Al-Qaeda thought British 'bomber' was from radical Islamic family

He was recommended by a close relative who was trusted by leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the network's Yemeni wing, according to US intelligence. His British passport made him attractive as a recruit for a suicide mission as he would be able to board a flight to America under the visa-waiver programme. But AQAP strategists were persuaded that he was a true believer willing to blow himself up on a plane to the US by what they believed to be his reliable family roots. The mole, who has been moved with his family to a country outside the Middle East under Western intelligence protection, was reportedly born in the region, but grew up Europe and had British citizenship. "He apparently came from what AQAP regarded as a good family, meaning that they believed he was a radical Islamist in his DNA, and was brought in to the group by a close male relative," said Dan Goure, a Pentagon consultant and vice-president of the Lexington Institute, a national security think-tank. "They embraced him for his family ties, or his perceived family ties. His passport was certainly also important. But they would have checked this guy out too and that is where his background came in." It us unclear whether the man's radical roots were genuine and whether he infiltrated AQAP as a mole or only changed sides later. But counter-terrorism experts said that constructing a fake history for him would have been extremely difficult. AQAP knew that Saudi intelligence agencies, who "handled" the agent, were trying to infiltrate the group so they would have conducted detailed checks on the foreign volunteer, helped by contacts in the British Islamic extremist community. The man was issued with a more sophisticated version of the underwear bomb that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who studied in London, tried to detonate on a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. But instead the double agent passed the device to his Saudi handlers and it is now being analysed by the FBI at their headquarters at Quantico, Virginia. They believe that the bomb carries the signature of AQAP's master bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. The foiling of the plot was a major coup for British, Saudi and American intelligence and counter-terror agencies. It comes as US drone attacks have also been intensified on al-Qaeda positions in Yemen, killing several leading figures. But the leaking of information about the operation from US and Saudi sources is seen as a significant own-goal. It has exasperated MI5 and MI6, which believe their operations have been compromised, and angered former US intelligence agents, who believe that some officials at the Obama administration were seeking to make political capital. In response to the furore, Leon Panetta, the defence secretary, has ordered James Clapper, the country's Director of National Intelligence, to head an investigation into the leaks. And experts on AQAP told The Sunday Telegraph that, unless there are other breakthroughs, this would only be a temporary setback for the faction, which now controls swathes of safe haven territory in the lawless country. Mr Asiri is understood to have passed along his expertise to several lieutenants at a "school for bombers" and the group is also believed to have other would-be suicide bombers ready for missions. "AQAP have known since 2009 that the Saudis were very actively trying to penetrate their ranks and they have adjusted operational security to deal with this," said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen scholar at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. "Asiri is thought to have constructed the device, but he apparently never met the double agent. The discovery of a mole in their ranks will certainly have caused AQAP some uncertainty, but that is only the silver lining of a very dark cloud." He said that the US was too focused on targeting AQAP's leaders rather than tackling the organisation, and noted that Washington had believed that the killing of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki would weaken AQAP. "The fact is that three years ago, AQAP had maybe 200-300 members and controlled no territory, while now it has more than 1,000 members by US estimates and controls significant territory, Mr Johnsen said. "The role of individuals in the organisation has been over-inflated. All that has happened so far is that terrorists whose names we didn't previously know have replaced the ones we have killed." Katherine Zimmerman, the AQAP specialist at the Critical Threats Project at the influential American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said that the growth of AQAP safe havens was a crucial development. "AQAP's leadership is only partially dismantled and it has significant safe havens in Yemen," she said. "The United States is caught in a vicious circle: We have been somewhat successful in targeting AQAP's leadership. But AQAP is breeding leaders faster than we can kill them. And we can't kill them faster as long as they have safe havens. So the key is on the ground in Yemen, where we have little presence, little leverage, and unreliable allies. So expect the attempted attacks to continue." But the foiling of the plot and drone attacks are also expected to disrupt some AQAP operations and cause turmoil within the group in the short-term at least. Michael Hayden, a former Central Intelligence Agency director, predicted that the ruse will prompt the terrorists to turn on each other. Foreign operatives, including the Saudis who make up a significant proportion of its ranks, will come under a particular shadow. He told The Wall Street Journal: "The effect is everyone on the inside is now looking at everybody else on the inside and you're creating suspicions inside the network."