LONDON, 2 July 2007 — Britain’s largest terror alert since the 7/7 attacks and the failed 21/7 bombings two years ago is bearing quick results as police home in on the perpetrators behind the latest campaign, which has seen two car bombs successfully disabled in central London on Friday and a blazing Jeep attack on Glasgow International Airport on Saturday.
Police yesterday arrested a fifth suspect in Liverpool following the earlier arrests of a man and a woman at a motorway service station in Cheshire and the arrest of two would-be suicide bombers at Glasgow airport. Police also made a controlled explosion on a vehicle in the car park of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley in Scotland, where one of the would-be suicide bombers is in a critical condition after suffering severe burns. Police have also stepped up the hunt for a number of terror suspects under Home Office control orders but who have absconded, including Lamine Adam, his brother Ibrahim Adam and Cerie Bullivant — all in their early twenties.
A quietly confident Home Secretary Jacqui Smith — chairing the fourth meeting of the Government’s emergency committee, Cobra, in two days — yesterday confirmed that she will address the House of Commons today on the terrorist campaign, and that Britain is now at the highest critical level of the terror threat.
“I can confirm that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC) has raised the national threat level to critical. This is in response to the events of the last 48 hours. Critical is the highest level of threat, and the threat level will be closely reviewed on a regular basis. Appropriate security measures have been put in place,” she explained to the country.
A threat level of critical means that an attack is expected imminently and is only the second time that this level has been maintained. Police forces throughout the country are on full alert, and transport assets such as airports and stations are bearing the brunt of strict security measures including the suspension of all drop and pick-up of passengers outside airport terminals. This has led to chaos especially in Scotland where the school summer holidays began yesterday with hundreds of families on their way to destinations abroad. Glasgow airport partially reopened yesterday with Terminal 2 the only functioning terminal. Of 56 flights scheduled yesterday, some 36 were canceled. The crashed jeep remained in the front of the Terminal 1 entrance, covered in a blue tarpaulin, as forensic experts gathered evidence. Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport in northwest England, also reopened yesterday following a suspicious vehicle alert on Saturday.
The arrests have been accompanied by a number of police swoops on premises in Neuk Crescent, Houston, just outside Glasgow, and various addresses in Liverpool, Birmingham and London. “I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London. There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that this is being treated as a terrorist incident,” explained Willie Rae, chief constable of Strathclyde Police.
British political leaders emphasized that the British public would not be “intimidated or let anyone stop us getting on with our lives”. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an interview with BBC television that Britons must realize that the terrorist threat Britain faces is “long-term and sustained.”
He said it was “clear that we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with Al-Qaeda. It’s obvious that we have a group of people — not just in this country, but round the world — who’re prepared at any time to inflict what they want to be maximum damage on civilians, irrespective of the religion of these people who are killed or maimed. We’ve got to separate if you like those great moderate members of our community from a few extremists who wish to practice both violence and inflict maximum loss of life in the interests of a perversion of their religion. Everything is being done in our power...to protect people’s lives. We will not yield, we will not be intimidated, and we will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life.”
Lord Stevens, Brown’s terrorism adviser, said the two attacks in Britain indicate that “Al-Qaeda has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to the streets of the UK. This weekend’s bombs signal a major escalation in the war being waged on us by terrorists. It is clear a loose but deadly network of interlinked operational cells has developed,” he wrote in his column.
He wrote in the News of the World yesterday that the terrorists are using "the same technology, the same bomb-making techniques, the same operating methods as their brothers-in-arms in both Baghdad and Bali."
At the same time, Britain's Muslim communities, especially those of Pakistani origin, are once again in a beleaguered state coming under scrutiny by the police and international media. Local Muslim leaders have yet again been caught on the back foot; stunned and being forced to react to continuously changing developments as a result of the dastardly activities of a small minority, who former British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday called "absurd Islamists."
Muslim leaders in Scotland held an emergency meeting in Glasgow to discuss the fallout from the terror campaign. Scotland's only Muslim MP Mohammed Sarwar of the ruling Labour Party, said threats had been made toward members of the Muslim community in the aftermath of the attack in Glasgow, and warned that people in the Muslim and Asian communities were "very angry. They're concerned about a backlash and that's why the emergency meeting has been called."
Osama Saeed, from the Muslim Association of Great Britain, said: "I think, personally, it's so close to home that it's a completely different emotional reaction."
Muslim leaders are supporting the police manhunt and have asked the public to cooperate with the investigations. Rashid Allauddin of the Metropolitan Police Authority confirmed that "hundreds of stop and searches" were conducted in London over the last two days - many of them on Asian youths, who seem resigned to the necessity for such action in the current terror alert. British Muslim groups condemned the series of incidents and urged Muslims to cooperate with the authorities.
"We must start by expressing our appreciation to those police officers who were tasked with securing the area and removing the threat from the explosive device. It is now a duty upon all the rest of us to help the police so that they can bring whoever was involved in this plot swiftly to justice," said Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain.
"We are utterly appalled by this sinister plot and commend the professionalism of the security services in aborting it. We take the heightened security level extremely seriously and urge all of our communities to remain calm, be extra vigilant and report anything suspicious to the authorities. It is the duty of every British citizen to assist the police in safeguarding national security and ensuring the safety of all our citizens," stressed Khurshid Ahmed, chair of the British Muslim Initiative in a statement.
British political, police and community leaders have been quick to stress that these terrorist acts are those of individuals and not communities. Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, appealed for public vigilance and warned that no community should be made scapegoats as a result of the Glasgow incident.
His Chief Constable Rae confirmed that his force has been in close liaison with the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Unit, SO15, whose chief, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, who has responsibility for terrorism throughout the UK, is now in Glasgow to coordinate the investigation.
Chief Constable Rae, however, had strong words for those who were seeking to cause community disharmony. "This criminal act was felt by all members of our communities and particularly impacted on those who intended traveling abroad, on one of the busiest weeks of the holiday season. Additionally, many travelers were kept at the airport as a security measure. Public safety always comes first."
"It is vitally important that communities support each other. The minority communities in the Strathclyde Police area and particularly the Glasgow minority community have intimated that they are very supportive of the police efforts to protect life. While the majority of people in Scotland are supportive, there may be a small number of individuals who use this type of opportunity to harass and victimize members of our minority ethnic communities. This type of behavior will not be tolerated and robustly dealt with," he added.
