Suspected al-Qaida bomb-maker arrested in London

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/23/suspected-al-qaida-bomb-maker-arrested-london

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A suspected al-Qaida bomb-maker has been arrested in north London after DNA evidence linked him to devices made in Iraq seven years ago.

It is understood that the DNA taken from devices was run through the Home Office database and scored a “hit” for the 37-year-old man, who had been previously arrested in Britain for non-terrorist offences.

Sources said he was arrested in Brent, north-west London, and the arrest was “not in relation to any imminent threat but as a result of new information received”.

It is understood the arrest follows a painstaking programme run from a secret laboratory at an FBI facility in Quantico, Virginia, called the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Centre (TEDAC).

The centre, opened 10 years ago, has collected tens of thousands of pieces of homemade bombs retrieved in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of them entire unexploded devices.

Forensic analysts have been dusting them for fingerprints or traces of DNA, hoping to identify terrorists, although there is a large backlog because at the peak of the insurgency, there were as many as 4,000 IEDs attacks a year.

So far, the project has processed more than 80,000 devices, although fingerprint and DNA matches appear on only a few dozen.

Scotland Yard said officers from its counter-terrorism command had arrested the man under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 at his home address in north-west London.

“The man has been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices in Iraq in 2007,” a spokesman said in a statement.

“Officers are searching the address in north-west London. The arrested man has been taken to a south London police station where he remains in custody.”