London bomb plot update
Our apologies to readers for not jumping on this story today. We had a little housekeeping left to do on immigration, and a column to write. So while the e-mails roundly and rightly handed out the lashes for not being there, the apology has been made, and we will commence with an update on the newest information released. For any older news, or to back check any of this story, head on over to Hot Air, and Allah has the rundown from the morning's news. He also has an update post right here which is where the following informatiuon is coming from.
First off, the second car wasn't found in Park Lane. It was found in Trafalgar Square, and was towed because it was parked illegally. Over at ABC's Blotter, there's a lead on a suspect:
British police have a "crystal clear" picture of the man who drove the bomb-rigged silver Mercedes outside a London nightclub, and officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com he bears "a close resemblance" to a man arrested by police in connection with another bomb plot but released for lack of evidence.
Officials say the suspect had been taken into custody in connection with the case of al Qaeda operative Dhiren Barot (pictured), who was convicted of orchestrating a vehicle bomb plot involving targets in London, New York, Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C.
Officials say a surveillance camera caught the suspect "staggering from the Mercedes" shortly after parking it outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub.
I bet the Brits wish they had kept this guy in custody. MSNBC got a scopp of it's own with the announcement that police were looking for three men from Birmingham:
British authorities were seeking three men Friday after police defused two car bombs that they said could have killed hundreds of people had a cell-phone trigger not failed.
The three men have been identified and are believed to be from the Birmingham area, a center of radical Islamic unrest in Britain, U.S. officials who had been briefed on the developments told NBC News.
As Allah notesthis ain't the first time radiucals from Birmingham made the news. Oh, and MSNBC confirms the initial thoughts from experts in the field of explosives. This was a fuel-air bomb:
Authorities believe it was intended to be set off by remote control by a cell phone found inside. The cell phone had received at least two calls, which should have detonated several gallons of gasoline, but when the calls came in, the bomb failed to go off, the official said.
Had it done so, that blast then would have ignited six to eight tanks of propane in a mist to make a fuel-air explosion, creating a fireball the size of a small house and propelling 18 to 20 boxes of roofing nails around a large area at bullet speed, counterterrorism officials said.
Clarke told reporters that the second car was similarly laden with gasoline, propane and nails. It was parked illegally nearby, ticketed and towed about 3:30 a.m., he said.
U.S. officials told NBC that the devices resembled the highly explosive car bombs that had been seen in Iraq but not, until now, in the West.
Sick little animals, aren't they? And given the last observation, is it to early too assume some of the recent graduates of Jihadi High might have made their way to Britain quickly to launch this attack. I only raise the question because a lot of bloggers noted that this was an important week in the UK. Gordon Brown was just installed as the new PM there. Patrick Ruffini makes an observation that I'm sure isn't lost on anyone:
I'm sure this has already been remarked upon in the coverage of the London carbomb plot, but there's an eerie parallel between today and the 7/7 attacks. Today was the first week of Gordon Brown's premiership. 7/7 was the first day of the Gleneagles G8 summit. They seem to have a habit of planning to strike when Britain is in the headlines around the world.
The good news, according to the Blotter, is that the mixture was wrong, and might not have detonated in the right fashion. Call it a bullet that was dodged, and no one should think that because the animals were incompetent this time that it'll hold true all the time. Remember, they only need to succeed once while the West must be right 100% of the time.
The Times Online notes that authorities had warned nightclubs two weeks ago to be wary of a possible attack. What's even more sinister about the plot was this little nugget in the Times piece:
One car, a pale green Mercedes, had been left outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket. A second, a blue Mercedes, was left a few hundred yards away in Cockspur Street, a busy thoroughfare close to Trafalgar Square. This vehicle was towed away at 3:30am on Friday to an car pound on Park Lane by unsuspecting parking officials.
Had either device gone off it would have generated a huge fireball and a shockwave spreading over 400 yards in all directions. If, as suspected, one had been primed to detonate before the other, people fleeing the first blast could have been caught by the second.
Like I said, sick little animals. We've seen tactics like this from the Palistinians in Israel where they'll detonate suicide bombers or car bombs once emergency services arrive to inflict maximum damage on the area and populace. Had they gone off, hundreds could have been killed.
We've already seen the Left's reaction to this. They're yawning. Dean Barnett earlier tonight on Hugh Hewitt's show was sent to DailyKos where a nutter there basically said this whole plot was BS. It's nice to to know this guy was a former analyst for the CIA, and isn't currently there. Just to let readers know, I have been in contact with a couple of our intel sources, and they said they'd send us anything they can dig up about this plot, but they believe that the heightened state that the UK is in right now will dissuade any further plots in the immediate future. We'll see.
Publius II
First off, the second car wasn't found in Park Lane. It was found in Trafalgar Square, and was towed because it was parked illegally. Over at ABC's Blotter, there's a lead on a suspect:
British police have a "crystal clear" picture of the man who drove the bomb-rigged silver Mercedes outside a London nightclub, and officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com he bears "a close resemblance" to a man arrested by police in connection with another bomb plot but released for lack of evidence.
Officials say the suspect had been taken into custody in connection with the case of al Qaeda operative Dhiren Barot (pictured), who was convicted of orchestrating a vehicle bomb plot involving targets in London, New York, Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C.
Officials say a surveillance camera caught the suspect "staggering from the Mercedes" shortly after parking it outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub.
I bet the Brits wish they had kept this guy in custody. MSNBC got a scopp of it's own with the announcement that police were looking for three men from Birmingham:
British authorities were seeking three men Friday after police defused two car bombs that they said could have killed hundreds of people had a cell-phone trigger not failed.
The three men have been identified and are believed to be from the Birmingham area, a center of radical Islamic unrest in Britain, U.S. officials who had been briefed on the developments told NBC News.
As Allah notesthis ain't the first time radiucals from Birmingham made the news. Oh, and MSNBC confirms the initial thoughts from experts in the field of explosives. This was a fuel-air bomb:
Authorities believe it was intended to be set off by remote control by a cell phone found inside. The cell phone had received at least two calls, which should have detonated several gallons of gasoline, but when the calls came in, the bomb failed to go off, the official said.
Had it done so, that blast then would have ignited six to eight tanks of propane in a mist to make a fuel-air explosion, creating a fireball the size of a small house and propelling 18 to 20 boxes of roofing nails around a large area at bullet speed, counterterrorism officials said.
Clarke told reporters that the second car was similarly laden with gasoline, propane and nails. It was parked illegally nearby, ticketed and towed about 3:30 a.m., he said.
U.S. officials told NBC that the devices resembled the highly explosive car bombs that had been seen in Iraq but not, until now, in the West.
Sick little animals, aren't they? And given the last observation, is it to early too assume some of the recent graduates of Jihadi High might have made their way to Britain quickly to launch this attack. I only raise the question because a lot of bloggers noted that this was an important week in the UK. Gordon Brown was just installed as the new PM there. Patrick Ruffini makes an observation that I'm sure isn't lost on anyone:
I'm sure this has already been remarked upon in the coverage of the London carbomb plot, but there's an eerie parallel between today and the 7/7 attacks. Today was the first week of Gordon Brown's premiership. 7/7 was the first day of the Gleneagles G8 summit. They seem to have a habit of planning to strike when Britain is in the headlines around the world.
The good news, according to the Blotter, is that the mixture was wrong, and might not have detonated in the right fashion. Call it a bullet that was dodged, and no one should think that because the animals were incompetent this time that it'll hold true all the time. Remember, they only need to succeed once while the West must be right 100% of the time.
The Times Online notes that authorities had warned nightclubs two weeks ago to be wary of a possible attack. What's even more sinister about the plot was this little nugget in the Times piece:
One car, a pale green Mercedes, had been left outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket. A second, a blue Mercedes, was left a few hundred yards away in Cockspur Street, a busy thoroughfare close to Trafalgar Square. This vehicle was towed away at 3:30am on Friday to an car pound on Park Lane by unsuspecting parking officials.
Had either device gone off it would have generated a huge fireball and a shockwave spreading over 400 yards in all directions. If, as suspected, one had been primed to detonate before the other, people fleeing the first blast could have been caught by the second.
Like I said, sick little animals. We've seen tactics like this from the Palistinians in Israel where they'll detonate suicide bombers or car bombs once emergency services arrive to inflict maximum damage on the area and populace. Had they gone off, hundreds could have been killed.
We've already seen the Left's reaction to this. They're yawning. Dean Barnett earlier tonight on Hugh Hewitt's show was sent to DailyKos where a nutter there basically said this whole plot was BS. It's nice to to know this guy was a former analyst for the CIA, and isn't currently there. Just to let readers know, I have been in contact with a couple of our intel sources, and they said they'd send us anything they can dig up about this plot, but they believe that the heightened state that the UK is in right now will dissuade any further plots in the immediate future. We'll see.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 4:02 AM
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