Thread: Terror cell 'was planning nerve gas attack on capital'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... w_04062006

Terror cell 'was planning nerve gas attack on capital'
By Andrew Alderson, Sean Rayment and Patrick Hennessy
(Filed: 04/06/2006)
Your view: should police be allowed to shoot terror suspects?
Terrorists were planning a chemical attack in London similar to the outrage on the Tokyo underground, according to police and the security services.
MI5 operatives suspect that al-Qa'eda sympathisers intended to produce a nerve agent - probably sarin - and release it in a confined space, such as a tube carriage, to maximise the number of casualties.
The sarin attack on three railway lines in the Japanese capital killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000 in March 1995. It was the world's first major chemical attack and used sarin, a nerve agent which attacks the respiratory system.
Security sources suspect that a new atrocity was planned on or close to the anniversary of the July 7 attacks on London, when four terrorists killed themselves and 52 others, and injured more than 700 people. This would have provided a rallying call to al-Qa'eda sympathisers to carry on their "jihad" - or holy war - against the West.
Officers were last night continuing to question two men after a raid on a house in Forest Gate, east London. The men arrested are brothers: Mohammed Abul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 20. Both deny any offences.
The elder brother was shot in the shoulder during a police raid at 4am on Friday. He was later arrested under the Terrorism Act after being treated for the gunshot wound in the Royal London Hospital, where he is still recovering.
Senior police sources said they were searching for an "improvised device rather than a sophisticated weapon" capable of releasing chemicals. The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that intelligence obtained by MI5 suggested that terrorists were trying to acquire material via the internet which could be used to develop a nerve gas capable of killing and injuring thousands of people.
Security sources say that the terrorist threat facing Britain has developed into a "covert conspiracy" involving hundreds of men and women living ordinary lives in the nation's suburbs. They form an estimated 1,200 strong "army" of terrorists believed to be involved in at least 20 major terrorist plots.
Scotland Yard and MI5 sources were playing down reports in the media yesterday that they were looking for a "chemical vest", which could be used by a suicide bomber. The wearer would suffer a long and painful death.
Detectives believe it is more likely that sarin or an alternative nerve agent would be released from a canister or flask.
Forensic experts are expected to spend several days at the house of the British born Muslims, who live with their parents.
A team from Porton Down in Wiltshire, the Government research establishment that specialises in chemical and biological agents, is looking for evidence of a so-called "viable weapon" or traces of it.
Police were granted warrants of further detention for the two brothers following a hearing at Bow Street Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon.
The warrants allow them to be detained and questioned until Wednesday.
The raid on the Victorian terraced house involved more than 300 officers and was the largest anti-terrorist operation of the year.
It followed weeks of surveillance based on "specific" intelligence.

Frightning. If the beliefs hold strong from one generation to the next....like it has here. It's hard to beleive those that refuse to assimilate aren't a threat.

I always understood that when you become an American you must PLEDGE YOUR ALLEGIENCE to this country and swear and say "I Do". Has that changed??? The ones who don't pledge allegience must get the hell out! With dough-brained leaders like Kennedy and McCain we would be dead in the water without our inalienable rights. Our inalienable rights, that is not civil rights. Our civil rights have been given to uncivilized people. The inalienable rights of Americans are not transferable to illegal invaders. The inalienable rights of Americans cannot be taken away.