World News 03-12-2003 14 Arrested In Terror Raids who: MI5 what: Swoops on terrorist suspects in nationwide dawn raids where: London, Cambridge and West Midlands when: Yesterday snippet: "Anti-terrorist detectives were questioning 14 Islamic terrorist suspects last night," reports today`s Times, "after the biggest series of raids since September 11, 2001." Dawn raids in London, Cambridge and the West Midlands led to the arrest of the 14, two of whom were women. Police insist the raids - which follow similar operations in Gloucester, Manchester, Birmingham and Blackburn last week - were not linked directly to each other "but were part of the overall operation to thwart terrorism." One suspect, Imran Hussein, "is known to be a satellite communications expert a technology that is central to the terrorist campaign of Osama Bin Laden," notes The Sun. Indeed, police stressed that the 5am swoops were not aimed at discovering explosives but "at knocking out the crucial back-up support such as technical and financial for planned al-Qa`ida operations in this country." While the police may be looking for backup support to terrorists, The Times has decided that yesterday`s raids are part of the "race to find suicide bombers". The only two suspects so far named are Osman Choudhary and Omar Ejaz, both arrested in Dudley, the former described by his father yesterday as "a good Muslim boy who is law-abiding and peaceful citizen", and known locally as a gifted cricketer who dropped out of his university course after a year. The arrests came as the Foreign Office yesterday warned of possible attacks against British nationals in Saudi Arabia and other British embassies and interests around the world, adds The Guardian. But while Tony Blair is warning the nation to be "permanently vigilant" and Britain remains on its second-highest level of alert, police admitted that they have "nothing to suggest any attack was imminent." [... more]

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