Arrest in London Terrorism Attacks Case - El-Nashar's Leeds University Bio Here (updated)
By Andrew Cochran
The suspected bombmaker in the London attacks, Magdy Asi el-Nashar, a 33-year-old chemist, has been arrested in Cairo, and Pakistani security detained 4 suspects there. El-Nashar is a former North Carolina State University graduate student who has been teaching at Leeds University. Steven Emerson has forwarded el-Nashar's biography at Leeds University, which you can download below (Word file). El-Nashar earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemistry and organic chemistry, respectively, at Cairo University. 
Download elnashars_bio.doc
Michael Cutler reminds me that his interests are noted as "biocatalytic materials and ...enzyme immobilization...biocatalysis and the design and operation of biocatalytic processes with potential for technical applications," which sounds to us laymen like the study of bio-chem warfare. (UPDATE: Some chemical engineers e-mailed me and said we shouldn't worry, with one pointing to this article and another sending us to this one. We appreciate the messages and links.)
Investigators are also probing the trip by dead bombing suspect Shahzad Tanweer to Pakistan, where he's believed to have visited a madrassa run by the radical Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group (LeT). See my post about that trip and see Evan Kohlmann's discussion of LeT, which was designated by the UN earlier this year after a long delay. Fox News reports late today that the FBI is investigating whether one of the dead bombers traveled to Ohio several years ago and whether he met convicted Al Qaeda associate Iyman Faris.
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