'Plot' to kill Tony Blair thwarted
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| Tue, 08-17-2004 - 10:48pm |
BRITISH anti-terror authorities have foiled a suspected al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Police swooped on two Lithuanian asylum seekers believed to be spying on Mr Blair's home in his constituency in England's north.
The men were caught with hi-tech surveillance equipment less than a kilometre from Mr Blair's countryside home.
Sources said the pair raised alarm bells because they displayed the characteristics of al-Qaeda spying behaviour.
Using a stolen car fitted with false number plates, they filmed roads and traffic surrounding their alleged target and were carrying a highly-detailed map of the country area of Trimdon in County Durham.
"To dismiss these as nothing more than a couple of wandering foreigners out to see the British countryside is stretching it a bit," a security source told Britain's Daily Express newspaper.
Intelligence officials are reportedly working on the theory that the men had been hired by intermediaries to keep higher-ranking members of the terror cell at arms length.
"This is classic al-Qaeda behaviour, a textbook example of one way the terrorists would gather information about a possible target," the security source said.
"Video equipment like that wasn't normally the kind of gear you'd expect a hard-up asylum seeker to be carrying about.."
After their arrest, the Lithuanians were deported. Police said they were satisfied no security issues were involved.
Meanwhile, security for Mr Blair was stepped up yesterday for his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after an Islamic terror group declared Italy its top target.
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, which admitted responsibility for the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in March, said Mr Berlusconi would "pay with his head" for failing to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq.
The group put out a statement on the Internet on Sunday after a deadline it set for Italy to withdraw from Iraq expired. It called on terrorist cells to hit "all targets in Italy".
Italian security forces were on high alert yesterday, noting that Mr Blair's visit to Mr Berlusconi's private villa in Sardinia presented a prime target for terrorists.
Italy's Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu played down the terror threat, suggesting it had not affected the arrangements for Mr Blair's visit.
Renee ~~~

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Renee ~~~
The U.K. is too liberal on immigration.
And the U.S. is far more liberal than the U.K., we allow far to many people into our country without knowing much about them.