Wednesday, September 9, 2009

E-Mails Help Convict Would-Be Bombers

A formal request from the British government to the Justice Department to obtain terrorist e-mails helped the United Kingdom obtain long-awaited guilty verdicts this week in a costly and high-profile case that has lasted more than three years. On Monday, three men were found guilty of conspiring to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners in 2006, using crude but potentially devastating handmade bombs. During the trial, the jury was shown e-mails containing coded references to the plot, which had been sent from the ringleader of the London-based cell, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, and his suspected minder in Pakistan, an Al Qaeda operative named Rashid Rauf.

Those messages had been sent through servers located in the United States. British law prohibits prosecutors from introducing intercepted electronic communications at trial but if the e-mails could be obtained legally by the U.S. government, they could be shared with the British. A DOJ spokesman told National Journal that following "requests for information from the United Kingdom...court orders were obtained and served, and we were able to provide [the] information obtained pursuant to the court orders."

It has been reported by several British newspapers that the e-mails were held by Yahoo, and that a court order for the messages was issued in California, where the company is based. The Justice spokesman said the U.K.'s request was made under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which allows two countries to gather and share information in a criminal case. According to British press reports the e-mails were initially intercepted by the National Security Agency in 2006, while the conspirators were under intense, around-the-clock surveillance by British authorities.

Former administration officials directly involved in keeping tabs on the unfolding plot for then-President George W. Bush said NSA connected the plotters in Britain to other members of the incipient attack. It now appears the NSA's surveillance efforts tied Ali and his cohort to Rauf in Pakistan. British media, citing unnamed officials, reported that when the United States learned the nexus of the plot was in Pakistan, where Al Qaeda operatives had been regrouping, U.S. officials leaned on the Pakistanis to arrest Rauf. Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute, said a senior CIA official named Jose Rodriguez was dispatched to Pakistan by then-Vice President Dick Cheney. But British officials were unaware of this, he told the Times of London."

After Rodriguez's arrival in Pakistan, Rashid Rauf was picked up. "The British were hopping mad about that, because it meant that on August 10 they had no choice but to move in on this plot before all the evidence was as mature as possible" he said. Early that morning, British police fanned out across London and arrested two dozen suspects, among them Ali. At the time, Rodriguez was in charge of all clandestine and covert operations for the agency.

While British officials might not have known the Americans had intervened to detain Rauf, the incriminating email messages obtained by NSA were apparently shared with British security officials. Still, after Ali and other suspects were arrested, U.S. officials refused to hand over the messages for use as evidence in their trial. "The Americans simply refused to let us use the emails until they had dealt with Rauf," an unnamed senior counterterrorism source told the Daily Record. The official added, "It was very frustrating, but the NSA do lots of work for us. They are vital to Britain's security and their priority was finding Rauf."

What precisely the U.S. government had in mind for Rauf, who was born in Britain, wasn't immediately clear. But according to published accounts, he was held by Pakistani authorities until late 2007, when he managed to escape. Rauf remained at large for almost a year, until he was killed in a CIA-led missile strike in November 2008. Two months later, the British government asked the United States to obtain the e-mail messages through a court order.

This week's guilty verdict comes a year after Ali and two other men, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. Authorities were unable to persuade a jury that the men intended to blow up airplanes. This time, all three men were found guilty on that charge. If successful, security officials believe that the airline attacks would have ranked on par with the 9/11 attacks in terms of loss of life and economic damage. -- Shane Harris

Update: Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff disputed reports that American and British security officials were at odds over whether to arrest the cell members or to continue surveillance and gather more intelligence. British media have cited various officials' complaints that the American side was keen on arresting Rauf in Pakistan and that this forced the Brits to arrest the cell members in London prematurely. "I personally talked to very senior British officials, and there was no tension over to how to proceed," Chertoff told National Journal. He added that "there was always an understanding" that the case would have to be concluded before lives were lost. The eventual arrests in London came "about 24 hours prior to the original scheduled date," Chertoff said. "It was not a particularly significant acceleration."