UK’s most wanted terrorist, Rashid Rauf, killed!
Posted by Carlos C. on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Rashid Rauf was initially wanted for questioning by police in England over the murder of his uncle in Birmingham. Rauf fled to Pakistan but was arrested in August 2006 by the Pakistani police for his alleged involvement in the plot to detonate liquid bombs in airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean. Rauf escaped Pakistani custody in 2007 but was killed by a U.S. missile on Saturday.
However, I am more interested in the cooperation between America and Pakistan and how they planned to kill Rauf.
A secret meeting on board an American aircraft carrier between the US General David Petraeus and the head of the Pakistani military laid the foundation for the killing of Britain’s most wanted terrorist.
The Independent learned that talks held on board the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf three months ago led to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani pledging to provide information on “high-value” targets such as Rashid Rauf, who died in a missile strike inside Pakistan on Saturday.
Senior UK security sources insisted that the lethal attack in North Waziristan on the 27-year-old Birmingham-born Rauf – accused of being involved in the plot to plant liquid bombs aboard transatlantic airliners – was “a unilateral American action” without any British involvement.
American officials stated that the intelligence on the whereabouts of Rauf and a Saudi Islamist, Abu Zubair al-Masri, was provided by Pakistani authorities. The agreement on sharing intelligence came during the meeting on the aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea in the last week of August, US sources said.
General Kayani, who had taken over from General Pervez Musharraf as the head of the Pakistani military, was brought to the ship by American helicopters. He was told about grave American disquiet over the help being given to the Taliban by elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence service, the ISI. According to US officials an agreement was reached at the conclusion of the “heated” meeting with General Kayani, in which the Pakistanis promised to supply high-quality intelligence.
I wonder if the Pakistani ISI knew all along where Rauf and al-Masri were hiding. Also, I wonder what General Petraues, on behalf of the American government, offered in return for intelligence on Rauf’s whereabouts. Money? Weapons? I believe that Pakistan received more than “shared intelligence”.
Also, I hope General Kayani arrests the Pakistani military and ISI members guilty of aiding the Taliban in North Warziristan.
Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines
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