Cold Open

It’s just before 9 AM, on July 7th, 2005, at a London Underground train station.

45-year-old Liz Kenworthy straightens her jacket as she waits for her train to arrive. Liz is a liaison officer for London’s Metropolitan Police, and today, she’s due to speak with students at a local school. But she's running late, so she positions herself right at the edge of the subway platform hoping to be the first onto the train.

A familiar safety announcement floats over the PA system and then Liz gets on board and holds on to one of the overhead handrails…

The door shut behind her and the train moves off with a jolt.

There are only a few passengers in the car with her. One is a man in his 60s leaning sleepily against a window, another is a young woman listening to music through her iPod.

But they haven’t gone far… when there’s an ear-splitting noise, and the train comes to a shuddering halt. Black soot and smoke fills the air. Liz thinks they must have hit something or maybe the train’s derailed. But then when she hears the cries for help from the cars near the front, her training kicks in.

By the faint glow of emergency lighting, Liz makes her way to the next car. The smoke is thicker here. The passengers seem dazed. Some are injured and bleeding. But none seems badly hurt. She offers them comforting words and holds up her police identification as reassurance as she heads down the train into the forward cars.

The lighting flickers on and off and Liz squints through the black smoke. What she does see is hard to believe. The train car has been ripped apart. And amid the wreckage of twisted and shattered glass, Liz can see motionless bloody bodies. But there are some people who are still alive, moaning or screaming for help. Despite her shock, Liz jumps into action and starts working out who she should help first.

But one thing is already clear to Liz. This was no derailment. This was a bomb.

Liz Kenworthy’s heroism saves lives. But the explosion on her train is just the first of four suicide bomb attacks in London that morning. In total, 52 people are killed, and hundreds more injured. But as horrible as this violence was, it won’t take long for the Al Qaeda network behind these bombings to begin plotting another, even more deadly attack. British police and intelligence services will have to race against time to gather the evidence they need to stop it before the would-be terrorists are finally thwarted on August 9th, 2006.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is August 9th, 2006: British Police Stop The Next 9/11.

Act One: Research and Setbacks

It’s mid-afternoon on July 7th, 2006 at the headquarters of MI5 in London, England, exactly a year after 52 people were killed in the bombing now known as the 7/7 attacks.

51-year-old Peter Clarke faces a room full of anti-terrorism experts. As the National Coordinator of Terrorist Investigations for the Metropolitan Police, it’s Peter’s job to make sure that an attack like 7/7 never happens again. He's spent most of today in talks with intelligence analysts about potential terrorist activity. But as he calls his latest meeting to a close, one of his team members enters the room with an urgent message.

A suspect named Abdulla Ahmed Ali has just been spotted at an airport, returning to England from Pakistan. Peter’s heart begins to race. The British-born Abdulla has been on the authorities’ radar for some time. His arrival in London could mean that another attack is imminent.

Since the 7/7 bombings, the United Kingdom has been on a state of high alert. Just two weeks after the attack, four more British Islamic fundamentalists tried to blow themselves up on public transport. Luckily, the terrorists’ homemade bombs failed to explode. Using CCTV and eyewitnesses, Peter and his team were able to find and arrest those behind the failed attack - though not before an innocent Brazilian man named Jean Charles de Menezes was mistaken for one of the terrorists and shot dead by police on the London Underground.

That’s not the only failure that has played on Peter Clarke’s mind though. One man responsible for the 7/7 bombings has continued to elude him. His name is Rashid Rauf and for years, he's stayed ahead of British Intelligence by hiding in Pakistan. Peter fears that Abdulla Ahmed Ali has met with Rashid in Pakistan and now returned to England to put the latest deadly plan into action.

So, Peter calls his team at the Metropolitan Police headquarters, telling them that from now on, wherever Abdulla goes, he must be followed. Peter wants to know his whereabouts at all times.  

And after weeks of tailing Abdulla, Peter’s team makes a breakthrough. They follow Abdulla to a local park where he meets with another young man named Assad Sarwar. The two lie face down on the grass, covering their mouths as they communicate. It’s a tactic designed to frustrate attempts at surveillance and it comes straight from the training camps of Al Qaeda. Watching footage of the two men, Peter is more convinced than ever that an attack is being planned – and he’s worried that it could happen soon.

So, Peter orders a second surveillance team to follow Assad. It doesn’t take long before they witness something else that's worrying. Assad visits several hair salons where he asks about ordering large amounts of hydrogen peroxide. It's a chemical that's commonly used to dye hair, but it can also be used to make homemade explosives. This discovery is enough for Peter to sign off on another escalation of surveillance, and he names the growing operation “Overt.”

During Operation Overt, Peter orders the wiretapping of a house where Abdulla and Assad often meet. The cameras and microphones soon record incriminating evidence of Abdulla and his accomplices. But one thing Peter’s team witnesses baffles them. Abdulla and Assad buy hundreds of soft drink bottles. Then they make small incisions in the plastic, drawing out the liquid inside drop by drop.

It’s only the next day that their purpose becomes clear. Abdulla and Assad refill the bottles with homemade liquid explosives, made from the Hydrogen Peroxide Assad sourced from the hair salons. Once filled, the bottles look completely normal - as if they’ve never been opened. But in fact they are now deadly weapons, and Peter and his team must work out where and when they could be used.

Clearly, the bombs are designed to be smuggled past some sort of security check. Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament are considered potential targets. But these homemade bombs wouldn’t do much damage to buildings that large. Then it dawns on Peter. The target will be airplanes - if just one of these liquid bombs detonated in a pressurized cabin thousands of feet in the air, the result would be catastrophic.

Peter believes that planes bound for the United States are the most likely target. So, the authorities there will have to be warned. But sharing the intelligence with Washington will bring new challenges for Peter and his team. And a dispute will soon arise between Britain and America over the best way to handle the plot and prevent the terrorists’ murderous scheme from ever getting off the ground.

Act Two: A Strained Relationship

It’s August 1st, 2006, at the Home Office in London, three days after British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up passenger planes over the Atlantic.

John Reid sits in his grand office, staring at the phone on his desk. At 59 years old, John has recently been appointed as Britain’s new Home Secretary - the cabinet member responsible for policing and security in the United Kingdom. He is still finding his feet in his new role though and, today, he faces a tough decision. He must contact his American counterparts in Washington and tell them about the terrorist plot the British have uncovered. But John has to decide just how much to tell them.

If he gives the Americans everything, he knows they will put pressure on the British government to take immediate action. They’ll probably want to order quick arrests before the suspects either attempt their attack or learn they’re being followed. But John knows if British police move against the suspects too early, they may miss out on crucial intelligence and the case against the would-be terrorists might not be strong enough to guarantee convictions, there’s a delicate balance to be struck.

So, after thinking things over one last time, John makes the call.

At the other end of the line is Charles E. Allan, the Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security. After exchanging brief pleasantries, John keeps it simple: he informs Charles that British police are keeping tabs on several UK citizens they suspect of planning a terrorist attack, but that the British don’t intend to make any immediate arrests. For now, they just want to keep watch over the men while they gather more information.

For a moment, there’s silence from across the Atlantic. Then Charles thanks John for his time and asks to be kept informed of further developments.

John hopes that the limited information he’s shared about Operation Overt will not provoke a hasty response from the Americans, but the phone conversation with Charles sets off a rapid chain of events in Washington. The information quickly escalates all the way up the chain of command to the President himself, George W. Bush. After the devastating attacks of 9/11, the mantra of his administration has become “Never Again.” American officials are not willing to take the risk - they won’t simply stand by while the British surveillance operation moves forward. So, in secret, the CIA prepares a covert plan of its own.

As decision-makers on both sides of the Atlantic wrestle with what to do next, the British surveillance team watching the terrorist cell in England grows larger and more sophisticated. Led by Peter Clarke, the National Coordinator of Terrorist Investigations, there are now hundreds of officers following Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar everywhere they go.

The officials soon uncover more chilling evidence about what these two men have planned. Abdulla and Assad are recorded listing their accomplices for the planned bombings - there are 18 terrorists in all, almost as many as were involved in the 9/11 attacks. Further camera footage captures one of Abdulla’s lackeys in an internet café searching flight times. And as Peter Clarke suspected, the bombers are targeting planes traveling to high-profile US destinations like New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, and San Francisco. The departures all seem to have been chosen so that the seven flights will be in the air at the same time. There is the potential for up to 2,000 lives to be lost in plane passengers alone.

So, when the British Home Secretary John Reid learns this new information, he calls Washington immediately. He informs officials there of what they’ve discovered, but again, John asks for more time. The British want to continue their surveillance and gather evidence for as long as possible. It's an opportunity to break not only this terrorist cell but others linked to the Pakistani terrorist mastermind Rashid Rauf.

But the Americans won’t wait any longer. The CIA quickly puts into action the plan they’ve been working on, one conceived without the UK’s knowledge.

And soon, US counter-terrorism agents will link up with Pakistani officials to arrest Rashid Rauf. It’s a move that will force the British to accelerate their own plans. If any of the terrorists in England learn of Rashid’s capture, they may go into hiding. So, the team behind Operation Overt will need to act fast. The surveillance part of the mission will end, and finally, it will be time to make arrests and break this terrorist cell once and for all.

Act Three: Two Thousand Lives

It’s late in the evening of August 9th, 2006, outside Waltham Forest Town Hall, in north London, eight days after John Reid first informed the Americans about Operation Overt.

An undercover Metropolitan Police officer who works under the alias “Rachel” moves into position in the park outside the grand white municipal building.

Just hours earlier, the terrorist mastermind Rashid Rauf was arrested by Pakistani authorities working with the CIA. But the unexpected arrest on the other side of the world has forced British police to change their plans. “Rachel” and other members of Operation Overt have moved immediately to detain the suspects they’ve been following for weeks.

Rachel has eyes on two high-profile targets: Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar. This would be the perfect moment to arrest them, but Rachel’s job is just to monitor and report their movements. As Rachel listens to the radio, though, she realizes the arresting team is too away to seize the suspects themselves. And then four words come over the airwaves. “Walk up. Hands-on.” This is a command for Rachel to make the arrest herself.

Rachel has no idea if the men carry weapons or even explosives. And like most British police officers, she is unarmed. But she doesn’t hesitate. Alongside other members of the surveillance team, Rachel approaches Abdulla and Assad and tells them they’re under arrest.

Surprised by the undercover police officers suddenly surrounding them, Abdulla and Assad go quietly. The two main conspirators in the plot to blow up transatlantic jet planes are now in custody. And then throughout the evening and into the night, Rachel’s colleagues round up the other members of the terrorist cell. By the end of the operation, the British police will have all their suspects secure and enough evidence to take the potential terrorists to court.

The next day, Home Secretary, John Reid, gives a triumphant press conference. He details the failed terrorist attack and how the hard work of British Intelligence and the Metropolitan Police has saved many hundreds of lives.

In the court cases that follow, twelve people will be convicted of terror offenses. For his role in the plot, Assad Sarwar will receive a minimum jail term of 36 years. And Abdulla Ahmed Ali will be sentenced to spend a minimum of 40 years behind bars.

But the mastermind behind the plot won’t join them in prison. Rashid Rauf will soon escape from Pakistani authorities and go on the run for almost a year, until he’s killed by an American drone strike in November 2008. During his life, he helped the 7/7 bombers kill 52 innocent people in London. But thanks to the diligence and patience of British law enforcement, he was prevented from adding to his tally of victims when Operation Overt put a stop to his plans to attack transatlantic airliners on August 9th, 2006.

Outro

Next on History Daily. August 12th, 1898. A peace treaty brings an end to the fighting in the brief but consequential Spanish-American War.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.