Two British men charged with helping Iran over Fairford airbase incident
British prosecutors said on Tuesday they had charged two British nationals under the National Security Act over an incident last month at the RAF Fairford airbase, with police saying the two were suspected of assisting Iran. RAF Fairford had been used by US B-1 bombers to carry out strikes on Iran, but they were withdrawn on security grounds shortly after five men were arrested outside the military base in southwest England in the early hours of September 27.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Tuesday it had charged Mohmed Abdulkarim, 24, with engaging in conduct that was likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service. Nouman Essghir, 24, was charged with one offense of entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK on August 22. The pair, who both live in London, will appear at Westminster Magistrate’s Court later on Tuesday. Five other men arrested in connection with the case remain on police bail.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of national counter terrorism policing in the UK, said police believed the country Abdulkarim was assisting was Iran. “We have seen a range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state, and as the director general of Mi5 (the UK’s domestic security service) said just the other week, we are working together to intervene, identify and respond to that threat,” Taylor added.
“The public can help us with this, and as always, I would urge them to report anything that they’re worried about – those reports can and do make a difference.” Earlier this month, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the suspected plot targeting RAF Fairford was “almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.” Iran has firmly rejected the accusations. US President Donald Trump praised the arrest of the men at the time, telling reporters that the US had worked with Britain and that the men arrested were planning to do “big damage” to RAF Fairford.
“We had them under view for a long time, and we got them,” Trump said. US intelligence had tracked planning by Iranian groups to target US assets at the base weeks ahead of any arrests, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Days after the initial arrests, the US moved all of its long-range bombers from RAF Fairford following an unspecified threat, a knowledgeable source said. At the time, Trump and Vice President JD Vance hinted that a threat against US assets had prompted the move.
Left out here: Drops what it reported before
CNN leaves Trump's claim that the US had the men "under view for a long time" standing alone. CNN's own earlier article said residents may have tipped off the authorities. Later court reporting said one of the five men called police himself after being warned of a bomb in the vans. Without this, a reader credits the arrests wholly to long US surveillance.
How we know
- CNN wrote earlier“Residents around RAF Fairford also may have tipped authorities off.”Two men rearrested on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service in RAF Fairford incident (opens in a new tab)
- Evening Standard reported“One of the five men tasked with driving to the base called police in the early hours of September 27 after the organiser warned the group of a bomb in the vans”RAF Fairford ‘plot co-ordinated by handler working on behalf of Iran’ (opens in a new tab)
“I think we can say that — I mean, they didn’t fly out by accident,” Trump said. “There were some threats, and rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy. But why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit.” Vance said the move was made “out of an abundance of caution,” suggesting it was a response to a potential threat from Iran even as he declined to detail the specific concerns.
Read the original article on cnn.com (opens in a new tab)