Global War on Terror Watch: Heathrow Airplane Bomb Plot Thwarted by British Police
Police vehicles and dogs arrive at Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport, in London, Thursday Aug. 10, 2006. British authorities thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up several aircraft in flight between the United States and the United Kingdom using explosives smuggled in hand luggage, officials said Thursday.
AP: British police thwart aircraft bomb plot
British authorities said Thursday they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the U.S. using explosives smuggled in hand luggage, averting what police described as “mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”
Officials raised security to its highest level in Britain — suggesting a terrorist attack might be imminent — and banned hand-carried luggage on all trans-Atlantic flights. Huge crowds formed at security barriers at London’s Heathrow airport as officials searching for explosives barred nearly every form of liquid outside of baby formula.
The extreme measures at one of the major international aviation hubs sent ripple effects throughout the world. Heathrow airport was closed to most flights from Europe.
The U.S. government responded by raising its threat alert to its highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States amid fears the plot had not been completely crushed. The alert for all flights coming or going from the United States was also raised slightly.
In Washington, two U.S. counterterrorism officials said the terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Police arrested 21 people in London, its suburbs and in Birmingham as part of a major covert counterterrorism operation that had lasted several months, Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said. Searches continued in a number of locations.
The following blogs have been following the overnight events:
Counterterrorism Blog: London Airline Bombing Plot News (updated)
Michelle Malkin’s and Brendan Loy’s blogs already include links to many stories overnight on this plot. See Walid Phares’ post on this plot with his early analysis. Searches continue at this hour in London after the arrest of 21 suspects. Here is the statement by the Homeland Security Department on the increased threat level. All commentary points to the similarity to the failed Al Qaeda Bojinka plot in 1995 to blow up airliners, and Fox News reports that Al Qaeda is indeed suspected as the perpetrators in this plot.
UPDATES: UK Home Secretary’s press conference at 7:15 am ET: He and others reitereated the main points already released to the public – they believe most of the main players are in custody, but the investigation continues.
Michelle Malkin: “Imminent,” “massive” jihad UK plot foiled; goal: “mass murder on an unimaginable scale”
Captain’s Quarters: British Shut Down Heathrow As Terror Attack Thwarted
Up to ten planes and all inbound flights to the USA. This is the biggest Al Qaeda plot since 9/11.
Just as Flap was contemplating a Spring 2007 visit to London.
Stay tuned as more plot details are revelaed throughout the day.
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john Carey
Suzie: you were going great and it is not babble!
Indiscriminate wasting of human lives; Who is for That?
By John E. Carey
No matter what an American citizen’s point of view or politics, it might be useful to review how war is waged in this modern age of terrorism
The film “World Trade Center†is opening and should provide some reminder into that tragic day now memorialized in the world lexicon as 9-11. The film focuses on the heroes but reminds us of the methods of the terrorists.
British police today announced that they uncovered a plot to explode commercial airliners filled with passengers in mid-flight using liquid explosives carried aboard in hand luggage.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah is using Katyusha rockets to bombard Haifa and other targets in Isral. A news report also said that Hezbollah has now fired some 3,333 of these unguided rockets.
The rockets going into Israel are older types but there are more ominous weapons out there.
Mr. Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus at Princeton, wrote in the Wall Street Journal this week, “It seems increasingly likely that the Iranians either have or very soon will have nuclear weapons at their disposal, thanks to their own researches (which began some 15 years ago).â€
Professor Lewis also said, “To some of their obliging neighbors, and to the ever-helpful rulers of North Korea. The language used by Iranian President Ahmadinejad would seem to indicate the reality and indeed the imminence of this threat.”
North Korea launched a ballistic missile that flew over Japan in 1998. On July 4 this year, they fired seven missiles in test. Iran’s missile engineers were on hand in North Korea to evaluate performance.
These ballistic missiles are purely offensive with no defensive capability. Most experts also say they are meant only to destroy population centers.
Just today there was a news report that veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace conducted an exclusive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
This is the same President Ahmadinejad that said last autumn that the Jewish state had to be wiped off the face of the earth. This is the same President Ahmadinejad that is defying the United Nations while he does nuclear research that most experts believe is intended to make a nuclear bomb. This is the same President Ahmadinejad that is arming Hezbollah and developing his own long range ballistic missiles.
Experts in the pentagon are calling this threatening to destroy civilians indiscriminately and without warning “asymmetric warfare†against people more accustomed to at least making attempts to warn civilians and avoid collateral damage.
There have also been numerous news reports in the past weeks about Israel’s extensive use of aircraft dropped leaflets to warn Lebanese civilians of impending attacks.
In a story in the Los Angeles Times by Ashraf Khalil on August 1, Khalil detailed how the Israelis are also using cell phones to warn civilians of impending attack.
Khalil showed the predominant reaction of most Arabs, writing, “In Gaza, where the Israeli military began issuing specific warnings [to individual cell phone users] in the last two weeks, the practice has not won over many hearts or minds. Few here accept the idea that Israel, even for public-relations reasons, really is trying to limit civilian deaths.â€
Fair enough. But we haven’t seen the reciprocal degree of warnings to civilians in Israel by Hezbollah.
American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, whose troops burned down Atlanta and much of Georgia during the famed “march to the sea,†said “war is hell.â€
Indeed the war on terror is hell. But it is the indiscriminate killing of civilians without warning and with intent that is troubling. And we believe these terror type attacks are not the product of Israel or the United States.
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