Posted on 07/02/2007 7:15:25 AM PDT by Clive
A COMBINATION of luck and incompetence prevented a terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport "on the scale of Lockerbie", according to a security expert.
As Alex Salmond pledged a swift return to "business as usual" after a Jeep carrying gas cylinders and petrol rammed into a packed terminal building on Saturday, Clive Fairweather advised the First Minister to be "more circumspect" following the first international terrorist attack to ever target Scotland.
It emerged yesterday that those responsible - one of whom remained critically ill in hospital after suffering massive burns - were not "home-grown" terrorists but had moved to Scotland only a few weeks ago. According to reports, two of the five people being held are foreign-born doctors working in UK hospitals.
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, linked the attack to "people who are associated with al-Qaeda".
There were unconfirmed reports that police were continuing to hunt at least one additional "key" suspect in the case.
Officers were last night continuing a forensic examination of a house in the Renfrewshire village of Houston as part of their investigation into the attack, following a dramatic dawn raid yesterday. Neighbours said two Asian men had been renting the property for the past two months. One of them was thought to be a doctor.
Yesterday, a controlled explosion was carried out on a car parked at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, where the Jeep's driver was being kept under armed guard. Police said the explosion was carried out as a precaution, and said no bomb had been found inside.
The green Jeep Cherokee was driven into the main doors of the airport before bursting into flames at about 3:15pm on Saturday.
Police moved swiftly to track down those believed to be behind the attack and the two failed car bombs discovered in central London on Friday. A 26-year-old man and 27-year-old woman were arrested on the M6 in Cheshire, while a 26-year-old man was arrested in Liverpool.
Over the weekend, forensic examinations were carried out at a house near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, where those arrested on the M6 were believed to live.
Neighbours said the property was rented by a doctor - named locally as Mohammed Asha - who is thought to be married with one young child.
Meanwhile, police last night refused to deny reports that American security services had been tipped off about a planned attack on Glasgow Airport.
Mr Salmond said such attacks, which put the UK on the highest possible state of alert, "had been planned for many times over".
He added: "Glasgow is a major city, and many major cities around the world have faced terrorist outrages. We never expected we were immune.
"It would be foolish to believe ourselves immune, which is why we prepared ourselves so well.
"We are not going to be dislocated, distracted. We are not going to be put off and [today] Scotland will be working as normal. That is the right way to respond to this sort of outrage."
Writing for The Scotsman, Mr Fairweather, a former member of the SAS who has advised on security arrangements at major buildings, including the Scottish Parliament, said: "Had the perpetrators of Saturday's crime had more efficient detonating devices, we could have been waking up to a tragedy on the scale of Lockerbie."
And he added: "Until we have got the forensic analysis, I don't think people should be upbeat or downbeat. I think maybe it would be wiser for Mr Salmond to be a bit more circumspect."
But Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, said the response from authorities needed to be "proportionate".
He added: "We will, of course, have to look into the precise details of the circumstances. However, we also have to strike a balance between access and safety."
He revealed the perpetrators were not Scottish born or bred.
"We have evidence to believe these people did not emanate from Scotland, apart from some evidence of them having resided here for a period of time."
John Neilson, assistant chief constable of Strathclyde Police, added: "The people we have in custody came to Scotland a short while ago to seek work."
Security sources said one possibility was that an attack on Scotland was timed to coincide with Fife-born Mr Brown becoming Prime Minister.
And Chris Bellamy, professor of military science at Cranfield University, warned that future attacks on the country were a distinct possibility.
He said: "I think [terrorists] will aim for places they have not concentrated on before, and that puts Scotland on the front line.
"It was a co-ordinated attack on London and Glasgow and both fortunately failed."
'Effectively bomb proof building' may be upgraded
THE passenger terminal targeted on Saturday is "effectively bomb proof", but airport sources admitted yesterday that further upgrades may be required.
It is understood the Glasgow Airport building was designed to withstand such an attack without the need for the additional protection of concrete barriers used elsewhere.
The terminal doors - which the blazing Jeep Cherokee may have been aimed for but missed - are built to the same standards as the rest of the exterior, sources said.
However, some passengers feared they had had a narrow escape. Janet Duncan, who was just 25ft from the vehicle, said: "I think it was aiming for the door - if it had gone through, there would have been disaster."
Others were critical of the evacuation of the terminal, saying they had been left in a café above the attack scene while the check-in hall below was cleared.
Cheyenne Montgomery, 39, said: "There were announcements saying there was no cause for alarm and an incident had happened in another part of the building, but when we saw smoke billowing up, we realised we were right on top of it."
BAA, which runs the airport, said the building was fully compliant with government safety specifications.
It said the damage caused by the attack was limited to the area around one door, and that check-in desks at that end of the building were able to operate normally when it reopened only 24 hours after the incident.
However, BAA has barred vehicles from the front of the terminal building at Glasgow and its other Scottish airports at Edinburgh and Aberdeen. It is not clear whether the measure will be permanent.
Chris Yates, an aviation security analyst for Jane's Airport Review, said this was likely.
"It's possible restrictions will remain in place on public vehicles; that is your car and my car being allowed to drive up close and personal to the terminal building. We won't be able to drop off or loiter," he said.
"Some airports have already banned anything other than authorised vehicles, such as coaches, taking passengers to the long-term car parks being allowed to go near terminals."
Gordon Dewar, the airport's managing director, said: "The terminal has been made safe and reopened, which will be accompanied by some fairly rapid running repairs.
"For the time being, no vehicles will be allowed outside the building, but we will be seeking guidance for the long term.
"We will make sure the drop-off area being established will be well advised, well managed and well run."
Mr Dewar said the terminal evacuation procedure was based on different zones.
He said: "There are very clear procedures and I have no doubt people were safe throughout."
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said enhanced security measures at crowded public places, such as airports, could be expected.
As an indication of this, British Transport Police were out in force yesterday at Glasgow Central - Scotland's busiest railway station - where one half of each of the huge double gates at its main entrance were closed.
ALASTAIR DALTON
Loss of life averted, but we could have been waking up to a tragedy on the scale of Lockerbie
UNTIL the authorities on both sides of the Border have a detailed forensic picture of the devices involved in last week's incidents in London and Glasgow, it would be advisable for armchair pundits like myself to keep their own counsel - or at least some of it.
Yet some are already citing the lack of casualties among innocent bystanders at Glasgow Airport as a major security success.
Others, like me, are not so certain. From all that has been made available in the public domain, I have the itchy feeling that had the perpetrators of Saturday's crime had more efficient detonating devices, we could have been waking up to a tragedy on the scale of Lockerbie.
The so-called terrorists' vehicle got in, easily unchallenged, as far as the main terminal entrance on one of the busiest days of the year (just hours after a major attack was averted - almost by accident - in London).
It would seem poor or even impaired driving prevented the Jeep from getting right into the packed Glasgow Airport concourse. Were it not such a serious matter, the prospect of the perpetrator then getting out and igniting fuel under the vehicle would have brought tears of laughter to the average suicide bomber in Baghdad or Jerusalem.
Yet, in the era of the readily available microchip detonator or mobile-phone circuit, and resorting to the most primitive of igniters instead, it shows how serious these apparently Asian men truly were.
Most sincerely, it would seem one or both were prepared to die for the sake of causing unimaginable and totally random mayhem among holidaymaking families of all ethnic backgrounds. This was something the bloody Provisional IRA were never prepared for during its long campaign against the English mainland - they always prepared their own safe exit carefully and were relatively selective about their targeting.
Nor were these undoubtedly determined individuals at Glasgow shot in the act by an armed response team, so it is hard to see who can be claiming any real security success, except for some quick-thinking members of the public and those officers immediately to hand. Even those ushered away from the scene were apparently within range of the initial and secondary explosive devices, which should be sending further shivers up some official spines.
However, next time, now the grim reality of actual terrorist attack has finally arrived in Scotland, maybe official reactions will be far sharper. This incident at Glasgow was a deeply unwelcome tactical "first for Scotland".
What is certain is that things will never be quite the same again across the length and breadth of Scotland. The priority must be to continue to safeguard the lives of all our citizens.
The police and local security firms probably have just about enough resources to guarantee this for the immediate future. Whether in the longer term installations such as Torness, Grangemouth or the gas facilities at Peterhead (and airport perimeters) have adequate security resources is quite another matter.
It may be time, in the longer term, to be thinking of creating part-time units such as the Territorial Army or Home Service Force, which could be called up locally when the situation demands, but which would be relatively inexpensive to train and retain. This, of course, begs the question of there being many more would-be suicide bombers in our midst, and whether or not some of their methodology remains as inept as it has been thus far.
Thankfully, we are a long way away from having to create Green Zones like there are in besieged Baghdad. But it might bear at least a tentative shading in some Holyrood or Whitehall maps. Have you got a sharp pencil there Kenny?
What a surprise! The words “Muslim” and “Islam” and their variants do not occur in the article.
How do you say, "I'm sorry, young man, but we're fresh out of morphine," in Arabic?
This act effectively demonstrates how desperate Al-Q has become. Using gasoline and propane for bombs? C-4 and ammonium nitrate hard to come by? Good.
, two of the five people being held are foreign-born doctors working in UK hospitals.
Aren’t doctors sworn to DO NO HARM... ?
YUp..”They were described i several articles as “South Asian”..that could mean Chinese..
Sad headline. They were blessed of God that they didn’t have another Lockerbie. It wasn’t luck. Europe has lost its foundation, which is why they aren’t respected by anyone any more and Islam finds them such a delightful target. We are very close to that.
That’s because it is just a mere coincidence. They could have just as easily been Quakers or Mennonites.
Yes, but the word “Mohammed” does appear once. Is it possible to be named “Mohammed” and not be Muslim? And, if you were, wouldn’t that be an insult to Islam, calling for a ritual beheading?
If I had a dog, I would name it “Mohammed”.
Well duh!! Everyone knows Islam is the religion of peace. It must have been some rouge Pakistani Christians.
Better yet name your pig Mohammed.
What the dog leaves in the grass, on the other hand, I WOULD call a "Mohammad".
And when in the act of taking a Mohammad I'd say that "He's praying to Allah"
Pakistani=South Asia
Actually, that is no longer the case for many medical schools. Since the rise of abortion, the Hippocratic Oath has been modified, and sometimes even eliminated.
I don't know whether Muslim doctors take the Hippocratic Oath or not. It's an interesting question. Many of their colleges and medical schools were founded by the British or by Europeans. I'd be curious to know if there is some kind of Muslim version, "First, do no harm, except to infidels"?
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