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British authorities have arrested 21 “home grown” terror suspects in a sting that thwarted a plot that would have resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians on U.S. bound flights from Britain. This is being called the biggest potential act of terror since 9/11.

The United States has raised the threat level to “red” for all U.S. bound aircraft from Britain. In particular all liquid containers have been banned on all flights so we can assume that the knowledge of the operation was pretty specific. British authorities have uncovered explosives in the search of the suspects residences.

A terror plot to kill thousands of people by detonating explosives on up to 10 transatlantic flights from the UK was disrupted by police and the security services overnight, it emerged today.
If successful, the alleged plot would have caused “mass murder on an unimaginable scale”, Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan police deputy commissioner, said.

The alleged plan was to cause near simultaneous blasts on multiple flights - with planes travelling to the US a particular target - using explosives smuggled into passenger cabins inside hand luggage.

The suspects were “homegrown,” according to the AP although it was not immediately clear if they were all British citizens, said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Police were working closely with the South Asian community, the official said.

I’m guessing Pakistani nationality, but that is all I can do as long as authorities do their best to water down the nationalities of potential terrorists out of sensitivity for their feelings.

This incident precedes a major announcement in Britain that another wave of major legislation was heading the Brits way in an attempt to strengthen anti-terror measurers.

The events unfolded just hours after Mr Reid used a speech to a thinktank to accuse critics of the government’s anti-terrorism measures of putting national security at risk through their failure to recognise the serious nature of the threat facing Britain.

Mr Reid gave the strongest hint yet that more anti-terrorism legislation was on the way this autumn as he argued yesterday in his speech that civil-liberties arguments belonged to another age.

Spoiled brat-idiot statement of the day:

“Eight hours without an iPod - that’s the most inconvenient thing,” Hannah Pillinger, a 24-year-old at Manchester, said.

Thankfully we have some people who are starting to get the right message out such as Britain Home Secretary Jack Reid.

“Yesterday, Mr Reid said Britain faced its most sustained period of serious threat since the end of the second world war, telling critics of the government’s controversial anti-terror tactics that they “just don’t get it”.

This is the understatement of the century. It appears that the United States is not the only country that is faced with an electorate that has been dumbed down by the mainstream media and politicians on the left.

Thankfully clearer heads prevailed. The “War on Terror ” is a true war. It is not a government plot of some right wing plan to scare people into voting them back into office. Terrorism is a very real threat. Let’s hope that people start taking this war seriously.

Update: 7:00 a.m. CST - I was expecting to see conspiracy theories over on the leftisitsphere so I stopped by Huff and Kos. What did I find? Nothing. There is mass silence in yet another example of how dense the left is. These kind of stories will most certainly be downplayed by the party with no plan. They wouldn’t want to tip off the rest of the nation that they are clueless as to the threat facing this nation. Oops, too late; sorry about that.

Chertoff : Statement, 7:03 CST - “Suggestive of an al-Qaeda plot.”

Others Covering This Story

• Wizbang: UK Police Thwart Massive Terror Plot
• Counterterrorism Blog: London: The “Shoe Bomber Factory” again?
• Flopping Aces: Major Terrorist Plot In England Foiled
• Michelle Malkin: “Imminent,” “massive” jihad UK plot foiled; goal: “mass murder on an unimaginable scale”
• Hot Air: Scotland Yard busts “major plot” to blow up airplane (Update: A dozen planes?)
• Protein Wisdom: “‘Plot to blow up planes’ foiled”

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