LONDON, 15 August 2006 — Britain yesterday downgraded the terror threat to the country from the highest alert level “critical” to “severe”, five days after police last Thursday foiled an alleged bomb plot by suspected British Muslim militants to blow up nine trans-Atlantic jets in midair flying from Heathrow en route to major US cities.
The change in the threat level means the ban on taking hand luggage on to flights from the UK has been lifted, although some restrictions remain including the ban on any liquids, toiletries and liquid medicines, save emergency ones which have to be pre-approved. British Airport Authority Chief Executive Stephen Nelson said the current situation was “the biggest security crisis in aviation history in this country”. However, travelers from UK’s major airports will have to wait until today morning before the new security regime actually takes effect. BAA, which runs the UK’s major airports, yesterday warned prospective travelers with flights to stick to the stringent restrictions of the last few days, because it would take at least a day to brief its 2,700 security staff at the airports on the lifting of some of the restrictions. These developments came against a background of the continuing hunt by police for evidence regarding the terror plot. According to the BBC, police have found two guns at premises where two alleged plotters were living. Of the 24 suspects held, only one has been unconditionally released, and the other 23 are still being questioned by the security services.
Police yesterday morning also started a major search for evidence at King’s Wood near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, the scene of one of the raids.
The decision to lower the threat level was taken in the early hours of yesterday by JTAC (the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center) which comprises officials from Britain’s intelligence agencies and government departments and is housed within MI5, the British security service.
UK Home Secretary John Reid, who was not privy to the decision-making process to downgrade the threat level because JTAC operates independent from government, warned at a press conference yesterday that “the change in the threat level does not mean that the threat has gone away. The public needs to know that there may be other people out there who may be planning an attack against the United Kingdom.”
JTAC, which has access to the latest intelligence and associated information and analysis meets regularly, introduced the new alert regime only at the beginning of August this year. Reid emphasized that even the lowering of the threat level to “severe” indicates that a terror attack is still highly likely but not imminent.
Perhaps, not coincidentally, the US Department of Homeland Security has similarly downgraded the threat level for flights from the UK from “code red” to “code orange”.
However, a rift between Washington and London had apparently emerged over the timing and conduct of the disruption of the plot, according to local British media reports.
US officials wanted MI5 and Scotland Yard to move much quicker to foil the alleged plot, thinking that the danger to targeted US flights was immediate and therefore paramount.
British security agencies, on the other hand, wanted to “play” the alleged plotters for as long as possible in an effort to gather more information and evidence.
Reid on Sunday admitted that the security services had foiled four alleged terror plots targeting the UK since 7/7; and that police were currently conducting up to two dozen alleged terror investigations.
He also warned that although police believe the main suspects in the alleged plot “had been accounted for”, there was still the threat of a terror attack. Police simply could not be aware of all terror plots that may be planned, especially by groups hitherto “off the security radar.”
The government remains concerned about groups who had no direct connection to this latest alleged plot, but who might be inspired by its thwarting to carry out copycat terror acts almost as an act of defiance and bravado.
The UK Department for Transport, meanwhile, further clarified the relaxing of the hand luggage restrictions advising that passengers would now be allowed to carry one item of hand luggage on to flights, although any form of liquid, fluid, lotion or gel is still banned.
Spot searches of passengers at Heathrow have now been reduced to 50 percent.
Since Thursday such searches were compulsory for all passengers resulting in huge delays and flight cancellations.
Passengers can now also take their mobiles, laptops, keys and other electronic devices, although they will be subject to the usual security screening. These items could be carried in a medium-sized bag, about half the size of the luggage previously admitted.
Meanwhile, Muslim leaders seem to be retracting from their earlier stance of blaming the rise of extremism on Prime Minister Tony Blair’s foreign policy in the Middle East, and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mohammed Sarwar, one of three British Muslim MPs who signed an open letter to Blair warning that UK foreign policy was fueling extremism, said action had to be taken to stop young Muslims from being targeted by fundamentalists.
He told BBC Radio 4 that “these fanatics who brainwash and mislead these young people, we’ve been demanding that all those people who are distributing hate literature, should be dealt with with the full authority of law. They have no right to be in our country.”
