Original subtitles

In the 21st century, The rules of the spy war are being rewritten.

Today, intelligence agencies fight a new, more elusive, And fanatical enemy radicalized abroad,

But very much homegrown,

An enemy prepared to stop at nothing And spare no one to achieve its aims.

This is the story behind the biggest Surveillance operation in british history,

And how the intelligence agencies thwarted

The deadliest terrorist plot ever devised on british soil.

On June 24, 2006, A flight from islamabad, pakistan Landed at london's heathrow airport.

Disembarking was a british citizen, Abdulla ahmed ali, on his way home to east london.

He came from a very ordinary well-integrated family.

He had been to school, and had been a fairly Well adjusted and effective student.

Quite charismatic, and within his sort of community, He was clearly kind of a leader type figure.

But ali was being tracked By the british security service, mi5.

He was under suspicion.

It was believed that he was becoming radicalized.

Intelligence suggested that abdulla ahmed ali Had just returned from northern pakistan,

Where he'd met with a man called rashid rauf.

Rashid rauf was the link man between What was going in al-qaeda's central thinking

And lots of operatives back in britain and elsewhere.

A british citizen, Rashid rauf had fled the uk for pakistan in 2002.

By 2006, he was a senior member of al-qaeda, And the suspected mastermind behind a series

Of deadly terrorist attacks throughout europe.

The moment at which ali Comes into contact with rauf,

The threat picture around him distinctly changes.

So it immediately shifts him into a very different rank.

Though mi5 didn't know it yet, By the time abdulla ahmed ali Returned to britain in June 2006,

He had also become a frontline al-qaeda operative.

He was a terrorist ready To do an operation by that point.

At the airport, Ali's passport triggered an internal warning,

And mi5 agents carried out a covert search of his suitcase.

What they discovered raised more questions than answers.

There were bags of tang, Which is a sugar-based drink, Which is sold in pakistan and india,

And quite a large number of aa batteries.

Why you'd be bringing aa batteries into the country?

They don't do anything different From other double aa batteries, So that raises suspicion.

You have a situation here Where you've got an individual

Who's been to a place that they're concerned about Who suddenly returned to the united kingdom

With a whole series of material, Not material that in itself is that dangerous

But material that is clearly being brought Back for a very specific purpose

And one that they don't understand.

The airport discovery marked a critical moment.

Mi5 suspected something sinister was going on.

They just didn't know what.

British intelligence was already on high alert.

Less than one year before on July 7, 2005, A homegrown terrorist cell had orchestrated

What became known as the 7/7 bombings.

Across london, 52 people were killed And hundreds more injured.

Counter terrorism chiefs Had vowed to do everything they could

To prevent another attack on british soil.

Abdulla ahmed ali appeared to be a potential terrorist,

So he was placed under 24-hour surveillance.

He was given a code name, A two-word code name, Which in his case it was lion roar.

Lion roar is leaving the station.

Mi5 did not know that there was a much More dangerous reason to be following ali.

At the moment he was just someone

Who they were suspicious of.

It was just a case of we have to wait and watch.

There was absolutely no sense How big this was gonna become.

Mi5 was now running the surveillance op

Alongside the metropolitan police's counter terrorism unit.

The joint investigation was named "operation overt".

Steve dryden was the surveillance coordinator For the operation based in the major incident room.

This is the bit where we build up A lifestyle picture of the suspect

To find out if he's doing anything Which raises suspicions.

Target's moving onto high street.

It's important to find out who he's with, Who he's meeting, what his lifestyle is,

What he's actually doing, what mosque is he going to?

Surveillance operatives Embedded themselves within the community.

A team of more than 30 people Were required to watch ali 24 hours a day.

These operations expand very quickly.

It takes an extraordinary amount of manpower.

You don't want the same people, The same faces around every day,

So you've gotta rotate those teams.

They don't employ the regular Kind of people you'd expect to be police officers.

The team believed that ali Could be setting up a terrorist cell,

So anyone he came into contact with Automatically became a person of interest.

An intelligence picture will be built up on them.

Who are they?

Is there any association with him Or others of interest in the past?

Are they part of a network?

Are they going to a mosque Where we have concerns about radicalization?

Every telephone conversation that is placed, Every physical meeting that takes place

Will bring into the picture other individuals.

So the network becomes a spiderweb of people Within next to no time.

From the surveillance operation, It became clear that ali was in regular contact

With a man named tanvir hussain, A 25 year old who lived nearby in leyton, east london.

Ali and hussain are both old school mates And clearly hussain looked up to ali.

He was clearly kind of his older brother figure.

Tanvir hussain was a young man Who had grown up in pretty much a western lifestyle.

He had gone off the rails to a certain extent.

He had experimented with drink and drugs, And then there was a paradigm shift,

And he went way past islam and into extreme islam.

The two men were so close That investigators believed hussain

Could be ali's second-in-command in a terrorist cell.

Then, two weeks into the investigation, Ali met a new contact,

Using a technique familiar from other al-qaeda cells.

Lion roar meeting unknown target.

They lay on the ground face down With their heads together And actually talked into the ground,

And that is a classic way of making sure That anyone with a long range mic

Can't pick up what you're saying.

It confirmed investigators' worst fears.

They were dealing with trained terrorist professionals.

I think there's very clear evidence That this cell had been trained in

Counter-surveillance techniques in pakistan.

It gave us a wake - Up call to make sure That we were ultra careful because

They were taking care of themselves.

Right, stay on the unknown male.

I've got him.

The surveillance team followed ali's new contact.

Within hours, they had identified him as assad sarwar.

Ali was clearly kind of a leader, Natural leader amongst his group, A very charismatic young man.

Assad sarwar was a bit more of A bumbling figure if you will.

Once a mailman sarwar now lived 30 miles north of london in high wycombe with his parents.

He was not the most gifted intellectually.

He sort of tried to go to university And dropped out fairly early on.

He'd never had a girlfriend, And he never seemed to be able to hold down much of a job

But mi5 had seen enough To place him under full surveillance.

He was assigned the codename rich food.

As the scope of the investigation grew,

Surveillance operatives were tracking more than 20 people.

Teams were in place across london and the southeast, With multiple live video feeds

Relayed to the operation control room At scotland yard 24 hours a day.

It soon became clear to the watching spies That three people in particular,

Abdulla ahmed ali, tanvir hussain, and assad sarwar,

Were at the center of a rapidly expanding terrorist cell.

As we were going forward with the investigation And we were feeding in the surveillance product,

We were seeing suspicious activity, Specifically from the three of them.

Tanvir hussain was followed to a pharmacy Where he was seen purchasing large syringes.

I mean this is a man who's not Very involved in chemistry.

Why does he suddenly need to buy syringes?

That raises some red flags.

Assad sarwar was watched buying Citric acid in local shops.

And abdulla ahmed ali Was observed doing something stranger still.

Ali was seen by a surveillance team In a news agent's shop Paying particular attention

To the bottoms of plastic drinks bottles, And that made actually no sense at all at the time.

As the surveillance product's coming in, We're trying to work out and feed forward

What we thought they were actually up to, What the end game was going to be.

Then, investigators uncovered a vital clue.

The surveillance team tracking assad sarwar discovered

He was purchasing large volumes of hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical, And it's a chemical that actually

Is fairly available in our ordinary lives.

For example, hairdressers tend to use it a lot Because it's something they use in bleach.

But hydrogen peroxide has another use, As an explosive.

At a concentrated level, it can be weaponized.

For them to be purchasing that there are no other reasons You would buy hydrogen peroxide

If you are a radicalised terrorist Other than to build a device.

Investigators began to think that the tang And the batteries in ali's suitcase

Could also be components of a bomb.

We knew that they would be Constructing some kind of device.

We just didn't know what the device was going to look like.

For mi5 and the metropolitan police, This plot was becoming more sinister by the hour.

It was now clear the surveillance teams Had exposed an al - Qaeda terrorist cell.

But they still had no idea of the scale Of the plot they were about to undercover.

By July 2006, the british security service And london's metropolitan police

Were deep into a major surveillance operation, Tracking a homegrown al-qaeda cell in east london.

Every terror cell needs a base from which to operate.

But for weeks, it wasn't clear if this cell Had a headquarters at all.

Then, came a breakthrough.

The team tracking the plot's ringleader, Abdulla ahmed ali, followed him to a new location,

A flat, in walthamstow, east london.

Over subsequent days, surveillance operatives Observed other members of the suspected cell

Entering and leaving the property.

They quickly discover that This is the hub of operations

Where the plot is essentially being run from.

It was clearly the center of operations.

If they wanted to gather intelligence, This was the place that it had to be done.

So investigators came up with a high-risk plan.

While the plotters were out, They'd attempt to rig the flat with surveillance equipment.

This was absolutely crucial now That they had to get access to this apartment.

There is actually a specialist police unit And what they do all day long is

They practice getting in and out of locked buildings.

Their task is to get into these places And get out again without anyone knowing

They were ever there.

Investigators waited.

Until one night, a window of opportunity appeared.

The surveillance team alerted the operations room.

The flat was empty.

Subjects are leaving the building.

Okay blue team go.

With no idea when the plotters would return, The team had to act fast.

Come on blue team let's move it.

They install bugs and cameras That no one will ever be able to ever find

Because they are extremely tiny.

Camera two is live.

Camera three live.

Roger that, all camera's live, sir, done.

Right, get them out of there.

Let's go blue team, let's go.

Then, the unit had to get out leaving no trace.

The infiltration op was an unqualified success.

Now the surveillance team had extraordinary access To the al-qaeda cell's command center.

For the first time they were able To monitor what was going on inside there,

And that would prove to be hugely important.

One detective told me that They were almost laughing about it

Because it was like watching a very bad big brother.

The security services were now convinced The walthamstow flat was a bomb factory.

Ground surveillance teams were instructed to sift through

Every possible piece of forensic evidence, For clues as to what type of bombs they could be.

They were followed away from the address one day.

One of them had a plastic bag with him.

He put it into a rubbish bin.

That was recovered, and that had what I'd describe As the component parts of aa batteries in it.

That was another light bulb moment Because it meant that aa batteries were going to form

Some part of the device that was being built.

Fifty kilometers away assad sarwar, Codenamed rich food,

Was amassing a stockpile of hydrogen peroxide.

Sarwar had tracked down suppliers online, And traveled across the country

To buy small volumes from multiple locations.

That's a good way of concealing the fact That you're buying an awful lot of hydrogen peroxide.

I would describe sarwar as the quartermaster.

He was the one who was purchasing All the precursor chemicals.

By early August, he had bought so much,

That he was observed dumping a suitcase of excess chemicals

In woods by his parents' house in high wycombe.

Now investigators began to put the clues together.

They believed the plotters were developing A new type of liquid explosive device.

Mi5 now judged the threat to be so severe that they alerted

Their intelligence partners across the atlantic.

Michael chertoff was secretary Of homeland security at the time.

We typically had a Very close relationship with the uk In intelligence and counter-terrorism.

In fact, maybe closer than with any other country.

The scale of the developing plot Stunned the americans,

Including chief of intelligence, charles allen.

I recall very distinctly sitting in my office At the department of homeland security.

I received a call from the head of mi5 and his deputy.

They said they wanted to see me right away, And then he laid out where this was headed.

This was very serious indeed.

Jose rodriguez was the cia's Head of clandestine operations.

This was a really serious plot That could rival 9/11 on its scope,

So I was very concerned about it.

The american and the british security services Agreed to collaborate.

Because the cia was deeply embedded within pakistan, They took the lead monitoring rashid rauf,

The plot's ringleader based in the north of the country.

One thing that perhaps The americans have over the british

Is their intelligence gathering abroad, So while we had everything covered in the uk,

It was very useful to be able to call On the american expertise in pakistan.

Then after the investigation Had been live for almost a month,

Video surveillance from the flat in walthamstow Revealed the full extent of the plot.

What are they doing?

I don't know.

Can you zoom in?

Give it a go.

Investigators watched as tanvir hussain And abdulla ahmed ali began to drill

Small holes in the bottom of juice bottles.

It slowly became apparent what they were up to.

They took a syringe, drained the liquid, And then re-injected another liquid.

The consequence of that was if you looked at the bottle,

It would look like an unopened pristine bottle.

The seal on top of the bottle wasn't broken, Which meant this bottle or bottles were gonna form

A major part of the device that they were building.

The surveillance video revealed the bottles Were being filled with a homemade liquid explosive,

Dyed with food coloring.

The battery casings Were used to conceal powerful detonators.

The plotters were getting batteries, opening them, Removing the inner bits of the batteries

And essentially using the shell to then Put explosive material inside.

These were then placed inside disposable cameras.

The tang powder would act as an accelerant, Making the mixture even more explosive.

The terrorists had invented an entirely new type of bomb Much more difficult to detect,

And, potentially, a much greater threat to life That other al-qaeda devices.

We had never come across a device like this.

There was great ingenuity in the way That this device had been designed.

Investigators realized these small And easily transportable bombs

Were designed to be moved in their constituent parts,

Before being assembled at the target location.

This had a terrifying implication.

They immediately realized They were trying to get past A high level of security,

And usually when you think of that high-level of security,

You're either thinking a very secure location Like, a ministry of defense,

Or some sort of official building like that, Or you're thinking aviation.

They were designed to detonate In a space where it could damage something,

And the obvious one was inside an aircraft fuselage.

You'd create enough of an explosion To basically punch a hole in the side of an aircraft.

An aircraft, of course, which is up in at high altitude In a pressurized environment,

Which would have immediately Essentially brought the aircraft down.

It would have worked.

It would have brought down an airliner.

There could have been huge loss of life.

Al-qaeda had weaponized planes before, To deadly effect.

The events of September 11, 2001, Weighed heavily on the minds of the intelligence community.

The white house had suffered deeply Because of the 9/11 attack.

Intelligence had suffered deeply.

That was very much in my mind.

In fact, never again can we allow This country to be attacked.

We had received instructions From the president saying, "do not let this happen again."

So we were very concerned about this whole thing,

And we were not gonna let it happen.

Since 9/11, Airport security was tighter than ever, Meaning no terrorist had successfully

Targeted an aircraft.

But this plot proved that it was still possible, And that al-qaeda was undeterred.

This was ingenious.

It showed that al - Qaeda had advanced.

They were doing things that beyond What had been done in the whole world of bomb making.

This was a very, very deadly way of doing business,

With which we were not prepared.

The british and american intelligence services Were close allies.

But now, with tensions heightening, Cracks began to appear in the special relationship.

The british wanted more time.

They felt that they were on top of the situation.

They wanted to collect additional evidence.

In the uk, we're used to following terrorists, Unfortunately, because of the ira.

So for decades now we've been used to holding our nerves,

And trying to get the terrorists as close to the moment

That they're going to commit their crimes as possible.

There was disquiet between our approach And the approach by the americans in pakistan.

The americans took, And always do take a different view,

And they will spoil the plot, disrupt it, And deal with what they've got there and then.

We had great confidence In the british security services.

But we were nervous that there were Other things that could occur untold,

That someone had been missed, Or an element of the plot had been missed by the british.

We needed to be sure That we didn't allow things to go on So long that someone would actually

Put a device on a plane and blow it up.

The british intelligence services won the argument.

But they knew that if they'd made the wrong call, The consequences would be catastrophic.

By early August, 24 people were under Round-the-clock surveillance, Most of them in east london.

800 surveillance agents were needed on the ground To monitor all the suspects.

This was now the largest surveillance operation Ever undertaken in the uk.

"operation overt" at its biggest involved Every surveillance team in the country

Including northern ireland.

We were running out of teams.

What we needed was to know what the targets were And who the individuals who were going to

Attack those targets were going to be.

No stone was left unturned At that stage of the investigation.

Then microphones in the walthamstow flat Picked up a recording that made the team realize

The plot was of a greater magnitude than they'd feared.

We got six people, in it.

Me, omar b, ibo, aro, and waheed.

There's another three units, There's another three dudes.

There's another three more, yeah?

That a seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13.

That's 15.

No wait 18!

Think of it, yeah, that's one more man.

To the listening intelligence operatives, It sounded like there would be 19 bombers.

The number had a significance.

It was same number of hijackers responsible for 9/11.

It looked like the british bomb plotters were trying

To emulate the biggest terrorist attack in history.

British security services had eyes And ears on a major al-qaeda terrorist cell

Planning to blow up u.S. Bound passenger planes Using liquid bombs assembled onboard.

British intelligence officers Were in close contact with their u.S. Counterparts,

But there was disagreement on when and how to move in.

Now investigators had picked up evidence That the cell's ringleader,

Abdulla ahmed ali, was getting nervous.

Writing to rashid rauf, The plot's al-qaeda orchestrator in pakistan,

Ali admits to being worried he was followed.

But there was one crucial thing The conspirators didn't know.

Just how closely they were being watched.

Despite his concerns, Ali took the critical decision to go ahead.

They decide to press on with it Regardless of the risk of surveillance being in place.

Truth was we were all over them like a cheap suit.

Then on August 6th came the information For which surveillance team had long been waiting:

The specifics of the intended attack.

Ali was followed by an mi5 agent to an internet cafe.

She was able to get onto a computer quite close to him To work out that he was looking

At aircraft times and departures.

Ali was researching A number of transatlantic flights,

Departing heathrow within a two and half hour window.

All these flights would be Departing heathrow on a given day,

Late in the afternoon between 4:00 and 7:00 p.M., And would be flying over the north atlantic

And would be blown up simultaneously as they flew.

The timing was critical, Coordinated for maximum impact and maximum loss of life.

They were intending to wait until the planes Were sufficiently far away from the uk.

That if one bomb went off And the other planes wanted to turn around,

They would not have enough time to get back to safety.

This looked like a plot, potentially, With a loss of life of up to 2,000 people.

A huge horrible, horrendous, murderous plot

That could have created great damage to the united states.

It was really very scary indeed.

This was now the most significant Terrorist conspiracy since 9/11,

Designed to instill panic in both the uk and the u.S.

The specifics of the attack Revealed the uk was to be used as a launchpad

For a direct attack on america.

For those in washington, This was a game changer.

Once we knew they were focused On aircraft going to the u.S., it became our problem.

I mean until then we thought It was a serious issue for the uk government,

But then it became our jurisdiction When we became the target.

For me, that's when I said, "okay, this is imminent."

We knew who the principles were.

We knew who the suicide bombers were.

We knew how were they gonna do this, And we knew what flights they were going to blow up.

The only thing that we didn't know was when.

The suspected terrorists Were moving towards the action phase.

With an attack potentially just weeks away, From his base in pakistan, rashid rauf

Was training the plotters in counter-surveillance.

He was the guiding hand for them For issues like make sure everything's in code.

Make sure you're not followed.

Make sure you dump everything far away from the house.

Rauf knew that the terrorists would have To make it through post 9/11 airport security.

So he ordered them to ditch their old passports And apply for new ones.

They had stamps entering and leaving pakistan, And that may put them under more scrutiny.

Clean passports would have no visa stamps, No enter and exit information.

This clearly showed that the plotters Had been trained in counter espionage,

Then in early August, surveillance operatives Monitored a chilling conversation.

The terrorists knew that a pakistani male travelling alone Could raise suspicions at an airport.

But that a family would not.

Would your wife consider going with you On the operation?

I think if I was to say to her That this was a significant operation

She might even find it in herself to do that.

What about the babies?

Maybe she could take them with her?

Maybe, you know what I mean.

She'd like to do it though.

This meant you had a cell, Who was not only building a device That was gonna penetrate security,

But was now talking in terms of launching an attack

And really with this sort of callous disregard For not only the lives of the innocent people

That they were gonna murder, but also their own families.

It's absolutely a devastating thought That they would do such a thing,

But, clearly, it would take them that extra step, Give them that extra layer of protection.

Just two days later, Surveillance microphones picked up Snatches of another ominous conversation.

Relax.

Speak normal english when you mention allah do that.

Give a bit of aggression, yeah, a bit loudly.

Could we rewind that, please?

It became clear.

Ali was directing the london plotters' performances In their suicide videos.

Stop supporting our puppets and helping our enemies.

If you do this, we will leave you alone.

This was incontrovertible proof That the operation had entered its final stage.

That told us they were In the final stages of preparation.

That increased the intensity of our focus On making sure that we were ready to take this down

At the earliest possible opportunity.

Intelligence services Both sides of the atlantic Agreed a potential attack was now imminent.

But in london, the metropolitan police And mi5 still wanted to hold off.

It was the approach by the senior members Of the counter terrorism command at the time

That we let them run until we have absolutely everything.

What the british didn't know Is that individuals within the cia had decided to act.

On August 8th, jose rodriguez, Director of the cia's clandestine service,

Was already in place in pakistan.

I just happened to be on the scene.

The head of the service.

Me, on the scene.

The cia worked closely with the isi, Pakistan's powerful intelligence service.

They informed rodriguez That they knew of rashid rauf whereabouts.

We were possibly gonna be able to capture him That very evening as he traveled in the tribal area

From point a to point b in a bus.

Rodriguez faced a dilemma.

He knew that if they arrested rauf, The british authorities would have to move to apprehend

The plotters in london, immediately.

We had agreed with the british authorities To give them more time.

We had within our grasp a terrorist That was planning to blow up airplanes

That could have killed thousands of innocent people, And I felt that we had a responsibility

To protect these people.

So I said, "yes, let's just go ahead and do this."

Pakistan's isi agents stormed the bus, And seized rashid rauf.

And after that, all hell broke loose.

It was quite clear that We didn't want rauf arrested when he was,

But the americans decided to go ahead anyway.

I would say that the senior management Of the counter terrorism command were very concerned

With the actions that the american authorities took.

Was that diplomatic enough?

As soon as the plotters got news That rauf had been arrested, The risk was they would flee.

It was now a race against time To round them up before they detonated their bombs.

For the met police and mi5 it was time to move.

In london, Mi5 and the metropolitan police moved immediately

To arrest al-qaeda ringleader, rashid rauf's 24 suspected co - Conspirators in the uk.

To suddenly have to Abruptly wrap this whole thing up

In such short time was certainly not the way That they wanted the operation to roll out.

There was a sense of Tension in the air at scotland yard.

No one really had to come in because no one had gone home.

Everyone was there.

Everyone was at their desk.

Everyone was working.

This was now a critical national emergency.

Within three hours, an additional 300

Specially-trained were drafted for the arrest phase.

You saw this massive operation Suddenly click into action

With the police and with security services To go and wrap up this really large cell.

There was a mad rush to get arrest teams in place.

We had to do what we do best very, very quickly, And that's just adapt to the situation

And that's what happened.

As the arrest teams took their positions, The surveillance unit tracking assad sarwar

Reported he was heading from high wycombe toward london.

Blue team not too close.

At the same time, the ringleader, Abdulla ahmed ali, was also being tracked.

All right, lion roar is on the move.

There were surveillance teams on everyone, But on, particularly, on sarwar and ali.

Sarwar was travelling from high wycombe.

Rich food is turning east toward walthamstow.

As sarwar approached the city, Ali was followed to a car park in walthamstow.

It became clear to the surveillance team The two men were going to meet each other.

The ringleader was to meet the quartermaster, A clear sign that the bomb plotters

Were about to move into their attack phase.

The surveillance team believed ali and sarwar Could be about to exchange the explosive devices.

They are the two most important in this plot.

So the decision was taken To allow the surveillance team to move in.

Go all teams, go all teams.

All teams go, all teams go.

- Hey, stop! - Hey, don't move!

- Do not move! - You're under arrest!

We had to get them into custody, And that was our main aim.

When investigators searched the vehicle, They found a usb stick containing

Flight details and suicide videos.

Possibly the most important bit of evidence That we found throughout the whole investigation

Was in his pocket at the time of arrest.

With the two main conspirators now in custody, The race was on to round up the others.

Through the night, 46 properties across london And the southeast were raided,

With a further 22 people arrested.

We had 24 suspects and that evening, We managed to get hold of them, Take them all into custody,

And make sure there were no stragglers.

Every suspect the police had been watching Was accounted for.

The next morning, britain woke up to news That a major terrorist plot had been foiled.

There were plans for as many as nine aircraft Flying from the united kingdom

To the united states of america to be attacked, Possibly by some form of liquid explosive.

Another 9/11 had been averted,

Thousands of lives had been saved.

But authorities were concerned That knowledge of how to build these liquid bombs

Could already have spread through the al-qaeda network.

So governments around the world reacted immediately To ban all liquids on all flights.

The plot was basically over.

The threat was over.

Now, what remained was total confusion.

From one moment to the next, Airports were thrown into total and utter chaos.

We spent a lot of time putting together a plan So that when an arrest was made,

We could immediately shut down The ability to bring any liquid on the plane.

Air travel would never be the same.

Of the 24 suspects arrested, Eight were initially tried for terrorism offenses

In connection with the plot.

Abdulla ahmed ali was sentenced to life in prison, With a minimum term of 40 years.

Assad sarwar and tanvir hussain Were sentenced to 36 and 32 years respectively.

In 2007, rashid rauf escaped from police custody.

In 2008, he was killed in a drone strike in pakistan.

Today, our police and security services remain engaged

In a hidden battle to preempt devastating terrorist attacks.

I would say this is a beacon of excellence For how surveillance operations should be run.

This operation was a huge success For the british and for us back home.

Our security forces were incredibly successful

In preventing a massive atrocity from taking place.

It's really actually a real notable moment In counter-terrorism.

Twelve years on,

This investigation is held up As one of the great operations in intelligence gathering,

And a crucial success in the fight against extremism.