Scotland Yard and secret police here are now combing bank accounts, telephone records and other travel documents to determine whether Rahaman, who also suffered from serious depression, might have been part of an al-Qaida cell seeking to launch a surprise attack from an unexpected base: South America. "This is a very complicated, very delicate investigation," said a Venezuelan government official involved in the inquiry. "We are looking to see what links he had" to terrorist groups.
Latin America's loose borders, weak legal systems and poor regional cooperation have long allowed some areas to become minor havens for activities linked to international terrorism. Venezuela's Margarita Island, a tourist destination with a large Arab population, has been identified as a source of funding and site of money laundering for the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups.
Investigators say Rahaman has ties to the region where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet. Local Arab traders there are accused of sending millions back to Hamas and Hezbollah. U.S., Argentine and Israeli authorities believe the area was the launching site for bombing attacks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, against the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center in 1994 that left 86 dead. Brazilian federal police also said recently that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged al-Qaida chief of operations and Sept. 11 mastermind who was arrested earlier this month in Pakistan, visited the triple-border region at least twice in the 1990s. And in 1999, police captured an Egyptian terror suspect affiliated with al-Qaida who established himself at the triple border in order to set up a network there, according to Argentine intelligence documents.
Rahaman had phone contact and other ties with suspected extremists in the triple border region, a U.S. official said in an interview. It is not clear whether Rahaman traveled to the area, the U.S. official said. Investigators in Europe and Venezuela have not yet determined what Rahaman's target might have been, the U.S. official said. But if he turns out to have been part of an al-Qaida operation, it would mark the first time the group has tried to launch an attack from Latin America, raising fears of a new front in the U.S. government's war on terror just hours from Miami. U.S. law enforcement officials are monitoring the case, but have not opened an official investigation.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert who heads the Washington office for Rand Corporation, noted that al-Qaida's Web site was paid for from a Caracas-based bank account for a brief period last year. Al-Qaida "may see Latin America as an area where nobody is looking for them," Hoffman said. "They see breathing space and room to maneuver."
Rahaman was arrested Feb. 13 when British customs inspectors found a hand grenade in a large duffel bag as he was leaving the baggage claim area at Gatwick airport. He had flown to London on a British Airways flight that originated in Colombia and made stops in Caracas and Barbados. Rahaman was charged with three counts under Britain's Terrorism Act and remains in custody. ***
………. Chavez said that to deter any actions by Colombian irregulars he will be sending in an elite army unit and bolstering air patrols along the 2,200-kilometer (1,367 mile) border with Colombia.
Late Sunday, Bogota's ambassador to Caracas, Carlos Rodolfo Santiago, denounced alleged moves by Venezuelan farmers in the border region to form paramilitary units to protect themselves from Colombian leftist guerrillas. "Some farmers want to create their own groups for protection, and that is totally forbidden in Venezuela," the diplomat told Radio Caracol, alluding to complaints from Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel that Colombian paramilitaries were acting "with total impunity" on the frontier.
He said there might be connections between the proposed paramilitary groups and the right wing Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC) who are involved in a mortal struggle with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
The opposition in Caracas as well as Colombian media and politicians have repeatedly accused the leftist-populist Chavez government of tolerating and even aiding Colombian rebels inside Venezuela. Chavez has denied the charges, attributing them to an international conspiracy against his government.***