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Airline Plot Demonstrates Al-Qaeda’s Tenacity
A plan to destroy up to 10 airliners, foiled this week by British authorities, indicates that the al-Qaeda terrorist network has managed to adapt and survive through the five-year U.S.-led crackdown begun after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to U.S. intelligence officials (see GSN, Aug. 10). The nature of the plot — including visits to Pakistan by the suspected would-be bombers and plans to attack multiple targets simultaneously — is similar to earlier al-Qaeda operations, the Washington Post reported. Also, the plan echoes a similar plot abandoned by al-Qaeda in 1995 to blow up 11 airliners over the Pacific Ocean, according to the Post (Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, Aug. 11). British authorities arrested 24 individuals Wednesday night suspected of plotting to use liquid explosives to fashion bombs they would detonate on airliners flying between the United Kingdom and the United States. Five individuals remain at large, according to a senior U.S. official, prompting airport security officials to ban passengers from carrying any liquids or gels onto their aircraft (Bennett/Waller, TIME, Aug. 10). In addition, Pakistani officials have arrested seven people, including two British citizens last week and five Pakistanis, suspected as serving as local “facilitators” for the British suspects, according to a senior Pakistani official (Associated Press/USA Today, Aug. 11). The bombing plot had reached an advanced stage that triggered action by British officials, who had been monitoring the suspects with U.S. help for several months, according to TIME. The plot was “very near execution,” but not imminent, said U.S. Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson. “We didn’t pull people off of airplanes” (TIME). Details of the disrupted plan demonstrate that al-Qaeda methods have evolved to operate in the current security situation, said one official. “The enemy, as the military is fond of saying, is both thinking and adaptable,” the official said. “They’ve gone through a thorough process, given the increase of security that we’ve done on flying planes, of thinking, ‘Is there a way we can still get on board and take airplanes down?’ … This is an extremely talented, thinking group.” While al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, may no longer direct operational control over terrorist operations, they continue to provide vision and motivation, the Post reported. U.S. and other intelligence agencies have said bin Laden gives “inspiration” to “radicalized” Muslim youth who are spurred by Islamic conflict in the Middle East. The war in Iraq has served as the best tool to recruit Islamic militants, according to U.S. intelligence officials (DeYoung, Washington Post).
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