"Glasgow airport bomb designed to kill and maim hundreds in a devastating fireball"

Monday, July 2, 2007

Airport bomb designed to kill and maim hundreds in a devastating fireball
By Richard Edwards and Auslan Cramb
United Kingdom - The London Daily Telegraph


THE Glasgow airport car bomb was intended to create a devastating fireball
which would have swept through the heart of the main terminal building,
killing and maiming hundreds of innocent people, it emerged last night. 

As forensics teams continued to examine the burnt out shell of the 4x4
vehicle, an initial analysis of Saturday afternoon's astonishing events
revealed just how close the terrorists came to causing an unprecedented
atrocity. 

New photographs last night revealed that the green Jeep Cherokee contained a
terrifying payload - packed with gas canisters and nails. 

The driver revved the engine as he tried to smash through the glass doors at
30mph and move through into the heart of the main terminal, which was packed
with passengers, including many families setting off for their summer
holidays. Had the cargo detonated, experts said a massive fireball would
have swept through the building, with shrapnel killing and maiming many
victims. 

Nightmarish 

The bomb was also designed to cause structural damage - collapsing the walls
and roof of the terminal and leading to an even greater loss of life. Vivid
eye witness accounts yesterday revealed the dramatic moments in which this
nightmarish outcome was narrowly averted. Two "Asian-looking men" crashed
the flaming Jeep into the airport's main terminal building. At least four
green gas canisters were packed into the vehicle. 

Witness James Stark said the driver had revved the engine but, unable to
move any further, he jumped out. 

He poured a can of petrol over both himself and the flames on the floor
beneath the vehicle. "It was terrifying," Mr Stark said. Two Asian men one
of them on fire leapt from the vehicle and passengers tried to stop them
from fleeing. Police arrived and grappled the men to the ground as fire
officers tried to bring the blaze under control. 

John Smeaton, who was working as a baggage handler at the airport, was one
of those who helped to wrestle the suspects to the ground. 

"I saw the guy get out of the car in flames, he went straight for the
police," he said. "I said to myself 'No chance' and just went for it. I
thought 'go and get this guy. It's your work, it's your duty to make sure
stuff like this doesn't happen, it's your civic duty'." 

The suspects were detained by police and one remains in a critical condition
in hospital with up to 90pc burns. At around 4.30am yesterday officers
sealed off the rented home of the suspected attackers in the village of
Houston - only five minutes, by a quiet country road, from Glasgow Airport.
In now familiar scenes, residents were shocked at discovering their
neighbours were terror suspects. They said two Asian men were staying at 6
Neuk Crescent, Houston, and are understood to have rented it last month, but
may only have moved in as recently as two weeks ago. 

Neighbour Maya Logan, (29), said she thought she had seen one of the them
washing a four-wheel drive jeep at 8am on a Saturday morning two weeks ago.
"I'm the only black person in the village, so you tend to notice when people
move in," she added. Security services and police were on high alert for a
terrorist attack timed to coincide with Gordon Brown taking over as Prime
Minister last week. They had scrutinised intelligence looking for any hint
of a plot and had feared for some time the possibility of car bombs being
used in Britain. 

But they were caught unaware three times in 24 hours over the weekend.In the
early hours of Friday morning two cars were discovered - by chance - laden
with petrol, gas canisters and nails in London's West End. One had been left
outside a nightclub, and the second was parked 200 yards away, apparently as
a secondary device aiming to target people as they fled from a first
explosion. 

Police sources said they believed an attempt had been made to detonate the
car bomb remotely, using a mobile phone, but that it had not worked. 

Perhaps as a result of the device failing, the attack in Glasgow was carried
out 'manually' - with the driver and his co-passenger shouting 'Allah' as
they accelerated towards the terminal in the suspected suicide attempt. 

In the hours since then, police have moved quickly and a massive operation
spanned across Britain last night - with arrests and searches being made in
Cheshire, Liverpool and Staffordshire, as well as Glasgow and London.
Detectives are confident the net is closing on the suspects in the car bomb
cell. 

On Saturday night, officers tailed the suspected London plotters as they
drove up the M6 motorway. Six hours after the Glasgow attack, at around
9.15pm on Saturday, a 26-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman were forced
off the motorway in Cheshire by a plain-clothed anti-terror police unit,
backed up by armed response vehicles. 

Amid fears they were heading towards nearby Manchester Airport, officers
swooped on the car just before Sandbach services. 

Witness Peter Whitehead said: "I was driving behind this car when two other
vehicles pulled up alongside it. The entire carriageway was now blocked by
the three cars taking up all the lanes. 

"Then these cars with flashing front lights slowed down and brought all the
traffic around to a standstill. They were unmarked police cars and forced
the middle car to a halt. They got the two occupants out and immediately
arrested them." 

The dramatic tail and chase was carried out by Metropolitan Police's Counter
Terrorist Command (CTC) - supported by officers from West Midlands Terrorism
Unit. Intelligence leads led to searches near Newcastle-under-Lyme in
Staffordshire, and to the issuing of an arrest warrant in Liverpool. 

In the early hours of Sunday morning, police in Merseyside arrested a man,
aged 26, as he made a getaway at Liverpool Lime Street train station. 

It is believed he may have been one of the occupants living at an address
raided shortly before midnight. A heavily-armed unit of approximately eight
officers had burst into a property in Ramilies Road, off Penny Lane, and
forced their way into a terraced house. 

Suspect 

However, a full search revealed the building was empty and they tracked the
suspect to the railway station. Neighbour Rachal Tansey, (27), revealed how
she was woken by the noise of dogs barking at 1am - and saw armed police
moving in on the terraced house at Number 80.The barrister said: "I looked
through my bathroom window and saw four men dressed in black with rifles. 

Neighbours recall that two young Asian men moved into the house a few months
ago. The area, off Penny Lane - made famous by the Beatles song - is popular
with Asian families and students. A second raid in Liverpool happened at
Hatherley Street, in Toxteth - on a run-down road full of boarded up
derelict terraced housing.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************