Breaking News: 20 arrested in GB airline plot

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Major airlines targeted for bombings traveling from the UK to the US. Expect very long delays at airports. Homeland Security raises danger level to "Red" for all air travel from the UK, "Orange" for other flights. Chertoff to speak to the nation this morning. New travel restrictions apply immediately.

[lallybrooky]

My flight to UK is supposed to be in just over 4 hours time...hopefully all will be well :)

[Richard Tafoya]

NPR has been doing some terrific coverage of this this morning. Here are a couple of Morning Edition pieces. I'll put up links to the later Day To Day pieces in a bit when they're up.

Britain Disrupts Plans To Bomb UK-US Flights:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5632633

Implications of the Bombing Plot:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5632636

[Richard Tafoya]

The "Day To Day" packages:

World: (http://talk.livedaily.com/) U.K. Officials Say Plane Bombing Plot Foiled (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5633529) British authorities announced Thursday that they have uncovered a terrorist plot to blow up several airplanes flying from Britain to the United States. News of the planned attacks prompted increased terrorism alert measures at airports across the United States.


World: (http://talk.livedaily.com/) Liquid Explosives Suspected in U.K. Terrorist Plot (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5633532) British authorities say they have arrested at least 21 suspects in connection with an alleged terrorist plan to destroy planes flying from Britain to the United States using liquid explosives, perhaps brought onboard in carry-on luggage.


Nation: (http://talk.livedaily.com/) Alleged Plot Prompts Delays at U.S. Airports (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5633535) News that British authorities thwarted a terrorist plan to blow up airplanes flying from the United Kingdom to the U.S. has sparked increased security and significant delays at American airports.


Liquid Explosives: How They Work, How to Spot Them (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5633538) U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday that terrorists planned to use liquid explosives to destroy airplanes flying from Britain to the United States. But how do liquid explosives work, and what can security officials do to detect them?



Tonight's (Thursday) "All Things Considered" evening roundup:

World: (http://talk.livedaily.com/) British Authorities Foil Plot to Bomb Planes (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5635095)
World: (http://talk.livedaily.com/) What the Air Traffic Alert Means for Passengers (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5635098)
World: (http://talk.livedaily.com/) Airline Security in the Wake of the Plot (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5635101)
Nation: (http://talk.livedaily.com/) Dogs, Cops, Guard Leave Passengers Mostly Unfazed (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5635196)

[Richard Tafoya]

Boingboing.net highlights a good point:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/10/if_the_liquid_could_.html

http://www.boingboing.net/200608101347.jpg And check out this article (http://http//www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060810/NEWS01/60810001) from Asheville, NC. "Maya Leoni, who is held by Angela Perez, cries as her mother, A.J. Leoni, pours the last of her drink into the receptacle while in line for the security checkpoint at the Asheville Regional Airport." POUR IT INTO A RECEPTACLE? Don't you think that some of these potentially explosive liquids might be more dangerous when, I don't know, mixed in a big vat in the middle of an airport?
Christ, why don't they just have people put their liquids into a big bonfire?

[pinky]

They reported in Philadelphia that unopened products confiscated at Philly International would be donated to local homeless shelters.

I guess if something happens to the people there, it'll just be taking care of another problem. :rolleyes:

[Richard Tafoya]

The parody-makers are on the ball. Vulgar, but funny, in my book.

http://craphound.com/images/liquids-on-a-plane.jpg

[pinky]

I just saw the Sierra Mist commercial where Kathy Griffin makes a noise when she scans the bottle of soda. Pretty ironic in light of today's events.

[Regis Philbin]

If the Dems had their way we would have missed this...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1225453,00.html

Nation

Thwarting the Airline Plot: Inside the Investigation

Exclusive: U.S. picked up the suspects' chatter and shared it with British authorities; new federal alert warns that peroxide-based explosives could also be employed in future attacks in the U.S.

By BRIAN BENNETT AND DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON

Posted Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006

Wednesday night was a long and troubling one for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. A bubbling plot by British citizens to blow up airplanes had come to a boil in the past three days, and as British authorities arrested dozens of suspects around London, it was Chertoff's job to coordinate the U.S. defenses. Scary intelligence reports pop up all the time, but this particular terror operation got close enough to being carried out that it rattled even the normally sedate Chertoff. "Very seldom do things get to me," he told Rep. Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in a phone call late Wednesday night. "This one has really gotten to me."

Chertoff had good reason to be worried. Senior U.S officials have confirmed to TIME details of the plot that led the secretary to ratchet up the color-coded security alert for British-U.S. flights to an unprecedented red for "Severe." A total of 24 individuals were arrested in Britain overnight and, says one senior U.S. official who was briefed on the plot, five still remain at large. Their plan was to smuggle the peroxide-based liquid explosive TATP and detonators onto nine different planes from four carriers — British Airways, Continental, United and American — that fly direct routes between the U.K and the U.S. and blow them up mid-air. Intelligence officials estimate that about 2,700 people would have perished, according to the official.

Britain's MI-5 intelligence service and Scotland Yard had been tracking the plot for several months, but only in the past two weeks had the plotters' planning begun to crystallize, senior U.S. officials tell TIME. In the two or three days before the arrests, the cell was going operational, and authorities were pressed into action. MI5 and Scotland Yard agents tracked the plotters from the ground, while a knowledgeable American official says U.S. intelligence provided London authorities with intercepts of the group's communications. Most of the suspects are second or third generation British citizens of Pakistani descent whose families hailed from war-torn Kashmir. U.S. officials believe the 29 members were divided into multiple cells and planned to break into small groups to board the nine planes.

During the past few months the plotters' attack plans had changed, said Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Jackson. "There were different data sets about their interests over time that evolved," he said. It was only in recent days, said Jackson, that the plans began to focus on British-U.S. flights. The plot was "very near execution" but not imminent, Jackson said. "We didn't pull people off of airplanes."

So as not to derail the British round-up, Chertoff had to wait until the early hours of Thursday morning after all the London arrests were made before notifying U.S. airports of the threat, say senior DHS officals. When it became clear the arrests would be wrapped up around 1 a.m Washington time, Chertoff got on a conference call with his Homeland Security Advisory Committee to approve changing the threat level. Then calls when out to the airlines, airline security companies and labor unions affected by the changes, as well as to members of Congress.

[pinky]

Once again, you're so far off base that I doubt you're even in the same stadium as reality.

Aside from the fact that it was the BRITISH intelligence that had been tracking the plot for months, and US intel only picked up some communications. Who's to say whether or not the suspects' communications were being tracked specifically as part of the overall investigation, and not from random listening?

But where you're really missing the point is in your assumption that anyone has a problem with our intelligence listening to these communications. First of all, this was not domestic spying. The people arrested were not American citizens. Secondly, I've never heard anyone---Republican, Democrat, conservative, or liberal---claim that the government shouldn't be listening. The only thing that's been said is that court approval is required for domestic wiretaps.

[Regis Philbin]

This was obviously made up by the Bush Administration. What happened 2 nights ago?...Joe Lieberman lost...a big blow to the War on Terror. It's obvious Bush made all this up to distract from the Lieberman fiasco. The War on Terror is just something the Bush Administration made up to distract us from Iraq and the horrible economy anyway. Tony Blair is just Bush's "lapdog" and will do anything Bush says. He told Tony to set up this whole "terror plot" thing and spring it if Lieberman loses the primary on Tuesday. I bet Karl Rove dreamed this whole deal up himself, he is the "evil genius" afterall.

The GOP will use this to show the Dems are weak on Terror this November. That Rove is a friggin' genius...

I bet the Bush family has a grudge against Gatorade and so they're using this to hurt Gatorade sales and make their stock tank. No more Gatorade on airplanes. That Rove is a friggin' genius, I tell ya.

[Regis Philbin]

Here's the ringleaders:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/08/abc_exclusive_t.html

ABC News Exclusive: Three Alleged Ringleaders ID'd
August 10, 2006 2:02 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

Three of the alleged ringleaders of the foiled airplane bomb plot have been identified by Western intelligence agencies involved in unraveling the plot.

Two of them are believed to have recently traveled to Pakistan and were later in receipt of money wired to them from Pakistan, reportedly to purchase tickets for the suicide bombers.

Sources identify the three, who are now in custody, as:

--Rashid Rauf

--Mohammed al-Ghandra

--Ahmed al Khan

[DoubleEdgeSword]

You are certifiable, Richie Rich, so divorced from reality as to be delusional. I think I get it now... you aren't employable, and the military would give you a Section 8 if you ever had the guts to try and enlist.

And we thought aliens would be intelligent....

[lallybrooky]

Two Britons In Pakistan Arrests (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4781925.stm)

Officials in Pakistan say that two men arrested in connection with an alleged UK plot to blow up planes are British nationals of Pakistani origin.

The two are among seven people arrested in connection with the plot. They were picked up in the cities of Lahore and Karachi last week.

Officials say they provided important information about the UK plot.

UK police are questioning 24 people over the alleged plot to attack planes flying from the UK to the US.

Airports in India and Pakistan have tightened security.

Increased screening

On Thursday, Pakistan announced it had made a number of arrests in connection with the police operation in the UK.

"Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network," Tasnim Aslam, the spokeswoman for the foreign ministry said.

[pinky]

This was obviously made up by the Bush Administration. What happened 2 nights ago?...Joe Lieberman lost...a big blow to the War on Terror. It's obvious Bush made all this up to distract from the Lieberman fiasco. The War on Terror is just something the Bush Administration made up to distract us from Iraq and the horrible economy anyway. Tony Blair is just Bush's "lapdog" and will do anything Bush says. He told Tony to set up this whole "terror plot" thing and spring it if Lieberman loses the primary on Tuesday. I bet Karl Rove dreamed this whole deal up himself, he is the "evil genius" afterall.

The GOP will use this to show the Dems are weak on Terror this November. That Rove is a friggin' genius...

I bet the Bush family has a grudge against Gatorade and so they're using this to hurt Gatorade sales and make their stock tank. No more Gatorade on airplanes. That Rove is a friggin' genius, I tell ya.
What the hell are you talking about?

[pinky]

And, by the way, I thought the fact that since it was reported that we were tracking the financial transactions of suspected terrorists, that tool wasn't going to be of any use any more......