Bomb plot: What we know... and what we don't

[cal04]

What we know

1 Twenty-three young Muslims are being questioned about an alleged plot to blow up passenger airliners flying between Britain and the United States. They are aged between 17 and 35 and come from east London, Birmingham and High Wycombe. Most were named by the Treasury when it froze their assets. None has been charged.

(snip)
and what we still don't know

1 The exact nature of the alleged plot, including which chemicals were being used and how they would be detonated. Security sources believe nine or 10 planes would have been blown up in three phases, each by a suicide bomber on board. Other reports place the number of targets at between five and 12. There has been speculation the planes could have been blown up above the UK or the US to cause extra carnage on the ground; alternatively, they could have been destroyed above the Atlantic to make it more difficult for investigators to establish what happened. The most likely scenario, however, is that the bombers would have detonated their devices at roughly the same time regardless of their location. Police have said "items of interest" have been discovered in, or near, the suspects' homes. They have variously been reported to be martyrdom videos, a trigger device and bottles.

(snip)
4 What happened on Wednesday to accelerate the raids? Initially it appeared the alleged co-conspirators were believed to be about to board their target planes. But we now know that the arrest of Mr Rauf in Pakistan led the police to carry out the dawn arrests hours later for fear his detention could force the cell to take premature action. What is not clear is why he was arrested; it may have been a mistake by the Pakistani security services or he could have been picked up for a criminal arrest. Either way his arrest caused a crisis for the British police.


5 The extent of Tony Blair's knowledge. Downing Street had said Mr Blair did not know the raids would be launched on Wednesday night, so felt safe to fly to Barbados the day before. Why then did he believe the surveillance operation was sufficiently significant to brief George Bush about it the previous Sunday? And why have we barely seen John Prescott, who is meant to be charge of the Government in Mr Blair's absence?

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1219033.ece

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. I'll bet they are all released.

Except the ones with child porn on their PCs.

[seriousstan]

3. I accept your bet for a donation and a star from DU.

All we need to do is fill out the specifics. How about a 6 month time limit, if nobody is charged by then I will donate at the next drive and send the star to you. Are these terms acceptable?

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. You are on.

[seriousstan]

5. The date for closing is 2/13/07 9:17PM EST

The terms are that all 23 men will be released without charge by that date and time. Agreed? I have my hand out all you need to do is spit and shake.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. I've put you in the buddy list.

Child porn other unpaid traffic tickets don't count.

I don't think we will have to wait that long.

[seriousstan]

7. Agreed,

[bleever]

2. If you put "The Independent" in your post title, it might get

more looks, since it's a British paper and not just one (fine) DUers speculation.

Thanks.

[CJCRANE]

8. Seems like a regurgitated 'Bojinka' plot.

Remember before the '04 elections all those terror alerts about banks, bridges, hotels etc that turned uot to be from pre-9/11 intel?

Or the British Airways flight to Washington that kept being cancelled because the flight # was mentioned in some bit of old intel that kept being "reappraised"? (British Airways got p*ssed off in the end and simply changed the flight number).

They just recycle this stuff.