: Terror : Plan to blow several aircrafts failed
 

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British police say they have arrested 21 people in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States.

The plot was "intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale," Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said. The UK's threat warning level has been raised to "critical" -- meaning "an attack is expected imminently."

London Heathrow -- one of the world's busiest airports -- was closed to most European flights Thursday morning, causing chaos for thousands of travelers. British Airways canceled all its flights between the airport and points in Britain, Europe and Libya. (Full story)

The plot involved hiding liquid explosives in carry-on luggage, and some flights would have been heading from the UK to New York, Washington D.C. and California, U.S. government officials said.

The plot involved Continental, United, and American Airlines, according to an administration official who noted that the list was not exclusive.

The intelligence that uncovered the plot "makes very strong links to al Qaeda," a senior U.S. administration official told CNN. The official said it is believed the plot was close to being operational.

U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had conversations concerning the terror plot investigation over the weekend and the leaders have spoken several times since, including overnight when the arrests were made, the official said.

British and U.S. security agencies moved to limit carry-on items on Thursday, causing extended delays at airport security checkpoints. The British Airports Authority said no hand luggage would be allowed onto planes leaving UK airports. (Full story)

Stephenson said 21 people had been arrested by London, Birmingham and Thames Valley police overnight in an ongoing operation.

"This is about people who are desperate ... who want to do things that no right-minded citizen of this country or any other country would want to tolerate," Stephenson said.

The arrests were the result of a "covert counter-terrorist operation," police said. "It is believed that the aim was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on board the aircraft in hand luggage."

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said it was unclear if British authorities had arrested everyone involved in the plot.

But Britain's Home Secretary John Reid said police were confident the main players involved in the plot had been accounted for, adding the operation was ongoing and further arrests might be made.

Asked if Britain's Muslim community was involved in the investigation, Reid would not comment. "We are involved in a long wide and deep struggle against very evil people," Reid said. "This is not a case of one civilization against another, one religion against another."

The July 7, 2005, train and bus bombings that killed 52 London commuters and four bombers was an attack staged by British-raised extremists.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, Head of the Metropolitan Police Service Anti-Terrorist Branch, said the arrests followed an "unprecedented level of surveillance" over several months involving meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people.

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security raised the terror threat to the highest level of "severe," or red, for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom bound for the United States.

In addition, the threat level has been raised to "high," or orange for all commercial flights operating in or coming to the United States, a DHS statement said.

"Due to the nature of the threat revealed by this investigation, we are prohibiting any liquids, including beverages, hair gels, and lotions from being carried on the airplane," the statement said.

In a statement, Blair said: "I would like to pay tribute to the imense effort made by the police and security services who for a long period of time have tracked this situation and been involved in an extraordinary amount of hard work. I thank them for the great job they are doing in protecting our country.

"There have been an enourmous amount of co-operation with the U.S. authorities which has been of great value and underlines the threat we face and our determination to counter it."

A U.S. Transporation Safety Adminstration official said travelers should show up at least two hours ahead of their flights and bring plenty of patience. According to the DHS, there is no indication the plot involved American counterparts.

The alleged terror plot comes nearly five years after Briton Richard Reid attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001.

Passengers thwarted his plan, and the plane landed safely in Boston. Reid pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in October 2002 and is serving a life sentence at the nation's super-maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Source: CNN

Christ.. :S Why can't people just accept other people and let them live? Why does it have to be about killing and war all the time? :S Fuck those wars.. Make love, not war.. Or whatever.. Just let people live.. Who do they think they are anyway? Judging over other people's life and death as if it means nothing? As if they are gods.. :S Screw them..

Passports and wallets in plastic bags? Oh, my. A paradise for thieves. On the other hand, all of it is so awful that I can't even find words.

this is shocking news to wake up too... although when i turned it to CNN they were acting as if something had really happened not just that the plot had been foiled (hopefully completely... eek)...

I just checked two biggest Russian newspapers Pravda and Izvestiya. There's not a single word on what is going on in London. That is a mega LOL or a mega F**K. Take it as you feel.

Chaos vliegverkeer na terreuralarm

Uitgegeven: 10 augustus 2006 10:22
Laatst gewijzigd: 10 augustus 2006 16:44

LONDEN/BRUSSEL/AMSTERDAM - Het luchtverkeer in West-Europa ondervindt grote problemen als gevolg van de aangescherpte veiligheidsmaatregelen op de Britse luchthavens. Die werden ingesteld na de bekendmaking dat een terroristisch complot was ontdekt om aanslagen op vliegtuigen te plegen.

Bekijk video: Modem/ Breedband



Politie houdt reizigers op Londense luchthaven Gatwick in de gaten

De Britse luchtvaartmaatschappij British Airways heeft alle nationale vluchten en vluchten binnen Europa tot donderdagmiddag 16.00 uur (Nederlandse tijd) geannuleerd.

De Londense luchthaven Heathrow is donderdagochtend gesloten voor alle inkomende vluchten. Er is een uitzondering voor toestellen die al onderweg zijn. De luchthaven zal nog tot zeker 20.00 Nederlandse tijd gesloten blijven.

Restricties

Ook zijn alle vluchten van en naar het Britse vliegveld Gatwick donderdag uitgesteld. Voor de andere drie luchthavens in en rond de hoofdstad, Stansted, Luton en London City Airport, gelden "strenge restricties". Zo mag slechts een beperkt aantal toestellen op de luchthavens landen.

Ook voor het vliegveld van Birmingham gelden die beperkingen. De luchthavens laten wel toestellen vertrekken, maar met ernstige vertragingen.


Gestrande passagiers wachten op hun vlucht

Op de Britse luchthavens zijn omvangrijke vertragingen en waarschijnlijk ook annuleringen van vluchten te verwachten, omdat alle passagiers daar met de hand gefouilleerd worden en omdat de scherpere controle van bagage veel extra tijd vergt. Passagiers mogen geen handbagage meer meenemen. Aan boord mogen zij alleen het hoogstnoodzakelijke bij zich hebben. British Airways adviseert mensen die niet per se moeten vliegen om thuis te blijven.

Geannuleerd

De Duitse luchtvaartmaatschappij Lufthansa heeft alle vluchten tot donderdagmiddag 14.00 uur naar Groot-Brittannië geannuleerd. De Brusselse luchthaven deelde mee vooralsnog alle vluchten naar Londen te schrappen. Ryanair heeft alle vluchten van Charleroi naar Groot-Brittannië geschrapt.


Passagiers slapen op de vloer van vliegveld Heathrow

De Franse maatschappij Air France heeft alle vluchten van Parijs naar Heathrow zeker tot 12.00 uur geschrapt. De Griekse Olympic Airlines houdt alle vluchten naar Britse luchthavens aan de grond.

Handbagage

In de Verenigde Staten zijn de veiligheidsmaatregelen voor alle vluchten aangescherpt. Nog strengere maatregelen gelden voor vluchten die uit Groot-Brittannië komen. De Australische maatschappij Qantas heeft besloten dat passagiers minder handbagage mogen meenemen op vluchten naar de VS.

Schiphol

Op de luchthaven Schiphol ondervinden reizigers naar Groot-Brittannië donderdagochtend veel hinder van de verscherpte veiligheidsmaatregelen die op alle Britse luchthavens zijn afgekondigd. "We houden rekening met ernstige vertragingen, vooral richting Londen", aldus een woordvoerster.

Als gevolg van ernstige vertragingen heeft de KLM donderdag drie vluchten uit Nederland naar Groot-Brittannië geannuleerd. Een woordvoerder sluit niet uit dat dat aantal in de loop van de dag oploopt. "De situatie zal per uur verslechteren."

Instructies

Op haar website geeft de luchtvaartmaatschappij reizigers instructies. "Het uitgangspunt blijft dat wij zoveel mogelijk vluchten uitvoeren." De vertraging van KLM-toestellen richting Groot-Brittannië was donderdagochtend rond 09.00 uur opgelopen tot bijna vijf uur.

Eindhoven

Vanaf Eindhoven Airport gaan dagelijks twee vluchten naar Londen Heathrow. Een KLM-vlucht is donderdagochtend als gepland vertrokken, maar kwam met vertraging terug. De tweede vlucht is geannuleerd, meldde een woordvoerder. Een vlucht van Ryanair vanuit Londen Stansted naar Eindhoven liep een kleine vertraging op.

Rotterdam

Een woordvoerster van Rotterdam Airport noemt de situatie op de luchthaven "business as usual. Er zijn wel wat vertragingen omdat toestellen later binnenkomen en dus ook later kunnen vertrekken. Maar bij het inchecken is dezelfde procedure van toepassing als altijd."

Van Rotterdam vertrekken donderdag vijftien vluchten naar Londen, het merendeel naar London City Airport. Dat Heathrow volledig is afgesloten, was nieuw voor de zegsvrouw. De eerste van twee vluchten naar dat vliegveld staat echter pas voor 15.55 uur gepland.

Strenge controles

De marechaussee op Schiphol heeft volgens een zegsman nog geen instructies voor extra strenge controles en veiligheidsmaatregelen gekregen. Een woordvoerder van de Nationaal Coördinator Terrorisme bestrijding (NCTb) laat weten dat er "op dit moment geen aanleiding is voor aanscherping van veiligheidsmaatregelen.

Dreiging

Zowel de terrorismedreiging voor Nederland als die voor de luchthaven Schiphol blijft onveranderd op respectievelijk 'substantiële dreiging' en 'lichte dreiging'."

www.nu.nl


This is one of the biggest Dutch news sites online. And it says also something. I haven't really read it, but there is something going on in Britain..

F*cking sick bastards :mad:

Yeah.. I don't understand.. Maybe I'm stupid or something but.. Why do people always have to hurt and to fight? What's the use of it anyway?

I heard about that incident on the news. That's just crazy. I'm just happy to see the police have done a good job, so that we wouldn't have to witness another tragedy...

Saw about this at 6am this morning when I had to get up for work. Can't say I'm surprised. A few days ago there was a thing in the newspaper saying the current security thread was only 1 below the highest, so we all knew there was something gonna happen very soon. Obviously I'm just very happy that it was stopped.

There will be another one though, we all know that.

grrr, people like them piss me off so bad!, they give Muslims a bad name! :mad:

I really don't want to sound racist or whatever and I'm certainly no expert on Isam but according to this website:

Can someone Muslim here please comment on that? I'd like to know if that is true if the truth is being blurred? Thank you!

well im a muslim and i truly say that personally i dont think thats true, but this is most likely to be because i've been taught otherwise about Mohammed, all i can say is, those people who call themselves muslims and yet still murder people, are not true Muslims, this was not how we were taught, Islam is all about respect

i believe the truth is being blurred here :(

i can lend some other angles to all of this if youd like but it will take quite a bit of time :( [unfortunately im really busy most of the time]

suffice to say, im a peace loving pacifist and im muslim by birth and also by choice. i _choose_ to be a muslim and i like to think its for the right reasons after studying islam for a number of years, not practising it for years and then slowly starting to practise it again.

this is such an overwhelmingly large topic to tackle. and id have no idea where to start really but the things i was taught and read in many different texts completely contradict many hate mongering sites that spew vitriol about islam [like the one quoted above by rachel

conversly there are also many sites/texts glorifying islam. i believe in a middle road and i try to work daily to keep on that middle road.

im so tired of people hijacking islam in its true sense and using it to force their will on other people when the very foundations of islam, the biggest tenent on which it is built is peace.

in fact the greeting of all muslims translated to english is "may the peace and blessings of god be upon you"

Well, it is true that Muhammad lead armies into war to spread the religion, but I think that excerpt was too harsh... I mean " He led the life of a serial killer, terrorist and rapist, who perpetrated genocide throughout Arabia.". Sounds kinda exaggerated... Hmm, but I'm no know-it-all at the subject either. I only slightly remember what I learned in my Religion-class at high school.

And after what I learned I can only agree with what Sabeena wrote. The teachings are very much about respect of each other, no matter who you are.

what is this world comming to?!:mad: and sabeena is ABSOLUTLY right, im learing the islam religion at school, and not all muslims are bad....jesus wats this world comming too, lets just pray that this shit freakin stops and no one gets killed or hurt....:(

Muhamed certainly wasn't a mass-murderer or a rapist. He was most likely a simple shepard with a weakness for female charms and in later life a competent millitary leader and a social reformist. Furthermore there was no animosity between the Christians, Jews and Muslims originally. All three religions worship the same God and even a lot of the deities (take the arch-angel Gabriel for instance). Islam was only an upgrade (or if you want a side-step) from christianity and judaism. So Muslims left christians and jews alone for the most part - calling them "people of the book" (the old testament which islam also accepts as holy). All the animosity between the three came later (probably during the crusades) and all these modern jihad joe extremists are no more than 50 to 100 years old in practice. This modern ultra-extreme incarnation can in no way be considered "islam" anymore. It's just a bunch of thugs trying to use a religion of their choice to promote their own territorial or other goals. They're just opportunists, as simple as that. It's not like other religions haven't been hijacked in such a way in the past (christianity has a lot of nasty stains on it's resume as well).

What is tragic though is that in this day and age moderate muslims just stand by and watch how these people grotesquely twist their culture and religion into something Islam never intended to be. It's tragic how they're so pasive, mostly because they're the ones who'll end up paying the price - they'll be injustly judged and condemned in the eyes of the western public. For what? 'Cause a bunch of sociopathic phychos decided to hijack their religion and they did nothing about it?!
Remember how cases occured in the States right after 9/11 where Arab (or even Arab looking) people were attacked on streets and sometimes severely beaten? Tragic indeed.

About these latest attacks... it's chilling. Makes you wonder how many future attacks are still on the drawing board. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Some will probably never get discovered and prevented before it's too late. Just think about that the next time you board a plane or a train. On the other side though, these latest preventive actions are another good excuse for countries like US or the UK to "raise their security levels" which is just another phrase for sacrificing people's privacy in the name of security. These attacks, starting with 9/11 are striking the western civilization right in the heart of it's most powerful asset - it's freedoms and liberties. Wise words of Benjamin Franklin: "He who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserves neither."

This whole thing just makes me sad. It's all so completely stupid. :/

That's not true at all.
There's no force in accepting the Islam.That's what I read in the books.but not true in Iran.because here there's no way I can change my religion.If I do then the gov. has right to kill me.

It makes it difficult for us to get a visa to go to other countries. I dont know why they think all Iranian are terrorist *By default*

all these people are, are exremeists, they use their religion to make murder right, they brainwash people and say that if they do these things, they'll enter paridise..... its wrong and its giving their people a bad name....

http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/fligh...ts_introd.html
No books, no ipods.......Well, passengers are going to have a hard time in the waiting rooms and aircrafts.... F**k those idiots (bombers)!!!

i dont think its a thing to comment on.it must be written by some satanist or who dislikes muslim people.well,i can say that i am a Muslim,and i cant do anything to show the western world what the real muslims are.everyone sees their truth from their eyes,so they want to believe that Islam tells people to kill,rape etc.telling them it isnt true is just a waste of time for me,they can believe what they want.
Offtop:
rachel,doubting if its true or not,you showed that youre not searching things at all and then comment on them.i think thats why we rarely agree over these stuff.

I was watching the news last night and apparently there are at least another 2 dozen terror plots against our country that are still being investigated!! its fuckin sick!

Interesting...I didn't even know that thing happen until today ( when I checked on the bbc website ).
It's a little strange though...how do we know this is not a English plot to stir things up again now that the cease fire in Lebanon is imminent. ( just an idea, after all it was 3rd or 4th report in the news headlines in the U.S. or not? )
We need to keep this BS going on, citizens shouldn't even start to imagine they can lay off.

I personally don't believe anything that the government says :)

spy, paranoid much? :spy:

And how come you didn't know about this til today? :spy: Have you been living under a rock? :bum:

Being paranoid is good, it makes me feel less lonely because there are other people as paranoid as me out there. :gigi:

Offtop:

Quote:

And anyone who believes in God from deep inside is muslim to us(thats why we say this)

Talk about respecting other people's beliefs :gigi:

How do you define paranoid. I'd say that you people are "paranoid" and I'm just a law-abiding citizen that refuses to be brainwashed. ( ok, forget about the "law-abiding" bit. )

Why didn't I know about this until today? I don't watch television; I only check yahoo for news. Yahoo ( American ) didn't have that as 1st or 2nd topic in their news. So I didn't know about it...can't read the small print.

I don't travel often.

3rd reason: I don't care. Unless the Muslims and Judaists get their fundamentalists leaders to fight in a type of celebrity deathmatch, I will continue to not care about it.

That's really sad.

Why is it sad? Because I'm honest? And why do you care? Do you feel guilt because your government - that you probably voted for and will probably vote for again - is partly responsible for all of this? ( I'm not talking to you personally, Rachel )
As I said, as long as the leaders themselves don't care - and send the innocent to fight and die in their bullshit wars, why should we care?
They don't care, do they? All the rest ( debates etc ) are for public consumption. There's always two sides in each story.

Maybe because people's friends and relatives, or even themselves, could have gotten blown up this time? See, people have been dying elsewhere for years but we never really cared until something happened to us.

I wasn't old enough to vote in the last election. 2 months before my birthday unfortunately. But I sure as hell wouldn't have voted for Labour. Lib Dems for me.

But that doesn't make it any reason not to care. I don't like Labour but they do care otherwise they would have sent people to their deaths on flights with terrorists on. Sure, they don't care about people in Iraq etc, but I don't see how you can say our government doesn't care about this.

The British government would have cared more about its citizens if they didn't take part in the war. Even the Lib Dems were "unsure" about their position on the war during the last elections. Only after the elections were held and in the aftermath of the war did they express their disagreement unequivocally. So prior to the last elections there were two major parties in Britain in support of the war and a minority party which was "unsure" about it. What do you do then? You just can't go about doing things without caring of the consequences then expect to protect your citizens by your sheer might. Sooner or later you'll go down.
If you asked me, Britain ( I include me as I live in this country ) had it easy so far. They (we) are continuing to support the Americans every step of the way.

It's not even close to that, people are sitting in front of the tv screen waiting for the next tragedy to strike and take sick pleasure at watching the proceedings unfold on the bloody screen. I refuse to be part of this, I don't care, and I advise people to do the same...turn off the sick screens now. :mad:

spyretto, what are they supposed to do, though? I for sure can't think of anything for them to do, in order to help prevent the next tragedy. I don't think the general public can do shit but sit in front of their tv screens and just watch. :(

You don't care... well, I don't care much either. Mostly because it's not about me, and I like most other humans, am selfish. I can't be worrying about all the terrible things that happen. But I have friends on this forum who live in the UK (talking about only this situation, not the terrorist attacks in general obviously).

As sure as hell but how many of such people are out there? When this happened, it was so close to the UN resolution to cease fire in Israel/Lebanon conflict that people immediately started to seek for a connection. It's understandable. In my opinion, it's still better to get some extra insurance than to see commercial planes blow over Atlantic.

You mean "schadenfreude" - taking pleasure in other people's pain and misery? :p

That's a part of human personality as well, but that's more about someone slipping on a banana peel and then everybody laughing at them. I think everybody gets that sickening desperate feeling when it comes to terrorism - like seeing a plane crash. We all know it could happen to us all at any time. So I doubt people watch it to derive some sick pleasure from it.