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.
Actually, I disagree with you. I sure won't think I deserve the panic--I have to way to demand that every Mosque be videotaped. Do you have some way of making that happen?
Speak with your Mayor, City Manager, police chief or senior officials, local FBI office, agent in charge, and military intel officers. Get the bug in their minds.
Wouldn't it be more prudent to have all 6,000 armed? Preferably with submachine guns. However they probably can't scrape up more 3,000 police who are qualified to be armed, or even that know which end of the tube the bullets come out of. :)
OTOH, the 3,000 armed police they do have might be more effectively employed storming a few mosques, particularly the one that seems to have been the common factor in all these bombings and attempted bombings.
Maybe there's some soft spoken quiet men making their way around the country helping these young muslims reach their matyr's reward a little sooner than they had planned.
WTF?
Oh yeah? Ask the Lord Mayor of London what he thinks about suicide bombers. He'll tell you that they're justified.
The mere fact that the brits elected and are not making an effort to recall boneheads like Livingstone and Galloway speaks volumes about the Brits IMHO.
Wish it weren't so, but I'm afraid it is.
"When did he give the date?"
That date's been floating around the net for as long as the suitcase nukes story has been out there. If memory serves, the deal was there would be lots of little terror events globally leading up to the big attack here. Dates given: 8-6 or 9-11. Sorry, no source. Just my leaky recollection.
Police protection is good, but...
this is a war.
Where are the troops?
That "every other Thursday" thing seems to be their pattern, doesn't it?
Looks like I'm going to be going from one war zone to another on vacation in a couple of weeks....
It's also a term frequently used in war zones.
And war zones can feel somewhat "prison-like."
Reading "The Haj" by Leon Uris will increase your understanding of the infantilism and crazed nastiness of these cranks...
Most of them don't have proper firearms training and hence are more likely to be a danger to themselves and the public if armed.
The Met Police firearms unit, who are trained, generally seem to hit whatever they're shooting at.
Unfortunately what they're shooting at is not always what they're supposed to be shooting at and they were already subject to various court actions even prior to shooting Mr Menezes for shooting people who weren't armed, were the wrong people and so on.
So heaven knows what the untrained ones would be like when let loose with firearms. I'd prefer to avoid finding out.
Gee, I've been hoping we'll see another goofy Not-In-Our-Name million-moron march in London and other Euro cities. Seems like we haven't heard from those folks in a while.
Indeed, I'm sure that many of the London marchers are starting to see things differently now that they've had a terror attack on their own soil. Let's hope that the Brits, now, see the folly in giving radical Islamist sanctuary in their country.
George, do you live in that big white house on Pensilvania Avenue?
I don't have any expertise on this subject, so say this with some diffidence, but -
on the face of it seems common sense that a police force in which the only armed officers are those who have volunteered, been vetted and intensively trained for the purpose is likely to be be more effective and safer in the use of those arms than a force where every officer carries a gun as a matter of course, whatever his competence. I'm not suggesting this is an argument against routinely arming police, but simply that when guns are actually used the average level of competence is likely to differ.
What I am curious about is just how long PC will last. A hypothetical: London is bombed again, with large loss of life like this time. The U.K. reacts how, to a second bombing. Ok, now its bombed a third time. And then a forth. What would the response by the U.K. gov't to a series of bombings, one after the other, spaced by let's see, about 3 weeks to a month apart. When does the U.K. reach it's limit, and what would that reaction be, when the limit is reached? At what point would the U.K. revoke all visas of muslim foreigners, or intern them, or kick all of them out, including those that have British citizenship?
What do you think will be the natural progression, or do you think that London (and the whole of the U.K.) will just continue to "take it" in the jugular, time after time after time. I wonder when a country (that includes ours) opts for extremist measures to counteract extremist terrorism, and how many of their own citizens have to die before that level is reached. Just been mulling this over in my mind. What think you?
Give 'em a little time. It will be worse than mosque torching sooner than later. Where's the IRA when you need them?
It's the same way in Canada...the government is totally nuts up there...
That's "asian" young man.
A number of years ago, a prophetic word came out about praying for our school busses. I think that's a great idea NOW due to the crazies who live and work here.
Soccer's what they play most. Midnight soccer....
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