Word: rauf
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Qazi Liaqat Zamir, a relative of airline-terror suspect Rashid Rauf, stands next to a brand-new Jeep 4x4 outside a 6-bedroom house in Haveli Beghal village. The house, a technicolor confection of terraced concrete, is surrounded by several acres of empty land, and two Toyota Corollas are parked outside. Completing the picture of prosperity, Zamir pets a thoroughbred greyhound standing by his feet. Zamir smiles looking out over his property, and with a sweeping gesture of his hand says, "All this is because of England." England, of course, is where his relative Rauf, now in custody in Pakistan...
That hypothesis would add one more--and very significant--strand to the web of jihadist contacts Rauf maintained. The breadth of that network has gradually emerged since British authorities flagged Rauf as a "person of interest" about six months ago and notified Pakistani law enforcement, which tapped Rauf's phones and monitored his movements. Investigators tell TIME that Rauf--who was arrested in eastern Pakistan on Aug. 9, a day before British authorities rounded up 24 suspects in connection with the plot (one has since been released)--had close links with several known al-Qaeda supporters in Pakistan as well...
...Rauf's arrest and other help from Pakistani authorities in connecting the dots to al-Qaeda may boost the counterterrorism cred of embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Although outwardly supportive of Musharraf's government, U.S. military officials have quietly been questioning just how intensely it is battling the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who cross routinely between Pakistan and Afghanistan. U.S. casualties in Afghanistan have increased in recent months. And some Pentagon officials have been privately critical of Pakistan for harboring al-Qaeda members in unpoliced areas along the border--the region where, according to Islamabad, the unidentified al-Qaeda...
...Pakistan may have won points with the U.S. for its steadfastness in the Rauf case. British authorities had wanted to wait for the alleged plotters to do a dry run of their mission before striking. Washington vigorously disagreed, and while Pakistan was officially neutral in the spat, an Islamabad official points out, "The last thing we want is for something to happen and everyone says it's linked to Pakistan." According to one source, the U.S. threatened to take Rauf with Pakistan's help even if London didn't move. Washington won, the British swooped down on their suspects...
...Rauf's networks haven't yet been fully mapped. For instance, investigators say his phone records show a number of calls to contacts in Germany. Who were they? He made numerous phone calls to South Africa. What were they about? Several of his 23 suspected co-conspirators being held in Britain are said to have attended Koranic study sessions run by a hard-line Islamic group known as Tablighi Jamaat (the name roughly means "missionary group"). Did they know Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer--who took part in July 2005's London subway bombings and are believed to have...