Innocent Pakistani victim of al Qaeda name mix-up

A man widely reported to have slipped into Britain to "mastermind" the London bombings was an innocent Pakistani who happened to have a similar name to a suspected al Qaeda leader.

The man, in his 30s, was the subject of intense media speculation surrounding his visit to the UK, which culminated in him flying out of London the day before the attacks. His presence in the country, apparently unmonitored, led to criticism of MI5.

But according to the Independent, the man had no role in the attacks. Inquiries in the past week have revealed that the man was an innocent Pakistani traveller who had a similar name to an al Qaeda terrorist who was on a watch-list of several foreign security agencies.

A similar mix-up is understood to be behind the claims by United States intelligence that Germaine Lindsay, 19, the bomber who carried out the Kings Cross attack, was on a British watch-list. This was because the "fourth" bomber was wrongly identified in the United States as Lindsay Jermaine - someone with a similar name to a terrorist suspect.

- INDEPENDENT