Security service 'failures' over 7/7 terrorist

Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, was monitored by surveillance officers meeting known and suspected extremists in the years before he and his three conspirators unleashed carnage on London's transport network.

But despite a wealth of information including tape recordings and photographs, he was only identified in the aftermath of the worst single terrorist atrocity committed on British soil.

As the inquests turned to the question of whether the attacks that day could have been prevented, Hugo Keith QC suggested greater surveillance may have led police to recognise Khan, potentially averting the deaths of 52 people.

In the run-up to 7/7, Khan – though not identified by name – was linked to Omar Khyam, ringleader of a plot to explode a fertiliser bomb in London. But, as a peripheral contact, Khan was not the subject of intense investigation.

He was similarly linked to a man named Tafazal Mohammed, an associate of suspected extremist Martin McDaid.

Raising the issue of surveillance, Mr Keith said: "One issue that my Lady (Justice Hallett) may need to explore, in particular with the Security Service, is whether it is fair to say that the threads of Mohammed Sidique Khan's graduation from an associate of terrorists to prime conspirator and murderer were in fact there to see.

"Was it simply a question of tying threads together?

"And that process, the process of tying those threads together, should, it may be argued, be carried out, not only as part of an investigation into those who may already have formed their plans, but also by aggressive investigation of those who may be in the process of radicalisation."

The hearing was told how Khan met Khyam in Crawley, West Sussex, in 2004, and also at Islamabad Airport, in 2003, after they travelled to Pakistan to attend a terrorist training camp.

However, security services failed to identify him on these occasions.

At the airport meeting, at which Shehzad Tanweer, 22, was also present, the two would-be bombers were simply referred to only as "D" and "E".

In April 2003, Mr McDaid was seen to get into a blue BMW which was subsequently found to be registered to a Sidique Khan of Gregory Street, Batley.

However, this information, known to West Yorkshire Police, was not passed on to the security service.

And though Khan frequently came to the attention of the authorities he was never fully identified. The cars he drove – a blue BMW, a green Honda Civic, and a green Vauxhall Astra – were tracked but each was registered under a different name.

Meanwhile, discussions which took place in the Honda Civic and were recorded by surveillance officers tracking Khyam did not appear to merit Khan's classification as a "high priority for further investigation", Mr Keith said.

However, by June 2005, he was "very much closer to the attack planning" and the "purchases of hydroponics had commenced in earnest".

"One issue that may be worthy of exploration is whether successful investigation at that stage... might have brought these unusual activities to the attention of West Yorkshire Police or the Special Branch or the security service," he told the inquest.

Meanwhile, he suggested that those on the edge of an established plot should perhaps have been considered as potentially dangerous, their activities "critical to identify the next possible attack".

The inquest continues.

Bomb instructions 'from pakistan'

The July 7 extremists received bomb-making instruction from a mystery figure in Pakistan.

Mobile phone records analysed in the wake of the bombings revealed a series of calls made from phone boxes in Pakistan to ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan.

One of these, five days before the devastating explosions in the capital, lasted for six minutes, Det Sgt Mark Stuart told the inquest.

Many of the calls, though from different phone boxes, were made within minutes of each other, suggesting whoever phoned Khan was intent on concealing their identity.

Meanwhile, he never made any calls to Pakistan himself in an effort to avoid detection, the inquest was told.