last year.
They are;
1. Martin Gilbertson claims he sent incriminating material on Kahn to West Yorkshire Special Branch in late 2003.
2. a bug was found in Kahn's car, after it had been taken away for inspection after 7/7.
Regarding the bug, in January of this year David Leppard of The Sunday Times published an article that stated Kahn had been bugged and taped in early 2004 talking of raising funds for and fighting in Jihad. On this blog, after reading that article, I asked what happened to the surveillance devices used on Kahn after the surveillance was supposedly called off? I suggested that 'someone' was still using the devices, to secretly track and listen in on Kahn and his friends. I still stand by that suggestion today.
Do such bugs have a lifetime, and use up their energy source after a certain time? Are they then replaced with a new battery or is the whole device replaced with a new one?
And what does happen to surveillance devices once a surveillance target has been deemed harmless and the surveillance called off?
If there is an intelligence operative reading this with experience in covert surveillance, and particularly with experience of surveillance operations that have been called off/cancelled/stopped because the target was thought harmless, then perhaps you could enlighten us? Are they removed? Do they self-destruct? Or are they just left for others, possibly the target, to find?
Does the FACT that the bug was still in Kahn's car at the time of the bombings suggest or indeed prove that Kahn was under surveillance at the time of the bombings? Now, Martin Gilbertson claims he sent incriminating material to West Yorkshire Special Branch in late 2003. Then in early 2004 Kahn was bugged and taped talking of raising funds for and fighting in Jihad. So was the bugging op of Kahn instigated by or related to the Gilberston material? Or was it due to another piece of information? For if there is more than one set of information pointing to Kahn then this goes beyond incompetence. Way beyond.
I cannot believe the information Gilbertson sent (by normal mail) never reached its intended destination because it was stolen by one of the criminals working in Royal Mail who steal credit cards etc. There is a difference between a credit card and a parcel addressed to The Special Branch. I could well believe that such a parcel would receive extra special attention and would not go through the normal channels of sorting.
Apparently Kahn returned from a terrorist training camp in the summer of 2003,
(see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2003915_1,00.html) and it was believed that he was by then "fully versed in how to make bombs".
So you are Special Branch. You get this parcel with DVDs and names and all sorts of stuff indicating that a particular bunch of people are up to something. You type in Kahn's name and up comes the bombmaking intelligence on Kahn. What do you do? You bug him.
So Kahn was bugged (and so far we only know of just the one bug, for if there were more then where are they? and are they still active?). You know he's attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan. You know he is "fully versed in how to make bombs". You know he is involved in the production of inciteful material. You tape him talking of fighting in Jihad.
Waddya do?
This was early 2004.
Do you know how many "terrorist" suspects, the vast majority of whom are Muslim/Asian, have been arrested under terrorism laws and then released without charge? The vast majority!
SO WHY WAS KAHN NOT PICKED UP AND ASKED A FEW QUESTIONS DOWN AT THE LOCAL NICK ?Early 2004 saw the phantom terrorist attack on Old Trafford football ground. Do you remember that? News of the arrests was plastered all over the papers, TV etc.
"It was our tireless police and security service who foiled a terrorist plot to blow up" Old Trafford, screamed The Sun. But then all ten suspects were quietly released without charge.
The difference in approach is sickening. Kahn, bugged, under surveillance and a known bombmaker is taped talking of joining Jihad. Nothing is done. Instead 10 innocent men are arrested with absolutely no connection to terrorism whatsoever!!
This is not incompetence.
This is complicity by LIHOP.