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Eight detained in British terror plot

At least five of the eight were identified as doctors.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 4, 2007

LONDON - Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2. George Habash of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mahmoud Zahar, the Hamas strongman in Gaza. All trained as doctors - as did at least seven suspects in the failed bomb attacks in Britain.

The public often is shocked to see that doctors can become militants or even terrorist killers.

But some experts believe it is part of a socioeconomic trend in which wealthy families highly educate their sons, who sometimes become radical and have the education they need to become leaders.

"People often assume that terrorists are poor, disadvantaged people who are brainwashed or need the money. But the ones who actually perpetrate violence without handlers and manipulation are highly intelligent by necessity, " said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm.

"It's only the smart ones who will survive security pressures in a subversive existence, " he said.

At least five of the eight suspects in the terrorist events in London and Glasgow, Scotland, were identified as doctors from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and India, while staff at a Glasgow hospital said two others were a doctor and a medical student.

"It sends rather a chill down the spine to think that people's values can be so perverted, " said Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, which advises the British government.

"It means obviously that you can't make any assumptions, or have any preconceptions about the kind of people who might become terrorists. It does mean that you widen the net, obviously, " she said on BBC-TV.

If doctors were leading the cell that plotted the attacks, which Prime Minister Gordon Brown said were associated with al-Qaida, it wouldn't be a first.

Zawahri, an Egyptian who trained as a doctor, is Osama bin Laden's top deputy, and he often speaks out in audiotapes on behalf of al-Qaida in favor of groups such as Hamas in Gaza.

Other doctors have played prominent roles in militant Islamic groups in Gaza in recent years.

Mahmoud Zahar, one of the main Hamas leaders, was the personal physician of the group's founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Yassin's successor was Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a pediatrician who was introduced to radical Islam during his medical studies in Cairo.

Martin Kramer, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said people often wrongly conclude that a good education and prosperity work against development of terrorists. "The Sept. 11 bombers were better educated than the average person, " Kramer said.

Fast Facts:

The suspects

The eight people detained after failed car bomb attacks in London and an attack in Glasgow, Scotland:

Bilal Talal Abdul Samad Abdullah, 27: Passenger in the Jeep that crashed into Glasgow Airport terminal Saturday. Trained as a physician in Baghdad and registered with the British General Medical Council in 2004. Worked at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, as a diabetes specialist.

Khalid Ahmed: Staff at Glasgow's Royal Alexandra Hospital identified this doctor from Lebanon as the driver of the Jeep, but police would not confirm it. The driver remains in critical condition at Royal Alexandra Hospital for burns suffered in the attack.

Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha, 26: Jordanian citizen of Palestinian descent arrested Saturday with his wife. Worked as a neurosurgeon at North Staffordshire Hospital in central England. His family says he is not a Muslim extremist.

Marwa Asha, 27: Asha's wife, a Jordanian. Identified by British media as a medical assistant. Her father describes her as an educated woman who would never be involved in extremist activity.

Unidentified man, 26: Arrested in Liverpool on Saturday. Halton Hospital in Runcorn, northern England, said he worked as a doctor there and at nearby Warrington Hospital, but gave no name or further details. Some news agencies reported that his name might be Sabeel

or Abeel Ahmed. Neighbors in Liverpool said the suspect was from Bangalore, India.

Unidentified men, 25 and 28: Reportedly of Middle Eastern origin, arrested in residences at Royal Alexandra Hospital on Sunday. Staff identified them as a junior doctor and a medical student. British media described both as Saudi Arabian; police refused to comment.

Mohammed Haneef, 27: Indian national arrested late Monday at Brisbane airport in Australia while trying to board a flight out of the country with a one-way ticket. Physician employed by Gold Coast Hospital in Australia's Queensland state. Previously worked at Halton Hospital in England.

[Last modified July 4, 2007, 01:07:00]