British terror plot: 7 rounded up so far
July 2nd, 2007 by ashish
This is the scariest thing to hit London for some time now; bringing back memories of the tube bombing, and presenting a first-rate challenge to Gordon Brown (whose signing-in ink would not have been dry as yet). This operation is going on in full-scale with the British police trying to quickly crack the case that involved bombs in streets and a hit at an airport. These incidents have put the United Kingdom on a full scale alert, as well as caused security in the United States to be pushed up much higher. At times like these, there is less resistance to bringing in measures that at normal times would be seen as invasion of privacy. It is far more important to try and catch such attempts when they are being planned.
These incidents were serious, but not sophisticated; with the potential car bomb being a mix of petrol, nails and gas; and the airport attack seemingly an amateurish attempt. However, it could have been deadly serious if the gas had exploded, in which case there could have been fatalities. The biggest problem is that this attack is seen as coming out of nowhere.
Seven terrorism suspects, said to include two medical doctors, were being held in Britain Monday in a fast-moving operation to track down the perpetrators of three attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow at the end of last week.
Britain remains on a ‘critical’ state of terror alert, the highest grade possible, after the attempted attacks, which started off with a Mercedes car filled with petrol, gas and nails, parked outside a busy London nightclub in the early hours of last Friday. Officers were able to defuse the device after being alerted to a ’smouldering car’ by members of an ambulance crew which happened to be in the central London area, at Haymarket, at the time.
Police have so far declined to comment on the background and nationality of the suspects, except to say that none was British. Such a development would turn the media spotlight away from British-born Muslims, who had initially been suspected of being behind the failed attacks, and who are held responsible for the transport suicide bombings in London two years ago, with 52 dead.
If the plot is a considerable extent, it will be very worrisome. The United Kingdom is traditionally a very open place with large concentrations of Muslims. It is difficult to mount a watch on possible suspects without being seen as doing racial profiling. People would remember previous threats which eventually fizzled out after a burst of media frenzy and eventually turned the spotlight onto the possible focusing of attention on the Muslim community (true, but difficult to admit).
If this time also turns out to be a small thing, the high media attention will again turn on the police force about being focused on the Muslim community, and push the police again on the backfoot. That would not be a good thing to happen, what with the threat being real and ready to attack.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/news/article_1325010.php/British_police_hold_seven_as_terror_probe_gathers_pace__Roundup_
