'Airlines terror plot' disrupted

Post-9/11 Era Forum

From BBC.co.uk:

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 were searching premises with 21 people in custody after arrests in the London area and West Midlands.

High security is causing delays at all UK airports. The threat level to the UK has been raised by MI5 to critical.

According to MI5's website, 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.

According to BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera new intelligence was received in the last five days which led to the decision for police to act as soon as possible.

The plot is 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.

Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport has been closed to all incoming flights that are not already in the air, while several outbound services have been cancelled.

Gatwick Airport has suspended all flights.

Heathrow 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.

"I can confirm that a significant number of people are currently in custody and the operation is ongoing."

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

The arrests took place in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

West Midlands Police said two men were arrested under the Terrorism Act in Birmingham. No firearms officers were involved in the operation, it said in a statement.

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.

Not that most people need it, but here is yet more evidence of just how succesful Bush and Blair's so called "war on terror" is really doing. If the idea was to radicalise as many Muslim as possible then they've done a sterling job. Well done.

Just to add a nice shade of irony to the story, Blair knew about the attack a month ago, which could explain why he's sitting on a beach in Barbados right now.

The three places they were targeting were New York, Washington, and California. Living in Cali... I sure would like to know WHERE they were trying to hit.

I would bet it was L.A. that was the CA target. San Diego doesn't get as many international flights, most connect to us through L.A.

No, I don't think that SD would be the target, unless they were coming after the Navy. LA or Sacramento. Or, San Francisco.

I still will bet it was L.A. It is one of the largest airports, has been a target in the past, and L.A. represents material wealth to many in the world.

Yeah, you're right...

It's just scary that this crap is being plotted, and who knows what things we haven't found out about, and what will happen next.

I've never understood why people want to hurt, and kill, others!! It makes no sense to me.

Good job London, spot on

I am not sure why every "terrorist plot" that is foiled needs to be paraded on television like someone just cured herpes. Wouldn't it be more wise to keep the exploits of terrorists and how they planned to carry out such plots a bit more under wraps? Not totally secretive, but just give us the brass-tacks.

-HECK!

I'm with you, Heck.... do we really need to have fear, constantly driven into the hearts of the American people? I'm sure that they love having all of the coverage about their plots.

"Fear will keep them in line."

Terror Alert Level: Bakersfield Chimp.

-HECK!

I guess they want to show their intelligence is working, and if they didn't make a big fuss they'd be accussed of not doing anything.

Usually when these kind of arrests are made it means blocking off whole streets in different parts of the city, and sending in 100s of cops for each arrest, impossible to hide.

Saying that more times than not after a big fanfare of arrests like today's, a few weeks later and all suspects are quietly released because of a lack of any evidence. The ratio of arrest to conviction is appalling.

It is also possible that some explosives have been "Checked In" to their destination flights. Thus the evidence of liquid explosives plus the data provided to the airline company could trigger more arrests.

What about all the luggage that people send through, to go into cargo? How are they finding stuff that way?


There is a machine, at one of the terminals, here in San Diego. You stand in it, and it sends up air, from your feet, and picks up ANY and EVERYTHING. It sends all these particals into a thing over your head, and it's like 700 degrees. Within 19 seconds, it knows if there is any type of explosive residue. I wonder if something like that is done on luggage.

I must say did I ever pick the worst day to fly to London, I should have known when the policeman looked at my ticket to Heathrow and started laughing but I hung around Edinburgh Airport for 4 hours on the off chance.

Anyway some people were suggesting the plan was for the plnes to be blown up at US airports but I don't think that was the plan I would be guessing that the planes were to be blown up in mid flight, Al Quedia did a dummy run of these attack in the 90's over the Pacific but the explosive was not strong enought to break up the plane and since then they have been perfecting it. Plus the fact to mix these chemicals would require the guys to go to the toilet one after the other to mix thier part of the bomb, you can't do thatb if the plane has landed.

Howevere I got to giove credit to Britain, America and especially Pakistan who started off this operation.

i got caught with a water bottle filled with Liquid viagra and they arrested me claiming that i was going to blow holes in the seats