"Was this the 'Big One'?"

Friday, August 11, 2006

WAS THIS THE BIG ONE? 
United Arab Emirates - 7DAYS News

 
The alleged plot to blow up ten US-bound airliners appears to be unlike
anything the world has seen in years.  Last night terrorism experts said the
London plot could have been Al Qaeda's "The Big One" - the mass-scale
follow-up attack feared as the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaches.
Yesterday 21 young men, said to be British-born but of Pakistani origin,
were arrested by UK police. US President George W Bush claimed it showed how
the 'war on terror' continued. Hundreds of flights were canceled worldwide.
Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert who has done extensive research into Al
Qaeda's efforts to recruit in Europe, said the alleged UK plot "could very
well have been an attempt at 'the Big One.' It had the potential to dwarf
attacks of recent years - killing thousands -  and appeared to have involved
far more extensive planning and expertise. 

Other observers noted that the timing of the arrests had diverted global
attention from the ongoing Israeli and Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon.

Security was increased at airports across the globe yesterday after British
police announced they had foiled a plot to blow up flights to the United
States with explosives hidden in hand baggage. Britain and the United States
immediately raised their nationwide terrorist alerts to the highest possible
level. This was the first time that Britain had been put on maximum alert,
signifying that an attack was still "imminent". 

British police said they had arrested 21 people, all said to be young
British men of Pakistani origin, in connection with a plot "to commit mass
murder on an unimaginable scale" but the domestic security service, MI5,
warned there was still "a serious and sustained threat from international
terrorism to the UK and UK interests overseas". The men were arrested in
London and across the south east of England, as well as in Birmingham.
Later, houses around the home of one of the arrested men, in High Wycombe,
were evacuated.

Police later said security services had been tracking the plotters, with aid
from US security services, for several months. It was said that the maximum
terror alert was in place even though police were confident they had
arrested all of the main plotters, in case of a follow up attack by
secondary terror gang members. Police sources in London indicated a plot to
detonate liquid-based explosives on up to ten aircraft as they crossed the
Atlantic from the UK to the US.

It was said the plot involved flights operated by US carriers United
Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines, flying from London's
Heathrow airport, as well as Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham airports. It
is understood that the targeted flights would have been traveling to New
York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC. It is understood that
the arrests were made because some of the suspects had begun to make
operational moves. One police source said: "This was well beyond the mere
planning stage. It was much more than just a casual conversation."

Police chiefs said the terror suspects had planned "mass murder on an
unprecedented scale."

Last night British Airways staff at Dubai International Airport said the had
introduced extra security measures at departure gates for flights to the UK,
while Emirates, while warning of long delays at UK airports, said its
security arrangements were already very stringent. In France, the government
called an emergency meeting to decide on possible new security measures.
French airports are already on a "red" terror alert, the country's second
highest level, but no security changes have been made to Eurostar train
services connecting Paris and Brussels to London. Italy also scheduled an
anti-terrorism strategy meeting following the British announcement. It also
boosted surveillance around "sensitive sites, particularly buildings that
could be associated with the United Kingdom", although Prime Minister Romano
Prodi did not see any particular threat to Italy itself. 

Across the world authorities tightened airport security measures on
passengers and luggage traveling to and from Britain and the United States,
causing travel delays on all five continents. London's Heathrow airport, one
of the busiest in the world, was effectively closed to incoming flights.
Passengers on all planes leaving British airports, including on domestic and
transit flights, were banned from taking hand luggage on board other than
essential items such as money, tickets, keys, medicines and spectacles. 

Apart from baby milk, which had to be tasted, all liquids were taken from
them. The United States raised the threat level for incoming commercial
flights from Britain to "severe or red", the highest US level. It banned all
liquids "including beverages, hair gels and lotions" on outgoing planes and
asked foreign operators to slap the same ban on flights into the United
States. India placed New Delhi's international airport on maximum alert and
imposed emergency anti-hijacking measures, the Press Trust of India
reported. The airport banned all visitors and deployed bomb disposal squads
with sniffer dogs. Draconian hand luggage restrictions similar to those
imposed by London and Washington were introduced in Australia, Canada,
Ghana, Kenya, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland and Russia. In Ottawa, Canada,
officials even stopped the sale of coffee or other drinks beyond airport
security checkpoints. 

Elsewhere in Asia and Europe, airport authorities ramped up security patrols
and X-ray checks, in some cases scanning passengers' shoes. Countries
affected included Belgium, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Thailand and
Spain, where 191 people died in an extremist attack in 2004. In the volatile
Serbian province of Kosovo, administered by the United Nations, a special
unit of Ukrainian troops was called in to control the airport. 

Poland introduced police patrols at its airports and on the Warsaw
underground railway. A year after September 11, 2001, attacks in the United
States, the European Union agreed to boost security at airports across the
25-nation bloc. But it said individual members could bring in more draconian
measures where needed. Britain introduced its new terror alert system in
2003 but only began making its threat levels public last week, on August 1. 

The warning level was lowered from "severe" to "substantial" just before
four suicide bombers blew themselves up on London's transport network in
July 2005, killing a total of 56 people. After that attack the alert level
was cranked back up to "severe". Home Secretary John Reid said yesterday he
hoped the British public would be "reassured" rather than panicked by the
imposition of the "critical" alert. A spokesman for Tony Blair, who is on
holiday in Barbados, said the British prime minister was in "constant
contact" with the government but declined to say whether he would fly home
to deal with the crisis.

THE BOJINKA PLOT

Last night strong links emerged between the security measures announced
across the world after the UK arrests and a plot to bring down US airliners
over the Pacific Ocean in 1995. The 1995 plot was called Operation Bojinka
by those who took part. The airline bombings would have involved at least
five Al-Qaeda operatives. They planned to blow up 11 US-bound airliners over
the Pacific and South China seas on January 21-22 1995.

All of the airliners had stopovers around East Asia and Southeast Asia. All
flights had two legs. The bombs would be planted inside life jackets under
seats on the first leg, when each bomber would disembark. He would then
board one or two more flights and repeat. Later each man would then catch
flights to Lahore, Pakistan. The aircraft would have blown up over the
Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea almost simultaneously. The US
government estimated the prospective death toll to be about 4,000. Analysis
of bombs used by the Bojinka group in 1995 reveal, perhaps, why airlines
were yesterday banning liquids from flights. The Bojinka "Mark II"
"microbombs" had Casio digital watches as the timers, stabilizers that
looked like cotton wool balls, and an undetectable nitroglycerin as the
explosive. Other ingredients included glycerin, nitrate, sulfuric acid, and
minute concentrations of nitrobenzene, silver azide (silver trinitride), and
liquid acetone. Two nine-volt batteries were used as a power source,
connected to light bulb filaments to detonate the bomb. 

One terrorist got batteries past airport security during a test by hiding
them in hollowed-out heels of his shoes. He smuggled the nitroglycerin on
board by putting it inside a contact lens solution bottle.

Airlines and airports were specifying yesterday that materials such as
contact lens solutions could not be taken on board in hand luggage.

Flights allegedly targeted by Bojinka were:

United Airlines Flight 80: Singapore - Hong Kong, which turned to United
Airlines Flight 806: Hong Kong - San Francisco

Northwest Airlines Flight 30: Manila - Seoul - Los Angeles

Delta Air Lines Flight 59: Portland, OR - Seoul - Taipei - Bangkok 

Northwest Airlines Flight 6: Manila - Tokyo - Honolulu

United Airlines Flight 807: San Francisco - Seoul - Manila, which would turn
around and fly another flight back Manila - Seoul - San Francisco 

A United Airlines Flight: Los Angeles - Hong Kong - Singapore, would then go
on Singapore - Hong Kong - Los Angeles 

A United Airlines Flight: Taipei - Tokyo - San Francisco

A United Airlines Flight: Seoul - Taipei, would then fly Taipei-Honolulu 

A United Airlines Flight: San Francisco - Taipei - Bangkok, the flight would
then turn around and go back to Taipei and San Francisco.

A Northwest Airlines Flight: Portland - Tokyo - Hong Kong, would turn around
and go back to Tokyo and Portland

A United Airlines Flight: Los Angeles - Tokyo - Hong Kong, the flight was
set to go back to Tokyo and LA.

The plot was foiled after a fire at an apartment in Manila, used by the
bombers. Police were called and, after intense questioning, forced
confessions from the gang.

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