UK terror crackdown nets innocent victims

LONDON - A scruffy one-bedroom flat in a run-down neighbourhood of north London is an unlikely location for a terrorist "poison factory".

But when police and Government scientists raided 352B High Rd, Wood Green, in January 2003, that is precisely what they believed they had uncovered.

The discovery of what police believed was an attempt by a group of Algerian terrorists, trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, to launch a poison campaign in Britain caused widespread alarm.

British security services thought the intended target was to be the Jewish community in north London, the Independent understands.

A nationwide alert went out to track down the man responsible for the poisons list - an illegal immigrant called Kamel Bourgass, 31.

The hunt for Bourgass was to lead to the death of Detective Stephen Oake, 40, in Manchester.

After a huge security operation and a lengthy series of court cases that cost an estimated 50 million ($130 million) the case finally came to an end yesterday with the conviction of Bourgass for murder and for plotting to spread poison in Britain.

But eight other alleged co-conspirators were cleared of the poison charges at the Old Bailey.

The defendants' lawyers argue that the failure to bring a successful prosecution against most of the defendants highlights the complaint that innocent people are becoming victims of the Government's terror policies.

It also undermines the justification for the Iraq war. Colin Powell, the former United States Secretary of State, used the plot to back his case for the conflict before the United Nations.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also claimed the ricin "find" was evidence of the threat of weapons of mass destruction to Britain.

But anti-terrorist officers believe the case shows the extent of a suspected Algerian terror network operating in Britain and the ease with which deadly poisons can be made from simple ingredients.

The Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist branch began investigating an Algerian network in 2002, but at first they thought it was involved only in logistical support.

The attempt to break the network led to more than 100 arrests.

The most active of the Islamist group, and the organisation believed to be at the centre of the ricin plot, is the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which had sent thousands of members for training in camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Its fighters have also been involved in Chechnya, Kashmir and the Balkans, as well the nucleus of the urban terror cells in Europe.

The breakthrough in what was to become the biggest terrorist plot yet to reach court came about in January 2003 when MI5 were contacted by the Algerian security services with some shocking information.

They had arrested a suspected Algerian terrorist, Mohammed Meguerba, 36, who told them he had been working with al Qaeda supporters in Britain and had been helping them produce poisons at a flat in north London.

Meguerba claimed one of the main figures behind the poison plot was a man named "Nadir", which was one of the names used by Kamel Bourgass. Meguerba said that when he last saw "Nadir" in September 2002, the two of them had already succeeded in making "two pots" of ricin - which were not found when police raided the Wood Green flat.

Bourgass had been living in London since being smuggled in in January 2000. His asylum application under the name Nadir Habra had been refused but he stayed in the country illegally.

When the police raided his flat in Wood Green they discovered in a locked bag in Bourgass' bedroom an envelope containing a set of recipes in Arabic in his handwriting.

On the front of the envelope was the address of the Finsbury Park mosque with the name of "Nadir".

There were details of five poisons. Scientists at the Porton Down chemical warfare laboratories followed the recipes' instructions. Their experiments produced enough ricin and cyanide to kill hundreds of people.

No evidence emerged of the intended targets for any poison attack, though a fellow conspirator, arrested in Algeria, claimed there was a plan to smear ricin or other toxic materials on car doors and handles in the Holloway Rd area of north London, near the mosque.

It was also suggested that toothbrushes might be contaminated and placed for sale in shops, although police believe they broke up Bourgass' gang before any list of targets had been settled.

After the raid the police launched a nationwide manhunt for Bourgass. They found him in Manchester with two other men. The three were not handcuffed after police entered the flat and the special branch officers were not wearing protective vests.

Some of the officers then noticed a similarity between Bourgass and a man they knew as Nadir Habra.

Bourgass punched an officer in the groin, then rushed to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. He killed Oake by stabbing him eight times.

Bourgass was tried for the attack last year and found guilty of murdering Oake, attempting to murder two Special Branch officers and wounding another officer. He was sentenced to life.

The ricin trial, which began last September, ended this week.

The jury found Bourgass guilty of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by using poisons and explosives, for which he was given a 17-year sentence.

Four other Algerians - Mouloud Sihali, 29, David Aissa Khalef, 33, Sidali Feddag, 20, and Mustapha Taleb, 35 - were also in the dock facing the same two charges. All four were cleared.

Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, said: "It would be hard to underestimate the fear and disruption this plot could have caused across the country.

"The public have been spared from a real and deadly threat."

- INDEPENDENT