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| Britain |
| Heathrow hijackers planned to hide bombs in cameras |
| 2006-06-22 |
| AL-QAEDA terrorists considered using bombs and stun guns disguised as cameras and flash attachments to hijack an aircraft from Heathrow and crash it into the Canada Tower at Canary Wharf in East London, according to a report from the US Department of Homeland Security. The plot to strike London, and other world targets, is said to have been thwarted in the summer of 2003. This was shortly after Tony Blair was widely ridiculed for ordering extra security, including armoured cars, to Heathrow. The plan to fly into the Canary Wharf Tower was uncovered in 2004, when computer files belonging to a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden were seized in Lahore, Pakistan. Among the encrypted messages — all written in perfect English — were layouts of Heathrow and details of Canary Wharf, including the heights of tower blocks in the Docklands financial district. The American report, obtained by ABC News yesterday, provides a further glimpse into what it describes as the “ingenuity” of al-Qaeda in attempting to convert camera equipment and other non-threatening items into deadly weapons that could be smuggled on to an aircraft. Such items could be used to “gain access to an airliner flight deck”. Homeland Security officials were quoted yesterday as saying that the terrorist network was adapting to “increased aviation security by shifting planned suicide hijackings from domestic carriers to international flights . . . to take advantage of perceived less effective screening at some foreign airports”. In total, intelligence chiefs had learnt of nine schemes to hijack aircraft since the September 11, 2001, attacks on America. This, says the US Homeland Security Department, demonstrates “a continued commitment to attack aviation-related targets”. British security chiefs said that the Canary Wharf plan used “real sophistication” in designing equipment such as cameras that could pass security checks easily at vulnerable airports, then be assembled on board by the hijackers. One official said: “Once on the plane the hijackers would convert the camera attachments into a stun gun so they could gain access to the cockpit, then the main body of the camera was a bomb with apparently enough explosive to rupture the cabin of the aircraft if the hijackers wanted to blow up the plane in mid-air rather than steer it into their targets.” |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 As long as the police didn't hurt anyone during the raid, it's okay. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2006-06-22 12:41 |
| #1 Would that be a plane crashing in East London - very close to Forest Gate? If this HAD happened there would have been nil response from the Muslim community (who live in the East-End in an self-imposed unintegrated ghetto) apart from the veiled threats and the large dose of 'serve you right' we received on 7/7. A police raid to prevent such carnage, however, well that's another story... |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-06-22 07:01 |