Britain Probes Terror Cells Involving Islamic Students

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LONDON — More than 70 anti-terrorist investigations involving more than 100 suspected Islamic extremists are under way in Britain in an operation unmatched even at the height of the Irish Republican Army’s mainland campaign.

The home secretary, John Reid, confirmed yesterday that police and security services were aware of about 24 “major conspiracies.”

They are believed to be “multi-handed” terrorist plots, such as the alleged plan to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners that led to the arrest of 24 people in the early hours of last Thursday.

Sources say that, on top of the inquiries confirmed by Mr. Reid, up to 50 more are being conducted by anti-terrorist police, most of them involving Scotland Yard and MI5.

Some relate to fund-raising activity, aimed at Iraq or other foreign hot spots, as well as Britain, and intelligence-gathering, such as details of potential targets.

A significant amount of the activity involves Internet communication between groups, often young Islamic men at college or university. The total number of suspects in Britain has not been disclosed, and security sources say it is often fluid. Individuals sometimes drop in and out of suspect groups and, at times, obvious overlaps emerge between terrorist gangs.

“The numbers are very difficult,” a source said. “Some may not be about to launch a bomb attack but may be suspected of background help.”

Mr. Reid told BBC News 24: “There would be more [plots] which are not at the center of our considerations, and there may be more that we don’t know about at all.”

He said four major plots had been thwarted since the July 7 bombings in London last year, which killed 56 people.

Mr. Reid also disclosed that Al Qaeda’s threat to Britain dated from a planned attack on Birmingham, which was thwarted in 2000.

For the fourth day, tightened security caused long lines and chaotic scenes at airports. A third of scheduled flights from Heathrow were canceled, and one of every five flights is expected not to take off from the airport today. Some flights that escaped cancellation left virtually empty. Between 20,000 and 25,000 passengers were prevented from checking in at Heathrow, although their planes were leaving on schedule, because the lines at security were too long. Delays at other airports were less severe.

The British Airports Authority, which owns the country’s major airports, described the present procedures as “unsustainable.” Some in Westminster speculated that ministers would start looking today at easing them.

Mr. Reid offered some comfort to passengers when he said the special security measures would be “time-limited.” He recognized that they were causing “huge inconvenience” and that they were “not indefinitely sustainable.” Airlines are furious with BAA over the delays. British Airways accused it of being unable to cope with the extra security, and Ryanair and the Conservatives called for the government to send in troops to mitigate the delays.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said Britain should draft in security forces to ease the burden and get people moving at airports. “In America, for example, troops are being used — probably National Guardsmen, I imagine — to help with the searches and the security oversight, which accelerates it somewhat.”

Security experts have suggested that the number of suspects, at all levels of seriousness, runs to “treble figures” and possibly to the low hundreds. But the difficulties involved in filtering the communications of determined wouldbe terrorists from the flood of belligerent, radical jihadi “chatter” are well known to security agencies.

It is suspected that hundreds of young men, both British born and foreign, have passed through training camps run by the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or other groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.

Police have up to 28 days to question suspects under the Terrorism Act 2000. Some officials have also spoken of “managing expectations” — the possibility that some of those arrested through association with the main suspects may be freed.

So far, Scotland Yard has not disclosed any details of what has been seized in searches in High Wycombe, Bucks, northeast London, and Birmingham.

It is suspected that the alleged plotters planned to take the elements of peroxide-based explosives onto airliners in drink containers, possibly with detonators in electrical devices. Similar explosives were used in the July 7 bombings.

No reports of “martyrdom videos” had been confirmed.

It is thought that not all those arrested are suspected of being potential suicide bombers. A vital aim of the complex process of questioning and inquiries is to establish central figures and to find out who may have supported, financed, or otherwise given assistance.


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