Word: rauf
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...Rashid Rauf, the 25-year-old Pakistani-born, British-raised baker's son fingered as the central figure in the foiled plot to bomb U.S.-bound flights from London, has been described as friendly and ordinary. But Pakistani security officials familiar with Rauf's interrogation tell TIME that the plan's real mastermind may be anything but--the man who gave Rauf his marching orders is believed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative who may be a top aide to the terrorist group's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They would not name the aide, but an official said...
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...
...further link, the father of Rauf's wife and her sister runs Darul Uloom Madina, one of Pakistan's biggest and most hardline seminaries, with some 2,000 students, in Bahawalpur, Azhar's hometown. Rauf's arrest in Bahawalpur was one of the events that prompted British police to swoop in on the suspected London conspirators last Thursday, for fear they would become suspicious if they lost contact with such a central figure in their plans...
...Rauf, who is believed to have two daughters, aged two and eight months, is known to have shuttled between his base in Pakistan and Kandahar and Paktia in Afghanistan. Until 2002, he lived in Birmingham, England, but left after the murder of his uncle, which was never solved. His younger brother Tayib was one of two suspects arrested in Birmingham last week in the wave of British raids that has netted 23 people in total. U.K. intelligence officers are now expected to fly to Pakistan to interrogate Rauf and hope to bring him back to the U.K.; however, there...
...charity called Crescent Relief founded by the Raufs' father, Abdul, which collected money for last year's Pakistani earthquake relief effort, is also under the microscope. A London-based independent security analyst said money was transferred from Crescent Relief late last year into three accounts in three separate banks in the Mirpur region of Kashmir. The accounts belonged to suspects arrested in the U.K. and Pakistan in the past week, the source said. Officials at Crescent Relief were unavailable for comment, and Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has dismissed reports that a tie to earthquake relief funds is being investigated. "Rashid...