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."
Are you suggesting the TSA people are supposed to test all bottles by tasting them?
Houston Bush Intercontinental is having a press conference right now - just standard stuff for this orange alert.
But one thing gave me a bit of a bother - the head of security who is speaking now says that there may be 4 flights in transit from London to Houston right now that have not been turned around - he doesn't know for sure. They left last night before this alert was announced at 4AM our time.
No, I'm suggesting that as is being done in Britain, and here with baby formula and other baby-ingested materials, the passengers taste what they're bringing on.
Dang! I just lost 10 bucks -- I bet they would be those pesky Mennonites!
That's what they first announced - that they would be taste-testing all the baby formula.
But in the Houston press conference just now, the security head said they have changed that.
You can take baby formula onboard IF you have the baby with you. They won't have to taste it. (The baby or the formula. This isn't Russia.)
Let me tell you about my old roommate who took drugs into a concert in her baby's diaper. Make them taste the formula.
Jeez...all kinds of things they could do....
Well, they're also going to be checking again in the flight lounge before boarding, a second time after the regular screening.
Supposedly, all this has only delayed flights here by 25-40 minutes. They say.
Oh, I see. The passenger has to taste it in front of the security person, to prove it's a real baby formula? Aaaccckk. I didn't catch that when they said "they" have to taste it.
Guess that makes sense, like we always have to boot up our laptops and let them work on them, to prove that they are working computers.
"Homegrown" in this case is a scary word, making the NSA 'domestic spying' program all the more critical.
And I wonder if Joe Lieberman is wondering if he would have won had this happened a day earlier......
That's the way I understood what I heard on Clear Channel this morning. And I though I heard that NO electronics are permitted...not even cellulars or laptops.
" Now NJ is only a cab ride from JFK, but Minn?"
Here's a local news story, including (gasp) a picture of El-Dessouki. Another news report I heard lastnight had an interview with the uncle of this 'student.' The uncle, who is a grocer (named Hamzi Kassab) living in St. Louis Park, said that he called the FBI to tell them his nephew was here, 'visiting family.'
http://wcco.com/local/local_story_221143115.html
As for me and my house...I trust the government to do their job and make every attempt to protect us.
Now if the NYT would just get the message....They'll be the first to complain if one of the terrorist is successful.
"Shoe bombs, liquid bombs, carry on bombs. The bloody jihadists are laughing all over the planet.
HOw long will it be before we start searching up people's butts?
You could have a liquid explosive up your butt! Full body cavity searches for ALL!! (Except young middle eastern men, that would just be wrong, plus they'd be lining up for blocks, clogging up the whole works)"
LOLOLOLOL!
I think you heard right. I misunderstood who the "they" was that "they" were referring to.
I was picturing Putin pooty-pooting the little boy's tummy when I wrote my post - that "they" didn't have to taste "it" - after I said you had to have a "Baby OnBoard."
No cellulars, laptops OR iPods.
I hope that the U.K. withdraws their citizenship immediatly and after any possible release from prison, they are shipped back to their home country -- to meet their repatriated parents and siblings.
Yeah, wonder if they include those gameboys?
"I am about 5 hrs from the Twin Cities at the point where Iowa/Minnesota/Wisconsin come together. 3 weeks ago, the local Walmart was bought out of Tracphones and a specific brand of hairdryer. The 2 Middle Eastern men, one older, one a teen, who bought them wanted more "before we go back to Michigan". The helpful store manager then called another Walmart to check if they had more phones/hairdryers and they did, so the men were given directions there. A few days earlier, the Onalaska Walmart was also bought out of the phones.
I was told this by an associate who observed part of this transaction, including the manager checking the inventory list for the hair dryers. This was reported to the FBI within days of the event."
Why the hair dryers? I understand why they would purchase the phones, if not used to have a communication tool that is barely traceable, could be used to detonate an ordinance of some kind. But why hair dryers?
It really has to be impressed that every citizen has to know their own neighbors and report anything suspicious. If someone's feelings get hurt over a mistake--then oh well. They have to understand the magnitude of this and get over it. Honest and good muslims in this country could have the most impact. They know their customs better than anyone. That's not profiling, that's reality.
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