Suspected London bomber was checked out by intelligence service

LONDON – British intelligence officials opened a file on one of the suspected London suicide bombers last year but decided he posed no real risk, a report said yesterday as the huge investigation into the attacks spread further around the globe.

According to the Sunday Times, the domestic intelligence agency MI5 made routine checks on Mohammad Sidique Khan as part of an investigation in 2004, but decided he was not a sufficient threat to be put under surveillance. Police believe the 30-year-old classroom assistant was responsible for one of three bomb blasts on London Underground subway trains on July 7, at Edgware Road station just west of the city centre, in which he and six others died.The MI5 probe focused on an alleged plot to blow up a 270-kilogramme truck bomb in London, an unnamed senior government official told The Sunday Times.Britain’s Home Office had no immediate comment.MI5 is said to have discovered in 2004 that Khan had been visiting a house used by a man who met one of the suspected plotters, but decided that as he was “indirectly linked” to the affair he posed no risk.”We’ve only got finite resources.You can only concentrate resources on those people who are a direct threat to national security,” the official told the paper.Police and intelligence services had previously insisted that none of the four suspected bombers had previously known links with terrorism.At least 55 people died in the three subway bombs and a fourth that detonated on a packed commuter bus.With the suspected bombers dead, the massive police investigation is largely focusing on who might have helped the men plan the attack and build their rucksack-borne bombs.The hunt has spread around four continents, with considerable focus placed on Pakistan, from where the families of three of the four suspected bombers originated.On Saturday, security officials in Pakistan told AFP that two of the men – Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22 – arrived together in the country last November and returned to Britain earlier this year.The final London bomber has been named by police as 19-year-old Germaine Lindsay, a Jamaican-born Muslim convert who is thought to have caused the single most deadly blast, between King’s Cross and Russell Square subway stations.According to British diplomats in Jamaica, Lindsay’s father Nigel, 45, had been interviewed by local police at the request of London officers.- Nampa-AFPPolice believe the 30-year-old classroom assistant was responsible for one of three bomb blasts on London Underground subway trains on July 7, at Edgware Road station just west of the city centre, in which he and six others died.The MI5 probe focused on an alleged plot to blow up a 270-kilogramme truck bomb in London, an unnamed senior government official told The Sunday Times.Britain’s Home Office had no immediate comment.MI5 is said to have discovered in 2004 that Khan had been visiting a house used by a man who met one of the suspected plotters, but decided that as he was “indirectly linked” to the affair he posed no risk.”We’ve only got finite resources.You can only concentrate resources on those people who are a direct threat to national security,” the official told the paper.Police and intelligence services had previously insisted that none of the four suspected bombers had previously known links with terrorism.At least 55 people died in the three subway bombs and a fourth that detonated on a packed commuter bus.With the suspected bombers dead, the massive police investigation is largely focusing on who might have helped the men plan the attack and build their rucksack-borne bombs.The hunt has spread around four continents, with considerable focus placed on Pakistan, from where the families of three of the four suspected bombers originated.On Saturday, security officials in Pakistan told AFP that two of the men – Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22 – arrived together in the country last November and returned to Britain earlier this year.The final London bomber has been named by police as 19-year-old Germaine Lindsay, a Jamaican-born Muslim convert who is thought to have caused the single most deadly blast, between King’s Cross and Russell Square subway stations.According to British diplomats in Jamaica, Lindsay’s father Nigel, 45, had been interviewed by local police at the request of London officers.- Nampa-AFP