Blair in terror talks with police and intelligence chiefs
Tony Blair will today hold talks with senior intelligence officers and police chiefs in the wake of the London bombings.
The British Prime Minister wants to know whether they feel extra powers might be needed following the July 7 terror attack in which 56 people died.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair was expected to be among those who attend.
Ministers are already fast-tracking three new offences aimed at preventing further outrages into law with the support of the opposition parties.
However, Mr Blair wants to know if more can be done.
The controversial issue of whether evidence from phone-tapping should be allowed in court was likely to be on the agenda.
The British government announced yesterday that extremists who use radical preaching, websites or inflammatory articles to incite others to commit acts of terrorism will face automatic vetting before being allowed into the UK.
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said officials would draw up a list of “unacceptable” activities intended to promote or provoke terrorism in the wake of the London bombings.
The Home Office, Foreign Office and intelligence agencies will compile a database of individuals “around the world” who have demonstrated such behaviour.
In Pakistan, to where the focus of attention in the bombings probe has now shifted, officials revealed they had arrested someone – who they claimed – was an “important man” with “direct links” to the attacks.
A senior intelligence official in the eastern city of Lahore confirmed that the man was in custody, but refused to disclose his name, or elaborate on his alleged links to the July 7 attacks.
Intelligence officials in Islamabad last night said the British authorities had asked their Pakistani counterparts to check about 100 Pakistani telephone numbers for possible links to the suicide bombers.
The authorities had concluded that nearly 80 numbers did not provide information useful to the case, an official said, adding that the remaining 20 numbers, which included both fixed lines and cellular telephones, were under investigation.
It was also reported that Haroon Rashid Aswad, a British Muslim who is believed to be wanted in connection with the bombings, had been arrested in Lahore.
Aswad is said to have been brought up in Dewsbury – the same area of West Yorkshire where Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the four London suicide bombers, had lived.
Reports quoted intelligence sources as saying that he had been arrested. This was denied by Pakistani officials.
Mr Blair said yesterday he had spoken to the Pakistan leader, President Pervez Musharraf, about tackling extremist preaching.
The Pakistani authorities have launched a crackdown on suspected militants in the wake of the July 7 attacks, reportedly arresting 200 in a series of raids.
Intelligence officials there are trying to determine whether they received training from extremist groups or became radicalised while attending religious schools, known as madrassas.
Mr Blair said he was considering hosting a conference to bring together all countries affected by Islamist extremism.
“There is a real desire and willingness on the part of the Pakistani government to deal with those madrassas preaching this type of extremism,” he told MPs.
“We all know the roots of this go very, very deep. They aren’t always to be found in our own country but to be found in other countries.”
Downing Street confirmed the British government had reached agreement in principle with Jordan which will allow the UK to deport Jordanian nationals without fear of them being mistreated.
One cleric who could now face deportation is Jordanian-born Abu Qatada, who has been described as “Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe“.
Meanwhile, there was growing anger over the comments of the radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who said the British government and public shared some of the blame for the suicide bombings on the capital.
In an interview with BBC News 24 he said there was no evidence the four Muslim men were the suicide bombers.
And speaking to BBC1’s 10 o-clock News he said the “evil foreign policy of this government and the war on terror, I think, they pushed the Muslims to to the wrong direction”.
He added there was “no way” he would condemn Osama bin Laden.
“Why I condemn Osama bin Laden for? I condemn Tony Blair. I condemn George Bush.
“I would never condemn Osama bin Laden or any Muslims.”
In a statement on the aftermath of the bombings, Mr Clarke told MPs yesterday that a total of 27 people were still receiving hospital treatment and warned the death toll could yet rise.
He added that, following the removal of the bombed train, Aldgate Tube station should reopen by Monday and it was hoped to restore full services on the Circle Line within a couple of weeks.
The mangled carriage where seven people died in the Edgware Road Tube blast was removed from the track on Tuesday night.
Only one of the four blast sites – King’s Cross – now remains a crime scene.
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