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CNN Live Today
Police in Britain Have Raided a Mosque This Morning
Aired January 20, 2003 - 10:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Britain's biggest antiterror operation since the September 11th attacks, police in Britain have raided a mosque this morning, and they say this mosque is linked to terrorism.
Scotland Yard says that seven men were arrested in an investigation rooted in the recent discovery of the deadly poison ricin. We covered that news all of last week, and CNN's Sheila MacVicar has been covering this developing story, and she joins us now with more.
Good morning, Sheila.
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
Well, police went into that mosque about 13 hours ago. It's important, and they want to emphasize they haven't been going into the parts of the mosque that are sacred to worship and prayer. Instead, they're attention seems to be focusing on offices and some residences and apartments associated with the mosque.
This is what they call an intelligence-led investigation. What that means is following on from the discovery of those traces of ricin in another apartment in north London two weeks or so ago, they have been trying to track everyone who might have been in that apartment, and they say it was those connections which led them to the mosque and not specifically to the mosque itself, but to some of the people that were found inside the mosque, seven people taken into custody. They're being held at a London police station, where they're still being questioned. Six of them described as being from North Africa, one from Eastern Europe, and we still don't know what connection, if any, they may have to either ricin or terrorism -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Sheila, is there any other intelligence about where the ultimate source of this organization's knowledge, money, ideas and maybe the ricin itself is from? Is it coming from Al Qaeda? Is it something tied in any way to Iraq, or what? Is there any more information about that?
MACVICAR: The police have been very careful to say, that so far, they have not made any conclusions about what organization, if there is a specific organization, behind this. They have been very careful to say that their investigations are continuing.
We know from other intelligence services that there is a view that these groups that have been arrested throughout the U.K. over the course of the last couple weeks appear to have some kind of Algerian connection, and may appear to have an inspired, though perhaps not funded or controlled, by Al Qaeda, though that is something we're still a long way off from knowing for sure.
It's still not clear. We're operating under some pretty strict reporting restrictions at the moment, precisely what the police know about that flat where the race traces of ricin, that deadly toxin, were found, and it's not clear if they know precisely if they've got all the ricin that may have been made there -- Leon.
HARRIS: Troubling questions there. Thanks, Sheila. Sheila MacVicar, reporting live to from London.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 20, 2003 - 10:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Britain's biggest antiterror operation since the September 11th attacks, police in Britain have raided a mosque this morning, and they say this mosque is linked to terrorism.
Scotland Yard says that seven men were arrested in an investigation rooted in the recent discovery of the deadly poison ricin. We covered that news all of last week, and CNN's Sheila MacVicar has been covering this developing story, and she joins us now with more.
Good morning, Sheila.
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
Well, police went into that mosque about 13 hours ago. It's important, and they want to emphasize they haven't been going into the parts of the mosque that are sacred to worship and prayer. Instead, they're attention seems to be focusing on offices and some residences and apartments associated with the mosque.
This is what they call an intelligence-led investigation. What that means is following on from the discovery of those traces of ricin in another apartment in north London two weeks or so ago, they have been trying to track everyone who might have been in that apartment, and they say it was those connections which led them to the mosque and not specifically to the mosque itself, but to some of the people that were found inside the mosque, seven people taken into custody. They're being held at a London police station, where they're still being questioned. Six of them described as being from North Africa, one from Eastern Europe, and we still don't know what connection, if any, they may have to either ricin or terrorism -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Sheila, is there any other intelligence about where the ultimate source of this organization's knowledge, money, ideas and maybe the ricin itself is from? Is it coming from Al Qaeda? Is it something tied in any way to Iraq, or what? Is there any more information about that?
MACVICAR: The police have been very careful to say, that so far, they have not made any conclusions about what organization, if there is a specific organization, behind this. They have been very careful to say that their investigations are continuing.
We know from other intelligence services that there is a view that these groups that have been arrested throughout the U.K. over the course of the last couple weeks appear to have some kind of Algerian connection, and may appear to have an inspired, though perhaps not funded or controlled, by Al Qaeda, though that is something we're still a long way off from knowing for sure.
It's still not clear. We're operating under some pretty strict reporting restrictions at the moment, precisely what the police know about that flat where the race traces of ricin, that deadly toxin, were found, and it's not clear if they know precisely if they've got all the ricin that may have been made there -- Leon.
HARRIS: Troubling questions there. Thanks, Sheila. Sheila MacVicar, reporting live to from London.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
