Rant Against the Machine

The Islamofascists planned to blow up as many as 10 planes with a TATP cocktail brought aboard the aircraft disguised as bottled sports drinks by teams of 2-3 members, each carrying a part of the cocktail and detonating device. They intended to detonate the devices over the Atlantic in follow on attacks of 3 or more planes an hour for 3 hours.

As of this posting, 24 suspects are in custody and the authorities are "urgently" searching for another ten. British authorities are reporting that they have found at least one martyr video. Martyr videos are made by Islamofascists terrorists as an affirmation of their participation in an operation and to express their desire to martyr themselves. This would confirm that the attack was definitely planned for the very near future.

According to the Jawa Report, these terrorists are linked to Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad. Bakri was essentially deported from the UK this year when he was basically told he was not "conducive to the civil good." He fled to Lebanon leaving his family in England. When the Israeli/Hezbollah fighting broke out in July, he attempted to board a ship for British refugees from the war for passage back to England. He was removed from the boat and fumed that he was appealing to the British authorities on "humanitarian grounds." For more information on Bakri.

The terrorists captured today have been described as British 2nd and 3rd generation Pakistanis; many of their families were originally from Kashmir. Most are from middle class families and between 17 and 40 years of age.

The operational details of the arrests are beginning to be released. The terrorists were planning a "dry run" within days with the actual attacks planned a few days after that. The Pakistani, US, UK and possibly other enforcement agencies worked in coordination to bring this plot to light and disrupt it. NSA intercepts of international phone calls were used to track this plot, and "sneak and peek" warrants were used to track the groups activities. The suspects purchases and other transactions were also scrutinized. A "sneak and peek" warrant allows authorities to surveil suspects by entering residences and other property of suspects without notification. FISA warrants were obtained to track their phone calls. Both "sneak and peek" warrants and the phone intercepts were authorized in the United States Patriot Act and the UK Civil Contingencies Bill. Both measures have been met with resistance from civil liberties groups as too intrusive on citizen's rights to privacy.

Michael Chertoff, head of DHS, appeared on the O'Reilly Factor on Thursday, Aug 10, and said that the operation came to a head on Wednesday afternoon with the British authorities determination that the plan was about to be executed with a "dry run" in the next few days. It is possible to speculate that the tickets for the "dry run" had been purchased in the last few days which set the take-down in motion. The authorities have confirmed that Continental, American, British Airways and United were the airlines targeted and that the flight's destinations were New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

It is also apparent that the British authorities have collected some, if not all, of the devices that were to be used. Mr. Chertoff said that "once [the US] gets our hands on the devices, we will reverse engineer the devices." He said this would be done to refine our screening techniques at all security checkpoints to pinpoint any necessary changes in our screening procedures.

According to Fox News, the British authorities had an undercover operative insinuate himself with the terror cell, and he was keeping the authorities abreast of their activities.

Breitbart.com reports that the Bank of London has frozen the accounts of 19 of the suspects that have been identified in the plot. Here are the names, ages and hometowns of the terror suspects whose accounts have been frozen:

Umir Hussain, 24, London E14
Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17
Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17
Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17
Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe
Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17
Cossor Ali, 24, London E17
Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham
Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17
Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17
Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington
Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17
Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe
Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10
Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe
Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe
Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17
Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5
Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest

Until the authorities are satisfied that the plot has been fully averted, the new, more stringent safety precautions at airports will remain in place.

BACKGROUND ON SIMILAR ATTACKS

This plan has striking similarities to prior attack attempts including Ramzey Yousef's plot to down planes over the Pacific and Richard Reid's foiled "Shoe Bomber" attempt. In 1995, Ramzey Yousef plotted to explode liquid chemical bombs on planes originating in Asia.

From Wikipedia:

Starting on January 21, 1995 and ending on January 22, 1995, they would set the bombs on 11 United States-bound airliners that had stopovers all around East Asia and Southeast Asia. All of the flights had two legs. The bombs would be planted inside life jackets under seats on the first leg, when each bomber would disembark. He would then board one or two more flights and repeat. After all of the bombers planted bombs on all of the flights, each man would then catch flights to Lahore, Pakistan. The men never needed U.S. visas, as they only would have stayed on the planes on their first legs in Asia.
United States airlines had been chosen instead of Asian airlines to maximize the shock toward Americans. The flights targeted were listed under operatives with codenames: "Zyed", "Majbos", "Markoa", "Mirqas" and "Obaid". Obaid, who was really Abdul Hakim Murad, was to hit United flight 80, and then he was to go back to Singapore under another United flight which he would bomb.

Zyed, probably Ramzi Yousef, was to hit Northwest Flight 30, a United Flight going from Taipei to Honolulu, and a United Flight going from Bangkok to Taipei to San Francisco.

The bombs would have been timed before the operatives stepped off the planes. The aircraft would have blown up over the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea almost simultaneously. If this plan worked, several thousand would have perished, and air travel would have been shut down worldwide for days, if not weeks. The U.S. government estimated the prospective death toll to be about 4,000 if the plot had been executed.

Richard Reid attempted to use a plastic explosive device aboard a flight from Paris to New York in December 2001. He was actually able to board the flight and was taken down by passengers during the flight. A flight attendant observed him attempting to light a detonation cord attached to his shoes. Analysis of the shoes showed they were were made of PETN with a TATP detonator.

Other plots to take down aircraft using chemical and liquid devices have been successful including a Japanese plane that was brought down with the explosives hidden in bottles of wine in 1994. For more information on planes taken down with bombs.