Haroon Aswat is believed to be the mastermind behind the 7th of July bombing in London in which 56 people died and over 600 were injured. But who is Haroon Aswat? One of the claim’s that have been made is that Aswat was a British intelligence asset. In this blog I intend to look at this claim and the involvement of Aswat in the 7/7 attacks.

Haroon Rashid Aswat was born in India in 1979 and is of British and Indian decent. Not very much is known about his early life however we do know that his father was a engineer and he has 10 siblings it is also been said that his mother was the first Asian woman to be invited to a garden party at Buckingham palace.

On July 29th FOX News Channel's Day Side programme revealed that the mastermind of the 7/7 London Bombings, Aswat was a British Intelligence Asset. Former Justice Department prosecutor and Terrorism expert John Loftus revealed that the so called Al-Muhajiroun group, based in London had formed during the Kosovo crisis, during which Fundamentalist Muslim Leaders were recruited by MI6 to fight in Kosovo. These fighters are now believed members of Al Qaeda.(1)

Aswats story really begins in 1999 when abl hamza sent him to Seattle Oregon to help set up a terrorist training camp in the USA this plan failed and Aswat and his accomplice were caught. The other man was inedited for trying to train terrorists however the Seattle state prosecutors were told the US justice department to let Aswat go free apparently because he was a British intelligence asset according to John Loftus.

Aswat then resurfaced in Afghanistan. Dead. Somehow Awasts passport was found on a dead militant in Afghanistan (2). Its is claimed by John Loftus that this could possibly have been MI6 trying to fake his death for some reason.

After Aswats faked death it is believed he went into Pakistan were he started to plan the 7/7 and 7/21 attacks. This would have been around 2003 and would fit in with the time that some of the 7/7 bombers went to Pakistan them self’s to the terror training camps this could have been when Aswat tried to recruit them

Then in 2005 things got very interesting most intelligence agency’s thought that Aswat was dead, that was until he was found in South Africa by the national intelligence agency (south Africans secret services). At this point America was now after him because of involvement with Al Qaeda. This renewed interest in him was probably due to the 9/11 attacks. So America tried to have him extradited via there extraordinary rendition program however the British refused to allow the Americans to do this because he was a British citizen. This excuse would be more feasible if it were not for the evidence that Britain has allowed its citizens to be extradited in this way before and there for according to some sources this is further evidence that Aswat was a British intelligence asset this is the real reason why he was once again let go(6)

To further back this that just after he was captured by the south Africans in 2005 he then got into Brittan despite being on a terrorism watch list he still got into the country(3). Now as for what happens next I have my own theory. I believe that when Aswat got back into the uk he contacted the intelligence services and told them that there were some threats in the pipeline but fed them false information about the 7/7 attacks making the security services belief that they had good intelligence about the attacks and there was no real threat . This could be backed up by the fact that just before the 7/7 attacks MI5 told the prime minister that here was not immediate threat to the uk(4). Then MI5 downgraded the security threat level(5)

 It was then revealed that Aswat had made 20 calls during the short time he was in the UK (approximately 24th of June to 7th of July) to Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, one just hours before the blasts . And then he fled the country to Pakistan just hours before the bombs went off leaving via Heathrow. I believe that he done this by telling British intelligence that he had to get out of the country because he was in fear of his life due to the information he had gave them (which I believe was false). So that by the time the bombs went off he was out of the country and it would be to late by the time the security services realised what had happened to catch him.  And because it was the security services that got him out he got passed the terror watch list

Unfortunately this is where things start going wrong for Aswat it is highly possible that in the hours following the bombings MI5 and the other intelligence services started to build up the terrible picture that Aswat had managed to trick them into lowering there guard by looking away from the real threat then helped him get out of the country. The British were quick to move in on this though as soon as Aswat touched down in Pakistan he was detained by the Pakistani authorities and could even have been questioned by MI6(7). It’s unknown how but somehow Aswat escaped the Pakistanis and then somehow got to South Africa then went through Zimbabwe and then into Zambia where he was caught on the 20th of July. One really has to ask how he managed all this with in 15days.

Once Aswat was extradited to the uk another strange thing happened although Aswat had clear links with the July 7th bombers other than investigating this, the uk started to make moves’ to have him extradited to America because of his connection to the plot in Seattle that 5 years earlier he got away form because of British intelligence. In November 2006 Aswat lost his appeal against his extradition to the USA and is currently being held by the Americans(8). It is my belief that the reason for the British not to investigate Aswats involvement in the 7/7 attacks in more detail was to save the security services any embarrassment by having to  admit that Aswat worked for them and provided them with false information that led to the success of the attack.

Sources

1.       http://www.infowars.net/Pages/Aug05/020805Aswat.html

2.       http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20050731/ai_n14827406

3.       The sun news paper

4.       The protective state Peter Henessy

5.       http://prisonplanet.com/Pages/Jul05/070705alert_level.html

6.       http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/02ukblast1.htm

7.       http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ny-wobomb304364351jul30,1,3657461.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

8.       http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6159183.stm