Posted on 08/10/2006 3:00:54 AM PDT by HAL9000
Police statement on airline bombing plot
LONDON (Reuters) - Following is the full text of a statement issued by London Deputy Commissioner, Paul Stephenson on Thursday morning:
"We are confident that we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction and commit mass murder.
The Commissioner has been fully briefed and he is at New Scotland Yard today. He and I want to pay tribute to officers from the Met's Anti-Terrorist Branch and the security services for the work they have undertaken to disrupt these activities.
We believe that the terrorists' aim was to smuggle explosives onto airplanes in hand luggage and to detonate these in flight.
We also believe that the intended targets were flights from the UK to the USA.
Overnight we have arrested 21 people. The majority of those arrests have been in London but we have also made arrests in Thames Valley and Birmingham. We are currently searching a number of addresses.
We are grateful to our colleagues in other force areas for their support.
As the operation got under way we spoke to community leaders to make them aware that a major anti-terrorist operation was taking place but without giving specific details about locations. This extensive dialogue will continue throughout the operation.
We would like to reassure the public that this operation was carried out with public safety upper most in our minds. This is a major operation, which will inevitably be lengthy and complex. The UK is now at the highest possible level of alert.
We will consider the threat in its wider sense and take whatever action is necessary to protect people in London and throughout the country.
Measures have already been put in place to restrict hand luggage taken onto aircraft. This will inevitably cause significant delay and we ask people to remain calm, patient and vigilant at this very difficult time.
Put simply this was a plot to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale."
Hope the minimum wage rent-a-cops at airport terminals are sure to check grandma from Iowa real good. But be sure not to upset middle eastern males by asking them to submit to searches.
In order not to offend any particular religious or ethnic group, we will not reveal their ethnic or religious preferences.. . I expect a statement like this soon!
The threat is not over Michael....don't think otherwise...bringing down the planes could have been a precurser to other parts of the plot.
Great work by law enforcement!
How long before some moonbat on the left says this was just hyped, one day after Lieberman's loss, "to keep Americans in fear"? Believe me, some a** will say it. Check DU. I don't have the stomach to.
I don´t expect the terrorists to strike at the skies today. If ever, they exercise their revange in a bus or the underground. That´s far more difficult to control than the airports and planes.
What you will hear on Fox News Radio this morning that you won't see on Al-Reuters is that all 21 arrested were Muslim males.
Good on Scotland Yard.
Unfortunately, for some stupid people, that warm fuzzy feeling will remain until we're attacked again, and their unwavering critisism of current anti-terror policies will enable the attack. Useful idiots for the terrorists.
yes indeedy, line up all the blue eyed blonds, little babies and oh, don't forget grandma, SEARCH them and SEARCH THEM GOOD, and oh, be sure to let muslins/pakistani's/etc. through with out searching, we don't want to offend them, yes indeedy people, welcome to the world........
THIS was an almost-attack. It´s a proof that the terrorists are still alive and well among us. We need to continue the efforts in the global (!) war on terrorism. This shall be the lesson of today. If not for the British law enforcement, this would have been the worst day since September 11 2001.
WAKE UP you sleepers in the western world, and I don´t mean the terrorist sleepers, but all the - how did you call them? - "useful idiots". This is our societies, our lives at risk!
We will not bend, we will not break. But we will prevail!
UNITED WE STAND!
the ACLU is helping this type of thing to become a reality here-aided by people(?) like barbara boxer who don't want "profiling"used by security and police personnel-i really think the aclu should be treated as an enemy combatant
I wonder if we'll have arrests here?
Some of these SOB's may be running and looking for a hiding place. There may be people from other uninvolved cells that start to 'scramble' for fear that these arrests will reveal them too. Report any suspicious activity...
You have my permission to shoot any suspects.
The obvious solution is to profile everyone, head-to-toe. Noone gets a pass.
Thank you dear lady...
They will always be among us until we get our pitchforks and chase these POS people out of our countries.
Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport has just issued a warning--passengers are being told to pour out all liquids before boarding. This includes bottled water, cologne, contact lens solutions, lotion and hair gel.
I can imagine the scale. Both the US and the UK are capable of delivering a counter on an even greater scale from a submarine a thousand miles away. The muslims are plucking the rawest of remaining nerves.
Yes. Bush and Blair need to put forth a 30-day plan for eliminating terrorists and their nanny states. Then get on with it. No reason we should even have to be talking about iran, syria, and north korea beyond Sept. 10.
Thank God the adults are still in charge.
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