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Friday, August 11, 2006

I should've blogged about this yesterday...

I found out about the so-called "big one" terrorist plot yesterday on the noon news on FOX Chicago. I saw video of airport security telling people that if they have any kind of liquid whether it be beverages, mouth wash, lotion, etc. that they will not be allowed to board with those items. This is thanks to a plot uncovered in Britain....


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.
I've never thought it was OK that before anyone gets on a plane you have to be thoroughly searched before you can board. I understand why this happens though, because people have done some foolish things on board a plane. Anything from hijackings to detonating bombs, unfortunately the measures taken at our nation's airports are a fact of life. They are designed to making the flight as safe as humanly possible.

Anyway I found this from Brain-Terminal.com. It was an interesting and the blogger Evan Coyne Maloney considers this the quote of the day. It was attributed to Glenn Reynolds from Instapundit who in response to one of the plotters, a recent convert to Islam, had stated that he "Should've stayed on the weed"...

Neighbors identified one of the suspects as Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, from High Wycombe, a convert who changed his name to Abdul Waheed.

"He converted to Islam about six months ago and grew a full beard," said a neighbor, who refused to be identified. "He used to smoke weed and drink a lot but he is completely different now."
LINKS
The Big One: Busted? from Brain-Terminal.com
Thwarting the Airline Plot: Inside the Investigation from Time.com
19 Suspects in British Terror Plot ID'd from ABCNews.com

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