7/7 leader 'identification failure'

A picture of Mohammed Sidique Khan, which was provided by MI5 to US investigators interrogating al Qaida supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar
12 April 2012

MI5 missed an opportunity to identify 7/7 ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan as a terrorist by failing to show a key informant a clear photograph of him, the inquest into the attacks has heard.

Undercover surveillance officers took a sharp colour picture of Khan and his deputy Shehzad Tanweer at a motorway service station in February 2004.

But MI5 did not use this photograph of Khan and provided only a very badly cropped image of Tanweer to US investigators interrogating al Qaida supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar.

Babar had met Khan, 30, when the British extremist attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2003, but he was not able to identify him until after the July 7 2005 attacks on London.

Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquest, said his children could have done a better job of cropping the picture of Tanweer, 22, than the MI5 officer who prepared the image for sending to America.

A photograph of Khan was also edited but it was never shown to Babar - apparently because the quality was so poor.

MI5, also known as the Security Service, said it cropped the image to avoid revealing details about its covert methods and the location where the picture was taken. The security agency also stressed that Babar was a new source and they did not know how far he could be trusted.

The top spy - named only as Witness G - said: "My judgment would be that when photographs are cropped in this way it is, for whatever reason, we are concerned that by including the background we are giving away too much detail."

Mr Keith said: "I am bound to observe, if you will forgive me, I think one of my children could have done a better job of cropping out that photograph."

Witness G, who is chief of staff to MI5 director general Jonathan Evans, also expressed "profound regret" for the Security Service's failure to prevent the 7/7 bombings but insisted the agency had "no inkling" of Khan's plot.

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