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FBI Investigates American Connection to London Terror Plot

August 11, 2006 8:21 AM

Flag_connection_nrU.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News the FBI is investigating new leads that involve a possible connection between people in the United States, in major east coast cities, and the London bomb plotters.
 
In an interview with ABC News this morning, White House Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend said while there is currently no indication of any plotting in the United States, she confirmed, "There are leads that the FBI is running."
 
With at least five, and maybe more, suspects still at large, it is the missing plotters who are the greatest security concern. Among those still at large are some of the suspected ringleaders of the London plot.

Congressman Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News authorities are extremely concerned about the missing suspects. "They are on the loose," said King. "These are desperate, vicious people, who have a good degree of sophistication. And they're out there, if nothing else, they're available for future operations. The more deadly threat is that there is a plan B that they would be able to implement."

Intelligence officials tell ABC News the plot's trail leads directly to al Qaeda and to the Pakistani city of Karachi, where money for the plot was wired to London.

Officials say two of those arrested in London came to Karachi in the last few months for explosives training with known al Qaeda commanders.

The terrorists had planned to use a peroxide-based liquid explosive, dyed red, to appear as a sports drink. A $10 disposable flash camera was to be used as the detonating device.

Pakistani officials have made as many as nine arrests, but the suspected ringleader remains at large. Pakistani officials say this 29-year old al Qaeda commander, Matiur Rehman, was known to be planning a terror spectacular to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/ll attacks, and some believe the London plot may have been it. 

ABC News consultant Alexis Debat, a terrorism expert at the Nixon Center in Washington D.C., says, "[Rehman] is the interface between al Qaeda's leadership and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Pakistani militants who are able to provide the muscle for al Qaeda's operations not only in Pakistan but around the world."

August 11, 2006 in U.K. Airline Terror Plot | Permalink | User Comments (36)

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The common theme I keep hearing is "pakastani". If we know this, why haven't we done mass scale raids to erradicate?

Posted by: ben | Aug 11, 2006 9:25:02 AM

"With at least five, and maybe more, suspects still at large, it is the missing plotters who are the greatest security concern. Among those still at large are some of the suspected ringleaders of the London plot."

We still won't be safe - although I do hope to catch these varmints; they're getting out of hand. THere's just too many out there and the ones that are caught...well...there will be more coming out of the ground.

Posted by: Chris Anderson | Aug 11, 2006 9:30:14 AM

Pakistan is holding out on the US. Why does it take a possible terrorist action to make Pakistan to hunt down on its terrorist cells?? Pakistan is obviously sheltering the likes of these people and will not do anything to them since they are paying cash to the government. Maybe we should look at this "alliance" a little closer and see what is really going on in Pakistan. I bet bin Laden is living in one of Musharuff's mansions and since the US is unwilling to go searching in Pakistan because they are our "allies" we will never find bin Laden. Our allies are allied with our enemies. Good choice USA!!!

Posted by: Mayur | Aug 11, 2006 9:43:40 AM

"George Bush does not care about black people." Well. he apparently cares about the brown ones. With all the focus on this war in Iraq have we the American people forgotten are original task, hunting down bin-laden, which is yet to be accomplished. Until we stop beating around the bush of al-quida and finally pull out of iraq the british bomb attempts and many others like it may just continue.

Posted by: Darin McClary | Aug 11, 2006 10:29:45 AM

Okay,

No disrespect to the media but when are we going to learn that broadcasting the contents of each ingredient in these bombs on the news makes it that much easier for other radical individuals to partake in this lunacy? I mean for real all you have to do to creat a terrorist is take away there means of support, and give them a religion that they can twist to there own accord.

Posted by: nicole | Aug 11, 2006 10:43:05 AM

its interesting that you guys report there are still people wanted in relation to this. The UK news and government have not mentioned this at all.

Posted by: Dan - UK | Aug 11, 2006 10:47:47 AM

The fear-mongering and grandstanding by the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee is a disgrace. The Chief of the Metropolitan Police in London has posted a memo --- to a more threatened population --- that is both realistic and reassuring, indicating that while we are under threat that it's best for people to stay calm and get on with their lives. Maybe the congressman and officials at Homeland Security should contemplate assuming that Americans have both character and good judgement.

Posted by: C.L. | Aug 11, 2006 11:03:15 AM

There are a lot of Pakistanis in Hamtramck, Michigan. Women there wear the head-to-toe abayah. It was the Al Isla mosque in Hamtramck that won the court battle to have the azan, call to prayer, broadcast 5 times per day from 6 am to 10 pm.

Posted by: Shaar Ryerson | Aug 11, 2006 11:15:39 AM

Mr Ross,,,Sir,,,What about investigate why the states with the wildfires are not calling on the (MAFFS)Modular Airborne Fire Fight System to put out the fires?
This is National Guard (ANG) and Air Force Reserve (AFR) in Cheyenne, Wy., Port Hueneme, Ca., Charlotte, NC, and Colorado Springs,Co.
Thank you Charles

Posted by: CHARLES | Aug 11, 2006 11:26:17 AM

I think the terrorist are nothing but cowards! They are no human beings or animals. They are monsters from another world. Just because they believe in killing people they need to kill their own people and leave us Americans alone. They are so weird. I would love to see alot of guard dogs attack those weird people. Well, that won't changed my mind in flying. I love to fly and I know God is taking care of America. No more bombs on planes, or anywhere else. I am not afraid and those idiots are not going to stop me from living and having fun while I am still alive.
God Bless America!

Posted by: Rachel Huebel | Aug 11, 2006 11:48:57 AM

This so-called "terror alert" is a diversion.....people are waking up to the lies of 9/11..new reports (books from the 9/11 commissioners, themselves) suggest lying about what really happened, FAA, NORAD, Cheney...next,..if we don't shut up about it...there will be "Martail Law" imposed along with these "new terror threats"

Posted by: Chabuka | Aug 11, 2006 11:50:48 AM

Oh, please! Liquid explosives set off by disposible flash cameras? What about detonators? You can't set off explosives without a detonzstor which in itself is an explosive device. Come on, now, lets be realistic.

Posted by: Bob Vine | Aug 11, 2006 11:54:58 AM

What a load of hogwash !!

Posted by: egggy | Aug 11, 2006 12:15:08 PM

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the lower Bush's poll numbers go, the more likely it is that yet another terror ring will be broken up... gee, whatever did happen to the Miami 7?

Posted by: Blondie | Aug 11, 2006 12:31:39 PM

Chabuka, gasoline vapor needs only a spark to ignite. This would make gasoline an explosive liquid which doesn't need a detonator, though techically, I would say that the vapor itself IS the detonator.

- the lorax

Posted by: loraxxarol | Aug 11, 2006 1:43:31 PM

We don't have the truth about 9/11, so why should we think this is true?

Posted by: Alphonse | Aug 11, 2006 1:48:30 PM

File under "things you should have learned in school but were too stoned or stupid to learn": An electrical spark (such as that used to pop a camera flash) is hot enough to ignite a volatile chemical. If it were not, your internal combustion car would not take you anywhere, as all the spark plug does is fire electrical sparks across a gap. If the fluid is volatile enough... boom!
To those of you paranoid Michael Moore wannabe troglodytes - just because you don't like the guy in charge does not mean there's a conspiracy. Where were you cats when the conspiracy theorists were having a field day with Vince Foster and Whitewater under the Clinton administration? Sometimes a coincidence is just that.
That said, this does not minimize the possibility that the current administration will milk this for all it's worth spin-wise, but that does not mean that it's his fault or that it's invented news.
The Islamofascists really ARE trying to kill you, me, and every freedom-loving person in the western world. This really is a war, it's simply being fought in the most unconventional way possible. While our civil rights need scrupulous protecting, there needs to be greater training and freedom for the covert intelligence agencies to do their jobs. If we want to win this war it will not happenon the "ground" with conventional military (witness Iraq) - it's going to take genuine cloak-and-dagger things-you-only-see-in-movies action.

Posted by: Johnson | Aug 11, 2006 1:58:08 PM

Please ignore the sensationalist headlines and wait to see what evidence comes out in court. I'm sure we'll find out once again that the "terrorists" are clueless and there's no real evidence.

Posted by: Jolly Roger | Aug 11, 2006 2:04:48 PM

What a great way to force oil prices to go down...make a monster-sized announcement about bombs on planes to scare everyone into not flying. Supply and Demand folks..Genius.

Posted by: Jay-KC | Aug 11, 2006 2:07:42 PM

2000 dead Iraqis taken to the central morgue in Baghdad. The US can't and won't protect the Iraqi population.

we have cut and run from Afganistan and we have cut and run from Iraq. Bring the troops home

Posted by: walter66 | Aug 11, 2006 2:13:14 PM

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