Foiled Plot To Bomb U.K.-U.S. Flights

British police say foil plot to bomb U.K.-U.S. flights

By Michael Holden and Adrian Croft

Excerpt:

LONDON (Reuters) - British police on Thursday said they had thwarted a plot to blow up aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States, and were holding 21 people after overnight raids.

"We are confident we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction," said London police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson. "Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

Armed police patrol Gatwick international airport on the outskirts of London following the introduction of heightened security measures August 10, 2006. British police said on Thursday they had thwarted a plot to blow up aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States and arrested more than 20 people. (REUTERS/Kieran Doherty)Both countries stepped up security, causing severe delays at airports following the announcement of the plot, which a police source said was believed to involve a "liquid chemical" device.

Unconfirmed media reports said anywhere from six to 10 planes had been targeted in the plot.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised the threat level for all commercial aircraft to "high" and U.S. authorities banned liquids, including drinks, from U.S. commercial flights.

(Article continued at link above)


Much more including dozens of links at
Michele Malkin's site!

*******
Update at 10:11 a.m.

Via Michele Malkin's blog, I found
Ace of Spades HQ.

Here's an excerpt from the blog (Caution: Site above contains some bad language).

Although there has not been a terrorist attack on America itself, no one has given Bush credit for this. The assumption, sometimes expressly stated, by liberals is that Al Qaeda just isn't even trying -- that's why there have been no attacks. (Yes, this contradicts their other claim that Al Qaeda is growing stronger due to Bush's "miserable failures," and etc., but they never cared much for "internal coherence.")

So, politically, if it is the case the name was spotted on the American side, than this is a plot on the level of 9/11, to blow up twenty airplanes of 200-400 people each, OVER American and British cities as they descended to land, thus causing casualties on the ground as well, and THE CURRENT SECURITY REGIME OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION STOPPED IT. Apparently mere days before it happened.

Questions that arise:

Was it a good idea to try to repeal the Patriot Act?

If the names came from America-- what y'all think of NSA wiref**kingtaps now?Kind of nice to know the people a terrorist is calling, huh? You can round them up in a hurry, eh?

If one of these bastards wouldn't give up his allies, would it have been justified to use "coercive interrogation practices" on him?

Shall these bastards necessarily be tried in civilian courts? Are they really deserving of the full protections of law? They don't really seem to be "British citizens" to me, no matter what their passports say.

Was Bush reading "My Pet Goat" when this happened?

A lot of commenters have been saying we wouldn't get serious about terror again until, unfortunately, a massive chunk of a city was destroyed.

But there is a less destructive wake-up call-- the mega-terrorist plot that is not successful, but thwarted days (or hours) before it is implemented.

Let's hope people finally get it that we can't just "go back to normal" and pretend there is no terrorist threat, no matter how childishly some may like to pretend 9/11 never happened.'