In August 2006, British law enforcement were closely monitoring the activities of several men, including Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain and Assad Sarwar, believing they were planning to destroy seven trans-Atlantic flights at once in an effort to outdo the September 11 attacks. The government of Prime Minister Tony Blair kept the Bush administration, including President George W. Bush, apprised of the investigation so as to assuage any concerns about the UK being able to foil the plot and bring the men to justice.

 

But according to British officials involved in the operation, Cheney almost destroyed the investigation when he ordered the arrest of Rashid Rauf in Pakistan. The capture of Rauf, who was working with the plotters in Britain, forced UK law enforcement to move in sooner than they had wanted, primarily before Ali, Hussain, and Sarwar had purchased their airline tickets—the key proof for prosecutors to prove the conspiracy in court. Furthermore, several members of the plot were never arrested, according to British sources who claimed Cheney’s action prevented this from happening.

 

“We believed the Americans had demanded the arrest [of Rauf] and we were angry we had not been informed,” wrote Andy Hayman, the Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations at the time of the plot. “We were being forced to take action, to arrest a number of suspects, which normally would have required days of planning and briefing.”

 

So why did Cheney want Rauf arrested before Scotland Yard could complete its investigation? Here’s one theory. On June 29, 2006, the Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld exposed members of the Bush administration to prosecution under the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996. Two months later, Rauf was arrested, the airplane plot was revealed and fear of terrorism, which had died down, was ratcheted up. With national elections just weeks away, Republicans in Congress, with the help of 44 Democrats, rushed through the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which, in one of its lesser-known paragraphs (Section 6b), gave retroactive immunity to anyone who violated the War Crimes Act after September 11, 2001.

 

As for Rashid Rauf, terrorism charges against him were dropped in December 2007, and shortly thereafter it was reported that he had escaped from custody. In November 2008, he was reported to have been killed by a CIA drone attack, but his body was never recovered.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Why I Suspect Jittery Americans Nearly Ruined Efforts to Foil Plot (by Andy Hayman, London Times)

Dick Cheney 'Put Airline Bomb Plot Case in Jeopardy with Arrest Order of Rashid Rauf' (by Jenny Booth, Times of London)

Bye, Bye Bill of Rights (by David Wallechinsky, Huffington Post)