London:Half-ton of fertilizer seized

[L@mplighterM]

The Associated Press
Updated: 7:59 p.m. ET March 30, 2004LONDON - Police arrested eight men and seized half a ton of the fertilizer ammonium nitrate — commonly used as a bomb ingredient by terrorists — on Tuesday in anti-terror raids in and near London.


A senior U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that the arrests had disrupted “a major operation that one has to assume was (the work of) al-Qaida.”

The operation, with 700 officers raiding two dozen locations in and around London, resulted in the largest seizure of potential bomb-making material since the Irish Republican Army suspended its campaign in 1997.

British authorities declined to say whether they believed the suspects — all British citizens between the ages of 17 and 32 — were involved in a plot to mount a major attack in London, but Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said they were taken into custody as part of an operation targeting alleged international terrorist activity.

‘A timely reminder’ of terrorism's danger
Home Secretary David Blunkett said the arrests were “a timely reminder that the (United Kingdom) and its interests abroad remain a target.”

Press Association, the British news agency, and Reuters news agency quoted police sources as saying that all eight suspects were Muslims of Pakistani descent, but police declined to confirm or deny that.

“As we have said on many occasions in the past, we in the police service know that the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community are law abiding and completely reject all forms of violence," Clarke said, without confirming that those arrested were Muslims. "We have a responsibility to all communities to investigate suspected terrorist activity.”

Clarke said the ammonium nitrate — a common fertilizer that can be mixed with fuel oil to make a powerful explosive — was found at a self-storage facility in west London.

The potent fertilizer-oil mixture was used in bombings in Turkey and Saudi Arabia in recent months and the the Oct. 12, 2002, blast in Bali that killed 192 people, all of which are believed to be the work of Islamic terrorists linked to al-Qaida.

It also was used to make a bomb in a van which was parked near the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 15, that did not explode.

Fertilizer used in Oklahoma City bombing
Such bombs can have catastrophic consequences. U.S. authorities estimate that 4,800-pounds of ammonium nitrate was used by domestic terrorists in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people.

A source in Britain's anti-terror squad, who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity, said there was enough material in the storage facility to launch an attack on the same scale as the Irish Republican Army's 1996 bombing near Canary Wharf in London's financial district, which destroyed a building, killing two people and injuring more than a hundred.

The source said that while some of the arrests took place near London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, there was no evidence to suggest that either was a target.

Clarke also said there was no indication the the operation was connected to the Madrid train bombs earlier this month or Irish terrorism.

Two suspects were arrested in Uxbridge, also in west London, and three in Crawley, south of the capital. One was detained in Ilford, east London, another in Slough, west of London, and another in Horley, south of the capital.

Officers conducted a total 24 searches that also targeted addresses in Reading, Luton and north London.

Around 500 people have been held in Britain under its sweeping anti-terror laws since Sept. 11, 2001, with about 90 charged with terrorism-related offenses.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4629706/

They are coming out of the woodwork!

[Binyamin]

London should be treating this as a real terror attack, and not let anyone off easy because no one was killed. They should respond as if 200 people were just killed in the financial center.

[Oh Jerusalem]

It's not just Spain and the UK. There's Italy yesterday and maybe Greece tomorrow.

And don't think France and Germany's turns won't come.

[cerulean]

Originally posted by Binyamin
London should be treating this as a real terror attack, and not let anyone off easy because no one was killed. They should respond as if 200 people were just killed in the financial center.

That is so true. Think how much further ahead we'd be if the US had taken the first World Trade Center attack (which I think killed "only" 6) seriously.

There have been many attempts at failed mega-attacks in Israel too.

In addition, Manila says it foiled a "Madrid-style" attack:

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/as...ror/index.html

[RichardP]

Originally posted by cerulean
That is so true. Think how much further ahead we'd be if the US had taken the first World Trade Center attack (which I think killed "only" 6) seriously.

There have been many attempts at failed mega-attacks in Israel too.

In addition, Manila says it foiled a "Madrid-style" attack:

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/as...ror/index.html

The world has to get serious for once, and eradicate this massive tumour, Islamo-terrorism. As mentioned, there is no country which is not at risk; yet, there are still those who remain complacent, as it feeds on murder and mayhem. Do these naïve fools truly believe Islamo-Fascism is benign?

[Gilgamesh]

"London bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down,
London brigde is falling down,
My fair lady..."

Well, not this time... but soon... One can not stop this thing without hurting the root cause. Without fighting terrorism

And you cannot fight terrorism without fighting terrorism.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Oh Jerusalem
It's not just Spain and the UK. There's Italy yesterday and maybe Greece tomorrow.

And don't think France and Germany's turns won't come.

No, Greece will be attacked only during the Olimpics, not before.
Then they will all understand the killers motives and demonstrate support the terrorist actions, for mass murdering in protest for Arab under-representation in sportive events, clearly a case or racism against Arabs, favourable discrimination toward Black runners, Swise skyeers, Chinees and Russian gymnaisers and Australian sweamers. The terrorist demand afirmative action, and the inclusion of reproductive sex as an Olimpic field / game.

I can also forecast they will murder 11 Israelis in the light of Greek police totall fiasco or even seacret collaboration.

Then Israel will be condemd and every body will walk home happy.

[Kev]

That is so true. Think how much further ahead we'd be if the US had taken the first World Trade Center attack (which I think killed "only" 6) seriously.

I am really annoyed by all of this ignorance around those who suggest Bush could have prevented 911 when I feel it was entirely up to Clinton who should have done far more than he ever did during his reign.

Granted, even then I doubt 911 could have been foretold or prevented but had Clinton actually done something earlier other than bombing a few empty sites, perhaps today's reality would be much further ahead.

Secondly, we all saw the worlds reaction to Bush wanting to go into Iraq and prevent a possible tragedy before it happened and this was after 911.

Imagine, after 2 years of Monica Lewinsky to a point where terrorism just wasn't on most peoples minds, had Bush announced he was going to war against terrorism.

He would have been laughed out of office, yet those now try and suggest he should have done more to prevent it.
No, there wasn't anything he could have done for no one wanted to accept our future reality even after 911, let alone before that day.

Just as 911 hasn't woken most people up, it will, sadly, as others here have suggested, most likely take a far larger catastrophe for those to finally slumber awake and who will they blame then, Bush once more?


LONDON

On BBC this morning they did a piece on this story yet they took it further than CNN and have shown that the head of some British Muslims association, which I am afraid the name of which I did not catch, has sent letter out to all of the mosques in Britain asking them to include in their speeches how wrong Terrorism is and how it is the duty of all Muslims to now phone the police ahead of time should hey have any information on terrorists or upcoming terrorist attacks.
He took it a step further and said that had to gain back the youth they were losing at a high rate, etc, etc etc.

Lets hope this attempt is the first time a high profile Muslim organization try's to speak out against the ideology of Terrorism.

Now, obviously I am skeptical but at the very least I did not hear one rant from this man suggesting that terrorism was evil no matter the form, as if to imply that Israelis/Americans were terrorists which often is the double speak you hear in such interviews nor do I recall him saying anything that I could have suggested was inflammatory against the west or the usual double speak one hears form many Muslims.

[Kev]

OT a bit but still in regards to Britian, along with a US Professor:


Just read this on LGF and found it interesting for those that may have missed it but it is copied/pasted from LGF:

Its on a password protected site but worth bringing to attention:

OT: Idiot alert!

There are a couple of American "academics" who wrote a letter to the President of Hebrew U, encouraging him and other Israeli academics to take a public stand against the occupayshun.


Israel's academic leaders should take a public stand against their government's violations of academic freedom at Palestinian universities in the occupied territories, say more than 300 signatories to an open letter that has been published online. But the man to whom the letter is addressed, Menachem Magidor, president of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, says the letter displays
the double standard of those who are boycotting
Israeli academic institutions.

The letter was conceived by Lawrence Davidson, a professor of history at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

He and several other American and British faculty members who were also involved drafting and posting the letter have for the last two years led a campaign to boycott Israeli universities to protest Israel's military
actions against the Palestinians (The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 26, 2002).

"We learned of plans to counter the academic boycott from news reports," Mr. Davidson said Sunday in an e-mail message. "We believed that this warranted a reply
and could be used to point up the hypocrisy of Israeli concern for its own academic
freedom while destroying that of the Palestinians."

The article is on a password protected site, but it can be e-mailed to people

[Ahava]

[Oh Jerusalem]

Originally posted by Ahava

Where've you been?

Queen Julianna's funeral?

[Ahava]

Originally posted by Oh Jerusalem
Where've you been?

Queen Julianna's funeral?

How do you know?
No even though Queen Juliana was a great woman (she had great sympathy for Jews and Israel), she was before my time and I'm not such a fan of all the queen/orange house stuff so no I was just busy.

[Ahava]

And Holland is some terrorists richer. Hundreds of illegal North Africans obtained a temporary permit to stay in Roermond and disappeared from the address they gave up within 24 hours.

By the way, a positive sign that muslim leaders in London speak out firmly against terrorism.

[Oh Jerusalem]

Originally posted by Kev
LONDON

On BBC this morning they did a piece on this story yet they took it further than CNN and have shown that the head of some British Muslims association, which I am afraid the name of which I did not catch, has sent letter out to all of the mosques in Britain asking them to include in their speeches how wrong Terrorism is and how it is the duty of all Muslims to now phone the police ahead of time should hey have any information on terrorists or upcoming terrorist attacks.
He took it a step further and said that had to gain back the youth they were losing at a high rate, etc, etc etc.

Lets hope this attempt is the first time a high profile Muslim organization try's to speak out against the ideology of Terrorism.

Now, obviously I am skeptical but at the very least I did not hear one rant from this man suggesting that terrorism was evil no matter the form, as if to imply that Israelis/Americans were terrorists which often is the double speak you hear in such interviews nor do I recall him saying anything that I could have suggested was inflammatory against the west or the usual double speak one hears form many Muslims.

Story here:

UK Muslims urged to fight terror

[RichardP]

Originally posted by Oh Jerusalem
Story here:

UK Muslims urged to fight terror

Don't fret, Ahava, Canada, too, has its fair share of terrorists as does Holland: yet, our former PM, Chretien, stated that, we don't have any terrorists cells. This was shortly after 9/11... So, Europe doesn't have a monopoly on hole-digging.