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Plots show al-Qaeda tactics 'imported' into UK
Sunday July 01, 2007

LONDON - The foiled car-bomb plot in London shows al Qaeda has imported the tactics of Iraqi and Indonesian militants to Britain, the UK prime minister's top terrorism adviser has said.

"Make no mistake, this weekend's bomb attacks signal a major escalation in the war being waged on us by Islamic terrorists," John Stevens, the former commissioner of the London police, wrote in an article to be published in the News of the World on Sunday. "Initially it was believed the main problem police faced was insulated groups of home-grown extremists. But now it is clear a loose but deadly network of interlinked operational cells has developed.

"The terror of July 7 (2005) was awful enough, but now al-Qaeda has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to our streets. And it will get worse before it gets better."

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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10448951

Bomb plot ‘work of Middle East militants’
Sunday, 1 July, 2007

LONDON: The car bombs which threatened to cause carnage on the streets of London bear the hallmark of Al Qaeda-type groups, analysts said yesterday.

The failed attacks could have been timed to destabilise the new British government, but could also be fueled by anger at the knighthood for writer Salman Rushdie, or Tony Blair’s appointment as Middle East envoy, they said. “There is no doubt at all that this (plot) is Middle-Eastern contrived,” independent intelligence analyst Paul Beaver said.

“Look at the way in which the bombs have been configured. This is a signature of (Lebanese Shia militant) Hezbollah and (Islamist group) Hamas in Lebanon and Palestine, and Al Qaeda-like organisations in Iraq.”

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http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=158293&version=1&template_id=38&parent_id=20

Sleeper Terror Cell on the Loose in U.K.
June 30, 2007

Counter-terrorism analysts estimate that the apparently coordinated attacks in Great Britain are the work of a sleeper cell that could include as many as 20 individuals. "You would need that many to pull off three different vehicle-borne explosions," said one former CIA official who requested his name not be used.

A massive manhunt is now underway across Great Britain for at least three suspects who officials say have been positively linked to the Friday attacks by surveillance photographs and forensic evidence, including fingerprints. "The Brits simply are not ahead of this cell and they know it," he said.

The two failed car bomb attacks in London Friday appear to be connected to today's attack on the Glasgow Airport terminal, although British officials have yet to declare so officially.

Adding to the intelligence failure, analysts said, is the fact that the driver of one of the failed car bombs had been arrested three years ago and released for lack of evidence.

The two men arrested in the wake of the Glasgow attack today are likely to face intense interrogations from British officials who are desperate to learn the names of other cell members. "The Brits may talk with a fancy accent, but when it comes to this kind of thing, the gloves will be off," the former CIA official said, citing the techniques used to go after the Irish Republican Army.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/sleeper-terror-.html