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| Britain |
| British Arrests 5th Suspect |
| 2007-07-02 |
| British police arrested a fifth person Sunday and raided homes in three cities in connection with attempted car bombings that officials say are connected to al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair on Wednesday, said in a nationally televised interview that "we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaeda." Terrorism analysts said it appeared that the timing and location of the planned bombings were intended to coincide with Brown's first days of office. They also noted that Brown is Scottish. "That was probably a major factor in this," said M.J. Gohel, chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London policy group that specializes in security issues. "Otherwise, it makes no sense as to why they would pick that particular moment as well as Glasgow as a target." Gohel said the perpetrators may have been trying to fuel public pressure for a rapid withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, an issue that was already looming as a major test for Brown's government. Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard's chief of anti-terrorism operations, said the investigation was "fast-moving. It is no exaggeration at all to say that new information is coming to light hour by hour." Police were searching homes and buildings near Glasgow and in Staffordshire and Liverpool. Clarke said "extremely valuable" forensic information was found in the two Mercedes sedans. He said the links between the Glasgow and London attempted bombings were becoming "ever clearer." "I'm confident -- absolutely confident -- that in the coming days and weeks we will be able to gain a thorough understanding of the methods used by the terrorists, of the way in which they planned their attacks, and of the network to which they belong." He also said thousands of hours of closed-circuit television footage was being analyzed. Scottish police, who encouraged the many witnesses at Glasgow Airport to hand over any cellphone and camera images of the incident, said they were receiving about 100 calls an hour from the public. In a quarterly intelligence report leaked to the Sunday Times of London and published April 22, Britain's Joint Terrorism Analysis Center revealed that a senior al-Qaeda commander had advocated carrying out an attack in Britain before Blair left office. According to the report, intelligence officials had recovered a letter written by Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a top al-Qaeda operative who was later captured by the CIA, detailing al-Qaeda's desire to attack Britain during "a change in the head of the company," apparently referring to the handover of power from Blair to Brown. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #8 Late from CNN: 8 suspects now in custody, 3 are doctors..... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-07-02 17:45 |
| #7 I've got a quart jar of Cajun hot spice, if the Brits want to borrow it for our young splodeydope's wounds. There are seven kinds of pepper in it, plus sea salt and ground mustard seed. Makes great gumbo, but I don't know what it would do to a burn "victim". |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-07-02 12:37 |
| #6 Yeah... Physician, heal thyself... bwahahaha.. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2007-07-02 11:13 |
| #5 more surprises to come Two of them are physicians! |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-07-02 10:28 |
| #4 Two of the suspects are Doctors!!!! Hardly the poor oppressed people that we are told in the news everyday!!!! |
| Posted by: Paul 2007-07-02 10:25 |
| #3 Two more picked up in Glasow, according to Fox News, aged 25 and 28. Steve Emerson (author of Jihad Unlimited) just said Scotland Yard promised him more surprises to come when he spoke to them last night. We do live in interesting times! Gladys, you're right in theory, but in practice the jihadis seem to increase the tempo during the various holy months because of the extra holiness. It's only the infidels who aren't allowed to attack them then, as far as I can tell. :-( |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-07-02 07:26 |
| #2 Terrorism analysts said it appeared that the timing and location of the planned bombings were intended to coincide with Brown's first days of office. I wonder if they're also working hard to pull something off before the muslim sacred month of Rajab starts on the 16th July? Fighting during the sacred months is considered to be a sin. |
| Posted by: Gladys 2007-07-02 05:28 |
| #1 I hope they're pouring hot sauce on the prick with the burns. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2007-07-02 03:45 |