PLOT TO BRING DOWN 10 AIRCRAFT DISCOVERED

IN CASE WE FORGET 9/11 AND BECOME COMPLACENT - thinking terrorist are only in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. I was tempted to add the list of some 30 other countries where they are operating - outside of Europe, that is. While the group behind this has not yet been publicly identified, the White Al Qaeda may have been involved in the planning though they have not fielded suicide bombers so far. Britain Thwarts Airline Terror PlotUK, U.S. Raise Security Threat Levels By Ellen Knickmeyer and Fred BarbashWashington Post Staff WritersThursday, August 10, 2006; 10:40 AM LONDON, Aug. 10 -- British authorities said Thursday they had disrupted a well-advanced "major terrorist plot" to blow up passenger flights between the United Kingdom and the United States using liquid explosives, prompting a full-scale security clampdown at U.S. and British airports and a cascade of delays in transatlantic flights. The plot was well planned, well financed and "well advanced," U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said at a news conference Thursday morning in Washington. It was "about as sophisticated as anything we've seen in recent years as far as terrorism is concerned. . . . This was not a situation with a handful of people sitting around dreaming about terrorist plots." London's Deputy Police Commissioner, Paul Stephenson, said 21 people had been arrested in London and in Birmingham, England, after a months-long investigation into what he said was a plan for "mass murder on an unimaginable scale." Peter Clarke, chief of the London police department's anti-terrorism branch, said the investigation reached a "critical point" Wednesday night, requiring immediate disruption of the plot, the arrests and the imposition of heightened security measures. British authorities said the threat involved terrorists who aimed to smuggle liquid explosive material aboard airplanes in hand baggage, including timers and detonators that could be assembled in flight. British Home Secretary John Reid said the operation was aimed at bringing down "a number of aircraft" -- reportedly at least ten -- "through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life." U.S. officials raised the "threat level" for air transport to red, the highest alert. The terrorists had intended to target flights to Washington, New York and California operated by American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines, a U.S. official said. Passengers at all airports in the United States were told to expect intensified searches, considerable delays and new restrictions on carry-on items. The Transportation Security Administration announced that passengers on all U.S. flights, domestic and international, would be banned from transporting any type of liquid or gel in their carry-on luggage. The ban applies to all types of beverages, shampoo, toothpaste, hair gels and other items of a similar consistency, the TSA announced. Chertoff, who was briefed by the British, said the conspirators "had accumulated and assembled the capabilities they needed and they were in the final stages of planning for execution. . . . There were very concrete steps," he said. Reid said British officials believe they have "the main players" in custody, but "must always err on the side of caution." While elevating the threat level, Chertoff said officials had no indication that the plot included attacks based in the United States. In July 2005, terrorists attacked London's subway and bus system with bombs made of acetone and peroxide mixed in plastic containers. Those attacks claimed 52 lives and injured hundreds of others. Chertoff said the plan, which he described as "sophisticated," was indicative of an al-Qaeda operation, but, he said, U.S. and British officials "cannot yet form a definitive conclusion" about al-Qaeda involvement. Chertoff said the attackers planned to carry explosive material and detonation components on planes "disguised as beverages, electronic devices and other common objects." British intelligence agents had followed the "threads for sometime," Chertoff said. The U.S. got more involved "only recently," when it was "revealed that this taking the direction of targeting the United States" by attacking U.S. flag carriers traveling between Britain and the U.S. "This wasn't supposed to happen today," said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified. "It was supposed to happen several days from now. We hear the British lost track of one or two guys. They had to move. " American Airlines canceled six Thursday flights between the United States and London to accommodate the delays at Heathrow airport, spokesman John Hotard told wire services. American held three London-bound morning flights, one each from Chicago, Boston and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. To balance those cancellations, the airline also dropped three afternoon or evening flights scheduled to travel from London to those U.S. cities, Hotard said. In Northwest Washington, a tight cordon of police security was thrown up around the British Embassy compound on Massachusetts Avenue. Officials at Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in the world, appeared on television and asked people not to travel to the airport at all if possible. As they spoke, crowds of travelers were already clogging the corridors and lounges at Heathrow and at other British terminals. "We believe that the terrorists' aim was to smuggle explosives on to airplanes in hand luggage and to detonate these in flight," said Scotland Yard's Stephenson. "We also believe that the intended targets were flights from the United Kingdom to the United States of America. Clarke, Britain's anti-terrorism chief, said at a news conference that "a large number of people" had been under surveillance, with police monitoring "spending, travel and communications." "The alleged plot has global dimensions," Clarke said. "The investigation reached a critical point Wednesday night when the decision was made to take urgent action in order to disrupt what was being planned. As always in these investigations, the safety of the public" was the paramount concern, he added. Reid, who as head of the Home Ministry is equivalent to the U.S. attorney general, said American officials, including President Bush and Chertoff, were contacted early this morning about the decision to disrupt the conspiracy. "We believe that these arrests [in London] have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted," Chertoff said in a pre-dawn statement. "Currently, there is no indication . . . of plotting within the United States." The TSA said passengers who need to bring medicine and baby formula on board planes would need to present those items for inspection at checkpoints. In Britain, passengers were being asked to taste these liquids in the presence of security guards. Passengers were also told to expect additional security checks at boarding gates. The threat of suicide bombers bringing explosives onto planes is not new . In December 2001, Richard Reid attempted to ignite his explosives-laden shoes while on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. He was overpowered by alarmed crew members and passengers. In 1994, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef brought explosives onto a Philippine jet and left them on board, killing a Japanese passenger on the next flight. Yousef, who is in U.S. custody, also plotted to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific Ocean the following year. TSA administrator Kip Hawley said his agency had increased training for agency screeners to find such liquid explosives. "This has been on our radar screen," he said, describing the use of liquid explosives in bombs. "You just don't take a chance with something as serious as this. . . . The measures that have been put into place are very strong and very aggressive and go directly to the heart of anything close to that plot."