Brits Disrupt Major Terror Plot

“We are confident that we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction and, quite frankly, to commit mass murder,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson of the Metropolitan Police in a briefing yesterday. That is how these things are done, not by strength but by stealth.

Mr. Stephenson explained, “We believe that the terrorists’ aim was to smuggle explosives onto aeroplanes in hand luggage and to detonate these in mid-flight. We believe the target was flights [sic] between the United Kingdom and the United States of America. There are 21 people who remain in custody, but the operation is ongoing. We believe we have been very successful in arresting suspects, but this is a very early stage of a very extensive and complex operation. It is a very, very serious plot . . . Put simply, this was a plot to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale.” Well, imagine the Lockerbie bombing multiplied by 10 or 12. The body count would easily exceed that of the World Trade Center murders had the alleged plot succeeded.

The suspects were picked up in the wee hours of August 10, in London, Birmingham and High Wycombe (in Buckinghamshire, off the M40 west and north of London). There is no need to bomb these areas with bunker busting ordinance, nor is there any sense in rounding up entire neighborhoods for months of interrogation. Rather than rely on technical solutions to the issue, the British authorities used Sam Spade-like shoe leather and patience.

The Times reported, “The secret investigation into the plot has already lasted a year. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, the Met’s head of anti-terrorism, said that intensive surveillance had been carried out of the meetings, movements, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people, both in Britain and abroad.” The case offers a test of just how much freedom the citizenry must surrender to fight these wankers. One suspects there were several things that Mr. Blair might want to have done that will turn out to have been unnecessary.

The extraordinary thing about this victory (and that is what it is) is its public nature. It might be overly poetic to call this kind of operation a “shadow war,” but it isn’t particularly well lit by the spotlight of public attention. Terrorism can only operate with surprise, counter-terrorism equally so. Consequently, the victories for civilization are usually unreported, while the barbarians’ are on the front page in 144-point type. Not this time, though. This time, the good guys won in broad daylight, and the world was reminded that everybody is on the frontlines.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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