[Recap] By now almost everyone knows about the failed terror plot in London where two car bombs were unsuccessfully used to try to kill innocent people at the end of June, for those that have not heard about it, we covered it here and here.
Related to that we showed that al-qaeda also has announced that they plan some "spectacular summer fun" for the West and in that same piece we found that they have also placed a bomb making manual on the internet and just yesterday the news came out that the Europeans are making it a criminal offense to have information like that on the net. [End Recap]
Now that we are caught up, todays news brings us more.
Lets start with why the bombs failed. An ABC exclusive has the answer to that in a disturbing article.
The London bomb plot allegedly planned by a cell of doctors failed early last Friday morning because a medical syringe used as part of the firing mechanism caused a malfunction, ABC News has learned.
According to nonclassified documents reviewed by ABC News, and confirmed by multiple sources, both mobile telephones initiated firing mechanisms rigged inside a Mercedes E 300 parked several yards from the front door of Tiger Tiger nightclub failed despite multiple calls to the cell phones designed to remotely trigger the devices.
Had the fuel-air bombs successfully ignited into a superhot fireball filled with roofing nails, casualties were almost a certainty among the 500 or so patrons who partied late at the 1,700-person occupancy nightclub that perhaps best symbolizes London's vital nightlife scene.
Instead, at about 1:42 a.m., a vigilant ambulance crew on an unrelated call spotted a plume of cold propane from a slightly opened window of the car that contained patio fuel cylinders in the foot wells behind the driver and passenger seats, ABC sources said. When a bomb technician in a 90-pound Kevlar suit walked down to the vehicle to examine it, he also found a firing system rigged inside the car and another inside its trunk along with four jugs of gasoline. The technician successfully disarmed the devices..
A second Mercedes rigged with a similar incendiary device was parked several hundred yards away. Several experts on improvised explosives tactics suggested that the second device might have either been meant for patrons who escaped the first or to target rescue workers.
Within 14 hours after the plot failed, the same two men believed to have planted the bombs in London attempted what appears to have been a suicide incendiary attack on the doors to a terminal at Scotland's Glasgow Airport. That attack failed too. The vehicle failed to reach the doors, and its contents failed to ignite even after one of the occupants tried to douse the car in gasoline, setting himself on fire in the process.
You can read the rest of that article on page two found here.
More disturbing is the fact that an al-Qaeda leader in Iraq bragged a couple of months ago that there would be an attack in the UK and "those that cure you will kill you".
In a chilling foreshadowing of last weekend's terror plot in London and Glasgow, in which doctors played significant roles, a senior British cleric based in Iraq has told a British newspaper of a chance encounter he had with an al-Qaeda leader.
"He talked to me about how they were going to destroy British and Americans," Canon Andrew White, who runs the only Anglican parish in Baghdad, told The Times.
"He told me that the plans were already made and they would soon be destroying the British.
"He said the people who cure you would kill you."
Canon White passed on the general warning, but not the precise words, to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in mid-April, the paper reported.
The British PM, trying to close the barn door after a few animals have already escaped, is now cracking down on Foreign Medics.
Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government will expand checks on immigrants taking skilled jobs and review recruiting for the National Health Service, which employed all eight suspects in last week's foiled terror plots.
I used the word disturbing before and things just get more disturbing as we move along to see that 45 Muslim Doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site.
Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong "cyber-terrorist" gang.
They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London heard.
One message read: "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.
"The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy." This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.
The message discussed targets at the base, adding: "These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units."
It also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.
Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
However, sources said it was "definitely spooky" that the use of doctors for terrorist purposes was being discussed in jihadi terrorist circles up to three years ago.
There is more to that story too if you want to head over and finish the article but I saved the most disturbing for last.
Hat Tip to Captain's Quarters for pointing us to this, where we see that radioactive devices have been disappearing in Canada for a while now.
Radioactive devices -- some of which have the potential to be used in terrorist attacks -- have gone missing in alarming numbers in Canada over the past five years.
A new database compiled by The Canadian Press shows that the devices, which are used in everything from medical research to measuring oil wells, are becoming a favoured target of thieves.
At least 76 have gone missing in Canada over the past five years -- disappearing from construction sites, specialized tool boxes, and generally growing legs and walking away.
Some of the devices could be used in a "dirty bomb," where conventional explosives are used to detonate nuclear material, spreading the contamination over a wide area, said Alan Bell, a security and international terrorism expert from Globe Risk Security Holdings.
He told CTV Newsnet on Thursday that the problem isn't new, but it has gained new attention as a result of the CP report.
"It's come to the fore over the last couple of days but it has always been there. We've had this problem. It's only a matter of time before terrorists use a dirty bomb process to attack the world," Bell said.
The database compiled by CP tracks the rate at which the devices have gone missing in recent years.
It points to dozens of cases where hazardous materials have gone missing, been stolen or lost in a variety of mishaps.
Of the 76, 35 were stolen, three others were found in a ditch beside a road, in a dump and in a farmer's field.
Dozens were still unaccounted for at last count.
But remember, according to the likes of John Edwards, there IS no Global War on Terror, thats just a bumper sticker. People don't want to kill us, nahhhhhhhh.
These video tapes from Ayman al-Zawahri, (the latest one on July 4th, 2007) are just a figment of the worlds imagination, move right along, nothing to see here folks.... after all, John Edwards says so!!!!!!!!
[Update] Wapo has a related article about terrorist using crude, homemade bombs to cause damage, in a 3 page article.
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Thanks Spree for posting this information. It's frightening. It's real. And the left just cxan't deal with too much reality!
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