Suspects Identified In Alleged British Terror Plot

The identities of 19 of the 24 suspects arrested in an alleged plot to blow up commercial airplanes in Britain were made public by the Bank of England Friday.

The Bank has a mandate to freeze the assets of those suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and to let other financial institutions around the world know what names to watch out for.

Most of those identified are reportedly of Muslim origin, range in age from 17 to 35, and include a woman with a six-month-old child.

But a few defied that description.

Neighbours in the town of High Wycombe fingered 21-year-old Don Stewart-Whyte, who has reportedly changed his name to Abdul Waheed.

Another person on the list, Ibrahim Savant of Walthamstow, is a convert to Islam who used to be known as Oliver.

“These people were born and brought up in the United Kingdom. Some of them may have parents who were immigrants from Pakistan,” adds Tariq Azim Khan, the Pakistani minister of state for information.

His country played a significant role in leading British authorities to the suspects.

Sources indicate it was several detentions in Pakistan that led to the revelation of the plot, and since then a total of seven people have been taken into custody there – at least two are British nationals of Pakistani origin.

And the terror war expanded again on Friday, when Italian police raided Muslim gathering places and arrested 40 people in a security crackdown. There’s no indicaton that raid is connected to the events in Britain.

By now, the world has heard the nefarious plot – smuggle the ingredients for liquid peroxide explosives in innocent looking beverage or lotion containers on board a plane, along with devices such as cameras or laptops.

The terrorists would then assemble their improvised bombs in mid-flight and use the electronic components to detonate them, killing themselves and everyone on board.

 At least 10 planes heading to New York, Washington and L.A. were said to be targets, and officials confirmed on Thursday that a dry run was just 48 hours away.

A British newspaper claims the actual date for the attack itself would have been next Wednesday and that a coded message was sent from Pakistan to the suspects in Britain that read “do your attacks now”.

The message was apparently intercepted and decoded, while U.S. intelligence agencies also reported an increase in ‘terror chatter’.

And there have been other shocking revelations. One of those detained is said to have worked at Heathrow Airport and had a pass that let him go almost anywhere within the sprawling complex.

Cops apparently also found so-called ‘martyrdom tapes’, confessions about the mission to be played after it was accomplished. The recordings are a classic hallmark of al-Qaida.

Authorities are now trying to track the movements of all those detained, even as the hunt continues for anyone they may have missed.

It may be a while before any of them actually show up in court. British law allows terror suspects to be detained for up to 28 days without any charges being laid.

Despite the plot, life was slowly – with an emphasis on slowly – returning to normal at Heathrow. There were still flight delays and the restrictions of items in carry-ons continued, but most passengers were simply trying to keep the classic British stiff upper lip and deal with the inconveniences.

If you’re planning on flying, here’s where you can check your flight information.

To see the Bank of England release and the names of those accused, click here. (.pdf file)

It was a victory for the good guys – the British ability to stop an alleged terror plot before it  – and thousands of victims – could be executed has been lauded across the globe.

But sadly, not all such similar plot interruptions have met with the same success. Here’s a look at some other terror incidents that resulted in tragedy or were stopped before they could be carried out.

INDIA

The one all Canadians remember and the worst terrorist incident in this country’s history. All 329 passengers aboard a New Delhi-bound Air India plane were killed on June 23, 1985 when a bomb caused it to plunge into the Atlantic Ocean, in the world’s most deadly such attack before Sept 11, 2001.

Sikh militants were blamed, but only one person was ever convicted. Several inquiries have been called into the incident.

LOCKERBIE

A Libyan man, Abdel-Basset al-Megrahi, is serving a life sentence in a Scottish prison for murdering 270 people with a bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988. Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003.

OPERATION BOJINKA

Islamic fundamentalists linked to the Saudi-born militant leader Osama bin Laden drew up plans to down planes in the early 1990s. An attack in December 1994, carried out on a Japan-bound Philippine Airlines plane, which killed a Japanese passenger and injured 10 others, was a deliberate experiment to test the effectiveness of a new liquid explosive.

Documents and laptops seized after a raid on the Manila apartment of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York, and the arrest of Pakistani militant Abdul Hakim Murad also revealed many plans for attacking U.S. targets. One plan, codenamed Operation Bojinka, involved the bombing of 11 commercial airliners flying to the United States in January 1995.

All the targeted flights were trans-oceanic routes between east Asia and the United States. All had two legs, and the plan involved placing bombs aboard the planes on the first legs, and then detonating them on their second legs.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

The twin towers of the World Trade Center both collapsed after two hijacked commercial airliners slammed into each building. A third plane struck the Pentagon near Washington and a fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. 2,973 people died in the coordinated attacks for which al Qaeda leader bin Laden was blamed.

SHOE BOMBER

Richard Reid, a British-born follower of Osama bin Laden, was sentenced to life in prison in January 2003 for trying to blow up a transatlantic flight with explosives stuffed in his shoes.

Reid tried to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 on December 22, 2001, as it flew to Miami from Paris. He was unapologetic for his actions and said he was “at war” with the United States because it sponsored “rape and torture”.