k
n
n
The men shriek with delight as they hurtle down rapids on a whitewater rafting trip in North Wales on June 4.
But behind the smiles, they had murder on their minds on what is believed to be their last fun day out before the London bombings.
Edgware Road bomber Khan, 30, and Aldgate killer Tanweer, 22, met up with friends at the National Whitewater Rafting Centre at Canolfan Tryweryn. Police are examining insurance and medical forms they filled in.
Both men ran adventure trips for young Muslims.
The Iqra learning centre bookshop and Hamara YAP centre in Beeston, Leeds, where Khan and Tanweer organised the activities, have been raided by police.
The men were keen on survival training and went hiking on the Yorkshire moors, and up Ben Nevis and Mont Blanc.
It is believed some of their expeditions, including the whitewater rafting outing, may have been paid for with grants from Leeds city council. Rafting staff checked their group could all swim. They were then kitted out with helmets, waterproofs and life jackets and given a 15-minute safety talk before the two hour run down the River Tryweryn in the Snowdonia National Park.
Rafters are also reminded to "smile for the camera on the way down".
Around 100,000 people a year visit Britain's biggest rafting centre. The Manchester United team and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott have recently been there.
Khan and Tanweer seemed like every other visitor.
Worker John Gorman said: "I cannot remember this group. We get so many people and a lot of Asian men."
- WERE you on the raft with the bombers? If you are in this picture or met the men on another trip give us a call on 020 7293 3831. Or email mirrornews@mirror.co.uk
Two men were arrested in London's southern Stockwell neighborhood Friday under Britain's anti-terrorism laws. A third man was arrested under the same legislation in nearby Tulse Hill on Saturday. All three are being held "on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism" for the July 21 attacks.
Ian Blair said police were "still anxious for any sighting of the four individuals" whose images were released after being spotted on surveillance camera footage fleeing the scenes of the failed bombings, suggesting that none of the four are among the men now in custody.
Police were reportedly investigating whether some of the July 21 suspects may have visited the same Welsh whitewater rafting center as two of the July 7 suicide bombers: Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer.
The two bombers went whitewater rafting there July 4, according to the National Whitewater Center. Police have refused to comment on reports that a brochure for the rafting center was found in an explosives-laden knapsack that failed to detonate on a bus July 21.
In emotionally charged visits, relatives and friends of people killed July 7 visited three subway stations, and a central London street where a double-decker bus was blown up, to pay their respects. Many broke down in tears as they laid flowers at the sites of the explosions. Earlier, more than 230 relatives and friends attended a briefing on the investigation by police.
They look like they don't have a care in the world.
But this group of buddies on a July 4 whitewater rafting trip in Wales included two of the madmen who unleashed a river of blood in London's subway system just three days later.
At the front of the raft, a grinning Shahzad Tanweer ducks down to avoid the splash of the surging water while the man behind him, Mohammad Sidique Khan, holds two fingers up in a V - a victory sign, perhaps, or more eerily, maybe a peace sign.
On July 7, the two Muslim fanatics would blow themselves - and hordes of innocents - to smithereens in separate subway trains in London.
And British police are now investigating whether some of the other men in the raft may be among the four terrorists who attempted a second wave of subway and bus bombings in London last Thursday.
The Observer newspaper in Britain reported yesterday that investigators are looking into the possibility that the rafting trip tonorth Wales was a "bonding experience" between two groups of bombers with connections to each other.
Also yesterday, police revealed they arrested a third man in connection with last week's failed attack against London's transit system. The man was arrested "on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism," a police spokeswoman told The Associated Press.
Officials also said they were trying to penetrate what they suspect is an Al Qaeda network behind the terror plot.
"The way in which Al Qaeda operates is not a sort of classic cell structure," Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair told Britain's Sky News television. "It has facilitators, so we're looking for the bombmakers, we're looking for the chemists, we're looking for the financiers, we're looking for the people who groomed these young people, so it will be a wide network that we're trying to penetrate."
Blair has previously said he believes Al Qaeda was behind the July 7 attacks in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people and themselves on three trains and a bus.
Police are still holding two men arrested in London's Stockwell neighborhood on Friday, Blair said. None of their identities has been released.
With News Wire Services.
Originally published on 7/25/2005.
Also below from The Guardian:
The arrests and the discovery of a fifth device, which is thought to have contained same explosives as used in the July 7 and the abortive Thursday attacks, comes as detectives investigate a whitewater rafting centre in Wales to see if those involved in last Thursday's botched attacks attended the centre along with July 7 bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.
Last week the pictures of the smiling bombers were released showing them enjoying themselves in a 14ft inflatable raft at the National Whitewater Rafting Centre in the heart of Snowdonia National Park.
Photographs of the trip showed Khan, who detonated a device at Edgware Road tube station, raising his hand in a two-fingered peace sign and Tanweer, the Aldgate bomber, leaning forward in the raft and apparently laughing.
Both appear to be enjoying the two-hour experience of whitewater rafting during a session on June 4 this year.
Yesterday it emerged that police are investigating links between the pair and another group of men of Asian appearance who had booked a session at the centre on the same Saturday last month.
The second group, who booked separately, are being investigated for the links with last Thursday's failed terror bombings in London.
Staff at the centre were unable to confirm a link between the two groups as none of the July 21 bombers have yet been named by police.
Each group would have paid œ280 for a raft that accommodates four to seven people. But Paul O'Sullivan, the centre's director, said there had not yet been confirmation of a direct link between the July 7 bombers and the other group of Asian people.
The centre had been tipped off by a tabloid reporter last week that two people who had been rafting had turned out to be terrorists. It contacted North Wales police, who took details of the booking involving Khan and Tanweer.
"The press have got a number of things wrong," Mr O'Sullivan said. "Our biggest rafting programme lasts for two hours; we are not residential. People cannot come here for a weekend. Two hours is the longest time you are here for."
He is irritated by the implication that the terrorists had been bonding during their 120 minute course.
He said every year 25,000 rafters attend courses at the centre, and there was nothing remarkable about either group.
"There was no way we knew they were anything but members of the public," he said of Khan and Tanweer.
Mr O'Sullivan said whitewater rafting was a "very exciting, fast-moving, rapid environment," managed by professional, qualified guides. "We do not know what the relevance is to terrorism. But staff were surprised when they were told the bombers were in these photographs."
Scores of people gathered yesterday to watch competition kayaking or try their hand at whitewater rafting.
The centre has been open for almost 30 years, and has hosted three world championships. Rain teemed down relentlessly throughout the afternoon, and the river was swollen, creating exhilarating, fast-moving rapids.
Yesterday at the centre, a group of kayakers, from the Leeds/Bradford area, said they vaguely knew of Sidique Khan.
"We actually think we know one of them," said one of the kayakers who had been competing.
"One of the guys I work with lived opposite him. Apparently he was involved in working in outdoor activities."
Bombers' Welsh rafting trip Jul 25 2005
Tryst Williams, Western Mail STAFF at a whitewater rafting centre yesterday expressed shock that their Welsh base may provide a link between the two sets of bombers who attacked London in the past few weeks. Two of the suicide bombers behind the July 7 atrocities booked into sessions at Bala's National Whitewater Centre at Canolfan Tryweryn, a week before the attacks.
It has since emerged that police are investigating further links between other people who may have been rafting at the centre and the latest attacks, on Thursday.
Paul O'Sullivan, centre director for Canolfan Tryweryn, said, "Emotionally, we were quite shocked and surprised. You don't expect to hear that people who have been rafting are linked to this."
Mr O'Sullivan became aware that Edgware Road bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan and Aldgate bomber Shehzad Tanweer had been to the centre after journalists contacted the centre at the start of last week.
"Once we found out, we contacted the anti-terrorist hotline with any information from the booking," he said.
The men are believed to have participated in a two-hour session on the rapids on June 4.
Reporters again contacted the centre on Saturday suggesting a possible further link with Thursday's unsuccessful bombing attempts.
Links between two bomb gangs probed by police
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT
Key points Two gangs involved in the bombings may have met up on a trip to Wales Investigations at a whitewater rafting centre could help link the two gangs Bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer visited the centre
Key quote "Following liaison with the police, we are now able to confirm that customers with the names Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer took part in a whitewater rafting trip on 4 June." - Canolfan Tryweryn Centre Spokesman
Story in full DETECTIVES investigating the London bombings are looking into the possibility that the two gangs involved met up on a trip to a whitewater rafting centre in North Wales to finalise their plans.
Canolfan Tryweryn, the National Whitewater Centre, in Bala, North Wales, has been drawn back into the investigation after it emerged that detectives believe several people linked to what they describe as addresses "of interest" in relation to last Thursday's attacks may have visited it a month before the first attack.
The Metropolitan Police is giving away few details about the investigation, but it was already known that Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer rode the rapids at Canolfan Tryweryn just weeks before blowing themselves up.
One theory being considered is that the bombers used the trip as cover for final preparations for the bombings or that it was some sort of a bonding session.
The development came as police continued to sift through information from hundreds of callers who responded to publication of pictures of the four men who are believed to have carried out last week's failed bomb attacks in London.
More than 500 calls, and 80 e-mails, have been received in response to the pictures - a much smaller response than the tens of thousands of calls received in the wake of the first wave of attacks.
But Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said he was pleased with the help police were receiving from the public.
"Good progress is being made," he said. "Obviously we'd all wish that progress was faster but we have had tremendous support from the public in response to the CCTV images."
Detectives hope that information provided by the whitewater centre may help link the two gangs. Photographs of Khan and Tanweer's trip show Khan, who detonated a device at Edgware Road Tube Station, with his fingers raised in a gesture and Tanweer, the Aldgate bomber, leaning forward and appearing to laugh.
John Gorman, 38, the centre's director, said staff did not recall the men's visit. "We get 80,000 visitors a year including 25,000 rafters and 14 rafts going down the river every couple of hours."
But he said details of who was involved would have been taken by the centre.
"When parties arrive here the organiser will have booked the trip, then each rafter will have to give a signature before going on the river," he said.
He claimed that police had not been in touch about the second team of bombers. "None of the staff has any knowledge of the bombers having been here.
"If the police ask us to make a search through our records, then we will do so. But so far they have not asked us," he said.
Last week, the centre confirmed that two of the 7 July bombers had been there last month.
A spokesman said: "Following liaison with the police, we are now able to confirm that customers with the names Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer took part in a whitewater rafting trip on 4 June."
Yesterday, a spokesman, Paul O'Sullivan, said staff had been surprised to discover that some of the bombers had been at the centre. "It is a shock but it is possible," he said.
The facility describes itself as the National Whitewater Centre. It has been operating since 1986 on the Tryweryn river.
The centre charges œ280 per 14ft inflatable raft which can hold a maximum of seven people. For their money, visitors get two runs down the river, with each run lasting a little over an hour. Wetsuit hire costs an additional œ5 per person.
The centre's website says: "North Wales is a mecca for outdoor activities and a great escape to free the mind and relax. There is a superb range of quality activities available that can be enjoyed by everyone: no previous experience required."
Last night, North Wales police said they had not been asked by Scotland Yard to get involved in the investigation. A senior officer said he believed that London officers would be carrying out their own inquiries.
"The Metropolitan Police are likely to make any inquiries themselves in such a major investigation and not ask for our help," he said.
The trip attended by Khan and Tanweer was organised through the Hamara Healthy Living Centre in Beeston, Leeds.
The centre is part of the Faith Together in Leeds project, involving churches, mosques and community organisations for the benefit of ethnic minorities and others.
It is built on the site of a former Methodist church and is funded by, among others, Leeds City Council and the European Social Fund.
Its website says: "The centre provides advice and support on real-life issues as well as acting as a link to the authorities and social services, such as the NHS and housing trusts."