Lando 
Posted on 08/10/2006 9:30:55 AM PDT by 300magnum
Its scope was ruthlessly ambitious, causing destruction officials say would have been "unimaginable." The alleged plot to take down several U.S.-bound planes with liquid explosives appears to be unlike anything the world has seen in years.
Counterterrorism officials said Thursday the London plot appears to bear the fingerprints of al-Qaida, and may have been "the Big One" they have been dreading since Sept. 11, 2001, particularly as the five-year anniversary of the carnage approaches.
More than 20 people have been jailed, terror threat levels have been raised to some of their highest levels, and hundreds of flights have been canceled worldwide.
"The scope or the magnitude of this attack is much larger than previous attacks," said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies.
He added that everything known so far points to involvement by Osama bin Laden's terror group.
"It is a classic al-Qaida tactic. It is a hallmark of al-Qaida to carry out coordinated, simultaneous attacks, and the aviation domain is certainly known to al-Qaida. They have obvious experience in working around that system and extensive knowledge of the aviation domain."
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff echoed those sentiments, saying the attack "was sophisticated, it had a lot of members and it was international in scope." He added that: "It was in some respects suggestive of an al Qaida plot," but cautioned that the investigation was still under way.
There have been dozens of thwarted plots around the world since the Sept. 11 attacks, and several that were murderously successful. Suicide bombers killed 52 people in London on July 7, 2005, 58 in two attacks in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2003, and 202 in Bali in 2002. Islamic radicals killed 191 people in Madrid on Mar. 11, 2004, then blew themselves up days later when police were closing in.
While al-Qaida's call for global jihad clearly acted as inspiration, there has been no direct evidence that bin Laden or his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, had advance knowledge of those attacks, that they helped plan them, or that they provided financial or logistical help to those who carried them out.
The group's failure to match the destruction it inflicted in the Sept. 11 attacks has led to speculation that a global dragnet that has forced bin Laden into hiding and ensnared many of his most trusted deputies may have degraded al-Qaida's abilities.
Analysts said Thursday that is a theory to be believed only at the world's peril.
The airline plan had the potential to dwarf the attacks of recent years — killing hundreds, perhaps thousands.
It also appears to have involved far more extensive planning and expertise.
Counterterrorism agents have been tracking the alleged plotters for months, and made arrests in London and its suburbs, as well as Birmingham. A British police official said the suspects appeared to be "homegrown," though it was not immediately clear if they were all British citizens.
Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at Sweden's Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies who has done extensive research into al-Qaida's efforts to recruit in Europe, said the foiled plot in Britain "could very well have been an attempt at 'the Big One.'"
Andrea Nativi, a researcher at the Rome-based Military Center for Strategic Studies, said the London plot resembled that of Sept. 11, 2001, in its ambition and was entirely different in scope from other terror schemes of recent years.
"By comparison, the London subway attacks look like child's play," he said. "The new element here is their cleverness in trying to overcome the new security systems installed after 2001 ... No one can really expect to pass security checks with explosives in their pocket, they had to look for a plan B."
Rodolfo Mendoza, a police intelligence official in the Philippines, said the "modus operandi" is the same as al-Qaida has used in the past — and he should know.
Mendoza was among the law enforcement officers involved in thwarting a plot by al-Qaida terror mastermind Ramzi Yousef — this one way back in 1995 — to use liquid explosives to blow up a dozen airliners as they flew across the Pacific Ocean to U.S. destinations, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and New York.
Like al-Qaida's decade-long effort to bring down the World Trade Center in New York, first in 1993 and then, disastrously, in 2001, the latest plot to blow up commercial airliners reveals the group's unwavering resolve, Mendoza said.
"These people are obsessed," he said. "They will try and try and try again to accomplish their mission."
____
EDITOR'S NOTE — Paul Haven has covered terrorism issues for The Associated Press since 2001. Reporters throughout Europe and Asia, and in the United States, contributed to this report.
I hope they trace this to the Iranian Hitler.
Lando
"These people are obsessed,"
That's an understatement. They are poisoned with hatred.
In Arabic it looks like a double l. As in u no who.
Good thing that CT just dumped their defense minded Liberman just in time.
Someone posted on an earlier thread - 9/11, 8/10, 7/9.
Good work-this time.Call me a cynic but i believe it's just a matter of time before they are successful with an attack on the scale of a 911.
No, this was meant to be an 8/11. And the next one will be a 7/11, where they cause Slurpees to explode at every 7/11 nationwide. Muslims don't need a reason to harm us; they will do anything they can to hurt us. Let's kick their butts to hell.
Analysis: Was this meant as next 9/11?
Meant by whom?
I agree.
How do we know these weren't disgruntled Quakers? -sarc
I'm sleep-deprived...what happened on 7/9?
A return to the Bojinka plan.
Interesting point.
Also, do I detect a note of astonishment in the AP story? Who on Earth could be surprised that they're out to attack us?
Just because the "hated" (by leftist idiots) Bush says there is a threat does not mean there is not one. These morons had better get with the program, or get the h*ll out of the way!
It's been said a million times, but I need to say it again, simply and bluntly:
I DO NOT TRUST DEMOCRATS OR LIBERALS TO GOVERN OR PROTECT OUR COUNTRY.
Insert earbug of Twilight Zone theme here...
Wasn't that the date of the London attacks last year?
You're right. The planes could have been just the beginning.
I think this is the start of something bigger.
London bombings were on 7/7.
Not according to the Left. Everyone should read Michelle Malkin's book, Unhinged - Exposing Liberals Gone Wild.
It's a real eye-opener.
I am not undermining the severity, but how would this have exceeded or even compared in scope to 9/11 in terms of lives lost or economic damage ???
That was 7/7 with an attempted follow-up on 7/14.
The rational world has spent billions$ and incovenienced or increased poverty to billions of people based on flimsier evidence of a connection to the problem:
Global Warming.
Second hand smoke.
"Environnmental" degradation.
"Endangered" species.
To name but a few of the more egregious instances.
Well at least we got that damn Lieberman out of the way, so we can begin to deal with terror the right way, by raising white and pink flags and retreating to within our borders. /sarc
Now that's an understatement if I ever heard one.
You forgot the "sarcasm" tag.
Britain has no capital punishment.
Any ideas (rational, please).
Leni
_ _ _ _ _ _
The Anti War on Terror crowd:
Moonbat 1: "Free the Guantanamo prisons - give them lawyers and a trial!"
Moonbat 2: "Sshhhhh, hush, now is not a good time."
Voldemort?
1989 - Two bombs explode in Mecca, killing one pilgrim and wounding 16 others.
1999 - Days of student protests begins after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory of University of Tehran.
According to Wikki.
I don't understand the obsession with whether it was "al Qaeda" or not. What difference does that make ? Is it somehow less important if it's deemed not AQ ?
A bunch of Brit-Pakistanis tried to commit an atrocity, that's enough for me. String 'em up.
Don't let Lamont's deer-in-the-headlights look fool'ya... he's got a cable TV background.
India's trains were bombed on 7/11. You heard that right. It was the 7/11 attack on India.
What happened on these dates?
Do you actually believe that you can win a fight to the death with irrational animals, who happen to look human, by reacting rationally?
I do not believe that civilization owes mass murderers a "kinder and gentler" extermination.
I can not believe the vile things that have been written about and to her.
The best part was the praise for the FRers for not being like the lefties re: Clinton/Cheney heart problems. And that comment was from a leftie for those of you who have yet to read it.
I'm surprised how little attention this has gotten. For all the danger they pose, al-Qaeda must be a marginal terrorist group if they are using the same tactics today that they tried to use 11 years ago. It's a remarkably low-tech operation, following a typical Islamic terror model (i.e., using technology they could never develop themselves to destroy buildings they could never build themselves).
If one of the style of this attempted attack were successful, air travel would only allow passengers to board wearing nothing but a pair of thin scivvies and a smile.
This is not to minimize 9/11, it is just another step in limiting our ability to travel conveniently on a world wide basis. It would be a huge huge damage to the economy worldwide, not to mention our peace of mind.
I'm sick of terrorist and war stuff now. I'm going to go join some friends, have a few cold ones and forget where we are.
Nick's...next month!
good observation, but we really don't know if the plan attacks would of happen on 8/10 or 8/11 or some other day, my guess is the attacks would of happen on 8/11, which considering England would of probably been 8/11 in less then 24 hours in England on the planned attacks or landings, my guess is the attacks would of more likely been close to each other which would of been hard to plan on all flights landing but I could see a combination of landings and taking offs at about the same time. Remember 9/11 all planes were grounded in a short period of time.
Well stated. I was focusing on the carnage and missed the bigger picture.
Should read:
"These people are possessed..."
We all know who "allah" (purposeful lower case) is.
Guess it's safe to go to 7/11 for Slurpees. This crap is pissing off my family. My daughter's birthday is 8/11. I dropped her off at SF Int'l Airport this morning, and it's a zoo there. My wife's birthday is 9/11, and she constantly has to deal with remarks about that. I say we nuke Mecca on 11/11, and pick another Muslim target to bomb every 11/11 each year.
I'll take a guess. To the Left it would prove that the President has wasted all that time and resource chasing AQ and, lookee here, they are still alive and well. My guess only but be ready for Howard Dean and crew to trot this out.
A_R
Or even worse, those scary Evangelicals. You know, they're no different than Islamic Fundamentalists.
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