In Britain, the threat of educated extremists
LONDON—If you can't trust a doctor, whom can you trust? The idea of physicians as healers was badly shaken last week when it was revealed that six of the eight suspects in three abortive terrorist attacks here were medical doctors. The failed attacks—two car bombs in London and a suicidal raid on Glasgow International Airport—have also raised questions about possible links to the Islamic terrorist group al Qaeda.
The United Kingdom's National Health Service employs almost 90,500 doctors who received their medical degrees in foreign countries, nearly 14,100 from predominantly Muslim nations. Gordon Brown, the new prime minister in the Labor government, promptly ordered a review of recruitment practices at the health service, known as the NHS.
Hidden cells. But security experts say those efforts could come too late. They are convinced that other terrorist cells lurk within the state-funded health system. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," says Beverli Rhodes, a terrorism expert who advises survivors of the July 7, 2005, terrorist attack on the city's transport system that killed 52. Moreover, analysts say, setting up a workable screening process is difficult, if not impossible. Combine that with the prospect of a public refusing treatment by Muslim doctors, Rhodes says, and the result could be "pandemonium" within the NHS.
The chain of events began in the early hours of June 29. An ambulance crew noticed "smoke" inside a Mercedes-Benz near a busy nightclub. The car was packed with canisters of gasoline, propane, and nails. A cellphone—meant to act as a detonator—was also found (the smoke was most likely gas vapors). A second, similarly rigged Mercedes had been illegally parked nearby, but it had been towed and wasn't found until hours later. The next day, two men in a fire-engulfed Jeep Cherokee crashed it into the entrance to Glasgow's airport. The men were identified as Drs. Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi, and Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian. Police believe the pair planted the London bombs, then raced 400 miles to Glasgow. Ahmed remains hospitalized with burns covering 90 percent of his body.
The perpetrators were clearly amateurs. Although potentially deadly, the bombs were poorly devised, and the cellphones were loaded with phone numbers—useful evidence for investigators. "Incompetence, public vigilance, and good luck kept people from being killed," says Charles Shoebridge, a former counterterrorism officer.
Nevertheless, Stephen Swain, an analyst with consultants Control Risks, says the ripple effect of even failed attacks—the costs to the U.K. economy and the growing "atmosphere of constant threat"—meant some of the terrorists' goals were met. "I'm sure their organizers see it as a success," he said.
Security levels remained high in London as the weekend approached. Not only was Saturday the anniversary of the "7/7" attacks but London was hosting several major events over the weekend, including one of the Live Earth concerts, the first leg of the Tour de France bike race, and the Wimbledon tennis championships.
Doctors with bombs. The possible use of doctors as bomb-planting foot soldiers adds a scary new dimension to Islamic terrorism, and Swain says their employment is a savvy move. The societal respect usually accorded physicians means "it's a good cover for them," he says. But doctors are hardly new to the Islamist movement, at least at the top ranks. Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is a doctor, for example. Says Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp: "There's nothing about being a doctor or highly educated that's inconsistent with being an extremist."
Two of the suspects had contacted an American organization for foreign doctors. In the United States, 1 in 4 doctors is a graduate of a foreign medical school; more than 10,000 foreign-educated medical students applied for residency programs in 2006, with more than 30 percent from India and Pakistan. More than half of the states do criminal background checks on license applicants. And foreigners applying for a medical license undergo standard fingerprinting and embassy screening.
Yet terrorism experts say that a more intense focus on the medical profession seems a misguided use of limited resources. And there is no movement to change current requirements. "Focusing on a group, doctors, is just not a productive way to find a terrorist," says James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. "More important than the fact that they are doctors is that this is a group of people who know each other. People tend to recruit people they know. That could be a medical group, or it could be a group of plumbers." Says Clark Kent Ervin of the Aspen Institute, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: "Even if there were a criminal check and a terrorist watch checklist, what this incident shows is that neither would be helpful in an instance like this, where so-called clean-skinned people were involved."
In Britain, the most pressing question for investigators is whether the cell responsible for the attacks was recruited and formed overseas or if its members became radicalized after they got here and came together on their own. If the former holds true, tighter screening might reduce the chances of future infiltrations. But Shoebridge says any vetting procedures are probably doomed to failure, since candidates from countries like Iraq can provide only references that can't be properly checked. Further, asking applicants about their religious beliefs would be ethically questionable—and wouldn't necessarily ferret out the truth.
The sloppy handiwork of this cell indicates that its members received no training and were "recruited and radicalized in the U.K.," Rhodes says. U.S. sources say they are skeptical of al Qaeda connections: "If there is a connection, it's a pretty tenuous one," said a counter-terrorism official. Rhodes, however, suspects a connection and thinks the cell was probably organized by a professional operative keen to recruit skilled medical workers. She notes that an Anglican priest recently told British officials that he had met an al Qaeda leader from Baghdad who promised more attacks in Britain and the United States. His chilling threat: "Those who cure you will kill you."
With Emma Schwartz and Kevin Whitelaw
This story appears in the July 16, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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