Terrorist’s secret texts
LONDON Westminster attacker Khalid Masood is suspected of taking instructions from accomplices in the moments before he struck, counterterrorism investigators believe.
Masood, 52, used an encrypted messaging service minutes before he carried out his murderous rampage, strengthening the police’s suspicion that he was not acting alone.
A manhunt of possible associates of the British-born Muslim convert was stepped up yesterday as police hailed the two most recent arrests, in Birmingham and northwest England, as significant.
Masood’s communications are at the core of the investigation, with the security services keen to establish whether he received instructions from a terrorist group such as Islamic State, which has claimed him as a ‘‘soldier’’.
Police are trying to establish what he was doing when he used the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service at 2.37pm, three minutes before his car mounted the pavement on Westminster Bridge.
Theories include that he was saying goodbye to associates, receiving final encouragement, or seeking religious authority before striking.
Masood twice travelled to Saudi Arabia, and a strand of the investigation will focus on whether he was radicalised there. A Saudi security source has said it is assisting British intelligence. Saudi intelligence services have launched an inquiry into Masood’s movements, background and contacts during his two visits between 2005 and 2008.
Masood was placed on MI5’s radar about five years ago, when he was on the ‘‘periphery’’ of an investigation. A review is being conducted into whether any measures could have been taken to stop the Westminster attack.
Whitehall sources said there was ‘‘no existing intelligence picture’’, and authorities are understood to be starting from scratch to determine the trigger for his attack.
Masood, who was born Adrian Russell Elms in Kent and used a string of aliases, converted to Islam after spending time in prison in 2003 for a violent assault. More details emerged yesterday about his path to radicalisation, from a beerswilling student to the man responsible for Britain’s most serious terrorist attack since the July 7 suicide bombers killed 52 people in 2005.
He was remembered as a thug in Northiam, the East Sussex village where he brought up two daughters.
A family friend said Masood persuaded his eldest daughter to convert. She was said to have changed her name, donned a burqa and moved to live with him in Birmingham.
Masood lived in various places but the investigation is focusing on Crawley and Luton. Both towns have been linked with Islamist radicals who have plotted attacks or travelled to fight overseas. Anjem Choudary, a notorious preacher who is in jail for supporting Isis, was active in both towns.
Tobias Ellwood, the MP who fought to save policeman Keith Palmer after he was stabbed by Masood, has been honoured. Downing Street announced yesterday that the Queen was ‘‘pleased’’ to approve the appointment of Ellwood to the Privy Council.
Two women and four men arrested in Birmingham, where Masood recently lived, were released yesterday. Four other people remain in custody.
Permanent armed guards were removed from the gate at which Palmer was murdered, after MPs complained that their presence was ‘‘intimidatory’’, police sources have told The Times.
The fixed armed position at Carriage Gates was replaced at some point over the past two years by a mobile armed patrol.
Parliamentary security sources confirmed that the switch had occurred, but claimed it was because of Scotland Yard’s concerns that a static armed officer on a gate that was usually open would be vulnerable to attack.
Two rank-and-file police sources claimed that armed officers used to occupy fixed positions just inside the gates but were removed after MPs complained that their presence gave the wrong image of parliament.
‘‘They wanted a traditional British bobby on the gate. They REUTERS wanted that image – but this is a sensitive security area,’’ one source said.
The police claims were backed up by evidence presented to parliament’s administration committee in 2014, which said: ‘‘Some members and staff also noted that the presence of armed guards outside the main visitor entrances did not create a welcoming atmosphere.’’
A member of parliament’s security committee confirmed that procedures had been changed so that pairs of armed offices were no longer static. ‘‘They said that having the officers in static positions made them a target, and that it was better if they were mobile, because it made it less predictable.’’
The tactics at Carriage Gates, widely recognised as the ‘‘weak point’’ in the parliamentary security regime, are in marked contrast to those used at Downing Street, a short distance away. Armed officers are on permanent guard there, and the gates remain firmly closed except to authorised vehicles.
Scotland Yard said it would not discuss security strategies, but acting deputy commissioner Mark Rowley confirmed that procedures at parliament would have to be overhauled. The Times, AAP