Posted by
Team Turk on Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:38:09 PM
From United Press International:
A foiled British terror plot to blow up 10 passenger aircraft with liquid bombs was meant to occur over U.S. cities, a senior FBI official says.
Mark Mershon, head of the FBI's New York field office, made the observation at the Infosecurity 2006 conference in New York on Oct. 24. The conference was reported on this week by Government Security News.
"The plan was bring them down over U.S. cities, not over the ocean," Mershon said, adding the plotters' goal was to maximize damage and loss of life.
On Aug. 10, British police and the MI5 domestic security service conducted raids in which 25 people were arrested and charged with conspiring to mix liquid bombs from common chemicals taken aboard in carry-on baggage on non-stop Britain-U.S. flights.
U.S. intelligence officials had originally thought the plan was for the suicide bombers to strike while the aircraft were over the Atlantic Ocean, The New York Times said.