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Posted on 03/30/2005 6:07:26 AM PST by lowbridge
POLICE SEIZE EXPLOSIVES
Eight men are continuing to be being questioned over an alleged plot to unleash a terrorist bombing campaign in Britain.
Detectives found more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser - the same explosive ingredient already used in terror attacks in Bali, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Africa and the United States.
It was the biggest seizure of potential bomb-making material since the IRA suspended its terror campaign in 1997.
Police and security chiefs believe a series of "spectacular" terror attacks including truck bombs could have been launched within weeks.
It could have been used to target "postcard" monuments like Downing Street and Parliament or "soft" targets like pubs, nightclubs and shopping centres.
The suspects, aged between 17 and 32, are all British citizens and Muslims of Pakistani descent, sources said.
They were held on suspicion of "being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism" in dawn raids by 700 police officers at 24 addresses across London and the Home Counties.
Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch and MI5 have been gathering intelligence on the group for months in an operation codenamed Crevis.
An al Qaeda plot to blast London was dramatically foiled by police today. Seven hundred police swooped in a series of 6am raids in the capital and the Home Counties. They found half a tonne of fertiliser explosives - enough for a series of terror "spectaculars". The terrorist suspects arrested by police are believed to have chosen "soft targets" for bombings including pubs and clubs. One of the suspects being held had a job at Gatwick Airport, immediately raising concerns over airlines and passengers. A total of eight men - all of them British citizens of Pakistani descent, three of them teenagers - were arrested in the operation, with police from five forces searching a total of 24 addresses across London and the South-East.
The ammonium nitrate explosives were discovered in a self-storage warehouse in Hanwell, west London and have now been made safe. They are the same explosives that al Qaeda used in attacks in Bali, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The raids came only two weeks after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens warned that an attack on London was "inevitable" and that the targets could include pubs, clubs and shopping centres. Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke said today: "I must stress the threat from terrorism is very real and the public must remain watchful and alert."
http://rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=Main&D=3/30/2004&ID=29385
GOOD JOB!
Maybe they were going to grow some corn...
Meanwhile a new poll in the UK indicates that 95% of Brits think that the US is the world's greatest threat and the war in Iraq was over oil.
Sure it wasn't insurgents, or miltants?
Or is the T-word okay when the attack's about to carried out on one's fellow Brits?
ping?
That would probably be a poll of Londoners. Who are pillocks, with the exception of Ivan :0)
LOL! Hey, but we must continue secondary searches of them at our airports just in case...
-Vi snakkes
Yup, West London is prime bottom land, great for growing corn and wheat.
I'm sorry, but half a ton of ammonium nitrate, maybe one drum, is hardly enough to launch a truck bombing terror campaign. This was not that spectacular of a find.
Maybe not a truck bombing campaign, but could have made quite a number of smaller bombs that would have done serious damage in crowded areas. The main Bali bomb was estimated to be between 50-100 kg, so this could have made 5-10 of those.
It is definitely good to have the stuff off the street...that's fer sher. I wish I had that much of it for my garden and lawn. It is absolutely the best high-nitrogen fertilizer, but it sure is hard to come by these days.
Seriously, glad they found them. They could have done a lot of damage with that stuff. Just ask the good people of Oklahoma.
Good job catching them BEFORE lives were lost.
Half a ton= ten 50 pound bags. I could move your mortgage with five bags.
There are some who would call that kind of terrorism a 'nuisance'. ;-)
You must have one good sized garden and/or lawn!
20, 50lb bags. That's 4 mortgages!
RE: The suspects, aged between 17 and 32, are all British citizens and Muslims of Pakistani descent
The same pattern, once again. A question to be considered by both MI5 and MI6 - to what extent are we sure that the ISI are not actively involved?
You are correct. 1000 pounds=20 bags. When my family was in the coal business I helped load blast holes with bags of ANFO. The holes were 7 1/2 inches by 60-70 feet deep on 7 foot centers. We could put four or five bags in each hole, connect to the blasting machine and fire 35 or 40 holes.
...or activists, as the media likes to call the Palestinian terrorists?
How are they going to torture them? Feed them?
I guess they were trying to avoid the MUSLIM word all through the article...
Sky news IS based in England. Although you are correct in that this has not been reported elsewhere.
wasn't there a setup exactly like this about six months ago? Ammonium Nitrate in a storage shed in UK with half a dozen or so pakistani's?
Or is it just impending senility? :)
Its an old article. From 2004.
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Fertiliser As A Terror Tool