CREDIT: Kagan Mcleod, National Post
Posted on 08/11/2006 8:31:07 AM PDT by GMMAC
Suspects watched since last year
Alleged plot involved liquid explosives in drink containers, soap bottles
Joseph Brean
National Post
Friday, August 11, 2006
24 suspects arrested by British police in connection with alleged plot to set off "multiple explosions on multiple planes."
10 flights were reported to be the sites of explosions to occur in waves as planes headed to cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
3,500 passengers is about what 10 fully loaded airliners would hold. As one official put it, the plot involved "mass murder on an unimaginable scale."
CREDIT: Kagan Mcleod, National Post
LONDON - British police yesterday arrested 24 suspects while breaking up an alleged terrorist plot to smuggle liquid explosives in items such as drink containers and shampoo bottles aboard as many as 10 U.S.-bound passenger jets and detonate them in mid-air.
Bombs, including detonators disguised as electronic devices such as camera flashes, were to be taken in parts through British airports, and assembled and detonated in flight, according to John Reid, the Home Secretary. He said the death toll would have been "on an unprecedented scale."
In a series of raids in and around London and Birmingham on Wednesday night and early yesterday, police arrested 24 people, as yet identified as predominantly British-born and of Pakistani descent.
They were being questioned yesterday at central London police stations. ABC News reported late last night that five suspects were still being sought. The arrests came as a result of surveillance of a suspected Islamist extremist network that began last year, officials with Scotland Yard said.
CNN, citing unnamed sources, said last night an undercover British operative had infiltrated the alleged terror cell and two of those arrested travelled to Pakistan recently and met with a person believed to be an al-Qaeda operative.
According to The Times of London, the assets of 19 of the suspects had been frozen, and a so-called "martyrdom video" had been found allegedly featuring one of the suspects.
The plot's targets included United, Continental and American Airlines flights, which fly into major U.S. airports, The Associated Press reported. Security sources told the BBC the plot was to be carried out within 48 hours. However, British police have said only that it was not imminent.
Mr. Reid said he believes all the "main players" are accounted for, but he said the investigation is "complex and ongoing."
It has been directed at "meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people," he said.
"We are confident that we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction and to commit, quite frankly, mass murder ... on an unimaginable scale," said Paul Stephenson, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. He said the plot had "global dimensions."
Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, on holiday in the Caribbean, was consulted before the raids and later spoke by phone with U.S. President George W. Bush and British Muslim leaders.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Bush thanked Britain for "busting this plot," and said it is "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom."
Michael Chertoff, the Secretary for Homeland Security, said U.S. involvement in the investigation began in the past two weeks or so when it became clear that there was "an accelerated plan" against U.S. targets specifically.
"There were very concrete steps underway to execute all elements of this plan," Mr. Chertoff said. "They [the alleged plotters] had accumulated the capabilities necessary, and they were well on their way."
British authorities, who are constrained in what they can say by criminal trial procedure, did not confirm this, nor did they say whether they had found any bombs or bomb-making equipment.
Mr. Chertoff said all incoming British flights yesterday were to be assigned the highest level, red, on the U.S. terror-threat scale.
Additional U.S. federal air marshals have been dispatched to Britain to monitor future America-bound flights. Both Mr. Chertoff and Alberto Gonzales, the U.S. Attorney-General, said the alleged plot was suggestive of al-Qaeda involvement.
British police were also aided in their investigation by Pakistani intelligence agencies, The Times reported. The plot echoes the failed January, 1995, "Bojinka" plan of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to destroy 11 passenger jets over the Pacific Ocean. The tactic of in-flight suicide bombing was also attempted, on a smaller scale, by Richard Reid, a British Muslim convert who tried but failed to detonate a shoe bomb on a U.S.-bound flight shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
Britain's national threat level for international terrorism, set by a joint committee of security services and police, was elevated at 2 a.m. yesterday from severe to critical, its highest level, which means an attack is expected imminently.
Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of Transport, ordered heightened security on all flights, which caused havoc in the British travel industry. By mid-morning London time, only planes already in the air were getting permission to land at Heathrow. Others were diverted to airports in Britain and elsewhere.
All departing passengers were submitted to intense security procedures, with all liquids and gels banned from the cabin, except for baby formula and medicine. The only hand luggage permitted was a clear plastic bag for a wallet and passport.
In Canada, the Ministry of Transport said yesterday passengers would not be allowed to bring liquids or gels in hand luggage. Those restrictions will remain "until further notice."
British Airways cancelled 204 of 550 scheduled morning flights out of Heathrow yesterday, and at smaller airports some budget and charter airlines were completely closed down. EasyJet and Ryanair cancelled 300 and 104 flights respectively, leaving thousands of vacationers stranded, either at home or far from it.
Increased police presence was also evident yesterday on the London Underground, which last July 7 was the target of four young, male, British-born Islamist suicide bombers, who killed 52 innocent people with backpack bombs.
Police have not released the names of any of those arrested in the raids, but said all were detained on the suspicion of the instigation, preparation or commission of acts of terrorism.
Hazel Kleinman, 65, who lives next door to one raided house in a working-class area of northeast London, said her dog alerted her to the commotion at around 2 a.m. yesterday, and she has not seen her neighbours since. She identified them as Marilyn Moseley, a white British non-practising Christian woman in her fifties, and her husband, Ibrahim, known as Abe, a slightly older semi-retired British architect of Iranian descent.
"When we go on holiday, they look after our house," she said.
She said they moved into the house in the late 1970s when Mrs. Moseley was pregnant with their son Oliver, now about 27. Before that, they had lived in Canada, where Mrs. Moseley has family.
The older of the couple's two sons, Adam, no longer lives at the address, she said. Oliver, the younger son, is tall and broad, wears a full beard and white robes, and is a more observant Muslim than his father, who normally wears jeans, Ms. Kleinman said. She believes Oliver is high school-educated but unemployed, and spends most of his time "off in his car" with friends.
"When he was little, he was very friendly, he used to come and play with my daughters," she said. Nowadays, he is cordial, she said.
Five homes in the vicinity were also raided and searched.
Victor Prado, who runs a convenience store across the street from another of them, said two young men, both bearded but dressed in Western clothes, moved in last month after the house was repossessed and sold. Land registry records show it sold in July for about $280,000, it was reported.
John Weir, 50, a witness to the raid on Wednesday night around 10:30, told reporters he saw police searching the apartment by flashlight, deliberately not turning on the house lights.
Mr. Reid, the Home Secretary, appealed for calm and vigilance among the public. "We are involved in a long, wide and deep struggle against very evil people." he said. "There is common cause among all people in this country because the threat is common to us all."
He praised the police for making the difficult decision to intervene in a terrorism investigation, which was done with the support of the government.
© National Post 2006
PING!
I wonder what would have happened if two terrorists that came to our shores in March of 2000 would have been watched...
Not a bad way of putting it.
What leavel of lethargy do you have to attain to maintain the adjective of "Christian" and yet gain the adjective of "non-practicing"?
[SILLY PYTHON VOICE]
"Oh, my yes, I belive in Jesus Christ, but that doesn't stop me from helping my Iranian husband in his quest to slaughter the Infidels."
[/SILLY PYTHON VOICE)
ROTFL.....
"It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world." [FReeper Retief]
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