Airline groundings linked to al-Qa'eda shoe-bomb threat

[Anonymous]

Airline groundings linked to al-Qa'eda shoe-bomb threat
By Andrew Alderson and David Bamber
(Filed: 04/01/2004)


More flights from British airports are expected to be cancelled this week as MI5 and Special Branch hunt two al-Qa'eda terrorists thought to be planning a shoe-bomb attack on an airliner.

It was this threat that led to last week's cancellation, two days running, of British Airways flight 223 from Heathrow to Washington.

Officials from the security service MI5 believe that two Islamist terrorists are at large in Britain and planning to detonate a bomb in a lavatory of an aircraft.

Flight 223 was finally due to take off last night, but government officials on both sides of the Atlantic gave warning that further cancellations were expected this week - especially if "specific intelligence" pointed to a likely target.

BA flights to and from the Saudi capital Riyadh scheduled for yesterday and today have already been cancelled on the advice of British officials. Security officials say that the main threat comes from an al-Qa'eda pair said to be planning to blow up aircraft in mid-air using a shoe bomb or similar device.

Last January, a British man, Richard Reid, was jailed for life in the United States for trying to detonate a shoe bomb on a Paris-Miami flight.

Improved cockpit security and the widespread use of armed air marshals have made a hijack attempt less likely than a mid-air blast, which could be timed to go off when the aircraft is over a city.

One senior Whitehall official said: "There is a genuine security risk. We believe from reliable foreign intelligence sources that there are terrorists in Britain preparing to board planes and set off shoe bombs, almost certainly in a lavatory. We expect to have to cancel quite a few flights during the coming week."

British security officials played down speculation in the US media that the BA cancellations were linked to the flight number. It has been suggested that the significance of Flight 223 may relate to United Nations resolution 223, passed in 1997, which criticised the Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

One US official, meanwhile, said the cancellation of the BA flights was not a specific response to safety fears, but was prompted by the refusal of some British pilots to fly with air marshals on board. Washington says it will not allow suspicious flights into its air space without armed marshals on board.

A BA spokesman said, however: "There is no truth in American press reports that a number of our flights have been grounded because pilots have refused to fly with marshals. The flights have been halted for security reasons."

Kevin Rosser, an analyst with Control Risks Group, an international security and risk-assessment firm, said: "The security services have been increasingly concerned in recent months about the threat to aviation, particularly over the holiday period.

"The Americans have been getting a surge of intelligence chatter. They are particularly concerned about cross-Atlantic routes and flights coming into the US from Mexico."

America remains on Code Orange alert - the second highest level of a five-tier system - which was brought in on December 21.

It is the first time since May that an alert as high as orange has been introduced, and in the past month at least 15 flights have been cancelled because of security concerns.

Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, said yesterday that the cancellations of flights to Washington and Riyadh had been prompted by "specific information".

Mr Darling, interviewed on BBC radio, said: "The reason that different flights are either grounded or there is increased security varies from time to time. Of course, Britain and the United States have access to similar intelligence and we share information.

"We do so with other countries as well. You would expect us to do that.

"We look at the intelligence ourselves, we evaluate it, and we then decide what the appropriate action is."

He added: "The threat we now face is likely to endure for many years."

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/ ... fly204.xml

[cycloneye]

Flight 223 at this hour that this is posted is almost arriving at Dulles at DC escorted by fighter jets.

[Anonymous]

Al-Qaeda exodus triggers panic

US sparked airport alert after terrorists left secret hideouts
By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor



THE sudden movement of large numbers of highly trained al-Qaeda terrorists across the Middle East triggered the panic over possible attacks on Western aircraft which led to the grounding of international flights to the United States last week.
The Sunday Herald has learned that the US raised its terror alert to Code Orange – the second highest level – on December 21 when Washington discovered that trained al-Qaeda terrorists had been leaving their strongholds and hideouts in the Hadhramouth area east of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

The operatives have moved north and west bearing large quantities of shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles, a selection of other weapons and a variety of explosives.

This came as US homeland security chief Tom Ridge spoke of substantially increased intelligence that extremists were planning an attack to surpass the 9/11 atrocities.

The terrorists then moved into two areas of Saudi Arabia: Najran and Jizran, Osama bin Laden’s homeland. Terrorists in Najran are thought to be planning missions inside Saudi, while those in Jizran are believed to be readying themselves to move overseas. Jizran has a number of ports, ideal to move men and weapons out of the country.

Both areas would allow terrorists to quickly disperse across the Middle East, Persian Gulf and east Africa. Many are thought to have already left Saudi to pursue their targets .

Some may also have used unmarked, privately owned aircraft to transport themselves and weapons out of Saudi. The terrorists are said to have “crept” past Saudi, Yemeni and undercover US special forces on the Saudi-Yemen border.

The number and identity of the al-Qaeda operatives is not known, nor are the locations they are heading towards. That has caused panic and chaos for airline companies and intelligence agencies trying to red-flag the terrorists if they try to board civilian aircraft bound for the West.

Just a few days ago, the Italian newspaper Il Giornale carried a front-page story with the headline “Al-Qaeda: We will destroy New York within 35 days”.

The threat was contained, the paper said, in a video clip on a website run by al-Qaeda, which was blocked and then removed by the FBI. The threat seemed to hint that some sort of nuclear dirty bomb would be used . The newspaper is viewed as the flagship paper of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. New Year celebrations in New York, Rome, Moscow, London and Las Vegas were all carried out under intense security.

Yesterday, British Airways flight 223 from London to Washington – which was cancelled for two days running and had previously been escorted into the US by F-16 fighter jets – was finally allowed to take off.

It was due to leave at 3.05pm but was delayed for three hours while all passengers were searched and escorted on to the plane one at a time. Their details were double-checked in the US before the plane took off. Security fears also grounded BA flight 263 to the Saudi capital Riyadh yesterday.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling warned that the threat to commercial aircraft was likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

04 January 2004

http://www.sundayherald.com/39093

[Anonymous]

from the Northeast Intel Agency

3 January 2004-- New York as a Target? "Countdown"

(Warning - site contains audio)

http://deadb0dy.8bit.co.uk/

[streetsoldier]

They want a "shoe-bomb"? I "feel the pain" of any security screener who asks coppertop to take off his shoes...