'Lost MI5 fax could have stopped 7/7': The crucial missed warning 

By Lucy Ballinger and David Williams
Last updated at 1:29 AM on 02nd August 2008

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1040732/Lost-MI5-fax-stopped-7-7-The-
crucial-missed-warning.html
http://tinyurl.com/6xq8jv

A chance to stop the 7/7 bombers may have been missed when a secret 
services fax to police went missing. 

A damning report is expected to reveal that the MI5 document, sent to 
West Yorkshire police, raised suspicions about ringleader Mohammed 
Sidique Khan and accomplice Shehzad Tanweer. 
 
But the information was either lost or not followed up and the 
opportunity to monitor the men was missed. 

Survivors of the attacks have been told the findings of the Intelligence 
and Security Committee are 'devastating' and suggest the men could have 
been stopped long before their bombs tore through three Tube trains and a 
bus.

News of the report, which has already been sent to Gordon Brown, emerged 
as the three-month trial of the only three people charged in connection 
with the 2005 attacks ended dramatically at Kingston Crown Court 
yesterday. 

After 15 days of deliberation the jury of eight women and four men were 
unable to agree a verdict on a charge of conspiracy to cause an 
explosion. More than three years on from the atrocity, which left 52 dead 
and hundreds injured, and after a painstaking police investigation which 
has cost almost £100million, the victims are no closer to justice. 

July 7 survivor Rachel North said last night: 'A fax was sent from the 
security services to West Yorkshire police flagging up the bombers. They 
are at fault because they didn't phone and follow the fax up, but West 
Yorkshire police are also at fault because what happened to that fax? Did 
it just fall on the floor or something? 

'So although West Yorkshire police will be criticised, there will be some 
blow-back to the security services. The report will be very critical. The 
interesting thing will be to find out when the fax was sent. 

'If they had investigated Khan after he returned from Pakistan in spring 
2005 they would have found him and the other three up to their elbows in 
explosives.' 

The jury's failure to reach a decision and the revelations in the report 
reinforce calls by families of the dead and survivors for an independent 
public inquiry. 

They are still pursuing a judicial review into why the government has 
refused to hold one. 

The outcome of the Kingston trial  -  a retrial is expected next year  -  
has left relatives facing months more agony until inquests on their loved 
ones can be held. They are also worried the release of the ISC report 
will be postponed further. 

Mr Brown has had it on his desk for more than three weeks but a decision 
was made not to publish it before the end of the Kingston trial. 

The report is now due for release on September 10 once Parliament returns 
from recess but the Prime Minister may rethink this if there is a 
retrial. 

The ISC's initial investigation into 7/7 absolved MI5 of any blame. But 
when the surveillance of Khan and Tanweer came to light subsequently, a 
second report was commissioned by Tony Blair. The revised dossier is 
believed to examine the breakdown in communication between MI5 and West 
Yorkshire police, which led to Khan and Tanweer remaining free. 

The two bombers had appeared four times in MI5 surveillance more than a 
year before the bombings. 

They were first picked up in early 2004 when the security service was 
watching another 'committed terrorist' identified only as 'Ausman'. 

MI5 knew Khan and Tazweer were going to Pakistan but they were considered 
'peripheral figures' and not arrested or investigated in detail. 

It is understood the ISC report will reveal a fax was sent from MI5 to 
West Yorkshire police about Khan and Tanweer but the local police failed 
to follow up the tip  -  or the fax was lost behind the machine. 

Miss North said: 'The ISC report was supposed to be quite devastating, 
but that was before it went to Number 10. 

'The main concern has always been whether the bombers could have been 
stopped. The question is why Mohammed Sidique Khan wasn't checked out 
before he went to Pakistan in November 2004 and why, when he came back in 
spring 2005, he wasn't checked out, given the fact they knew his car and 
where he lived.' 

Khan and Tanweer were photographed by MI5 in February and March 2004, and 
cropped up four times during surveillance. MI5 had Khan's name, phone 
number, car number and address on file 16 months before the 2005 
atrocity. They followed cars he was driving three times, including visits 
to addresses linked to Tanweer. 

Clifford Tibber of Oury Clark solicitors, the firm acting on behalf of 
survivors and bereaved families, said yesterday's trial outcome meant a 
public inquiry was more important than ever. 

He said: 'The victims, the bereaved and the public are entitled to know 
whether the bombings could have been prevented.' 

Jacqui Putnam, who survived the Edgware Road bomb, said last night: 'If a 
verdict had come back today, whatever it was, it would have been another 
milestone and brought us a step closer to getting the ISC report. We are 
pinning a lot of hopes on that. We want to know that our questions have 
been asked and answered.' 

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