Posted on 08/10/2006 3:00:54 AM PDT by HAL9000
Police statement on airline bombing plot
LONDON (Reuters) - Following is the full text of a statement issued by London Deputy Commissioner, Paul Stephenson on Thursday morning:
"We are confident that we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction and commit mass murder.
The Commissioner has been fully briefed and he is at New Scotland Yard today. He and I want to pay tribute to officers from the Met's Anti-Terrorist Branch and the security services for the work they have undertaken to disrupt these activities.
We believe that the terrorists' aim was to smuggle explosives onto airplanes in hand luggage and to detonate these in flight.
We also believe that the intended targets were flights from the UK to the USA.
Overnight we have arrested 21 people. The majority of those arrests have been in London but we have also made arrests in Thames Valley and Birmingham. We are currently searching a number of addresses.
We are grateful to our colleagues in other force areas for their support.
As the operation got under way we spoke to community leaders to make them aware that a major anti-terrorist operation was taking place but without giving specific details about locations. This extensive dialogue will continue throughout the operation.
We would like to reassure the public that this operation was carried out with public safety upper most in our minds. This is a major operation, which will inevitably be lengthy and complex. The UK is now at the highest possible level of alert.
We will consider the threat in its wider sense and take whatever action is necessary to protect people in London and throughout the country.
Measures have already been put in place to restrict hand luggage taken onto aircraft. This will inevitably cause significant delay and we ask people to remain calm, patient and vigilant at this very difficult time.
Put simply this was a plot to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale."
"As the operation got under way we spoke to community leaders to make them aware that a major anti-terrorist operation was taking place but without giving specific details about locations. This extensive dialogue will continue throughout the operation."
What community would that be..the Dar al-Amn?
And the Democrats want to give Bush crap about monitoring overseas phone calls. It should be an interesting election this Fall.
More peace from our friends of the ROP*
The British eye for detail can really come in handy when utilized.
L
Can we get this place in Breaking News.
You can add EACH THREAD to breaking news, if you want. Just click "add topic" and type "breaking" in.
Heh Heh Heh .... Well put!
(Heading for work....have a great day)
What? No Lutherans this time? bah humbug.
Thank you Michael..
America is hypnotized by the liberal crap... They see this as all Bush's fault... If we weren't in Iraq there would be no terror plots... sheesh.... It is way past time for our GOP reps to be out there trumpeting the what if we had not acted scenarios instead of reacting to Dem criticsm at every turn.
We are confident that we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction and commit mass murder. "
The New York Slimes is deeply saddened.
God Bless the Brits.
You´re welcome. The Mods surely have other things to do. :-)
Btt, I´m so glad that the British police prevented this disaster. During the last year the "warm and fuzzy" feeling of being safe came back... let this prevented attack be a reminder that the war on terror is also fought AT HOME!
Thank you indeed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.