OMEN
08-11-2006, 11:43 AM
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BOTTLE DROP: A security official collects soft drink bottles and other plastic containers from passengers at a Chicago airport after they were banned following an increased terror alert on international flights
WASHINGTON: The plot foiled by Britain to blow up US-bound flights would have been a disaster on the same scale as the September 11 attacks that killed almost 3000 people, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
The suspected plotters were "a couple days from a test, and a few days from doing it," according to a US intelligence official. Chertoff said the plan would have involved coordinated multiple suicide bombings.
President George W Bush tightened airline security and said the plot was a "stark reminder" the United States was "at war with Islamic fascists".
"If these plotters had succeeded in taking down multiple jets carrying hundreds of people, we would have seen a disaster on a scale comparable to 9/11 with hundreds and maybe thousands of people being killed," Chertoff said in an interview on PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.
He said al Qaeda might have been involved, that the United States was in a race against "terrorist ingenuity" and that the sophisticated plot was "in the top level of the kind of terrorist activities we've seen over the past 10 years."
About 10 transatlantic flights were targeted, including those of US and British airlines but possibly others as well, an intelligence official said.
ABC News reported that the plot included concealing explosive gel or liquid in a sports drink and detonating it with the flash from a disposable camera.
Bush said the United States was safer than before the September 11 attacks but that it would be a mistake to believe there was no longer a threat. Bush launched a global war on terrorism after the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington.
Faced with public discontent over the three-year-old war in Iraq, he often tells Americans the threat remains.
Reuters
BOTTLE DROP: A security official collects soft drink bottles and other plastic containers from passengers at a Chicago airport after they were banned following an increased terror alert on international flights
WASHINGTON: The plot foiled by Britain to blow up US-bound flights would have been a disaster on the same scale as the September 11 attacks that killed almost 3000 people, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
The suspected plotters were "a couple days from a test, and a few days from doing it," according to a US intelligence official. Chertoff said the plan would have involved coordinated multiple suicide bombings.
President George W Bush tightened airline security and said the plot was a "stark reminder" the United States was "at war with Islamic fascists".
"If these plotters had succeeded in taking down multiple jets carrying hundreds of people, we would have seen a disaster on a scale comparable to 9/11 with hundreds and maybe thousands of people being killed," Chertoff said in an interview on PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.
He said al Qaeda might have been involved, that the United States was in a race against "terrorist ingenuity" and that the sophisticated plot was "in the top level of the kind of terrorist activities we've seen over the past 10 years."
About 10 transatlantic flights were targeted, including those of US and British airlines but possibly others as well, an intelligence official said.
ABC News reported that the plot included concealing explosive gel or liquid in a sports drink and detonating it with the flash from a disposable camera.
Bush said the United States was safer than before the September 11 attacks but that it would be a mistake to believe there was no longer a threat. Bush launched a global war on terrorism after the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington.
Faced with public discontent over the three-year-old war in Iraq, he often tells Americans the threat remains.
Reuters