I gave police intel on 7/7 bombers a year before deadly attack…my blood ran cold when I realised they ignored it
BUNGLING terror services failed to act on intel about two of the 7/7 bombers a YEAR before the attack, a crime gang whistleblower has revealed.
Retired accountant Paul Blanchard — who briefly worked for close associates of infamous criminal John “Goldfinger” Palmer between 1999 and 2001 — gave a fax to security services in 2004 naming bombing terrorists Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.
A year later they were among four suicide bombers who blew up tube trains and buses in London, killing 52 people.
Today, in an exclusive interview on the 18th anniversary of the harrowing attacks, Paul explains how he believes the security services either failed to investigate or ignored his tip.
He said: “Someone has to answer to this. If they had followed my intel the attacks may not have happened.”
Paul, 78, who claims to have gathered the information while working for Spanish security services, added: “I had been profiling a man we suspected of terror links and had found out some of his associates, friends and contacts. Among these names were Sidique Khan and Tanweer.
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‘I could have looked in the whites of their eyes’
“I didn’t know them from Adam but knew that they should have been monitored, so I listed them as ‘known associates’.
“I handed this to Special Branch who said they passed it to our security services 12 months before the attack.
“My blood went cold when I realised they missed the killers after my tip. I felt anger, frustration and great sadness for the people who died in the London bombings.
“I fear Special Branch and security services have questions to answer.”
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Paul, who was jailed for separate fraud offences in 2006, is revealing his documents for the first time as he launches a legal fight to clear his name.
The fax he sent to an agent of North Yorkshire Police’s Special Branch on July 21, 2004, lists Tanweer and Sidique Khan as “known associates” of a suspected terror fundraiser, who we cannot name for legal reasons.
Paul today also shares a police witness statement of the Special Branch agent in which he admits receiving a fax from Paul and passing it on to security services.
The revelation that more could have been done to monitor two of the killers will add to the pain of loved ones of the 7/7 atrocities who are marking the 18th anniversary of the attacks.
On July 7, 2005, four bombers blew up trains and buses as London’s commuters went to work.
Father-of-one Khan, 30, detonated a bomb on the Circle line at Edgware Road tube at 8.50am, killing six.
Seven died when Tanweer, 22, blew up a train at Aldgate.
The British-born pair had made the bombs before travelling to London.
The two others were Germaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain.
Someone has to answer to this. If they had followed up on my intel the attacks may not have happened.
Paul Blanchard
Lindsay detonated his bomb in the front carriage of a packed tube train, just after it pulled out of King’s Cross station. Twenty-six people were killed.
Hussain set off his device on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. He killed 13 people.
Paul’s entanglement in the criminal underworld came in 1999 when he began working for businessman Mohamed Derbah, the right-hand man of John Palmer.
Their lives were dramatised in the BBC’s Gold drama earlier this year.
He said: “After two years of working for them, I quickly realised it was not above board — it was fraud. So in July 2001 I went to the Spanish police, who then put me in touch with Spanish intelligence. It resulted in Derbah and 17 of his accomplices being arrested.
“The next year, as I was cooperating with Spanish police, they recruited me as an agent.
“They seemed most interested in terror links, the IRA and Islamic terror groups.
“It took me to all kinds of places that were quite frightening.”
Later that year, Paul claims to have met fundraisers for an Islamic terror group.
He said: “We initially met at a service station off the M6. They wanted to discuss using offshore companies to hold their money.
“We then had a meeting at the Meridian Hotel in London. The fundraiser and seven associates turned up.
"I have no idea whether Sidique Khan and Tanweer were among them.
“I remember their names popping up in paperwork and dealings, so I listed them as associates of the fundraiser.
“It’s frightening now that I could have looked them in the whites of their eyes and not known what horrors they would go on to commit.”
In May 2004, Paul was summoned by Spanish intelligence to review the documents of one of the Islamic group’s main associates.
It was then that he came across the names of Sidique Khan and Tanweer.
He said: “I was called into Malaga police station and asked to look through the mobile and files of paperwork that had been seized in the arrest of this associate.
“I trawled through them all and wrote down any numbers, nicknames or names of people who appeared to be linked to the group.
“I saw Tanweer and Sidique Khan’s names. They were mentioned as people this person dealt with so I noted them down as people of interest.”
‘I feel sorry for loved ones of those killed’
He then claims to have sent CGI, the Spanish security services, information on the Islamic group, but says he later fell out with his handlers after they accused him of being indiscreet about his dealings when interviewed separately by Spanish police.
On July 1, 2004, Paul was arrested in the UK over his association with the men he said Spanish security services had ordered him to follow.
When he told them of his work for the CGI, he asked to speak to British security services — and when he mentioned to them who he had been looking at, they asked him to share the details.
In a document seen by The Sun, Paul sent a fax to a Special Branch agent in which he names two of the 7/7 bombers.
In a witness statement for the police in 2007, which was obtained for Paul’s fraud trial, the agent wrote: “The only time I recollect speaking to Mr Blanchard again was on or about July 21 2004 when he rang me in the office and wanted to fax me some details to pass on to the Security Service.
He did this and I passed the details on.”
Paul had just got off a flight into the UK from Marbella when he saw news of the 2005 terror attack.
He said: “I was horrified, like the rest of the world.
"I did wonder whether anyone I had dealt with was involved.”
Paul was jailed in 2006 over actions he maintains he had carried out while working for the CGI.
He claims that his then-lawyers said a junior had “misplaced” some crucial memos and evidence which show his spy link.
All his assets were immediately frozen.
It was not until he got out and had new lawyers in 2011 that they went to his former solicitors’ offices and found the documents.
The lawyers then uncovered the two names of the bombers in his fax to security services.
He said: “I had a mix of emotions. One was anger that the security services had done nothing or failed to stop these people.”
In 2019, Spanish police tried to extradite him from the country.
But these crucial documents have played a part in him winning his case.
Paul, who has just written a book about his time undercover, is speaking out now as his assets have just been unfrozen and he is using his money and this evidence to clear his name.
He said: “I feel so sorry for the loved ones of those killed.
“I am speaking out now as I want my separate conviction for fraud quashed and will fight it legally.
“These were all things I did while working for Spanish security services, who have since washed their hands with me.
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“I have a chance for redemption. But sadly those who died in 7/7 don’t.”
A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police declined to comment.
