The Final Cover-Up, Sunday World, May 8, 2011

The Final Cover-Up

Sunday World
May 8, 2011

http://www.sundayworld.com/columnists/sw-irish-crime.php

COMING SOON: Gardai have stepped up security checks ahead of Obama’s visit

THANKS: Obama meets his troops

REVENGE: Osama bin Laden

GARDAI have stepped up their contact with the British security services in the wake of the shooting dead of Osama bin Laden over concerns that an al-Qaeda active service cell could travel to Ireland to avenge the terror leader's death during President Obama's visit.

Garda sources say that the middle-eastern desk of the Garda Special Detective Unit is in touch with the British Home Office and M15 on several occasions EVERY day following bin Laden's death.

While the assassination of the al-Qaeda leader will not have any real effect on the garda security operation surrounding Barack Obama's visit on May 23, there are fears that terrorists from the UK could come here before the president arrives.

Radical

Hundreds of radical Muslims in areas of northern England, such as Manchester and Leeds, are constantly monitored by the British intelligence services and there is little doubt that several al-Qaeda "sleeper" cells exist in the UK waiting to be mobilised.

The men who carried out the July 2005 bombings in London led normal lives while they waited for their orders to strike terror on the English capital.

A garda security audit of known terrorist sympathisers here has concluded that it is unlikely that any sleeper cells exist here, but around 50 al-Qaeda sympathisers are regularly monitored.

A handful of these are thought to be active in the terror network but provide logistical and financial support rather than being involved in physical active service.

A garda source say they believe the most likely threat - if any - will come from al- Qaeda operatives based abroad and that they are constantly sharing intelligence with their British counterparts in case any known terrorists attempt to come here.

If this happens, they will be followed 24 hours a day.

Dozens of US Secret Service members will arrive in Ireland over a week before President Obama is due to visit.

Manholes and sewers throughout Dublin city centre have already been searched and sealed ahead of Obama and the queen's visits, but gardai are

more concerned about protests than any fears over a potential attack on the US president.

It is likely that a rally will take place on O'Connell Street for those who wish to greet Obama and snipers will occupy the roofs of buildings above the street as a security precaution and the buildings and shops are likely to be closed and locked down.

Meanwhile, a jubilant Obama has met the US Navy Seals who were involved in the dangerous operation to kill bin Laden in Pakistan last Monday.

The commander in chief held a private meeting with the elite commandos in Kentucky on Friday night and saluted them before declaring, "job well done".

He later told an aircraft hangar full of cheering soldiers "Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals, intelligence, military over many years, the terrorist leader that struck our nation 9/11 will never threaten America again,"

He called the bin Laden raid one of the most successful intelligence and military operations in America's history.

Vice President Joe Biden joined Obama at the meeting with the mission that took out bin Laden and said afterwards: "We just spent time with the assaulters who got bin Laden."

Recriminations continue between the US and Pakistan over how bin Laden was able to live in a massively secured compound just a few kilometres from a Pakistan military base undetected.

It emerged yesterday that bin Laden may have lived in Pakistan for over seven years before being shot dead by the US forces, according to Pakistani security sources.

This is likely to further anger the Americans who are suspicious that Pakistan effectively harboured the most wanted man in the world, despite the US giving Pakistan nearly $1.5bn each year to fight terrorism.

One of bin Laden's widows told Pakistani investigators that bin Laden stayed in a village for nearly two and a half years before moving to the nearby garrison town of Abbottabad, where he was killed.

The wife, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, said that bin Laden and his family had spent five years in Abbottabad, before one of the world's most elaborate and expensive manhunts ended there last Monday.

The US has refused to release photographs of bin Laden's body over fears that it would encourage radical Muslims and make him a martyr.

Blood

However al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban have issued statements confirming that its leader was dead but warned that bin Laden's demise would only increase its resolve in defeating America and the west.

They warned that the celebrations across the western world would be replaced by "sorrow and blood" and that bin Laden's death would become "a curse that hunts the Americans and their collaborators, and chases them outside and inside their country".

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