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| Britain |
| Several hundred planning attacks in the UK |
| 2005-03-01 |
| SEVERAL hundred people are planning terrorist attacks on the UK, Tony Blair said yesterday, as a British-born man admitted plotting a suicide attack to blow up a packed passenger jet with a shoe bomb. The prime minister spoke out only hours before the government's majority was slashed to just 14 as a cross-party attempt to ensure judges, rather than the home secretary, impose control orders on suspected terrorists was narrowly rejected by the House of Commons. The Labour revolt came despite these fresh concessions by Mr Clarke. Bowing to pressure from cabinet colleagues as well as MPs, Mr Clarke said judges would be the first to decide whether "control orders" amounting to house arrest could be imposed on a suspect, instead of just reviewing them within seven days. However, he said he would be seeking to grant police "a new and specific power" to arrest and detain a suspect while the application to the judge was being decided. Defending the terror bill, Mr Blair said the security services and police were adamant they needed increased powers to combat the terrorist threat. On BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, he said: "What they say is you have got to give us powers in between mere surveillance of these people. "There are several hundred of them in this country who, we believe, are engaged in plotting or trying to commit terrorist acts . . . and being able, being sure enough of the proof, to prosecute them beyond reasonable doubt. "And these will be restrictions on their liberty that we will use only in the most limited circumstances. But we genuinely believe that they are necessary in order to protect the country." Before the concessions were made, Mr Clarke and the prime minister had insisted that only the home secretary should have the power to execute the most extreme house arrest control orders, which would involve the government applying for an exemption, known as a derogation, from the European Convention on Human Rights. At the Old Bailey, 25-year-old Saajid Badat admitted plotting to blow up a jet with a shoe bomb, the first successful major prosecution for terrorism in Britain since the 9/11 attacks. He had an identical device to the one used by Richard Reid, a fellow Briton, when he attempted to bring down a flight from Paris to Miami. Badat had intended to use the bomb to destroy a plane heading from Europe to the US, but changed his mind and dismantled his device. Police said he had been prepared to kill hundreds. Peter Clarke, Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner, said: "Today's conviction demonstrates the reality of the threat we are facing." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 Do what they did to Cromwell. If it's good enough for a Protector... |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-03-01 12:17:34 PM |
| #5 Umm, because they're ungrateful, selfish, assholes with dreams of world domination dancing in their heads? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-03-01 12:12:40 PM |
| #4 Why would Moslems want to harm a country which invented the "Palestinian People" and done more than anybody else to justify their "just struggle"? |
| Posted by: gromgorru 2005-03-01 12:07:39 PM |
| #3 Maybe Blair should push for a "Restoration of Hanging" act. Dangling a few of these sods from the gibbet would probably work wonders. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-03-01 10:15:46 AM |
| #2 They still have a majority of 14 to pass it. I remain hopeful. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-03-01 7:46:31 AM |
| #1 Sooner or later. Then the tide will reverse course... with a vengeance, if it hits close to home for most. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-01 1:47:55 AM |