Quote: 'No evidence' Westminster attacker associated with Islamic State, police say
Police have found no evidence that the man who killed four people in London last week was associated with the Islamic State group or al-Qaida, a senior British counter terrorism officer said today.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu of the Metropolitan Police said Westminster attacker Khalid Masood clearly had "an interest in jihad," but police have no indication he discussed his attack plans with others.
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Basu, who also serves as Britain's senior national coordinator for counter terrorism policing, said Thursday's attack, in which Masood ran down pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing a policeman guarding Parliament, "appears to be based on low-sophistication, low-tech, low-cost techniques copied from other attacks."
Masood was shot dead by police after his deadly rampage, which police have revealed lasted just 82 seconds.
Police believe Masood, a 52-year-old Briton with convictions for violence who had spent several years in Saudi Arabia, acted alone, but are trying to determine whether others helped inspire or direct his actions.
Detectives overnight continued to question a 30-year-old man arrested yesterday and a 58-year-old man arrested shortly after Thursday's attack.
Both were detained in the central England city of Birmingham, where Masood had recently lived.
Prime Minister Theresa May said last week that Masood was "a peripheral figure" in an investigation into violent extremism some years ago.
But Basu said he was not a "subject of interest" for counter terrorism police or the intelligence services before last week's attack.
Masood was born Adrian Elms, but changed his name in 2005, suggesting a conversion to Islam.
Basu said there was no sign Masood was radicalised during one of his stints in prison, the last of which was in 2003.
"I know when, where and how Masood committed his atrocities, but now I need to know why," Basu said.
"Most importantly, so do the victims and families."
As Basu appealed for anyone who spoke to Masood on the day of the attack to come forward, the British government repeated calls for tech companies to give police and intelligence services access to encrypted messages exchanged by terrorism suspects.
Masood used the messaging service WhatsApp just before he began his attack.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said yesterday that such services must not "provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other."
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