Posted on 08/11/2006 1:41:37 AM PDT by generalhammond
BRITAIN'S central bank froze the accounts and named 19 of the 24 men arrested in an alleged terror plot today, as it was reported that police had been tracking the plan since the London attacks in July last year.
The probe into the foiled plot to bomb US-bound airliners began in 2005 after the London subway bombings, involved up to 50 suspects and was wound up suddenly out of fear more conspirators could be at large, The Washington Post said today. The suspects were kept under close surveillance while they frequently modified their plans and prepared for a practice run that was to have taken place in the next few days, US and European counter-terrorism officials told the daily.
"It's not like three weeks ago all of a sudden MI5 knew about this plot and went to work," said a US law enforcement official, speaking of the British security service.
"They'd had a concern about these guys for some time - for months. Details started to emerge, and it became clear over the last couple weeks the nature of the threat and the individuals," said the official, who remained anonymous.
The plot was to blow up commercial airliners in mid-air with a peroxide-based compound, US counterterrorism officials said without giving the exact formula because, they said, the bomb ingredients are easy to obtain and difficult to detect.
The conspiracy to blow up as many as 10 airplanes using liquid explosives was announced early yesterday by British authorities, triggering heightened security measures in Britain and the United States and snarling air traffic both sides of the Atlantic.
Names released
The Bank of England today directed that any funds held for or on behalf of the (19) individuals must be frozen, and that no funds should be made available, directly or indirectly to any person, except under the authority of a licence.
"Financial institutions and other persons are requested to check whether they maintain any accounts or otherwise hold any funds, other financial assets, economic benefits and economic resources for the individuals named in the Annex and, if so, they should freeze the accounts or other funds and report their findings to the Bank of England," a statement from the bank said.
The nature of the threat has become increasingly clear today as Pakistan announced it had detained two more Britons who allegedly had full knowledge of the plane bombing plot.
24 men were arrested yesterday in raids after Britain said it had thwarted a plot to wreak "mass murder" by simultaneous mid-air bombings of commercial airliners travelling to the US.
The 19 men named by the Bank of England were Ahmed Abdula Ali, Cossor Ali, Khuram Shazad Ali, Nabeel Hussain, Tanvir Hussain, Umair Hussain, Umar Islam, Wassem Kayani, Abdullah Assan Khan, Arafat Waheed Khan, Adam Osman Khatib, Muneem Abdul Patel, Tayib Rauf, Usman Muhammed Saddique, Assad Sarwar, Ibrahim Savant, Asmin Amin Tariq, Mohammed Shamin Uddin, and Waheed Zaman.
The bank also published details of their ages, including members of the group aged just 17 and 18.
Attacks "days away"
US intelligence today said the group plotting to blow up US-bound flights from Britain, which reports said included an al-Qaeda commander still at large, were "a couple days from a test, and a few days from doing it" when they were arrested.
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said it would have been a disaster on the same scale as the September 11 attacks that killed almost 3000 people. Mr Chertoff said the plan would have involved co-ordinated multiple suicide bombings.
"If these plotters had succeeded in taking down multiple jets carrying hundreds of people, we would have seen a disaster on a scale comparable to 9/11 with hundreds and maybe thousands of people being killed," Mr Chertoff said.
He said al-Qaeda might have been involved, that the US was in a race against "terrorist ingenuity" and that the sophisticated plot was "in the top level of the kind of terrorist activities we've seen over the past 10 years".
President George W. Bush tightened airline security and said the plot was a "stark reminder" the US was "at war with Islamic fascists".
About 10 trans-Atlantic flights were targeted, including those of US and British airlines but possibly others as well, an intelligence official said.
Suspects missing
US broadcaster ABC News reported today that five people suspected of participating in the plot, including its ringleader, were missing and being hunted by police.
The ABC network also reported that at least two of the US suspects had prepared martyrdom tapes.
The suspects were "still at large and are being urgently hunted," ABC reported, citing US officials who had been briefed on the airplane bombing plot.
Quoting Pakistani officials, ABC identified the ringleader as Matiur Rehman, said to be a 29-year-old al-Qaeda commander.
The officials said that Rehman was known to be planning a "terror spectacular" to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the US. The London plan might well have been it, ABC said.
"Unimaginable scale"
London police's Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said: "We are confident we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction.
"Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."
More arrests have not been ruled out, but British police have refused to comment on reports up to ten suspects are still at large.
A US Homeland Security department official said all the people held in Britain were British citizens.
Raids were carried out in the capital London, southeast England and Britain's second city, Birmingham. Britain's Home Office Minister John Reid said police were confident the main players had been detained.
Delays
Departure halls were jammed with people overnight as airlines cancelled flights. Hand luggage and liquids were banned from planes, and passengers with babies were made to publicly taste their food.
"It's tough. We have nine pieces of luggage and we are going to have to bring it all to the hotel and back," said Michael Suncin, who was en route to Sweden and standing in a long queue for hotel reservations at London's main Heathrow airport.
In the US, authorities banned liquids and gels from flights.
In Britain, all hand luggage was banned, and passengers were allowed on board only with a single clear plastic bag of items on an official list.
Australia has updated its travel warning to the United Kingdom but not the level of terror threat at home as security experts said it was safe to fly here. Last night Qantas announced it had banned liquids in cabin baggage on all its flights to and from the US.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today he was unaware of specific information about liquid explosives being brought to the Government's notice previously. “In relation to regional airports we have put considerable effort into expanding the way in which we deal with security at those locations but you also have to look at what evidence you have that the particular threat that they have faced in the UK is one that would be possible here,” Mr Ruddock told ABC Radio.
“People have to know and plan and they have to be capable of implementing the sort of threat that we have seen there.
“We have no specific intelligence that people in Australia have that awareness or any such plans.”
Mr Ruddock said Australian airports had the capacity to deal with carry-on luggage and implement appropriate checks if available intelligence suggested that was required.
"It will have implications for those travelling to the UK and obviously the UK has made it known that people looking to travel to the UK should postpone plans if they are not essential,” he said.
British security sources said they had been watching the suspects for eight months. They did not rule out an al-Qaeda link, but played down direct involvement by the militant group.
No Jews, Catholics or Baptists either.
were their civil rights violated? were they illegally wiretapped? *whispers*Rovvve!*whispers*
and no Budhists, Jehova Witnesses, or Mormons either!
LOL -- and no Methodists or Hindu's either...lol.
Just the religion of peace followers.
Gosh, I hope their phone calls weren't monitored.
Brian Williams [NBC] reported live from England. If I got it right, he had just flown there with his family, and he was sounding very conservative and real. None of the usual past-overs...mitigating "threats" and interviewing the inconvenienced. I said to myself, "they're finally 'getting it'. Or at least he is.
I listened in on Carl Castle [NPR] and his selected moonbats...and they seemed to be straining their brains to come up with the usual anti-Bush tripe.....sounded like they were hearing how stupid they sounded for the first time. There was a palpable panic as they tried to maintain their erstwhile credibility with the useful idiots.
Then there's the Lieberman affair. The Dems are in a death spiral. I think he's the next senator from CT. Hubris and miscalculation...they've signed their own death warrant, I think.
I couldn't help thinking this was a good day for reality, common sense; and a dose of caffeine for the good people of the world. I feel a new breeze a'blowin'.
Pardon my optimism.
Well said.
No Protestants either!
... but there were a bunch of grey-haired grandmothers with knitting needles, right? Right?
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