UK ‘Terror Plot’ Led by Man US Claimed to Kill Months Ago

In November 2008, one of the many US drone strikes in North Waziristan killed five people. This was not unusual. What was is that the US claimed the killing of British citizen Rashid Rauf in the attack. Rauf was previously arrested in 2006 in connection with the “liquid explosives” plot in Britain.

Now, Britain’s MI5 is calling Rauf al-Qaeda’s “Director of Operations” in Europe and claims he was behind a reported plot to bomb shopping centers in Manchester, England.

This would seem to discount the official story behind the drone attack – one of the few times the United States has claimed to kill a target of any serious value in its scores of attacks on Pakistani soil. One western official is quoted as saying “there is nothing definitely to say he’s actually dead,” but not everyone is willing to abandon the story just yet, with some even suggesting that “Rauf’s reach may extend beyond the grave.”