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| Britain |
| Al-Qaeda's Heathrow jet plot revealed |
| 2005-10-09 |
| AL-QAEDA terrorists planned to hijack a passenger jet from eastern Europe and fly it into a packed terminal at Heathrow airport, killing hundreds of people, security sources have revealed. The plot, which was taken so seriously that ministers considered shutting down the airport, helps to resolve the long-standing mystery of why Tony Blair ordered armoured vehicles and hundreds of troops to be sent to Heathrow in 2003. It has now emerged that MI5 received detailed intelligence in February 2003 about a two-pronged plan to target Britain because of its decision to send troops in support of Americaâs invasion of Iraq. The second element of the operation, inspired by Osama Bin Laden, involved a mortar attack on a departing passenger plane. It was organised by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al-Qaeda operations chief and mastermind of the September 11 attacks, the sources said. Details of the plot have been provided by British sources after the White House issued a list of 10 Al-Qaeda plots foiled by America and its partners, including Britain. Referring to what it called âthe Heathrow airport plotâ, the White House said that America and several partners had âdisrupted a plot to attack Heathrow airport using hijacked commercial airlinersâ. At the time cabinet ministers, including David Blunkett, then home secretary, said they could not divulge the nature of the threat but insisted that it was ârealâ. This weekend security sources gave fresh details of what they described as a double plot to kill hundreds of Heathrow passengers and punish Blair for Britainâs role in Iraq. One said that an Al-Qaeda cell had been spotted carrying out reconnaissance at an airport in eastern Europe, possibly in Poland, Latvia or Estonia. The source said: âThe idea was to hijack the plane from somewhere that didnât have the same level of security as airports in western Europe. The plan was to fly it into a terminal at Heathrow where there would be a lot of fatalities.â The decision to send Scimitar armoured vehicles and 450 troops from the Household Cavalry and the Grenadier Guards was the first time since 1994 â when the IRA had tried to mortar the runway â that the army had been deployed on home security duties. Blair was accused of staging a stunt to boost support for the invasion of Iraq. Although the troop deployment was largely symbolic, security would have been tightened up at East European airports, and, since 9/11, RAF fighter jets have been on standby to shoot down hijacked passenger planes. Ministers could not disclose the nature of the threat for fear of compromising intelligence sources. The only explanation until now was that the troop deployment had been intended to thwart a possible mortar attack on a departing plane. The new disclosures make it clear that this was just a part of a âtwin trackâ Al-Qaeda plan to take the worldâs busiest international airport out of operation. Scotland Yard sources previously linked Andrew Rowe to that plot. He was a âdedicated jihadistâ and Muslim convert who was jailed last month at the Old Bailey for terrorist offences. Rowe was arrested on a coach inside the Channel tunnel and was found to be carrying coded instructions on how to fire mortars. He was sentenced to 15 years after being convicted of two offences of having articles for use in terrorism. Until his capture two years ago, Mohammed was a central figure in Al-Qaedaâs war on the West. He was inspired by the 1993 attempt to blow up the World Trade Center in New York. Mohammed conceived the September 11 plot, which he described as âfar more successful than we had ever imaginedâ. Last year The Sunday Times obtained transcripts of Mohammedâs interrogation in the months after his capture in Pakistan in 2003. They show that the original plan for September 11 envisaged the hijacking of 10 planes, which were to be crashed into targets on the east and west coasts of America. In the interrogation, Mohammed also referred to an unspecified plot against Heathrow designed to punish Blair, whom he said Bin Laden called his âprincipal enemyâ. He told his interrogators that Al-Qaeda operatives had been given money and told to begin surveillance of Heathrow, assessing its weak points and finding locations from which planes could be shot down. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 Redneck Jim has it mostly nailed. Nothing's slipping through the Estonian airport, although it has less to do with Soviet "efficiency" and more to do with Scandinavian computer-tech geekness. Although, having been through the airports in Riga, Vilnius, and Warsaw, I wonder. But if I'm flying in Zoo-ropa, these are my personal least-favorite Eastern-European airlines (or cities), for security reasons (what I've experienced in their hubs, and what I evaluate my risk factor at): Air Baltic (Riga, Latvia) Lufthansa(Germany) SAS (Stockholm) I feel good flying on FinnAir, Estonian Air, and Polish Air (distant third). Your milage may vary. |
| Posted by: Mizzou Mafia 2005-10-09 20:12 |
| #4 I wish good luck to someone who would try to do something funny from Estonia: shades of the Soviet era ,security is much tighter than in Western airports. For instance in 2000, they already had computer-assisted passenger recognition well before in Paris. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-10-09 12:13 |
| #3 True, but the whole idea is shock, terror and publicity, otherwise the plot to crash airliners into the Eiffel Tower would never have been planned. Few people there, but destroying a national symbol is a goal all in itself. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2005-10-09 10:59 |
| #2 But if the terminal's empty a lot fewer people get killed. |
| Posted by: Glereger Javitle9188 2005-10-09 10:51 |
| #1 The plot, which was taken so seriously that ministers considered shutting down the airport, Gawd, the ineptnes of government flacks. Like they just say "The Airport is Closed" and flights "Into" the terminal can't happen. I don't remember seeing any flight plan "Into" the World Trade Towers? Do you? |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2005-10-09 10:49 |