Months before the deadly July 7th suicide bombings in London, Saudi Arabia told the British and US governments that it had arrested a young Saudi man who confessed to raising money in the Gulf region for a terrorist attack in crowded areas of the British capital this summer, officials said.
The Saudis obtained information that the attack would involve explosives and a Syrian contact for financing, and that at least some of the four attackers would be British citizens, according to officials in several countries with direct access to the information.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information remains classified, cautioned that the current investigation has not connected any players from the July attacks to the original Saudi warning and that the information last December did not provide attackers' names, a date, specific location or time of attack.
But they said the information gleaned from the suspect after he was captured returning to the kingdom was detailed enough to heighten British concerns about the possibility of an attack around July in crowded sections of London, including in nightclubs, one US official said.
It added to numerous other pieces of intelligence flowing into Western governments that pointed to such threats, the officials told The Associated Press.
The British government said it does not comment on specific intelligence, but "takes all reports of alleged or possible terrorist threats or activity extremely seriously, and all reports are thoroughly investigated."
The British government also said its relationship with Saudi intelligence agencies is growing. "The UK and Saudi Arabia continue to strengthen their already excellent counter-terrorism bilateral co-operation. But for obvious security reasons, we do not go into any detail," the British Embassy in Washington said in a statement.