Foiled terror plot on scale of 9/11

An alleged terror plot to blow up several transatlantic passenger jets, which British police said they had thwarted on Thursday, would have caused even greater casualties than 9/11, officials and experts say, marking a chilling departure from smaller-scale terror attacks of recent years.

Thousands were stranded at Britain's biggest airports Thursday and delays rippled across the US as flights were canceled and check-in security ramped up to surreal proportions after police said they had arrested 21 suspects in connection with a plot to smuggle liquid explosives onto several aircraft.

Officials in London and Washington said the alleged plotters, many believed to be British-born, had their sights on United, American, and Continental flights. Simultaneous explosions were to have been caused by chemicals in carry-on luggage. Officials monitored the plot for months before deciding they had to move.

Experts say that the foiled attack suggests Al Qaeda involvement. Aviation is still a favored target for Al Qaeda acolytes bent on taking terrorism to new heights.

"The best way to top the 9/11 event is to do it with civilian aircraft with a lot of people on board," says Rolf Tophoven, a German terrorism expert. "This will create huge damage on all kinds of economic and commercial levels."

Bruce Hoffman, an expert on terrorism at the RAND Corp. in Washington, notes that it's typical of Al Qaeda to go back to targets and improve their techniques on past attacks. The successful attack on the USS Cole in 2000 followed a failed bid to sink the USS Sullivan in 1999. The 9/11 attack came eight years after the limited attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.

This latest effort, he adds, is a carbon copy of the failed 1995 "Bojinka" plot by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted of being the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center attack, to blow up 11 American airliners over the Pacific, using plastic explosives.

Britain raised its terror alert levels to the highest notch, while the US put a red alert – the first time that level was invoked – on flights from Britain. All other US flights were one step below, at "orange."

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Peter Clarke, deputy assistnant commissioner for Scotland Yard, said the plot was international in scope and involved many people.

President Bush, in Wisconsin, said that the US was safer than it was before 9/11. "We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American people but obviously we're not completely safe," he said. But, he added, "It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America."

Officials would not say exactly how many aircraft were targeted, nor when precisely they thought the plotters would strike. French officials said Thursday that the plotters were probably of Pakistani origin. British officials refused comment.

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