Posted on 08/11/2006 7:11:41 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
Terrorists were planning to unleash a series of deadly mid-air explosions on flights between London and America on August 16, it has been revealed today.
Members of the terror group, who were arrested in a series of raids by anti-terror police yesterday, were due to mount a dry run today to check if they could smuggle components for liquid explosives through Britain's airports.
United Airline tickets dated next Wednesday were found by police at the home of one of the raided addresses.
One US intelligence official told today's Evening Standard: "The bombers were a couple of days from a test, and a few days from doing it."
The airlines targeted were United, American and Continental, which fly to New York, Washington and California.
Today the Bank of England named and froze the assets of 19 of the 24 air terror suspects arrested. The bank was acting under the instruction of Chancellor Gordon Brown and on the advice of the police and security services.
It acted under powers granted by the United Nations to tackle the financing of terrorism in the wake of the September 11 2001 attacks. Its action means it is a crime to make their money available without a licence from the Treasury.
The oldest of the named suspects is 35 and the youngest 17. Thirteen of them are from east London - nine from Walthamstow, one from Chingford, one from Leyton, one from the Limehouse and Poplar area and one from Clapton.
Four are from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and the other two are from Birmingham and Stoke Newington, north London.
The imam of Walthamstow mosque, where many of the suspects live, urged the Muslim community to remain calm and assist the police in their inquries. The unnamed imam added: "We'd like to remind people that the suspects are innocent until proven guilty."
Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani government official said today that two British nationals arrested in Pakistan provided information about the alleged UK air terror plot.
The UK remains on a "critical" level of alert against terrorism and air passengers at UK airports are expected to face widespread disruption again today following the introduction of new anti-terrorism measures yesterday including a ban on hand luggage.
The plot, which was described as an attempt to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" by blowing up passenger jet, may have been thwarted just days before it was due to be carried out.
Quick comments:
1) Wondering if somehow the timing of this foiled attack was coordinated between Al Queda and Iran, remember Iran has their August 22nd "day of joy" planned. While AQ and Iran hated each other in the 90's they seem to be collaberating actively these days. If we were hit this way we perhaps could not react as well if Iran made moves.
2) For those of you I argued with about Musharref who thought Musharref was an enemy not an ally or that the Bush Administration was throwing it's money away on him, you were wrong.
Musharref needed time to change his pro-AQ intelligence service slowly but surely. Imagine if in the USA our army was loyal to the POTUS but all of out intelligence services protected terrorists! Our investment in Musharref is just starting to pay dividends. The guy has had numerous assasination attempts on his life and tremendous pressure every minute of his life for trying to do the right thing for mankind and his country.
I still worry about Pakistan and what will happen when this man is gone, but for now the decision to engage him the way we did just saved us a couple of thousand lives and another half trillion dollars in money from an economy that would have sagged like it did after 9/11.
"It acted under powers granted by the United Nations..."
Even more chilling.
When we and Britain get out of the UN, our countries...and all other countries on this planet, will be a lot safer, freer, and more prosperous.
>Tell your child that next year our birthday is supposed to be extra special since its 07/07/07.<
Don't I know it. The little princess turns (GASP) 18! I've been instructed that the auspicious day is to be grand indeed.
Before that, I have to get through the Man of the House turning the big 5.0. I'm practicing on that tiny violin every chance I get (evil grin).
Weren't they saying on Fox this morning that a women with a 6 month old baby was in custody with her baby. She would kill her baby and they let her keep the baby in jail with her?
Heard a report today that some people were patted down yesterday. Gotta keep that up. Maybe it was on Rush's show. Rush's fill-in did say Sondra or Sandra, whatever her first name is, Bernhardt (the ugly woman who played/is gay on the Roseann Show) saying she was going to make a scene at the airport today to take her liquid something on board.
I have a VFW calendar, and according to it, August 16th is National Airborne Day.
I had a similiar experience on a flight from Orlando to Chicago back in July of 2004. When I got home and read this account I was even more 'freaked out.' On that flight I remember trying to figure out what could be used as a weapon. I remember very much thinking if I was going to be killed by terrorists I would die fighting. PS> I just checked my records...it was a NorthWest flight as well.
We need to stay on guard though. There may be a backup plan.
One was a woman? I wondered about baby bottles.
Happy Birthday to me! :^/
8-16-58
Happy Birthday you little whippersnapper. Glad they didn't add this stain to our birthday. Elvis' death is a bad enough stain. Especially here in North Mississippi.
Could be worse. You could have to share the 19th.
On a Mideast Live Thread (8/9 Middle East Live Thread) harwood posted a link with pictures of Iranian women in full black burqas scaling a wall in an Iranian terrorist training camp.
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&langpair=ar%7Cen&u=http://www.palestinianforum.net/forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D76919&prev=/language_tools
"The funny thing is we have a well dug for outside watering. We recently bought a hand pump for spot watering without using the electric pump. I think I need to do some research on how to make this drinkable water."
Chlorine. One or two small drops for five gallons of water.
You can also boil it also for 2-3 minutes. I have a 20,000 gallon pool. I'll drink that if I had too LOL.
"I had a similiar experience on a flight from Orlando to Chicago back in July of 2004"
Have you tried documenting your expierience like she did? Then report it to the FBI, and if they won't listen then go to a friedly media
"I had a similiar experience on a flight from Orlando to Chicago back in July of 2004"
Have you tried documenting your expierience like she did? Then report it to the FBI, and if they won't listen then go to a friendly media
"Elvis dies on my 13th birthday..."
Buck up youngster, it could be worse. Elvis' death came on my 19th birthday...which BTW was also my 6th day of basic training at Lackland AFB. We were still in the news blackout period so I didn't know about that until several days later.
"A successful "Dry Run" can transform into an actual attack in about ten seconds.
The majority of the terrorists may have been duped into believing the attack date was the 16th. The tickets would have assured them that the 10th was not the day they would die.
So called "dry runs" have been used before to give some of the mush brained fodder a false since of security during that day's event....less sweating for example :)
A fake dry run can also be used to detect if the plan has been discovered, in which case, all of the information related to the discovery of and reaction to the plan is factored into the real target and target date.
I think :)"
That's possible and interesting.
We will never be able to make our planes weapon free. We should concentrate more on making them terrorist free IMO.
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