Free Republic

Tens of thousands of travellers in Britain have been stranded or left to wait in crowded airports as heightened security sparked by an alleged plot to blow up US bound planes from the UK has wreaked havoc in the international air traffic network. British Home Secretary John Reid says police are confident that the main suspects in the plot "have been accounted for" but has explained that the country's security alert had been raised to its highest level, "critical", as a precautionary measure. British anti-terrorist police say the plot involved explosives concealed in hand luggage. Many airlines have cancelled flights...

LONDON - British authorities said Thursday they thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the U.S. using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. Security was raised to its highest level in Britain, and carry-on luggage was banned on all flights. Huge crowds backed up at London's Heathrow airport as officials searching for explosives barred nearly every form of liquid outside of baby formula. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the terrorists planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and set them off with detonators disguised as electronic devices. The extreme...

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Thursday they have thwarted a plot to blow up aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States, arresting a number of people in the London area. Britain's security service MI5 raised the threat level to the country to "critical" from "severe," meaning an attack is expected imminently. News of the arrests and heightened security threat came amid high international tension over Israel's war against Hizbollah in Lebanon. Police said the aim of the plot was to detonate bombs smuggled on board aircraft in hand luggage. "A major terrorist plot to allegedly blow...

A major terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight has been disrupted by police, Scotland Yard says. It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on board aircraft in hand luggage. During the night, police arrested a number of people in London after a counter-terrorist operation they said had lasted several months. Police believe the attacks would have been particularly targeted at flights from the UK to the US. The Department for Transport said security at all UK airports has been increased. Passengers on all flights will not be allowed to take any hand luggage on...

by Mark Finkelstein July 17, 2006 - 21:58 Will the left wing please make up its mind as to the danger posed by conservative talk-show fans? As documented by MRC, in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, liberals like Bryant Gumbel pointed the finger at conservative talk radio: "Right-wing talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh . . . and others take to the air every day with basically the same format: detail a problem, blame the government or a group, and invite invective from like-minded people. Never do most of the radio hosts encourage outright violence, but the extent...

Muslim extremist admits he was spy who revealed Canada bomb plot By Toby Harnden (Filed: 16/07/2006) Muslim leaders in Canada have reacted with fury after a radical advocate of Sharia law revealed that he had been a government spy who helped to uncover an alleged al-Qaeda plot, writes Toby Harnden. Mubin Shaikh, 29, came forward to confirm that he was recruited by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the country's equivalent of MI5, and directed a 10-day winter training course in guerrilla tactics. During the course, which Mr Shaikh set up in a field in the remote village of Washago,...

Sect inspired 'leader of Sears Tower plot' By Toby Harnden in Washington (Filed: 25/06/2006) The alleged ringleader of a terrorist cell that planned to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago was an adherent of an obscure black Islamist sect that was first investigated by America's Federal Bureau of Investigation in the 1950s, relatives said yesterday. According to an FBI indictment, Narseal Batiste, 32, wanted to build an "Islamic army" to "wage war against the United States government" and provide "material support to al-Qaeda". He and the six other accused lived in Miami. Narseal Batiste Relatives said that Batiste, described...

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Richard M. Mason II, an assaultman for 2nd Platoon, K Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, sights down range with his rocket launcher. Nicknamed the "Rocket Man," he has effectively fired 24 rockets using the Shoulder-Launched Multi-Purpose Assault Weapon or SMAW during combat ops in Ramadi. (U.S.M.C. photo by Cpl. Joseph DiGirolamo) An assault team from B Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, prepare to enter a possible suicide vehicle bomb workshop in Fallujah, Iraq. The Marines are searching the vacant garage after receiving intelligence that the owner might be supporting...

Students held in terror plot inquiry By Paul Stokes (Filed: 08/06/2006) Two students were being detained in West Yorkshire under the Terrorism Act last night in connection with arrests in Canada over an alleged al-Qa'eda plot. A 21-year-old man was arrested as he arrived at Manchester airport on his return from Canada on Tuesday night. He is a Bradford-based student of Pakistani origin. Police later searched three addresses in the city. A 16-year-old college student was arrested in Dewsbury as part of the same operation shortly after 3pm yesterday. Premises in the town were searched. Police say armed officers were...

welve men have been arrested in Toronto on terror charges, Canadian police have confirmed. They are also holding five youths. Police said the men were planning to commit a series of "al-Qaeda-inspired" terrorist attacks in southern Ontario. They had obtained materials used in bomb-making, including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate. Officials said the group "posed a real and serious threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks." Ammonium nitrate is a commonly-used fertiliser. "To put it in context, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with...

Members of an alleged British terror cell talked of blowing up London's famous Ministry of Sound nightclub, the Old Bailey has been told. The jury heard one defendant, Jawad Akbar, said they would not be blamed for killing "those slags dancing around". In secret recordings made by security surveillance teams, Akbar and Omar Khyam, another member of the alleged al Qaeda-linked cell, appear to discuss possible targets. Akbar says the central London venue was a soft target for a terror attack, according to the prosecution. Akbar: "What about easy stuff where you don't need no experience and nothing and you...

Pakistani convicted for plot to bomb New York subway05-25-2006, 00h32 NEW YORK (AFP) In this courtroom illustration, James Elshafay (C) and Shahawar Matin Siraj (R) appear August 2004 in Federal District Court in New York, before Magistrate Kiyo Matsumoto (R rear) during an arraignment on charges related to an alleged plot to bomb a New York City subway station. Standing at left are Assistant US attorneys John Nathanson (L) and Kelly Currie (2nd L). (AFP/Getty Images/File) A Pakistani man was convicted of planning to blow up a New York subway station ahead of the Republican National Convention held before the...

US prosecutors seek harsher charges in Chinese military 'plot' Agence France-Presse. LOS ANGELES, May 8 (AFP) May 09, 2006 US prosecutors warned Monday they plan to seek harsher charges against an engineer and two kin accused of plotting to steal sensitive US Navy warship technology and trying to smuggle it to China. The plans to beef up charges against Chinese-born engineer Chi Mak, 65, his wife, Rebecca Chiu Lai-wah, 62; and Mak's brother, former television director Mak Tai-wing, 56, came at a pre-trial hearing in Los Angeles. Assistant US Attorney Greg Staples confirmed to US District Judge Cormac Carney that...

A PAKISTANI student suspected of planning to attack the editor of a German newspaper that reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad has killed himself in prison, authorities said yesterday.German justice ministry spokeswoman Juliane Baer-Henney said Amer Cheema, 28, hanged himself in his cell. However, Pakistani politicians yesterday claimed his family believed Cheema, a master's degree student of textile production who had been in Berlin visiting a friend, had been tortured to death. Three MPs from a coalition of religious parties successfully introduced a motion in Pakistan's national assembly to discuss the student's death. However, the deputy head of Pakistan's embassy...

SERBIA was plunged into a political crisis last night after Brussels suspended talks leading to EU membership as punishment for failing to arrest one of the most wanted war criminals in Europe. The European Commission said that it was halting negotiations on closer links with Serbia after the deadline to deliver Ratko Mladic to the Hague war crimes tribunal passed on April 30 with the fugitive still in hiding. Relations between Belgrade and the international community plunged to new lows as Carla del Ponte, the chief war crimes prosecutor at the UN, declared that she had been misled by the...

Serbia must choose between its past and its present How hard can it be to arrest a man recognised wherever he goes, in a country roughly the size of Scotland? Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, has asked the international community to believe that if the man in question does not want to be found, the answer is, effectively, “impossible”. This answer is not acceptable. It is entirely appropriate that Belgrade’s failure to surrender Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal as promised led yesterday to the suspension of talks with the EU on possible Serbian membership. Mr Kostunica...

An Indian-born U.S. citizen was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison for his role in a plot to obtain and sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Ilyas Ali, 58, formerly of St. Paul, Minn. also was ordered to serve five years probation following his release. Ali pleaded guilty in 2004 to one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and hashish, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Two other men both from Pakistan pleaded guilty to the same charges. Muhamed Abid Afridi, 32, also was sentenced to nearly five years...

CAMDEN, N.J. - Four teenagers accused of plotting to kill about 25 people in a lunch-period massacre at a high school were charged Thursday under a terrorism law created after the Sept. 11 attacks. The boys, ages 14 to 16, were arrested Wednesday after police heard about the alleged plot from administrators at the school, where three of the teens are students. Their names were not released because of their ages. Authorities said the teens planned to attack students, teachers and others at Winslow Township High. The four boys appeared in family court, and a judge ordered them held for...

China Executes Former Tycoon for Murder By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 5 minutes ago A Chinese tycoon once worth more than $360 million has been executed by lethal injection for having a man who tried to blackmail him killed, a court statement and news reports said Saturday. Yuan Baojing and two accomplices were put to death by lethal injection Friday after a court in China's northeastern Liaoning province upheld a death sentence handed down last year, said a notice on the official Web site of China's courts. News photos in several Chinese papers showed a bespectacled Yuan,...

Afghanistan in 'bomb plot' row with Pakistan By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad (Filed: 13/03/2006) A former president of Afghanistan accused Pakistani military intelligence of trying to kill him in a suicide attack, intensifying an increasingly bitter row between the two countries. Sibghatullah Mojaddidi, who is now in charge of a commission to encourage Taliban members to lay down their arms, was wounded in the attack yesterday that killed two bombers and two civilians. The wreckage left by the bomb blast that narrowly missed the car carrying Mr Mojaddidi [right] Mr Mojaddidi was being driven to work on a main road...