Details emerge on alleged plot to bomb airliners

Alerts raised worldwide
News of the arrests and extreme security measures in London, a major international aviation hub, sent ripples throughout the world. Heathrow was closed to most flights from Europe, and British Airways canceled all its flights between the airport and points in Britain, Europe and Libya. Numerous flights from U.S. cities to Britain were canceled.

Washington raised its threat alert to its highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States.

The alert for all flights coming or going from the United States was also raised slightly.

Two U.S. counterterrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines.

A U.S. intelligence official said the plotters had hoped to target flights to major airports in New York, Washington and California.

‘Stark reminder’
Visiting Green Bay, Wis., to raise support for a Republican candidate, Bush said that the plot was a “stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists.” Despite increased security since Sept. 11, he warned, “It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America.”

ABC News quoted sources as saying Western intelligence agencies had identified three of the alleged ringleaders. It said two were believed to have traveled recently to Pakistan and later had money wired to them from Pakistan, purportedly to purchase airline tickets for suicide bombers.

While British officials declined to publicly identify the 24 suspects, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said in Paris they “appear to be of Pakistani origin.”

Pakistan’s government said later its intelligence agents helped Britain crack the plot and had arrested two to three suspects.

“Pakistan played a very important role in uncovering and breaking this international terrorist network,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Tasnim Aslam said, but she declined to give details.

‘Homegrown’
The suspects arrested in Britain were “homegrown,” though it was not immediately clear if they were all British citizens, said a British police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Police were working closely with the South Asian community, the official said.

Raids were carried out at homes in London, the nearby town of High Wycombe and in Birmingham, in central England. Police also combed a wooded area in High Wycombe.

Hamza Ghafoor, 20, who lives across the street from one of the homes raided in Walthamstow, northeast of London, said police circled the block in vans Thursday and that they generally swoop into the neighborhood to question “anyone with a beard.”

“Ibrahim didn’t do nothing wrong,” Ghafoor said, referring to a suspect. “He played football. He goes to the mosque. He’s a nice guy.”

The suicide bombing assault on London subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005, was carried out by Muslim extremists raised in Britain.

The police official said the plotters intended to simultaneously target multiple planes bound for the United States.

“We think this was an extraordinarily serious plot and we are confident that we’ve prevented an attempt to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale,” Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said.

First time red alert status invoked
Prime Minister Tony Blair, vacationing in the Caribbean, briefed Bush on the situation Wednesday. Blair issued a statement praising the cooperation between the two countries, saying it “underlines the threat we face and our determination to counter it.”

Niall Carson / AP A stranded passenger waits for information on her flight at Dublin airport on Thursday in Ireland. Airlines across Europe canceled flights bound for London's Heathrow Airport while some airports said they were ready to take on diverted traffic.

Chertoff said the plot had the hallmarks of an operation planned by al-Qaida, the terrorist group behind the Sept. 11 attack on the United States.

“It was sophisticated, it had a lot of members and it was international in scope. It was in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaida plot,” Chertoff said, but he cautioned it was too early in the investigation to reach any conclusions.

It is 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.”

“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,” Chertoff said.

In June 1995, U.S. and Filipino authorities uncovered a plot very similar to the one revealed Thursday in the U.K. In that plot, called the “Bojinka Plot,” bombs were to be placed aboard 11 jumbo jets and detonated by timing devices as the planes flew over the Pacific Ocean, killing an estimated 4,000 people.   Most of the jets were to be American carriers and most of the dead would have been Americans.  The bombs were small, using a Casio watch as a timer and contact lens bottles filled with nitroglycerine. They were to be secreted behind the wall panels in the plane's lavatory. The bombs would have been timed to go off over a number of hours to heighten the terror.  The plan, also called the “Day of Hate,” was conceived by Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing, and his uncle, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11.  Only a fire in Yousef's Manila apartment thwarted it. Mohammed later modified the plan, took it to Osama bin Laden, and it became the blueprint for the 9/11 attacks. Read more in the Daily Nightly Blog: "'Very good reason' to believe it's al-Qaida" - Robert Windrem, NBC News investigative producer

He added, however, there was no indication of current plots within the United States.

‘Close to the execution phase’
Chertoff said the plotters were in the final stages of planning. “We were really getting quite close to the execution phase,” he said, adding that it was unclear if the plot was linked to the upcoming fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people — possibly as many as 50 — were involved in the plot.

In the mid-1990s, officials foiled a plan by terrorist mastermind Ramzi Youssef to blow up 12 Western jetliners simultaneously over the Pacific. The alleged plot involved improvised bombs using liquid hidden in contact lens solution containers.

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