Terrorism & Security
posted August 10, 2006 at 12:00 p.m.

British aircraft plot uncovered

British police made multiple arrests in connection to a plot to blow up transatlantic flights.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

British police have disrupted plans for a major terror attack that would have seen terrorists exploding devices on a number of flights between Britain and the United States.

The Guardian reports that the alleged plot would have used liquid explosives smuggled on board in handheld bags. The police arrested 21 people in London, the Thames Valley, and Birmingham.

Paul Stephenson, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said he was confident that a plan "intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale" had been thwarted.

The Daily Telegraph reports that sources say between three and ten aircraft may have been targeted, but there has been no confirmation of this number from Scotland Yard. The threat level has been raised to red at all airports in Britain, and many flights have been cancelled. The Telegraph also reports that additional security measures have also been put into place.



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Contact lens wearers - who are advised to remove them during flights - have been allowed to take the holders on board, but not bottles of the solutions they need to reinsert them. Those wearing glasses have been told that the spectacle cases must be checked in. Even car keys with an electronic fob and mobile phones have been banned from the plane.

"They won't even allow me to take my lipstick on," said Firoaus Amur, 46, from Nairobi as she prepared to check in to her flight to Kenya.

The DebkaFile, an Israeli intelligence news information site, reports that American security officials say that the alleged plotters had targeted United Airlines, American Airlines, and Continental Airlines. The site also reports that the suspects arrested so far are British-born of Pakistani origin.

The BBC reports that London's Heathrow Airport has been closed to all incoming flights not already in the air. All flights coming into or from Gatwick Airport have been suspended. Transportation Secretary Douglas Alexander said all airports in Britain would be at a heightened state of security.

"What these changes mean in practice is that all hand baggage will now have to be checked in with only a small number of essential items allowed through search controls," he said.

"Exceptions will be in place for those travelling with infants and for prescription medicines."

Reuters reported that the US raised its threat level to red for all flights to Britain. In addition, all flights coming from or going to the United States were also put on alert.

iWe believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted,i said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in announcing that the threat level for flights from Britain to the United States has been raised to the highest isevere or redi level.

iTo defend further against any remaining threat from this plot, we will also raise the threat level to high, or orange, for all commercial aviation operating in or destined for the United States,i Chertoff said ... A statement issued by Chertoff said icurrently, there is no indication ... of plotting within the United States.i

The Wall Street Journal reports that the CIA has been working closely with Britain on the investigation, which has been going on for months. Not all of the suspects involved in the plot have been arrested yet, which the Journal says was the reason behind Mr. Chertoff raising the threat level.

U.S. intelligence, particularly the Central Intelligence Agency, has been working closely with Britain on the investigation, which has been ongoing for months, the second official said. Authorities have not yet arrested or detained all suspects who are believed to be involved in the plot, the official said, prompting Mr. Chertoff's alarm.

This latest alleged plot appears to bear some similarities to an al Qaeda plot to bomb 11 U.S. passenger jets over the Pacific that was uncovered in the Philippines in 1995. Code-named "Bojinka," the Serbo-Croatian word for "explosion," the plot also included the assassination of Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila and crashing a plane into the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Va.

Police in Manila stumbled across the conspiracy when they responded to a fire at an apartment rented by Abdul Hakim Murad and Ramzi Yousef, who was later caught in Pakistan and convicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. They found bomb-making materials in a sink and a lap-top computer full of coded information. The mastermind of the Bojinka plot — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — later went on to orchestrate the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003.

The Washington Post reports that Peter Clarke, chief of the London police department's anti-terrorism branch, said the alleged plot had been monitored for some time, with a large number of people under surveillance.

"The alleged plot has global dimensions," Clarke said. "The investigation reached a critical point last night when the decision was made to take urgent action in order to disrupt what was being planned. As always in these investigations, the safety of the public" was the paramount concern, he added.

Independent terrorism expert Paul Beaver, interviewed by Reuters, said hand-luggage was a "weak spot" in airport security.

"A laptop computer can carry enough explosives to blow up an aircraft," he said. "Hold baggage and cargo can be sniffed for explosives. You can't do that for hand luggage at the moment. The technology is there, but it's time consuming and expensive."

Beaver said the nature of the alleged plot suggested a connection to Al Qaeda.

"In the last two months Al Qaeda promised that it would avenge Iraq and Afghanistan by attacking British and American aviation assets -- I see a direct link with that," he said.

Channel Four News in Britian report that the plot has already exacted an economic cost. British Airlines, and even cruise ship lines, saw the values of shares in their companies fall by as much as six percent.

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