Here’s the story from the Guardian:
An alleged plot to kill thousands of people by detonating explosions on up to 10 transatlantic flights from UK airports was disrupted overnight.
The home secretary, John Reid, today said such an attack could have caused civilian casualties on an “unprecedented scale”.
It is believed the intention was to set off near simultaneous blasts on flights, probably bound for the US, using explosives smuggled into passenger cabins inside hand luggage.
Police were holding 21 people in custody in London following overnight raids by anti-terror officers and MI5. A decision was made to move suddenly following months of surveillance.
I’m told (by my wife who was listening to the radio) that NPR has announced that, because this plot involved liquid chemicals smuggled on board in carry on bags to be later combined into explosives, no carry on luggage at all will be allowed on transatlantic flights, and that no liquids (water bottles, sodas, etc.) of any kind will be allowed to be carried on domestic flights in the US.
More from the Guardian story on the flip . . .
There were no firm indications of plans for an attack to have been carried out today, but the US homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said it was a “well advanced” scheme. He said the plot was based in Britain but was “international in scope”.
The US attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez, said it was “suggestive of al-Qaida tactics”.
Reports citing official sources said the apparent idea was to use a liquid-based explosive, and there were suggestions one explosive component was to have been hidden in bottles of fizzy drink.
British officials were slightly more circumspect about the background to the plot than their US counterparts, stressing that they had to be careful about what they said because there could be trials in future.
I’ll leave comment on the significance of this threat to others. I don’t think we have enough information to evaluate how serious or imminent a threat this alleged plot posed. Perhaps more information from British authorities will be forthcoming in the days ahead. I do note that the announcement of this comes, as always, at a convenient time for the Bush administration. Then again, any terror threat news would come at a good time for the Bush administration these days.
Shortly we’ll hear how the administration was so right on terror issues while Democrats just want to hold hands with terrorist whiles singing Kumbaya and eating organic vegetables.
Haven’t we already heard that? ;0)
I’m guessing that they’ll accuse liberals of helping terrorists obtain little baby Christians so that they can be sacrificed and their blood drunk in Godless satanic rituals practiced by Islamofascists and lefty hippie types while snorting cocaine and tripping on acid.
Oh wait, that story has already been used against the Jews in the Middle Ages in Europe. Well, that won’t matter. Republicans love to recycle good propaganda.
organic farmers are not terrorists, they are communists.
Terrorists, communists, what’s the difference? Just use the variable $BAD_GUY and fill in the value with whatever is convenient at the moment to keep the local systems in line.
Pretty close. Bush said this shows how we are “more safe” now than before 9/11. I strongly disagreed with that assessment in my diary today.
I did an update to my posting from last night on kos earlier today which includes my take on the terror threat and the handling of it…..
from Kurt Nimmo
I’m trying to withhold judgement on the veracity of this story, given that it’s being peddled by known chronic liars on both sides of the Atlantic. In the meantime, what’s striking about the reporting is how it all revolves around “How are we being protected from these threats?”. Well you can’t carry your aftershave on a plane out of Dulles or OHare anymore, or maybe your IPod or your PDA.
And that’s as far as it goes — a kind of consumer report on how this particular threat is being addressed after the alleged fact, not the context, the identities, the motivations, just another recall of a dangerous product forced by DaddyUncle Sam. Nothing about how times have changed, or haven’t. No perspective on whether the real danger of flying is greater, less, the same compared to past decades. Nothing on what might be done to address the underlying conditions that impel and justify such murderous intent. Just endless stories about folks that had to toss their hair spray in the dumpster, and how long this might go on.
Some people say the worldwide media has become the communal mind of the human world. If so, our lobe of it is evidently stuck at about 2 years old. Maybe it’s time for a massive transplant.
Remember back in those innocent days right after 9/11? Bushco/CIA spent a lot of time talking about how you never hear about the sucesses. When the CIA thwarts a crime you don’t hear about it because the crime didn’t actually happen.
Now – the crimes are still not actually happening – Florida 7, UK 21, et al. But we hear A LOT about it. This has “fear tactic” written all over it. Even if they did actually arrest people who wanted to commit a crime, what can they actually charge them with? they didn’t DO anything but conspire.
The Beauty part for the actuall terrorists is that they don’t have to actually carry out crimes any more. Just leave some notes arround your appartment about where to get nitro-glycerin and Bushco will impede our freedom of movement and ignore our civil liberties, like clockwork. Whoever the terrorists really are have won already – they won back on 9/11.
If Sept 11 was really about how some people hate our freedom, BushCo is their number one co-conspirator. Right from the beginning, when he glorified them as warriors instead of the wackjob criminals they were. The terrorists there and the terrorists here both depend on ongoing fear to achieve their ends. By the standards of “homeland security”, that’s sufficient grounds to indict for conspiracy.
Beware of people bearing carbonated drinks…they are terrorists. Because a jury can never be convinced of this, they will be indefinitely detained.
This message would not be believed after Labor Day. So we roll out this product in August.
Or possibly…they finally did their job and earned their budget.
Aaaaaargh. Carry a can of Coke and you’re a terrorist. Use aftershave and you’re a terrorist. Don’t even get me started on baby formula. Or as Arlo Guthrie noted once, on the way out of Australia one time the security people made his mandolin player surrender all of the brand new mandolin strings he kept in his case, allowing him to put the fully-strung mandolin back into the case.
“Up until that point I had not realized that terrorists could only strangle people with new strings,” he observed.
Carry mandolin strings and you’re a terrorist. (Yes, yes, I already know that a banjo is a Weapon of Music Destruction. Don’t get me started.)
Reminds me of the old Song of the Temperance Union, where the alleged temperance marchers saw depravity in everything:
It’s incredible timing. Just yesterday, Cheney make boo noise about how Lamont’s win over Lieberman encourages al Qaida and Snow-blower talks about “waving a white flag in the war on terror.”
This news breaks this morning.
And MSNBS reports that Bush has known about it for “several” days.
Talk about transparency in government.
open your Windows Media Player (if you’re on Windows) and point it to this URL:
mms://a1900.l1305038968.c13050.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1900/13050/v0001/reflector:38968
I’m not sure what to say about this yet as I just woke up and I’m not sure I’m entirely awake yet.
Why go there OMIR, why not to BBC Radio. You can then listen to any of the BBC radio networks in Windows Media or Real Player.
Hi Neutbob, thanks for pointing that out. The reason for going to the World Service is that, having listened to the World Service for 40-some years, I sometimes tend to forget the domestic services exist, especially since I don’t actually live in Great Britain. Also, the World Service tends to have a pretty high concentration of news and analysis, although you do have to wade through stories about fairly-traded Darjeeling tea (which was interesting, it just wasn’t the news this morning) or, much worse, Westway (assuming it’s still running). If I want a soap opera about a hospital I can find them on US daytime TV.
I have commented on whether this was legitimate elsewhere (summary: probably, but with the administration’s propensity for lying you can never be sure).
What strikes me right now is the tone. I turned on the TV this morning at 3:30am central time and watched CNN International cover this. It dominated their coverage, obviously, but it was somewhat subdued. They treated it like a thwarted threat rather than an actual attack, and they were more focused on the delay for passengers than anything else.
Here it is almost 7 hours later and I just turned on CNN again. The tone is amazingly different, it feels a little like 9/11 again. It’s hard to put into words exactly what they are doing or how, it’s almost hysteric, but I would be terrified right now if CNN was my only source of news.
Even the BBC World Service is doing a little of that, although in typical subdued British fashion they’re not going overboard in an ohgodohgodohgodwe’reallgonnadie fashion. They’re making note of the authorities saying that they had “disrupted” the threat rather than “stopped” it, since they aren’t sure they’ve gotten everyone involved.
That’s part of it. I think the major thing they are doing is focusing non-stop on this no carry-ons, no liquids theme. Any bottle of water could be a threat, every other person on the plane with a carry-on bag could be a terrorist. “Trust no one” is the best possible way to create fear.
I’m going to the kitchen right now to check on Grandma, she’s “boiling water” so it’s possible she is working on a bomb. You never can tell with those liquids.
.
Arrests related to the reported terror threat to UK flights took place in London, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands.
Twenty-one people are being held in London after night-time raids. One raid was in Walthamstow, east London. Searches are under way at a number of businesses and homes after an “unprecedented” level of surveillance.
…
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”.
May I suggest:
President Mahmoud AhmadinejadUK Terror Arrests – 90% released without charges.
Can we resell our duct tape and polyester sheets now?
The worry today is liquids instead of WMD, anthrax or ricine.
● US boosts marshals on UK flights
● UK: Government’s “war on terror” policies put people at risk of torture
≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
Blair and UK in ACUTE DANGER! ¶ Highest FEAR Level ≈
Thu Aug 10th, 2006 at 12:44:20 AM PST"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
.
How original, suggestion by MI-5 today: UK Aircraft Bomb Plot Foiled. Instead of the Pacific Ocean, plot is situated above the Atlantic Ocean.
Terrorize the U.S. by sabotaging 11 westbound civilian aircraft simultaneously with bombs
By Christopher Bollyn – Exclusive to American Free Press
CIA, FBI Knew Since 1995 About Possible Hijack Scheme
With a massive amount of information about planned terrorist attacks in hand, how could the government be caught by surprise on Sept. 11.
The CIA and FBI have known-since 1995-about the terrorist plan to use civilian aircraft to attack the World Trade Center – and the headquarters of the CIA.
The detailed plans to hijack a large number of American commercial passenger planes simultaneously and explode them in mid-flight or crash them into predetermined targets such as the World Trade Center have been well known by western intelligence agencies since 1995, according to Die Welt, the Hamburg-based (Germany) newspaper of December 7.
…
On Murad’s computer the police discovered “Project Bojinka” with its detailed plan to terrorize the United States by sabotaging eleven westbound civilian aircraft simultaneously with bombs, exploding them in mid-air as they approached the West Coast.
Furthermore, “Project Bojinka” included plans to hijack and crash several commercial airplanes into civilian and government buildings simultaneously, precisely as it occurred on September 11.
Yousef independently boasted of the plot to U.S. Secret Service agent Brian Parr and FBI agent Charles Stern on an extradition flight from Pakistan to the United States in February 1995. The agents later testified to that fact in court.
CNN Report -…
As part of the foiled Bojinka Plot, terrorist mastermind Ramzi Youssef planned to put together an improvised bomb using liquid in a contact lens solution container.
The metal detector and X-ray machines at airport security checkpoints cannot detect such explosives. At many, but not all airport checkpoints, the TSA has deployed walkthrough “sniffer” or “puffer” machines that can detect explosives residue.
≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
Blair and UK in ACUTE DANGER! ¶ Highest FEAR Level ≈
Thu Aug 10th, 2006 at 12:44:20 AM PST"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Oui, I’m not sure what you said. We are bogged down in Iraq. The mightest army in the world is powerless it would seem. Absolutely not so. Israel is setting the example we’re too late in Iraq to follow.
Lebanon attacked Israel. BS to Hezbollah did it. The attack came from Lebanon. Now Lebanon must pay the price. Which is… Civilians killed until the civilians realize it’s not Israel that causes their deaths but Hezbollah. Hezbollah must be ejected from Lebanon post haste or the entire population will die. That’s the only way to run a war against terrorists.
Those who harbor, aid and abet terrorists are terrorists. All terrorists must die. Is that simple enough? Stop bitching about civilian casualties and start thinking get Hezbollah out before all Lebanonese civilians die. Yes, they will kill the last one of them because they are terrorists unless they oppose terrorism. Not just words, deeds, throw the Hezbollah bums out of Lebanon. Do it now!
Get educated, http://www.hoax-buster.org
that’s a truly pathetic comment.
.
on a number of occasions. I figured it was more to gain attention for your blog.
Calling for the willfull deaths of civilians in the War of Attrition in Lebanon, crosses the line. This is a first warning, I will not stand idle by this bs of yours.
You are an intelligent person, do some research on facts, history and philosphy. But please don’t engage with me again.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
but apparently you are serious. I’m not really surprised. My two religious Jewish coworkers recently have been saying similar things. They remind me of the nice middle aged man who did the mass killings in WW2. They only needed a few days of training to get used to it.
How long is it going to take before people realize Allah, all Gods even are big sissys. If they are all that powerful and want a few airplanes downed then why do they need people to commit suicide to do it? Why not wiggle their almighty ears or something?
It’s time to rethink a few absolte truths. http://www.hoax-buster.org is just a beginning. If you want the advanced class then try http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul A single soul isn’t worth much to the devil. He pays the big money to those who lead the multitudes to hell.
Will you quit with the blog-whoring? jeeez.
Considering this has been going on for a good 10 hours now, information about the alleged perpetrators and the actual explosives is remarkably thin on the ground.
Also, while this may seem to fit fairly well with the Bushco agenda, it fits extraordinarily well with the Blairco government’s efforts to undermine civil liberties in the UK (as well as following some anti-terra embarrassments like Forest Gate).
For those interested, this Guardian article provides a readily understandable snapshot of the debate:
Note that these remarks were made yesterday, and Reid must have known that the terra arrests were imminent.
Wouldn’t have been Reid alone. But yes, it smells of a scripted exercise. Problem is, scripted exercises are supposed to be like fire drills – everything happens according to plan. What’s more, drills are supposed to give the participating agencies a chance to show how well-coordinated they are. But someone forgot to tell the BAA. How’s that for coordination?
So we’re faced with either an inept coordination or a bungled alert. Which do you prefer?
Israel and the USA are intent on bombing Muslims into moderation. It will never happen. A counter-strike will occur. The only question is when and how bungled the federal government response will be.
I don’t have confirmation of this yet, but I just heard that at the Philadelphia Airport, they are collecting bottled water, soda, etc from the passengers in line to get on airplanes becuase they might contain WMD – AND they are going to give the collected products to the HOMELESS?!?!? I can’t take it on the plane because it’s dangerous but you’ll give it to the homeless? I guess that solves two problems at once… no exploding planes and no more homeless to boot!
Hmm. Sounds like they might have it backwards. Isn’t it supposed to be ‘send the passengers home, and put the homeless on the plane’?