That was a close one!

I am so glad that I am not flying on September 16:

Terrorists were planning to unleash a series of deadly mid-air explosions on flights between London and America on August 16, it has been revealed today.

Members of the terror group, who were arrested in a series of raids by anti-terror police yesterday, were due to mount a dry run today to check if they could smuggle components for liquid explosives through Britain's airports.

United Airline tickets dated next Wednesday were found by police at the home of one of the raided addresses.
[...]
U.S. officials said as many as 10 planes might have been struck. Transatlantic jumbo jet flights usually carry more than 300 people, suggesting a death toll in the thousands.

Read the rest here. (Link via Drudge Report)

Especially since they haven't caught them all:

Five of the suspected London terrorists are still at large and are being urgently hunted, according to U.S. sources who have been briefed on the airplane bombing plot.

Officials tell ABC News 24 people now have been taken into custody. Twenty-two are believed to be of Pakistani descent. One is Bangladeshi, and another is of Iranian descent, according to the officials.

And the ring leader:

There were several arrests also made in Pakistan today in connection with the case, 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. The London plot may well 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."

And this is really scary:

CBS News confirmed that one of the arrested men was a Heathrow Airport worker taken from his home by police in his airport uniform. Also, four arrests were made in Pakistan in recent days, two of them "very important," according to officials.

A woman with a six year old was involved in the plot:

Imtiaz Qadir, of the Waltham Forest Islamic Association, said one of the suspects was a woman in her 20s who had a 6-month old child. "They have taken the child too, because it needs to be with its mother."

American airlines were targeted:

US officials, speaking under condition of anonymity, have told reporters that United Airlines, Continental Airlines and American Airlines were specifically targeted

They found a “martyrdom video”

A “martyrdom video”, apparently recorded by a would-be suicide bomber, was found at one of the raided addresses, government sources said.

This all means beefed up security:

Beginning on Friday, security screening of carry-on items will expand significantly from levels imposed at two dozen cities on Thursday, Jim May, chief executive of the Air Transport Association, said at a news conference.

Authorities have banned travelers from carrying liquids and other gel-based products such as toothpaste and makeup onto planes. Those items are permitted in checked luggage.

Here's something interesting:

A similar threat in January 1995 led officials in the Philippines to briefly ban aerosol sprays, bottled gels and liquid containers of more than about an ounce from departing planes because of a suspected terror plot during a visit by Pope John Paul II. As in the current situation an exception was made for baby formula, even though in powdered form it could easily disguise explosives.

The Philippines plot was masterminded by Ramzi Youssef, now serving a life sentence for the first World Trade Center attack. He planned to assemble bombs using a nitroglycerin-based liquid explosive disguised as contact lens solution. The bombers were to use digital watches as timed detonators and leave the devices on board after leaving the flights during layovers.

The plot was foiled with an explosion from the Manila apartment where Youssef was doing experiments.

"The need to address this liquid explosives problem is over 10 years old," U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., complained in a statement issued Thursday that called for improved airport security screening.

Nitroglycerin and similar explosives have become much harder to slip by aiport security today than they were a decade ago thanks to "sniffer" machines that can detect trace amounts of explosives residue on luggage and passengers.

Partly for that reason, terrorists have increasingly turned to peroxide-based explosives such as TATP, which was used in last year's London subway bombings. Production of the explosive has been perfected over the past several decades by Palestinian bomb-makers who produce it using bleach, drain cleaner and acetone paint thinner.

Our enemy is brilliant, well-informed and determined to hit us again. We need to be just as determined not to be hit.

And it appears that we are:

It all began with a tip: In the aftermath of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on London's transit system, British authorities received a call from a worried member of the Muslim community, reporting general suspicions about an acquaintance.

From that vague but vital piece of information, according to a senior European intelligence official, British authorities opened the investigation into what they said turned out to be a well-coordinated and long-planned plot to bomb multiple transatlantic flights heading toward the United States -- an assault designed to rival the scope and lethality of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings.

By late 2005, the probe had expanded to involve several hundred investigators on three continents. They kept dozens of suspects under close surveillance for months, even as some of the plotters traveled between Britain and Pakistan to raise money, find recruits and refine their scheme, according to interviews with U.S. and European counterterrorism officials.

[...]

British and U.S. law enforcement authorities decided against breaking up the cells right away in the hope that they could learn more about the origins of the network and assemble evidence for prosecutors.

Some U.S. counterterrorism officials said plans originally were to allow the conspiracy to develop even further. But U.S. and British investigators made a sudden decision this week to close down the operation after they became increasingly worried that there were other bombers they had been unable to locate or identify, U.S. officials said.

British Home Secretary John Reid said that "the police are confident that the main players have been accounted for" and are in custody. But U.S. and European authorities said the widespread ban on carrying liquids onto flights was imposed because investigators were worried more conspirators could be at large.

(Link via Drudge Report)