Police Nab 'Conspirators' in UK Terror Killing

Meanwhile, reports identify second alleged stabber
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2013 7:53 AM CDT
Police Nab 'Conspirators' in UK Terror Killing
Police officers guard a flat as it is being searched at Greenwich, southeast London, Thursday, May 23, 2013.   (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The plot to kill a soldier in the streets of London may have gone deeper than the two men who hacked Lee Rigby to death. Police yesterday arrested two more people, a man and a woman, both 29, as suspected conspirators in the attack, the Wall Street Journal reports. They also searched the homes of six people—including, reportedly, suspect Michael Adebolajo's father's home. Neither these two conspirators nor the wounded alleged killers have been charged yet.

Other developments include:

  • Police also haven't identified any of the suspects, but Adebolajo's name was widely reported yesterday, and today the Telegraph has identified the other alleged knife-man as the confusingly similarly named Michael Adebowale, 22. Neighbors identified Adebowale after police armed with submachine guns raided his flat yesterday, emerging with two children, a baby, and two large envelopes.
  • Adebowale was apparently known for distributing radical Islamist leaflets, and his girlfriend had recently converted to Islam. "When you walked past, you would hear them singing Muslim songs," one neighbor says, adding that she "saw the man who was in the video go inside the house. I think he was a boyfriend."
  • Rigby, "was due to come up this weekend," his wife tells the Guardian. "You don't expect it to happen when he's in the UK. You think they're safe."
  • The Daily Mirror has uncovered video that purports to show the two suspects rushing at police and getting shot.
  • There's also been a great deal of hand-wringing over MI5's failure to identify the stabbers ahead of time. David Cameron is calling for an investigation to determine "what went wrong" at the intelligence agency.
  • Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has promised just such an investigation. But he also defended the agency to the BBC, saying it was "difficult in a free society to be able to control everyone."
(More Michael Adeboloja stories.)

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