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'Airlines terror plot' disrupted

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  Quote Jay. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: 'Airlines terror plot' disrupted
    Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 11:53
Originally posted by BBC

A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.

It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft.

Police are searching premises after 21 people were arrested. Home Secretary John Reid said they believed the "main players" were accounted for.

High security is causing delays at all UK airports.

The threat level to the UK has been raised by MI5 to critical after the arrests in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

Critical threat level - the highest - means "an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK".

Three US airlines are believed to have been targeted.

Mr Reid said had the attack gone ahead it would have caused a loss of life of "unprecedented scale".

He said they were "confident" the main players were in custody, but neither the police nor government are "in any way complacent".

Prime Minister Tony Blair, on holiday in the Caribbean, paid tribute to the the police and the security services.

He said they had tracked the situation for a "long period of time" and had "been involved in an extraordinary amount of hard work."

"I thank them for the great job they are doing in protecting our country.

"There has been an enormous amount of co-operation with the US authorities which has been of great value and underlines the threat we face and our determination to counter it," he said in a statement.

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said the plot was thought to have involved a series of "waves" of simultaneous attacks, targeting three planes each time.

He also said the plan "revolved around liquids of some kind".

"Officials say the explosives would have been sophisticated and extremely effective," our correspondent said.

Airport 'crammed'

Meanwhile, at Heathrow Airport incoming short-haul flights have resumed, but long-haul services are seriously delayed. Several outbound services have been cancelled.

The airport is crammed with thousands of passengers, while at Stansted more than 2,000 people are queuing to pass through customs.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said the alleged plotters had intended "mass murder on an unimaginable scale".

"We are confident that we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction and to commit, quite frankly, mass murder," he said.

"We believe that the terrorists' aim was to smuggle explosives on to aeroplanes in hand luggage and to detonate these in flight. We also believe that the intended targets were flights from the United Kingdom to the United States of America."

Police had spoken to a "good number of community leaders to make them aware that a major operation was under way," he added.

Head of the Met's anti-terrorist branch Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said the investigation had had "global dimensions" and had seen an "unprecedented level" of surveillance.

The decision to take action had been taken on Wednesday night, he added.

According to BBC sources the "principal characters" suspected of being involved in the plot were British-born. There are also understood to be links to Pakistan.

BBC home affairs correspondent Andy Tighe said police sources had told him they had found "interesting items" which were being examined.

In other major developments:

  • Houses in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, are evacuated by police

  • US air marshals are being sent to the UK to provide extra air security

  • The US Department of Homeland Security increased the threat level applied to US-bound commercial flights originating in the UK to "red" - the first time it has done this for flights coming in from another country

  • The Home Office confirmed there had been meetings overnight and on Thursday morning of the Cabinet's emergency committee, Cobra, chaired by Home Secretary John Reid, to discuss the terror alert

  • A spokesman for Number 10 said Tony Blair had briefed US President George Bush on the situation during the night 

BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said despite the arrests the threat level had been raised "in case there is some other sub-plot, back-up plot around this that the police aren't aware of".

The Department for Transport set out the details of the security measures at UK airports.

Passengers are not allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK, the department said.

Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - will be allowed to be carried on board in transparent plastic bags.

"We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the government, will need to be in place for a limited period only," the statement said.


Total: 21 arrested
London: 'majority' of arrests
Birmingham: 2 arrests
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  Quote Loknar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 13:19
this is obvious propaganda put out by the Bush Adminsitration. There is no war on terror!
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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 13:31
I think it's very good they caught the terrorists without carpet bombing London. Israel could learn a few things from the British. Oh the irony.
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  Quote Gundamor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 13:36
Originally posted by Loknar

this is obvious propaganda put out by the Bush Adminsitration. There is no war on terror!

    

Nah they would of blown something up.
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  Quote Zagros Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 15:12
Originally posted by Mila

I think it's very good they caught the terrorists without carpet bombing London. Israel could learn a few things from the British. Oh the irony.
 
mhm.
 
I must admit we did profit from this, we received an order from BAA for 5000 sleeping mats to be urgently shipped to heathrow airport to accommodate the starnded travellers.  They paid upfront too.
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  Quote flyingzone Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 16:44
Originally posted by Loknar

this is obvious propaganda put out by the Bush Adminsitration. There is no war on terror!
 
This sarcastic comment is really unfair and unfounded. You seem to have forgotten how the whole world rallied behind the United States immediately after 9-11. Canadian soldiers are still dying in Afghanistan today, a daily reminder of the real war on terrorism.
 
I don't think even the harshest critics of Bush would deny the existence of terrorism. What a lot of us cannot support and condone is the stupid way he deals with it. Hopefully more and more Americans can finally see eye to eye with the rest of the world how your moronic president has screwed things up and how, through the bad decisions that he and his buddies have made, he has actually aggravated, not diminished, the terrorist threat.
 
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  Quote bg_turk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 17:16
Originally posted by Loknar

this is obvious propaganda put out by the Bush Adminsitration. There is no war on terror!


Bush gets no credit for this, the Brittish authorities do. The Bush adminsitration is notoriously bad for dealing with terrorism. If it was left to them, they'd have screwed like they did on 9/11, when despite previous warnings, they did nothing to prevent the terrorist attacks on the American homeland.
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  Quote malizai_ Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 18:39
BTW, this is what is known as the cycle of violence. Thank god, there was no loss of life. It is a stomach wrenching thought.
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  Quote Jay. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 21:57
I agree malizai. My father left for California today to visit my godfather and his family. He got stopped at the airport and they took the perfume and whiskey, which were presents for them.
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  Quote Genghis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2006 at 22:56
My father had to take a plane home today and said you can't bring any liquids on planes now, not even water bottles people are drinking from!  I feel so much safer that TSA is doing their part.
 
I think it will be interesting as more news comes out about this, like how these guys were caught, be sure to catch next month's news journals like Time, etc.


Edited by Genghis - 10-Aug-2006 at 22:58
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  Quote Aydin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 00:48
 Don't be so foolish to believe everything that is being fed to you by the authorities. The timing of this is very suspect and to make matters worse all the reports about their "terror plan" contain lots of "ifs and buts". Be sure that the 21 people they arrested will probably be released in 2 years time because they have no credible proof whatsoever.

If you remember the case of the "Al Qaeda Detroit sleeper cell", you will realize why: All of those so called "terrorists" were released!
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  Quote arch.buff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 01:11
Originally posted by flyingzone

Originally posted by Loknar

this is obvious propaganda put out by the Bush Adminsitration. There is no war on terror!
 
This sarcastic comment is really unfair and unfounded. You seem to have forgotten how the whole world rallied behind the United States immediately after 9-11. Canadian soldiers are still dying in Afghanistan today, a daily reminder of the real war on terrorism.
 
I don't think even the harshest critics of Bush would deny the existence of terrorism. What a lot of us cannot support and condone is the stupid way he deals with it. Hopefully more and more Americans can finally see eye to eye with the rest of the world how your moronic president has screwed things up and how, through the bad decisions that he and his buddies have made, he has actually aggravated, not diminished, the terrorist threat.
 
 
I didnt know you could aggravate terrorists? At least more then they obviously already are.
If you mean he has stirred up more applicants or supporters of terrorism then you might be right, but when people from a country like the ones that have been known to harbor terrorism, they rarely know the story. As if most Americans do as well though...........
Everybodys got a bias. "your people killed my people, your people have oppressed my people" it goes on and on. What we do need to look at are incidents like the above one stated in this thread. Killing civilians should never be accepted, although sometimes it does happen in the midst of combat but in such terrorist incidents, they are targeted.
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 03:50
Good thing the attack was foiled.
Looking forward to airline travel being even more inconvinient. My sister has blue eyes and she is never checked or stopped. I wonder why?ConfusedDisapprove


Edited by Sparten - 11-Aug-2006 at 03:51
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  Quote TeldeInduz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 06:48
Originally posted by Sparten

My sister has blue eyes and she is never checked or stopped. I wonder why?ConfusedDisapprove
 
That actually should be surveyed. I was with a friend who has blue eyes and blonde hair at a European airport, and I only got searched, which I didnt mind..but the searcher was gliding his hands over my chest in a most unsearchworthy manner.. 


Edited by TeldeInduz - 11-Aug-2006 at 06:51
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  Quote flyingzone Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 10:29
Originally posted by arch.buff

  
 
I didnt know you could aggravate terrorists? At least more then they obviously already are.
If you mean he has stirred up more applicants or supporters of terrorism then you might be right, but when people from a country like the ones that have been known to harbor terrorism, they rarely know the story. As if most Americans do as well though...........
Everybodys got a bias. "your people killed my people, your people have oppressed my people" it goes on and on. What we do need to look at are incidents like the above one stated in this thread. Killing civilians should never be accepted, although sometimes it does happen in the midst of combat but in such terrorist incidents, they are targeted.
 
I am usually quite careful with my choice of words, that's why I said "terrorist THREAT", not "terrorists".
 
Yes, I do mean he has stirred up more applicants or supporters of terrorism. But I also mean that by starting the war in Iraq, the United States has successfully (1) turned a country that was originally tightly controlled by a dictator (hence, ironically, LESS terrorist threats) into a country of suicide bombers and terrorists that is even MORE hostile to the West; and (2) turned Iraq into a battlefield for sectarians, foreign fighters, etc. Tell me, honestly and objectively, does all that HELP to fight the war on terror?
 
Let's face it, Georgie Boy has screwed things up pretty bad by making bad decisions, one after another. The terrorists are ultimately to be blamed, that's for sure. But those are terrorists, so what can we expect from them? Humanitarianism? So the second part of your post is completely irrelevant since I am not trying to point my finger to who's wrong here. I am also not criticizing the Iraq war from a so-called "moral" or "humanitarian" point of view. Of course the terrorists are wrong. You think I am daft or something? I am JUST talking about strategies and decision-making. We can't expect mercy from terrorists, but don't you think we SHOULD expect a lot more intelligence and good decision-making skills from the so-called leader of the "free world"?
 


Edited by flyingzone - 11-Aug-2006 at 11:05
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  Quote Cywr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 11:32

I have blue eyes and i'm regulary stopped.

Good think i flew out to Schipol on Wednessay, all flights to Heathrow and Gatwick are canceled, my parents had to buy a last minute train ticket as their flight is canceled and will now spend the better part of a day doing a one and a half hour journey.

Hopefully its back to normal by next week or i'll be doing the same thing.
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  Quote Seko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 12:18
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060811/ap_on_re_eu/britain_terror_plot

Seems that a few of the converts are British nationals most with close affiliation to Pakistan. The Pakistanis have arrested a few who were 'facilitators'.

Much of Al Qaeda crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan. How come its so hard to weed them out there? C'mon Pakistan. Close down the rest of the terrorist training camps.

Now there are home grown jerks everywhere. No country is safe from fundamentalist stupidity.

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  Quote Jay. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 12:52
The names of the suspects have been released: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4782343.stm
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  Quote Anujkhamar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 14:33
I leave England for 2 weeks and this is what happens. Luckily I will not be at the airports around the "bomb days", but i'll be back in heathrow on the 16th.
 
The way it was shown in Singapore was on BBC world it showed that Pakistani's were arrested etc etc.
 
This is new for me as it is the first time a major British media outlet is distinguishing between Asians and Pakistani's. In the past it would be "Asians were arrested" when none of the other asians (like Chinese, Indian, Nepali etc) were involved.
 
These people are going to make is so hard for the hounest hard working Pakistani's living in England.
 
Did anybody else think this had something to do with Isreal? I believed so until i saw that this plot was 6 months in the making.


Edited by Anujkhamar - 11-Aug-2006 at 14:34
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  Quote Cywr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2006 at 15:47
Thats largely because the census is big on distinguishing detween Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis, as well as the religion, so other public sectors are following suit, so the cops now presumably gather and release information on that basis. This has effectivly been done since 2001. No attempt is made to distinguish between say Polish and Greek non-British nationals, they are just 'other-white'.
Though the effort to gather seperate data on S. Asians is in part motivated by S. Asians.
Wouldn't suprise me if they start gathering data on the basis of being Punjabi/Gujerati/Whatever, as well as Polish/Greek/French, who are at the moment 'other white', only the Irish are deserving of their own seperate label, sheez, i wonder why.
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