[UPDATED Sunday, December 16. Nothing in this post is original but the headline.]According to reports from Pakistan, Rashid Rauf has escaped from police custody.
Rashid Rauf was arrested in early August of 2006 and was described as "a key person" and perhaps "the mastermind" behind the impossible plot in which teams of Islamic jihadis were supposedly going to knock transatlantic flights out of the air by detonating bombs which they were going to make while the planes were in flight.
Details of Rashid Rauf's arrest are still in dispute. They are almost as murky as the details of his escape.
The first report was so terse it didn't even stop to say "BREAKING":
From the AP:
News Alert
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say Rashid Rauf, a British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners, has escaped from police custody in Pakistan.That's not an excerpt, by the way. that's the whole thing -- the shortest item I've ever seen in connection with the alleged Liquid Bombers and their supposedly foiled so-called plot.
Most of the reporting from Pakistan has been constrained, since media restrictions are still in effect even though the state of emergency has nominally been lifted. Dawn's report was short and vague:
Rashid Rauf escapes from custody
ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: A suspected militant, who at one point was blamed by the Pakistani and British authorities of having links to a London-based group that was allegedly planning to blow up some transatlantic flights, disappeared from outside a local court, where he was brought from the Adiala Jail for a hearing.The News had just a few details
Rashid Rauf had remained in detention under MPO 3 even after all charges against him had been dropped amidst strong suggestions that Islamabad was seriously considering a request from London to extradite him to the UK.
Official sources confirmed he was brought to the court of Zafar Awan in Islamabad for hearing of a case. But these officials claimed that when he was being guarded by two policemen, he somehow managed to escape.
Rashid—wanted by Britain—flees from police custody
RAWALPINDI: Rashid Rauf who is wanted by British government has fled the police custody on Saturday.And Pak Tribune tells a fairly simple story:
According to sources, Rashid Rauf is wanted in transatlantic aircraft bomb plot 2006 in Britain.
Earlier, Rashid Rauf was brought from Adiala Jail to Islamabad for hearing at a court, where his extradition case was being heard. Two policemen were accompanying the accused when he fled their custody.
Police high-ups arrived at Margala police station here and verified the news regarding the absconding accused.
The policemen posted for the security of the accused are being interrogated. They have been apprehended on the charge of abetting Rashid Rauf.
Rashid—wanted by Britain—flees from police custody
RAWALPINDI: Rashid Rauf who is wanted by British government has fled the police custody on Saturday.But one Pakistani report, from The Nation, had significantly more depth, for all that the sources are anonymous:
According to sources, Rashid Rauf is wanted in transatlantic aircraft bomb plot 2006 in Britain.
Earlier, Rashid Rauf was brought from Adiala Jail to Islamabad for hearing at a court, where his extradition case was being heard. Two policemen were accompanying the accused when he fled their custody.
Police high-ups arrived at Margala police station here and verified the news regarding the absconding accused.
The policemen posted for the security of the accused are being interrogated. They have been apprehended on the charge of abetting Rashid Rauf.
Rashid Rauf escapes from police custody
Police officials remained tight-lipped till late Saturday night regarding the escape of Rashid Rauf. However, sources in the department confirmed to The Nation that the accused had succeeded to flee from the custody.The Nation adds:
The sources also informed that Capital police had registered a case with the Police Station Margalla and arrested about a dozen police staffers deputed to guard him.
“Police have taken all the police staffers deputed to guard Rashid Rauf under custody after registering a case against them and started investigations to probe the matter,” they added.
Federal Police brought Rashid Rauf from Central Adiala Jail to produce him before Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADCG) Malik Zafar in an inquiry.Most sources say Rauf escaped after appearing in court.
However, Rashid managed to escape from the police custody while he was being brought to the court of ADCG Islamabad from Central Adiala Jail.
Foreign coverage has been a bit uneven on some items, but entirely and predictably homogeneous on other -- more critical -- items.
A report from the AP via Google describes Pakistani police teams driving around looking for him,
Plane Plot Suspect Escapes in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners escaped from police custody in Pakistan on Saturday, officials said.For more on the hunt, here's Australia's Herald Sun:
Rashid Rauf fled after appearing before a judge at a court in the capital, Islamabad, said Khalid Pervez, a city police official.
Police teams were driving around the area in search of Rauf, who Pervez said had managed to open his handcuffs and evade two police guards who were taking him back to jail in the nearby city of Rawalpindi.
"We do not know how he escaped. But we do know he has escaped and the two policemen have been taken into custody for negligence," Pervez told The Associated Press.
Airline bomb plot suspect escapes from court
The police chief of Islamabad, Shahid Nadeem Baluch, has said: "The hunt is on to track him down. We have conducted some raids but so far there hasn't been any breakthrough."The sequence of events seems strange because Rashid Rauf was not with his attorney when he "escaped".
Rauf's lawyer Hashmat Habib has said that his client had disappeared from police custody under "mysterious circumstances".This report quotes a police official as saying Rauf had already appeared in court before his "escape".
"Police took my client from Adiala jail Saturday afternoon for a court appearance in nearby Islamabad and now they say he's escaped. It comes at a time when the British government is trying to extradite him. And it all looks very suspicious to me," Mr Habib said.
A senior Islamabad police official has said on condition of anonymity that prison authorities did not inform them in detail about who Rauf was and only a handful of police officers were deployed for his security.Turkish Press carried a story from the AP which gives us a hint about the timeline:
The senior police officer said: "Soon after the court proceeding as police were escorting him to a prison van he broke free from the handcuffs and ran away."
British terrorist suspect escapes in Pakistan
The police chief of Islamabad, Shahid Nadeem Baluch, told AFP early Sunday: "The hunt is on to track him down. We have conducted some raids but so far there hasn't been any breakthrough."China's Xinhua had more details on the bizarre sequence of events:
...
Local police said he was brought to the court from the nearby city of Rawalpindi, where the jail is located, and disappeared at around 2:30pm-3:00pm (0930-1000 GMT).
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Rauf has dual British-Pakistani citizenship and left Britain shortly after his maternal uncle, Mohammed Saeed, 54, was stabbed to death in Birmingham, west central England, in April 2002.
UK-wanted suspect escapes from police in Pakistan
The News, an English daily, quoted Islamabad police officer Syed Kalim Imam as saying that the accused was brought to the Islamabad district court from the Adiala Jail in nearby Rawalpindiat about 13:30 local time (0830 GMT). The accused, he said, escaped from the court premises, adding that he was informed by the concerned police about Rauf's escape at 18:00 (1300 GMT).Pakistan's APP helps out on the timeline, or does it?
Two police officers have been arrested on suspicion of helping the accused flee, the police officer said, adding that a department inquiry had been formed to investigate the case.
Rashid Rauf escapes from police custody
Rashid Rauf, who was wanted by British police, escaped from Islamabad Police custody here on Saturday, when he was being brought to the court from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.Is this so? Most other reports say he was being brought from the court to the jail.
APP reports:
Superintendant of Police Nasir Aftab has confirmed that Rashid Rauf escaped from police custody.(3 MPO is Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, under which activists of all sorts have been detained.)
Rauf escaped at 2.30 p.m. “but policemen reported very late to us,” he told APP.
The SP said that a case has been registered against the two policemen who were with Rashid Rauf and an inquiry has been ordered.
He said the personnel from police headquarters normally bring the prisoners to Islamabad from Adiala Jail.
Rashid Rauf was to be produced in the court for hearing in a case under 3 MPO, he added.
France 24 mentioned the two men arrested in London a few days ago, allegedly for a prisoner swap.
British terror suspect escapes in Pakistan
In April this year, newspaper reports claimed Pakistan was prepared to extradite Rauf in exchange for eight suspected members of the Baluchistan Liberation Army suspected of insurgency on the Afghan-Iranian borders.Britain has denied any intention of trading prisoners
The organisation was added to Britain's list of proscribed terrorist organisations in July 2006, shortly before action against Rauf began.
Two men were charged with inciting terrorism and murder in Pakistan by having connections to the banned movement, although their supporters say they are human rights activists campaigning for a separate state.
The CBC, perhaps unwittingly, ran a piece that subtly highlighted the "keystone cops" aspect of thi bizarre turn of events:
British man awaiting extradition escapes from Pakistani police
Police teams on Saturday drove around the area in search of Rauf, who Pervez said had managed to open his handcuffs and evade two police guards who were taking him back to jail in the nearby city of Rawalpindi.On the other hand, Monsters and Critics tended towards a portrayal of diligence:
"We do not know how he escaped. But we do know he has escaped and the two policemen have been taken into custody for negligence," Pervez said.
Pakistani police continue manhunt for escaped terrorist suspect
'We have circulated his photograph to all law enforcement agencies, we have blocked all escape routes,' said Haved Iqbal Cheema, an Interior Ministry spokesman. 'We are making all efforts to arrest him and should be able to nab him again.'At The Observer, Jamie Doward highlights the embarrassment this will cause Pervez Musharraf's government, who can crack down and arrest lawyers and judges and human rights advocates and yet somehow manage to let slip one of the most famous terror suspects they have ever held. Funny how that works, isn't it?
He said a committee had been formed to investigate how Rauf managed to slip away from two police escorts at the Islamabad District Court. Local television and newspaper reports said the suspect slipped out of his handcuffs and overpowered the escorts, who have been suspended and were under investigation.
'There's an investigation going on find out exactly what happened,' Cheema said.
Top British terror suspect escapes
Rashid Rauf's escape now threatens to spark a major diplomatic row by reigniting questions about why Pakistan's authorities had not approved his extradition, despite repeated requests from Britain dating back more than a year. Britain has been at pains to claim that Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, is a key ally in targeting Islamist terrorism and someone who has played a vital role in sharing information between the countries' intelligence communities. But the fact Rauf was able to escape so easily will raise questions about the security status given to him by the Pakistani authorities.All this is nonsense, according to my view of the case, but it's worth keeping an eye on all the same, in my view.
It is also likely to inflame relations with the US. The Observer understands the CIA was preparing to 'render' Rauf when details of the alleged airliner plot emerged in August 2006. Alarmed at the US's attempts to grab Rauf, Britain's intelligence services, who had been monitoring the plot, swooped, arresting more than 20 suspects in the largest security operation of its kind.
Now the news that Rauf is at large threatens tensions between the UK and US authorities who believed their transatlantic counterparts should have moved to pick up the alleged plot's ringleaders far earlier.
Though picked up by the Pakistan intelligence service, the ISI, before the plot had been made public, Rauf was not extradited to Britain. The Observer understands from senior figures in the security service that they were becoming very frustrated at Pakistan's reluctance to hand over Rauf.More fatalities than 9/11? Get serious, Dudley. They'd have better luck with a cap gun and a bottle of champagne.
One senior intelligence source told The Observer that the airliner plot could have resulted in more fatalities than 9/11. The source said if successful, it would have seriously damaged the two allies' close relationship. 'Can you imagine what it would have done to relations between the two countries if British citizens had ended up killing hundreds of Americans?' the source asked.
But The Observer's been talking to a "senior intelligence source" so that tells you who's been lying to Jamie Doward.
More than a year after the alleged plot was supposedly foiled, senior British intelligence officers must know that the alleged plot was (chemically and otherwise) impossible. Or are they really that ignorant?
And what about the reporters? Are they mostly chumps who lap it all up and come back for more? Or don't any of them think for themselves, and say "Hey, Wait a minute..."?
The Observer mentions the names of the men arrested in London for the upcoming swap that Britain denies:
Recently there were suggestions that Rauf was to be traded for two terrorist suspects wanted by the Pakistan authorities. Last week the UK arrested Faiz Baluch, 25, and Hyrbyair Marri, 39. The men are alleged to be terrorists who want separation for Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan. The British government said there was no link between its demands for the extradition of Rauf and the pair's arrest.Hmm.
Moving right along, Arab Times has a different report from the Associated Press with the Pakistani manhunt in the headline, and a few more details about what's going on in Islamabad -- or at least what the Pakistani police are willing to say about it.
Pakistan hunting British suspect in trans-Atlantic jet plot who fled custody
Pakistani authorities were hunting Sunday for a Briton suspected in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners after he escaped police custody, a deep embarrassment to the government of President Pervez Musharraf.How is it possible, indeed?
...
'We are urgently seeking clarification of what happened,' said Laura Davies, a spokeswoman for the British High Commission in Islamabad.
Police said Saturday Rauf managed to open his handcuffs and evade two police guards who were taking him back to jail in nearby Rawalpindi. The two police officers have been arrested and are being investigated, Cheema said.
...
A 'high-powered' inquiry team of police and Interior Ministry officials has been set up to investigate how Rauf managed to escape and 'who is to blame,' Cheema told The Associated Press.
Police are hunting for Rauf and 'we are trying to relocate him,' he said.
...
Rauf's lawyer, Hashmat Habib ... on Sunday described Rauf's reported escape as a 'mysterious disappearance,' claiming that perhaps Pakistani authorities did not want to hand him over to Britain. He said he doubted that Rauf would have been able to break a tight police guard on him.
'He was under tight security ... how it was possible that he escaped like that?' Habib said.
How is any of this possible?
Why are we so worked up about a terrorist who can't be bothered doing anyone any harm?
And all these questions! What is the point of all these questions??
The questions are not entirely rhetorical, believe it or not, and the answers have a lot of Dick Cheney in them.
Anyone for more background? The Telegraph has some interesting bits:
London airline bomb plot suspect escapes
A dual citizen of Britain and Pakistan, Rauf is married to a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the head and founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamist militant group in Pakistan that has been linked to al-Qaeda. Azhar has lived in Bhawalpur, a city in eastern Pakistan where Rauf had also settled.What prompted the denials? It couldn't have had anything to do with an article in The Guardian of December 11, 2007, but I will give you extended excerpts anyway, just to enhance the confusion:
The Pakistani interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, has called Rauf "an al-Qaeda operative with linkages in Afghanistan", but the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi found no evidence that he had been involved in terrorist activities. His charges were downgraded to forgery and possession of explosives.
He is understood to have left Birmingham following the stabbing of his uncle, Mohammed Saeed, 54, near his home in Alum Rock in April 2002.
Britain has been seeking his extradition in relation to the murder, which has not been solved. It was reported last week that British officials had been engaged in secret negotiations with Pakistan to have Rauf handed over.
There is no extradition treaty and the Pakistani authorities were said to have requested a prisoner swap for two suspects arrested in Britain - Faiz Baluch, 25, and Hyrbyair Marri, 39.
They were arrested last week and jointly charged under the Terrorism Act with inciting terrorism and murder in Pakistan and of having links to an international terrorist group. Both claim they are peaceful activists calling for the independence of Baluchistan, a troubled province of Pakistan. The prisoner swap claims were denied by British authorities.
Foreign Office accused of swap deal over terror suspects
Two men wanted in Pakistan for alleged terrorist activity have been charged in London under the Terrorism Act as part of what human rights campaigners claim is a secret deal between the two countries.The British have been denying everything, of course -- even as it happens! But Pakistan's The Post labors under no such burdens (under emergency law, no less) and has no problem naming names:
Faiz Baluch, 25, of north London and Hyrbyair Marri, 39, of west London, were charged with inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism "wholly or partly outside the UK". A Scotland Yard statement said they were due to appear at City of Westminster magistrates court this morning. Marri is also charged with possessing a weapon capable of discharging a noxious liquid, gas or other substance, police said.
The Guardian revealed this year that the Foreign Office was engaged in behind the scenes discussions with Pakistani officials in an effort to secure the extradition of Rashid Rauf, a 26-year-old Briton held in a high security prison in Pakistan.
...
The Pakistanis demanded that Rauf be swapped for people living in the UK who they claim are involved in an uprising in the oil-rich western province of Baluchistan.Two of these men, Marri Baluch, were arrested last week in London.
The Pakistani authorities have dropped charges against Rauf, allowing the British to seek his extradition.
Supporters of the two Baluchi nationalists believe a secret deal has been made between the two countries. They warned that the men would be tortured and imprisoned if returned to Pakistan.
Mehran Baluch, Marri's brother, claimed the arrest came two weeks after the Pakistani authorities killed another brother, Balach Marri, in Baluchistan. "This seems like no coincidence but a planned conspiracy and collaboration by the two governments."
Baluch said President Pervez Musharraf's envoy, Tariq Azim, had recently visited the UK as part of collaboration between the two countries on the war on terror.
The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "If these men are extradited they will never get a fair trial and they could face a death sentence.
"The Pakistan authorities have repeatedly framed peaceful nationalists and human rights campaigners, both inside Baluchistan and abroad."
Earlier this year lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service flew to Islamabad to help the Pakistani authorities prepare extradition papers for up to eight Baluchi nationalists living in the UK.
‘Pakistan to swap Hyrbiar with Rauf’
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Lt-Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Thursday said that Pakistan would ask the United Kingdom for handing over wanted criminals in swap of Rashif Rauf.Meanwhile, back at the manhunt. Reuters provides a hint of a deadline:
"Rashid Rauf is under investigation here and the legal procedure is not yet over, so we may ask the United Kingdom for handing over of two suspects including Hyrbiar Marri," he told media men after a ceremony held at FIA Headquarters...
London plot suspect escapes in Pakistan
"We're trying our best to re-arrest him," said Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, speaking more than 20 hours after Rauf's disappearance.Reuters also has a quote from Rashid Rauf's lawyer, Hasmat Habib:
Cheema gave no details on how Rauf escaped but he said the government had set up an inquiry to investigate the incident and report back within 48 hours.
"This has to be sorted out, how it happened and who were involved in it," he said.
"What made him do that when there was no major case against him and secondly, how did he manage this as 10 or 12 armed policemen were guarding him. It is a mystery," lawyer Hasmat Habib told Reuters.Big mysteries and little mysteries: The Winter Patriot Frozen Twirler award for best spin of the day could have gone to London's Sunday Times:
British terror suspect slips custody in Pakistan
RASHID RAUF, the British Muslim awaiting extradition for his alleged involvement in the 2006 plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, escaped from police custody in Pakistan yesterday after appearing before a judge at a court in Islamabad, the capital.The Times is one of the few online news sources which accepts comments from unregistered readers. But only from some readers.
According to police, Rauf managed to open his handcuffs and evade two guards who were taking him back to jail in the nearby city of Rawalpindi.
...
Rauf was held in the country’s most secure detention centres, but the investigation stalled and the charges were finally dropped last week because of lack of evidence. Pakistan was hoping to trade Rauf’s extradition to Britain for the return of a number of Baluchistan nationalists fighting for greater autonomy.
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Pakistani analysts cast doubt on the official account of yesterday’s events and speculated that Rauf’s “escape” might be a prelude to an “encounter killing”, when a suspect is shot by police trying to recapture them. Such extrajudicial killings are common in India and Pakistan.
The editors didn't mind posting a comment from a reader who took exception to the final sentence
Such extrajudicial killings are not common in India and Pakistan.But another comment, from a reader who took exception to the premise behind the whole charade, was not deemed fit to post.
Hafiz, Islamabad, Pakistan
So Times readers missed out on a possible cold education:
This is just one more bizarre episode in a very bizarre story.But no luck.
The bombs they were allegedly planning to make would have taken several hours to prepare, and the reaction needs to be kept cold for the whole time.
Were they really planning to spend that long in the loo of an intercontinental airliner?
Was the flight crew really going to leave them alone for that long?
This alleged plot is the most bogus terror scare of all.
They couldn't have done it.
Not a dozen planes at the same time. Not even one plane.
Speaking of comments, posted and/or otherwise, I left another comment at Long War Journal where I found a headline reading
Al Qaeda commander Rashid Rauf escapes Pakistani custody
A Google search for "Rashid Rauf" and "al Qaeda commander" turns up a couple of matches, to articles from last August which suggest that Rashid Rauf met with an al Qaeda commander. He may have met a commander -- so how did he become one, all of a sudden?
I was curious. So I left a comment for the Long War Journalists over at the Long War Journal.
My short comment said:
How do you know that Rashid Rauf is an Al Qaeda commander?Did they post it? Yes. Their comments are apparently unmoderated, and it appeared instantly. Excited by the possibility that I might learn something, I went back to see how the Long War Journalists had responded to my seemingly innocent (yet very pointed) question.
I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.
That's right: They deleted it!
So they get the Frozen Twirler award after all. There's nothing better than deleting the uncomfortable questions.
Congratulations to the Long War Journalists for ducking it, and doing it so gracefully.
I've written elsewhere (and most convincingly, I might add -- ahem!) that the war on terror is primarily an assault on the rule of law.
This may be true.
But the terror war is also an assault on reality -- and the liars are operating on a massive scale.
I've read dozens and dozens of news articles about Rashid Rauf since he escaped. I've quoted a small subset here, and I've mirrored a somewhat larger subset on my other blog, Winter Parking.
Some of the news reports mentioned that Pakistan had dropped all the terror charges against Rashid Rauf, but many did not. Some even mentioned that all the charges had been dropped twice. But not a single one mentioned that the alleged plot was impossible.
Nobody mentioned that Rashid Rauf's brother, Tayib Rauf, had been arrested in connection with the alleged plot, only to be released without charge two weeks later.
Not a single report mentioned that Rashid Rauf's father, Abdul Rauf, was awarded a large cash settlement after it was (apparently) falsely reported that he had been detained for questioning in Pakistan in connection with the alleged plot.
Some of the AP reports mention Rashid Rauf's father's reaction. From half a world a way, he claimed to know nothing. And I believe him. But why did nobody ask his father-in-law?
If I were the Pakistani police, and I were looking for Rashid Rauf, I might just think about his wife's side of the family.
Why? As the Telegraph mentioned, Rashid Rauf is married to a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the head and founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamist militant group in Pakistan that has been linked to al-Qaeda.
But they didn't mention the relationship. So I will.
Maulana Masood Azhar, the radical cleric and founder of J-e-M, is Rashid Rauf's father-in-law.
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twenty-sixth in a series