Police foil bomb plot in London.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Police foil bomb plot in London.
4
Tue, 03-30-2004 - 9:17am

 

POLICE today said they had foiled a major terrorist attack on London.

Half a tonne of ammonium nitrate fertiliser was seized in a major anti-terrorist operation.

Eight men - all understood to be Muslims - were arrested in the operation, in which police carried out 24 raids across London and the Home Counties. (Me: Home Counties are those in the greater London area.)


The ammonium nitrate - which can be used to make explosives - was found at an address in Boston Road, Hanwell, west London.

Two men were arrested in Uxbridge, one in Ilford, one in Horley, one in Slough and three in Crawley. All were today being interviewed by anti-terrorist detectives.

Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke, the National Co-ordinator for Terrorism, said the suspects were not linked to Irish Republican terrorism or to the recent attack in Madrid. "The men arrested are all British citizens," he added. Police said the ages of the men arrested were 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21, 22 and 32.

Senior Metropolitan Police sources today claimed that the swoop had prevented a major terrorist attack on London.

They said the officers had arrested suspected al-Qaida-linked terrorists equipped with the same bomb-making material used in the Bali nightclub blast.

The raids, involving five different forces across London and the Home Counties, involved homes across the south-east.

One anti-terrorist source said: "This was a potential major terrorist outrage. We believe we have disrupted something that would have been a major attack."

A Scotland Yard statement said: "At about 6am in a pre-planned intelligence-led operation, Metropolitan Police officers assisted by officers from Thames Valley, Sussex, Surrey and Bedfordshire Police executed search warrants issued under the Terrorism Act 2000 at premises in London and the Home Counties.

"A number of people have been arrested. The operation continues."

A total of 202 people, more than 80 of them Australian tourists, died after two bombs exploded in Bali in October 2001.

Recently, in the wake of the Madrid bombings which killed 191 people and injured more than 1800, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens warned that a major attack on Britain by terrorists was "inevitable" - not a matter of "if" but "when".

But Mr Clarke added today: "We know the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community are law-abiding and completely reject all forms of violence.

"Today at both local and national levels we have been holding discussions with community leaders and other representatives to address any concerns they may have."

Mr Clarke added that today’s operations involved 700 officers and were part of continuing and extensive investigations into alleged international terrorism.

He said: "I must stress the threat from terrorism is very real and the public must remain watchful and alert."

He added that the operations were complex and detailed and would take a considerable time to complete and therefore it would not be appropriate to give further details.

Mr Clarke said he realised the operation would create "intense media coverage", which is why Scotland Yard had taken the unusual step of calling a press conference so early after the initial raids.

He asked for restraint from the media in reporting the police operations so as not to prejudice any future investigations.

Ammonium nitrate-based explosive was used frequently by the IRA to deadly effect.
It was also used in the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 and is believed to have been used by al-Qaida in an attack on the United States embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Because of its bulk it is usually placed in a vehicle.
cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 04-11-2004 - 1:40pm
Five More Charged in Antiterror Sweep by Police in Britain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/international/worldspecial2/11BRIT.html


Five Britons appeared briefly in a high-security court on Saturday charged with an array of terrorism-related crimes after what was depicted by the authorities as the biggest antiterror sweep in Britain since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.


The court appearances followed raids on March 30 in London and southeastern England during which police officers seized ammonium nitrate fertilizer from a commercial storage locker near London.


Four of the men — Jawad Akbar, 20; Omar Khyam, 22; Waheed Mahmoud, 32; and Anthony Garcia, 21 — were accused of conspiring to cause an explosion as part of a plot hatched between Oct. 1, 2003, and March.


A 17-year-old, whose name is being withheld because of his age, and a Canadian, Mohammed Momin Khawaja, have also been charged with taking part in the plot.


The 17-year-old and four of the men who appeared on Saturday were charged under 19th century laws, accused of plotting "to cause by an explosive substance an explosion of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property."


Two suspects, Mr. Khyam and Mr. Garcia, were also charged, along with a fifth man, Nabeel Hussain, 19, under Britain's newly tightened antiterrorism laws. They were accused of keeping over 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in a self-storage facility in west London, providing police with "reasonable suspicion" that the chemicals were to be used "for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism."


Two other men seized on March 30 have since been released on bail.


In a separate hearing on Saturday, a 39-year-old Frenchman, Jacques Karim Abi-Ayad, was charged with possessing documents "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit" terrorist acts.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sun, 04-11-2004 - 4:19pm
Didn't the Aug 6 memo mention recruitment of young men. This should be a heads up for this country. The terrorists may be Americans!!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 10:15am

>"recruitment of young men"<


Aren't they the most easily influence to causes, especially when there's no direction in their lives.


More arrests. Now in the north of England..........


British Police Arrest 10 in Anti-Terror Raids.

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Mon, 04-19-2004 - 11:27am
<>

Yes. We all need a passion in our lives, something we believe in. America previously had the "American dream." As the difference between have's and have-not's becomes greater, the dream is fading, without hope for a better future we all become receptive to the offer of a "cause".

On another topic:

<>

I think defensive moves will turn out to be more effective than the offensive "take it to them" approach. Particularly since al Qaeda cells are discrete and autonomous having limited contact with Osama bin Laden, i.e., there is just not enough unity to war against.