US Political Pressure "'Allowed Terror Gang to Escape'", British Press Reports

The UK's Independent newspaper is reporting today that political pressure from the United States caused British officials to act prematurely to stop the alleged Trans-Atlantic airliner bombing plot and this untimely move allowed a second group of plotters to slip away.  The Independent writes:

An investigation by MI5 and Scotland Yard into an alleged plan to smuggle explosive devices on up to 10 passenger jets was jeopardised in August, when the US put pressure on authorities in Pakistan to arrest a suspect allegedly linked to the airliner plot.

As a direct result of the surprise detention of the suspect, British police and MI5 were forced to rush forward plans to arrest an alleged UK gang accused of plotting to destroy the airliners. But a second group of suspected terrorists allegedly linked to the first evaded capture....

The Independent does not speculate as to the motives behind the US pressure on Pakistan to arrest the British citizen with ties to the plot.  Other non-political factors might have played into this US request and it could be a mere coincidence that the timing corresponded with the kickoff of Karl Rove's vote-Republican-or-die campaign strategy.

Perhaps.

The second at-large group was believed to be the primary reason that the UK's terror alert was maintained at the highest level for three days after the arrests so that authorities had enough time to determine whether or not the plotters had the capacity to carry out the plan.

Whether anyone would have the capability to smuggle liquids onto an airplane and successfully mix the delicate cocktail without blowing themselves up first is something that has troubled me since the August 10 announcement of the plot.  Liquid explosives are highly unstable, even in the right hands with the right equipment and crafting a high-velocity explosion with them in far more complicated than splashing two stable liquids together in an airplane lavatory.  The British tech magazine The Register ran a piece delightfully illustrating these challenges:

Once the plane is over the ocean, very discreetly bring all of your gear into the toilet. You might need to make several trips to avoid drawing attention. Once your kit is in place, put a beaker containing the ...mixture into the ice water bath (Champagne bucket), and start adding ...drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Watch the reaction temperature carefully. The mixture will heat, and if it gets too hot, you'll end up with a weak explosive. In fact, if it gets really hot, you'll get a premature explosion possibly sufficient to kill you, but probably no one else. After a few hours - assuming, by some miracle, that the fumes haven't overcome you or alerted passengers or the flight crew to your activities - you'll have a quantity of TATP with which to carry out your mission. Now all you need to do is dry it for an hour or two.

There are easier, more practical ways to wreck havoc and kill everyone on an airplane and for obvious reasons, I won't elaborate, but given the details of the how-to piece in the Register, maybe it someday will.  Hopefully, the terrorists will miss that issue, because the second group  of plotters remains at large.

Comments

[Nik]

"Liquid explosives are highly unstable"

Erm, no they're not. TATP may be but there are alternatives. Check out Fixor for example...

[R J Hillhouse]

Thanks, Nik. I should've written "homemade liquid explosives" are highly unstable--that seems to be what the plots were focusing upon, fortunately.

Fixor is much more difficult to obtain than some rather common household chemicals and it would require a detonation cap which would place it at greater risk for detection. My understanding is also that it is a flammable liquid and does have odor, making it much harder to slip through security.

I would be very surprised if the manufacturer didn't build in to the formula some way to detect it. I'm going off an old memory here, but seems like manufacturers of C-4 added a scent that could be more easily picked up just as they added taggant for easier identification of the origin.

Now that doesn't mean I have any faith in airport security actually detecting something that is detectable and then stopping it. (They're so used to clearing false positives.) As a former smuggler, TSA security pales in comparison to the old commie border checks and it was very possible to move things through there.

Best advice: only fly in and out of Tel Aviv.

Personally, I'm much more worried about accidents in a rental car at my destination. We're all much more likely to die this way.