Major Terror Bust in the UK (carried forward to late AM)

NOTE: This was originally posted at about 1:45 AM. This section contains 11 AM updates. The original post is below.

USA Today’s coverage this morning includes these details:

• The arrests have averted “an attempt to commit ‘mass murder on an unimaginable scale’”
• The number of arrests is up to 21; total number of people said to be involved could be up to 50.
• The plan involved hiding masked explosives in carry-on luggage. Air travel restrictions include a ban on all carry-on liquids.
• USAT also has a blog post extending the coverage. The comments section is rife with the unhinged.

Although reluctance to use the T-word seems to have vanished, no evidence of the M-word (Muslim) is evident in any of the coverage I’ve seen.

Three good roundups are at Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, and Pajamas Media. The 10:55 a.m. version of Memeorandum has dozens of links; go to their home page for the absolute latest. A point noted elsewhere last night is referred to again, this time by Captain Ed, that the plot has a strong resemblance to the planned but never carried out Operation Bojinka in early 1995. The Counterterrorism Blog thinks there’s a liquid explosives “factory” that needs to be found, and wonders if security insiders are feeding jihadists information on tactics that might work.

11:45 AM: US DHS Head Chertoff said that “the restrictions reflected the belief of investigators that the plotters planned to bring liquids on board, ‘each one of which would be benign, but mixed together could be used to create a bomb.’”
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(original 1:45 AM post)

Toronto. Miami. Marietta, OH (yesterday; don’t miss Debbie Schlussel’s chilling post on this one).

Now, London:

‘Plot to blow up planes’ foiled

A major terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.

It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage, with flights from the UK to the US being targeted.

During the night, police arrested a number of people in London after a counter-terrorist operation they said had lasted several months.

Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are expected.

It must be serious: The Beeb used the “T word.”

Either law enforcement is on a roll, or the level of terrorist activity has ramped up. I hope it’s the former, but fear it’s the latter.

Other blogs will surely have more on this over the next couple of days.

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UPDATE: In fact, LGF is all over it already. A Sky News excerpt has new details –

Sky News has been told the plan was to blow up around a dozen planes over UK and US cities. Police are said to have arrested 20 people in London – the culmination of a major covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.

….. Sky News’ Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said he understood the threat was imminent and those arrested were mainly young, British-born Asian men.

He said the alleged plan involved people boarding flights and detonating explosives on planes over UK and US cities.

Immediate reax — British-born men from what part of “Asia”? UPDATE 1A: The answer is Pakistan, per Flopping Aces who says he saw it on Fox News. This jives with an ABC blog story the Flopster saw earlier. The Flopster also explored the fever swamps of the Democratic Underground, and documented the reax you’d expect.

UPDATE 2: Ace, who is in priceless mega-rant mode — “You realize how close this came to actually happening?”

UPDATE 3: (will add more links here to cut down on number of updates) More at Protein Wisdom, Hot Air, Right Winged, Pamela at Atlas Shrugs, Dread Pundit Bluto, High Country Conservative, Brea Canyon Monument, Irish Trojan, and Riehl World View.

UPDATE 4: Al-Reuters wastes no time in trying to draw a link between the arrests and the Israel-Hezbo situation –

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has come under strong criticism at home and abroad for following the U.S. lead and refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

So Al-Reuters links a policy decision made in the past few days to a plot that has been in the works for months. What complete jerks.

UPDATE 4A (thanks to Kevin for noticing this in comment 10 below): Al-Reuters has changed the language at the identical link (i.e., what was up at 2AM is gone), putting in a preceding paragraph about generic tie-in to British-US policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and adding the word “also” as a new seventh word in the paragraph I excerpted early this morning (“….. Tony Blair has also come under….”). As I said in Comment 9, the overall tie-in is at least plausible, though jihadists don’t really need a stated reason to kill infidels other than that we exist. And I still say the attempted tie-in of a months-long plot to decisions made in just the past week or so is, as noted by TigerHawk (who didn’t see it until it was revised as described here), gratuitious.

UPDATE 4B: I was able to find the original 2AM version of the Reuters article and compared it the one Kevin saw, which went out at 8AM. My post on those articles, and the inherent bias and speculation contained in them (“Al-Reuters Explains It All”) is here.

UPDATE 5: Ms. Underestimated — It could have been “bigger than 9/11.” Uh, yeah — 20 six to 10 planes full of 400 or so passengers could have had more people on board than died on 9/11, even before considering lives that could have been lost on the ground. Ms. E also wants to know where the other 8 Egyptians still at large from the 11 who disappeared from JFK are. Good question.

UPDATE 6: Blogs of War has a good rundown of media reports and blog links.

UPDATE 7: A CNN report from Britain describes severe restrictions on carry-on item on British flights, and US Dept. of Homeland Security reaction and restrictions:

Across the Atlantic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised its alert threat to the highest level of “severe,” or red, for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom and bound for America.

Meanwhile, 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.

I thought this was the case, but Sky News confirms how restrictive the British carry-on policy will be: “That means no electrical or battery powered items will be allowed in the cabin, including laptops, mobile phones and iPods.” Also, a separate Sky News report chronicles the immediate massive travel disruptions: “Flights scheduled into Heathrow were cancelled – apart from those already in the air. Flights to Britain from some continental cities were also cancelled.” UPDATE 7A: In an AP report carried in USA Today, a woman actually was quoted thusly — “Hannah Pillinger, 24, seemed less concerned by the announcement. ‘Eight hours without an iPod, that’s the most inconvenient thing,’ she said, waiting at the Manchester airport.”

UPDATE 8: A similar plot came within two weeks of coming to fruition in early 1995, according to CooperativeResearch.org (HT Junkyard Blog).