Britain Charges Two in Iran Spy Case at U.S. Bomber Base. Trump Called It Three Weeks Ago: 'Linked to Iran'

British prosecutors on Tuesday charged two London men under the National Security Act in the investigation into RAF Fairford, the air base in Gloucestershire, England, that U.S. bombers flew from in the war with Iran. Police say the foreign spy service one of them is accused of helping is Iran's.

Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, a British national from Westminster, London, is charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service between Aug. 31 and Sept. 28. "In this case, we believe that country to be Iran," said Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, who heads Counter Terrorism Policing.

Nouman Essghir, also 24 and also from Westminster, is charged with being near a prohibited place on Aug. 22, five weeks before the night police swarmed the base, for a purpose that he "knew, or having regards to other matters known to him ought reasonably to have known, was prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom," according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Both men were due before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. They are charged, not convicted, and British law gives them the right to a fair trial.

Three weeks ago, President Trump pulled every U.S. bomber out of the base. Asked why, he told reporters the threat was real, and he named the country.

"They didn't fly out by accident," Trump said on the White House lawn on Oct. 5. "There were some threats. And rather than tempting the enemy, we'll capture the enemy and beat the enemy. But why should we leave them there?"

Minutes later he said Washington knows who was behind it, adding, "they've got themselves a big problem." A reporter asked if they were tied to Iran. "They would be linked to Iran," Trump said.

British police spent the next three weeks building toward the same word. On Oct. 20 they re-arrested two men on suspicion of helping a foreign spy service and said, for the first time on the record, "The country to which the investigation relates is Iran." Taylor said then that police considered it "highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement." Tuesday's charges are the first in the case.

The night of the three vans

Police got a call at about 12:45 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, about three suspicious vehicles that "appeared to be travelling towards the air base," Counter Terrorism Policing said that day. Armed officers arrested five men in nearby Whelford on suspicion of Explosives Act offences and then of preparing a terrorist act. Essghir was one of the five.

Military teams and forensic experts went over the vehicles. Police found "no improvised explosive devices," Taylor said on Sept. 29. "However, a quantity of petrol was recovered." All five were out on bail by Sept. 28, a call Taylor defended as "an investigative decision" that "will have come as a surprise to many." A cordon around the base stayed up for days.

Two more men were arrested in Westminster within 10 days: a 25-year-old dual British-Iranian national on Oct. 1, and a 22-year-old British national on Oct. 6, both on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. The dual national was re-arrested on Oct. 20 on the spy-service suspicion and released without charge on Tuesday, though he stays on bail from his first arrest. Abdulkarim was not among the earlier arrests: detectives interviewed him under caution after the Oct. 20 re-arrests, and that interview led to his charge.

Why this base

RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force base that has served for decades as a forward operating location for U.S. heavy bombers. In this war it was the launch pad for American bombers heading to the Middle East, after Britain agreed to let it be used for strikes on Iran that London called defensive. That made it a target, and Trump moved the jets home rather than leave them parked under a live threat.

Britain's domestic spy chief says Fairford is part of a pattern. In his annual threat update on Oct. 13, MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum said, "Over the last twelve months, our Iran-linked operations have led to more than fifty arrests in the UK," and named the shift: "The other major shift this year has been Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets, like military sites."

Taylor said much the same on Tuesday: "We have seen a range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state."

What happens next

Abdulkarim's charge falls under Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023, which makes it a crime to engage in conduct likely to "materially assist a foreign intelligence service." It carries up to 14 years in prison. Essghir's Section 4 charge, being in or near a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to Britain, also carries up to 14 years. Six men remain on police bail, and police call it a live investigation.

Police have not said what the petrol was for, who sent the vehicles, or what Abdulkarim is accused of doing for Iran. The CPS warned against any reporting that could prejudice the case. What is on the record is enough: British police say Iran, MI5 says Iran is now going after military sites, and the president who moved the bombers said so first.