RED ALERT: Major Terror Plot Thwarted in London

This is a good news/ bad news story.

From Reuters:

British police said on Thursday they have thwarted a plot to blow up aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States, arresting a number of people in the London area.

Britain's security service MI5 raised the threat level to the country to "critical" from "severe," meaning an attack is expected imminently.

News of the arrests and heightened security threat came amid high international tension over Israel's war against Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Police said the aim of the plot was to detonate bombs smuggled on board aircraft in hand luggage.

"A major terrorist plot to allegedly blow up aircraft in mid-flight has been disrupted in a joint, pre-planned, intelligence-led operation by the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch and security services," a London police spokesman said.

He said police believed the intention was particularly to target flights from Britain to the United States.

The BBC said about 18 people were arrested.

Of course, the good news is the plot was foiled. No flights from Britain to the U.S. were blown out of the sky.

The bad news is terrorists are actively working to hit us again.

It's been nearly five years since 9/11. In September of 2001, I never would have guessed that people would have forgotten so quickly.

I thought the World Trade Center towers disintegrating before our eyes would be a watershed event, something that would have a long-lasting, significant impact on the nation and our politics.

But here we are, almost five years later, and we've grown complacent enough about the threat to allow ourselves to be attacking each other.

This latest disrupted plot shows how dangerous it is to lapse into a false sense of security.

WE ARE AT WAR.

There are people that want to do tremendous harm to us. They will kill indiscriminately. They make no distinction between civilians and soldiers. Civilians are the targets -- the kindergartener, the teenager, the mother, the grandma. They seek to kill the innocent.

Flights from Britain to the U.S. would have vacationers, families, students, and people on business trips on board. These innocents are the targets.

Sorry, Dems and other libs. You can't blame George Bush or his administration's policies. The Islamofascists declared war on the United States well over a decade ago.

Nonetheless, instead of uniting against our enemies, we fight with each other. That divisiveness is something that we just can't afford to foster.

The results of the infighting could prove to be catastrophic.

Our enemies, the Islamic fundamentalists, know that they have an army of useful idiots here in the U.S. and around the world. They benefit by all our internal strife and the Dems' demand for a retreat and defeat strategy.

Joe Lieberman gets it. Ned Lamont and his cohorts do not.

This plot to bomb airliners should be a wake-up call.

I doubt that it will be.

If the 9/11 attacks and three thousand dead weren't enough to unify the nation and our traditional allies, to strengthen our resolve to defeat these terrorists, a thwarted bombing plot certainly won't do anything to bring us together to win this war.

What will it take?

It will take something even worse than 9/11. I can't bear to imagine what that might be.
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Read more.

Police have disrupted a major plot to blow up as many as 20 planes over UK and US cities with explosive devices smuggled aboard as hand luggage.

Police are have arrested 20 people in London - the culmination of a covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.

...Security sources are said to be believe that liquid explosives would have been used and could therefore be missed during the x-ray screening of such luggage.

Queues at Heathrow Sky News' Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said he had been told the threat was imminent and those arrested were mainly young, British-born Asian men.

The Home Secretary John Reid said the alleged plot was a "major threat" to bring down a number of planes.

The Home Office's level of security - indicating public risk - has been raised from 'severe' to 'critical'.

The US government has also raised its threat assessment to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to America.

Flights have been cancelled Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said: "We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted."

In Britain, there have been lengthy queues at most airports with many domestic flights cancelled.

Flights scheduled into Heathrow were cancelled - apart from those already in the air.

Flights to Britain with the German carrier Lufthansa, Spanish airline Iberia and Greek carrier Olympic were cancelled.

The British Airports Authority urged passengers not to go to Heathrow unless absolutely necessary.

In the U.S., the terrorist threat level for some commercial flights is RED.

From Reuters:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the threat level for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom would be raised to "severe," or red, the highest threat level and an unprecedented move for the United States in its war on terror.

Chertoff said the department was taking immediate steps to increase security measures in aviation in coordination with heightened U.K. security precautions.

"For that reason, the United States Government has raised the nation's threat level to Severe, or Red, for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom bound for the United States," Chertoff said in a statement.

"Over the last few hours, British authorities have arrested a significant number of extremists engaged in a substantial plot to destroy multiple passenger aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States," the statement released by the DHS press office said.

British police said on Thursday they had thwarted a plot to blow up multiple aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States and had arrested more than 15 people.

In response, Britain's security services raised its threat level to "critical" from "severe," the highest of its five ratings, suggesting "an attack is expected imminently."

And from AP:

[T]he threat level for flights from Britain to the United States has been raised to the highest "severe or red" level.

"To defend further against any remaining threat from this plot, we will also raise the threat level to high, or orange, for all commercial aviation operating in or destined for the United States," Chertoff said.




It is believed to be the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system has been invoked, although there have been brief periods in the past when the orange level was applied. Homeland Security defines the red alert as designating a "severe risk of terrorist attacks."

...A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people - possibly as many as 50 - were involved in the overseas plot that was uncovered around 10 p.m. EST Wednesday. The plan "had a footprint to al-Qaida back to it," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

This makes me think of the absolute idiocy of The New York Times' habitual splashing of our secret counterterrorism programs.

I think of the utter stupidity of all the Dems crying and lying about "domestic spying" and warrantless wiretaps.

Thank God for the current administration.