Thanks to Steelfish for this related thread.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226038/posts
Al-Qaeda Terror Plot To Bomb Easter Shoppers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5133535/Al-Qaeda-terror-plot-to-bomb-Easter-shoppers.html ^ | April 09, 2009
Posted on April 9, 2009 6:38:39 PM PDT by Steelfish
Al-Qaeda terror plot to bomb Easter shoppers
An al-Qaeda cell was days away from carrying out an “Easter spectacular” of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, police believe.
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent 09 Apr 2009
Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the arrests of 12 men in the north west of England on Wednesday were linked to a suspected plan to launch a devastating attack this weekend.
Some of the suspects were watched by MI5 agents as they filmed themselves outside the Trafford Centre on the edge of Manchester, the Arndale Centre in the city centre, and the nearby St Ann’s Square.
Police were forced to round up the alleged plotters after they were overheard discussing dates, understood to include the Easter bank holiday, one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.
“It could have been the next few days and they were talking about 10 days at the outside,” one source said. “We had to act.” Police are now engaged in a search for an alleged bomb factory, where explosives might have been assembled.
If such a plot was carried out, it would almost certainly have been Britain’s worst terrorist attack, with the potential to cause more deaths than the suicide attacks of July 7, 2005, when 52 people were murdered.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
from the link in post no. 29:
SNIPPET: “The security services suspect that several of the men arrested were trained at religious schools in Pakistan and sent to launch suicide attacks on the West.”
SNIPPET: “Sources said police had arrested the man they suspected was the ring-leader, Abid Naseer, 22, at an address in Galsworthy Avenue in Cheetham Hill, Manchester.
He is said to be from the tribal areas of Pakistan where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have established their base.”
SNIPPET: “Among the locations raided on Wednesday afternoon was the Cyber Net Café in Cheetham Hill, where it is thought the men communicated using emails.”
SNIPPET: “Security sources suspect they received their instructions from al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan.
The leader of the Pakistan Taliban is Baitullah Mehsud...”