COPS FOIL AL-QAEDA PLOT TO ASSASSINATE A CABINET MINISTER

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Sep 10, 2006 | by JUSTIN PENROSE Crime Correspondent

ANTI-TERROR cops have foiled an al-Qaeda plot to murder a Cabinet Minister at this month's Labour's annual conference.

Police swooped on addresses in North West England just three weeks before the political showpiece in Manchester.

MI5 and the police have already increased the politician's security in case other terrorists are involved.

Plans are already in motion to throw an impenetrable security cordon around the conference at the city's G-Mex and International Conference Centre which starts on September 24.

The minister - who is NOT the Prime Minister - has been informed of the plot.

The Sunday Mirror knows his identity, but we cannot reveal his name for security reasons.

The suspected terror cell has been under surveillance since October last year. Police believe members were also involved with plans to bomb a series of targets across the UK, just before Christmas this year.

Members of the alleged cell were monitored visiting Pakistan and other countries in the Middle East where they are believed to have made contact with al-Qaeda.

Police did not move in to arrest the group immediately, but kept them under surveillance.

When secret service officials discovered the assassination plot, they felt they had no option but to move in.

Several properties in the North West were raided and terrorist manuals and plans were recovered. A security source said: "This cell was under surveillance for 11 months while we gathered evidence on what we believed was going to be a Christmas bombing campaign.

"It then became apparent that an assassination of a top political figure was being planned at the Labour Party conference.

"As a result, we could not wait any longer and police moved in."

A senior Government source confirmed details of the plot.

He said: "We are aware that cabinet ministers are at the top of al-Qaeda's UK target list."

Earlier this year, the Sunday Mirror revealed details of a separate plot to kidnap and behead senior politicians.

The latest revelations come just a week after police, in an unrelated incident, raided a school suspected of having been used by terrorist groups to train suicide bombers without the knowledge of staff or pupils

Police arrested 14 men - including radical cleric Abu Hamza's number two, Abu Abdullah - when the group gathered at a Chinese restaurant.

The arrests came after a nine-month surveillance operation by MI5 centred on suspects visiting the Jameah Islamiyah Islamic school in picturesque Catt's Hill, near Crowborough, Sussex.

The arrested men allegedly stayed in the school and used the grounds for "combat" training.

Last month 25 people were arrested over an alleged plot to bomb planes using liquid explosives as they flew over American cities.

A total of 18 people have been charged in connection with the alleged liquid bombs plot.

justin.penrose@sundaymirror.co.uk