Posted on 07/31/2005 5:46:16 PM PDT by Pikamax
London faces lockdown to thwart third terror strike By Daniel McGrory and Sean O’Neill
THOUSANDS of police marksmen will be on London’s streets and rooftops again today after warnings that another team of suicide bombers is plotting a third attack on the capital. The new group is believed to be made up of British Muslims who were understood to be close to staging an attack on the Underground network last week. According to security sources the men are thought to be of Pakistani origin but born and brought up in this country. They have links with the Leeds-based terrorist cell that staged the July 7 attacks, in which 52 innocent people died.
Even with the transport system so heavily guarded, police and intelligence sources believe that the bombers are intent on once more attacking London’s bus and Underground network. Another multiple suicide strike is also intended to demonstrate how the network can call on more recruits. The men are said to have access to explosives.
US security sources said yesterday that this third group of would-be bombers met at Finsbury Park mosque in North London, where some of the July 7 terrorists are also known to have stayed. There are reports that this team originally planned to strike last Thursday, which is why more than 6,000 police, half of them armed, were present at Underground stations. Scotland Yard said at the time that this exercise, the biggest since the Second World War, was to test their resources and reassure a nervous public.
As commuters return to work today police chiefs say that the arrest of five suspected bombers in house raids in Birmingham, London and Rome has not ended this threat. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the anti-terrorist branch, said: “The threat remains and is very real.”
There is concern among ministers and police at how long officers can continue such an intensive operation to “lock down” London while a threat remains. Although reinforcements have been brought in and leave has been cancelled, resources are stretched to keep up the guard on the capital, which is costing £500,000 a day. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, admitted that his officers were “very, very tired”.
While the priority is to thwart another strike, police are still investigating links between the attacks on July 7 and the botched operation a fortnight later. They are also hunting for what officers describe as “key logistical players” behind the attacks.
Seven more people — six men and a woman — were arrested in raids in Brighton yesterday, bringing the number of people under arrest in Britain to 18. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “This is a further indication of the fact this is a fast-moving investigation and we continue to progress. We are searching for other people in connection with this ongoing inquiry.
“There were quite a few other people involved in the incidents of the 7th and the 21st. It’s extremely likely there will be other people involved in harbouring, financing and making the devices.”
The major link between the two sets of bombers is that the alleged leaders of both groups attended Finsbury Park mosque. Experts are studying similarities between the bombs used on July 7 and 21.
Anti-terrorism officers are still questioning four of the failed bombers at Paddington Green police station while a fifth member of the team is being interrogated in Rome.
Hussain Osman, who tried to blow up a Tube train at Shepherds Bush, told Italian police that the devices were only meant to scare passengers, not injure them. Scotland Yard dismissed that claim as “nonsense”.
The devices, hidden in rucksacks, were studded with razor sharp nails and only failed to explode because of a clumsy mistake by the bombmaker. Sir Ian Blair said that the bombs were designed to kill and that London had a lucky escape.
Ethiopian-born Hussain, 27, who has a British passport, claimed that the plot was orchestrated by another of those arrested on Friday, Muktar Said-Ibrahim. Hussain said that he had been recruited in an underground gym in Notting Hill.
Immigration officials are trying to find out how he managed to slip out of Waterloo station on a Eurostar train to Paris and make way to Italy where he met his brother, who lives in Rome. Officials want to know why Hussain, who says his real name is Hamdi Isaac and who has Italian citizenship, came to Britain posing as a Somali asylum-seeker in 1996.
There were reports last night that Muktar Said-Ibrahim, the suspected ringleader of the July 21 plot, was seen in Rome several weeks before the failed attacks. A mother and daughter living downstairs from the suburban flat where Hussain Osman was arrested on Friday, said that they had recognised Said-Ibrahim from footage of his arrest in London.
Two of Hussain’s brothers who live in Italy are also being held. One is accused of sheltering him; the second was picked up yesterday in the northern town of Brescia.
Italian police say they are using Hussain’s phone records to unpick the international network that has been helping him. Alfredo Mantovano, an Interior Ministry official, said that the network “confirms the presence in our country of autonomous Islamic cells . . . which could represent a concrete threat.” Italy is worried that it is the next target for Islamic terrorists.
My heart goes out to the Brits at the moment--but I think it's only a matter of time until the same things start happening here.
Anyone can be a Somali asylum seeker!
I guess another attack is due this Thursday, right?
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England's new KING ARTHUR:
America's new Hero for the new Millennium:
911 Lifesaving Hero:
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http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
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I think you're absolutely right. Everyone's wondering about the next 9/11, but I think a dude with a suicide belt or backpack is way more likely.
- ThreeTracks
Those poor people just need love and understanding. A little midnight football would go a long way.
I am really curious.....
it seems like everytime I hit "refresh" there is a story about another 4,5,6 terrorists being captured in England...
That is all within 3 weeks of their "first" terror attack...why have we seen less that that in 4 YEARS, here in the USA! There has got to be a lot more here than there!
Time to get off the defensive and onto the offensive. Time for internment camps.
Why is the Finsbury Park Mosque not a heap of smoldering rubble?
Islam is just a false religion that produces deadly results. It's always been that way, and continues to be that way. Islam is not a religion of peace. Even a cursory reading of its history and spread would bear that out. At least in its early years the jihadis would fight fair on a battlefield.
Mind you, the jihadis don't consider anyone to be a civilian - we're all targets.
If I were a dark skinned young man in London today, and the police said to stop and get down, I'd listen to them.
Broadcast a notice to all muslum people in London to report to the nearest police station within 24 hours where they will be questioned and issued an ID. After this, any muslum caught without the "pass" will be immediately put into custody. Your politically correct ways have gotten several hundred innocent Brits killed so far, and will get many more killed until you start rounding up muslums and testing them for jihad.
Sadily, we here in the United States are mired in the same old PC swamp...up to our eyeballs. I fear that a good many of us here will have to die at the hands of a crazed mohamadian before our leaders see fit to wage a proper war on islam.
Scrap my previous post....
B.O.
8/7 +/- 24 hrs.
Since 'lockdown' is a prison term, doesn't this mean that the city of London is now officially a prison... (I am not joking here.)
Sounds about right...
Sounds about right...
The Brits don't care to live.
There is concern among ministers and police at how long officers can continue such an intensive operation to “lock down” London while a threat remains.
Instead of locking down London, lock up everyone connected with the Finsbury Park mosque.
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