Posted on 02/12/2003 3:07:11 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
UK on missile terror alert Blair orders security crackdown after aircraft threat · 1,500 troops, police patrol Heathrow
Nick Hopkins, Richard Norton-Taylor and Michael White
Wednesday February 12, 2003
The Guardian
Heathrow was last night being patrolled by 1,500 anti-terrorist police and troops after intelligence warnings identified it as a likely target for an imminent attack by al-Qaida-linked militants armed with anti-aircraft missiles.
The move was sanctioned late on Monday after high level meetings at Scotland Yard headed by Assistant Commissioner David Veness, who requested immediate army back-up and support from Heathrow's neighbouring forces, Surrey and Thames Valley.
The prime minister was told of the threat and rubber stamped the deployment of 450 soldiers from the Ist Battalion the Grenadier Guards and the Household Cavalry.
Diverted from training exercises, the troops and several Scimitar armoured vehicles swept on to the site before dawn yesterday, helping police patrol Heathrow's sprawling perimeter fence and nearby open spaces, including Windsor Great Park, from where missiles might be launched.
Police searched cars coming into Heathrow and stopped vehicles under the flightpath near the village of Wraysbury in Berkshire, a few miles from the airport.
Sources insisted that the intelligence reports were credible.
"We wouldn't do this without extremely good reason, I can assure you," said one. "Our aim is to disrupt a potential terrorist attack."
Investigators regard the Heathrow threat as more significant than the alert following the discovery of ricin in north London last month because the warnings refer to a specific target within a specific time limit. They indicated it was the most worrying terrorist threat to Britain since September 11.
Investigators considered closing Heathrow but feared this would be a regarded as a victory for terrorism.
Police said they believed the threat could be related to the Muslim festival of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, which began yesterday and ends on Friday.
"The current strengthening of security is precautionary and is related to action being taken in other countries and the possibility that the end of the religious festival of Eid may be erroneously used by al-Qaida and associated networks to mount attacks," a Scotland Yard statement said.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John Stevens, said the terrorist threat level was "high".
"Take it from me, the need for doing this is there," he said. "It is necessary for the safety of Londoners and people visiting this capital city."
Though the intelligence reports named Heathrow, several buildings in London were also given extra security. Police fear that potential terrorists might refocus their efforts away from Heathrow and hope to deter them by increasing the number of uniformed officers in parts of the capital.
The deployment of troops followed a tip-off from MI5 to Scotland Yard. It received specific intelligence which pointed to a missile attack on Heathrow and indicated it could come from a "portable" weapon. An attack involving high explosive is also a possibility.
"Al-Qaida has an interest in airports," said a source.
Intelligence sources referred to the attacks in Mombasa last November when two shoulder-mounted Sam-7 missiles were fired at an Israeli airliner carrying 270 passengers shortly after it took off. In a simultaneous attack, 13 people were killed, including three Israelis, when suicide bombers blew themselves up at a nearby hotel.
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network claimed responsibility for both attacks, according to a tape broadcast by the Gulf television station al-Jazeera yesterday.
Training in the use of the Russian-designed surface to air missiles, which have a range of three miles, is also known to have been given at al-Qaida training camps.
The network is also thought to have had 200-300 ageing Stinger missiles, acquired indirectly from the CIA in the 1980s during the conflict between the mojahedin and Soviet forces.
Though it is unclear how a missile could have been smuggled into Britain, anti-terrorist investigators highlighted the case of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian arrested on the US-Canadian border in December 1999 after powerful explosive materials were found in his car. He was later convicted of plotting an attack on Los Angeles airport. Under questioning, Ressam named a number of alleged al-Qaida supporters, including Abu Doha, now in a British jail.
Downing Street stressed the need not to overreact and "do the terrorists' job for them" by ruining normal life.
But officials were dismissive of suggestions that the airport alert might be a public relations exercise. "These issues are far too important to mess around with," one said.
Heathrow has been targeted by terrorists before. Nine years ago, the Provisional IRA mortar bombed the airport but none of the devices exploded.
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