By Monday, British police said they had made seven arrests that were connected to the attacks and Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC in an interview that it was “clear that we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with Al Qaeda.” Brown added: “It’s obvious that we have a group of people—not just in this country, but round the world—who are 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 are to be.” On Saturday, a vehicle that crashed into Scotland’s largest airport was linked to two car bombs found the previous day in London. One of two men in the car was in critical condition at a hospital suffering from severe burns while the other man was in police custody, said Police Chief Constable Willie Rae. Rae said a “suspect device” was found on the alleged terrorist at the hospital, and it was taken to a safe location where it was being investigated.
The two suspects arrested in Scotland rammed a flaming Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal of Glasgow airport, some 400 miles north of London, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance, witnesses said. There were no reports of injuries, but the airport was evacuated and all flights suspended. Hundreds fled screaming from the terminal as one of the men poured gasoline over the Jeep and tried to force it further inside the terminal, one witness said.
On Friday, British police thwarted a plot to bomb central London, discovering two cars abandoned with loads of gasoline, gas canisters, and nails. Police defused the explosives in both vehicles.
Hours after the Glasgow attack, Britain raised its security alert to “critical”—the highest level possible and an indication that terrorist attacks are imminent. “One has to conclude … these are linked,” Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of Britain’s joint intelligence committee, told Sky News. “This is a very young government, and we may yet see further attacks.” Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, who took office only Wednesday, was being briefed on developments by his officials.
In the United States, law-enforcement agencies have increased security precautions in response to the British incidents.
U.S. and European counterterror officials during the past several weeks have become increasingly anxious about the possibility that terror plots are in the works against U.S. or European targets. One senior German counterterror official said at a press conference last week that he saw parallels between what counterterror officials were seeing in intelligence reporting today and the kind of intelligence reporting authorities saw in the months before the September 11 attacks. U.S. officials have expressed particular concern about indications of possible terror plotting or machinations in tribal areas along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border—the region where Osama bin Laden and whatever else remains of the Al Qaeda high command are believed to be hiding out.
In a statement issued Saturday afternoon, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that the Feds would be stepping up security precautions across the U.S. transportation system. “At this point, I have seen no specific, credible information suggesting that this latest incident is connected to a threat to the homeland, " Chertoff said. He added: " We have no plans at this time to change the national threat level, although we remind everyone that the aviation threat level has been raised to orange since last fall. However, in an abundance of caution during this holiday period, DHS will be implementing plans to increase our security measures at U.S. airports, mass transit, and other transportation facilities. Some of these measures will be visible; others will not. As always, airline passengers should arrive at the airport with sufficient time for security clearance.”
A law-enforcement official said New York Police Department had gone to heightened security measures at New York City airports in connection with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the facilities. NYPD is also stepping up patrols in the subway system, theater district, Times Square, and around some nightclubs. The official said that there was no information or intelligence about any specific threat to New York but added that officials were nonetheless concerned about the kind of havoc that car bombs of any kind can wreak in crowded city venues.
Officials in the United States and Britain said that initial investigations suggest there may be some similarities between the type of homemade but large-scale car bomb discovered in Piccadilly Circus and car-bomb blueprints outlined in materials seized from a now-convicted U.K.-based Al Qaeda operative named Dhiren Barot. Before 9/11, Barot, also known as Esa al-Hindi or Issa al-Britani, visited the United States on the instructions of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to conduct surveillance for possible attacks on prominent financial buildings in New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Evidence collected by authorities indicated that Barot had explored various elaborate plans for blowing up U.S. financial targets, including driving limos into the basements of buildings and then detonating the vehicles.
A counter-terrorism official said that the leading theory about who is behind the London and Glasgow attacks is a cell of British-born Islamic militants with ties to Pakistan, and, conceivably, the remnants of the Al Qaeda high command. Officials stressed, however, that at this point in the investigation this is only one of many theories and that there is insufficient evidence and intelligence to validate any theory.
Counterterrorism officials in the United States and the United Kingdom said that Scotland Yard has already begun scouring the country for specific suspects, though the number sought is unclear. One official said that investigators in London had a picture, apparently from one of Britain’s ubiquitous CCTV security cameras, of the two Mercedes used in the London bombings parked next to each other, a potential clue to where and how the failed London attacks were prepared and staged.
Some investigators have note that some sophisticated planning almost certainly went into the attacks: the booby-trapped Mercedes parked outside the Tiger Tiger club near Piccadilly Circus was parked in a legal parking zone, a rarity in a traffic-clogged district where parking is mostly banned. This suggests the bombers conducted advance reconnaissance on their target. The lucky fact that neither London bomb exploded suggests, however, that there were limits to the plotters’ skills.
