Transatlantic terror threat 2

Must-read: Time uncovers the investigation that thwarted the terrorist plot in Britain to use liquid explosives to bring down transatlantic aircraft. Key passage:

A total of 24 individuals were arrested in Britain overnight and, says one senior U.S. official who was briefed on the plot, five still remain at large. Their plan was to smuggle the peroxide-based liquid explosive TATP and detonators onto nine different planes from four carriers — British Airways, Continental, United and American — that fly direct routes between the U.K and the U.S. and blow them up mid-air. Intelligence officials estimate that about 2,700 people would have perished, according to the official.

Britain's MI-5 intelligence service and Scotland Yard had been tracking the plot for several months, but only in the past two weeks had the plotters' planning begun to crystallize, senior U.S. officials tell TIME. In the two or three days before the arrests, the cell was going operational, and authorities were pressed into action. MI5 and Scotland Yard agents tracked the plotters from the ground, while a knowledgeable American official says U.S. intelligence provided London authorities with intercepts of the group's communications. Most of the suspects are second or third generation British citizens of Pakistani descent whose families hailed from war-torn Kashmir. U.S. officials believe the 29 members were divided into multiple cells and planned to break into small groups to board the nine planes.

Read the whole piece.

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Elsewhere:

The AP reports on the state of red alert: "The Bush administration posted an unprecedented code-red alert for passenger flights from Britain to the United States and banned liquids from all carry-on bags Thursday, clamping down quickly after British authorities disrupted a frightening terror plot."

The New York Times reports that an attack may have been imminent: "In recent days, [DHS Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson] said, plotters began investigating nonstop flights from Britain to the United States. An American counter-terrorism official said they planned 'a dry run' in the next couple of days and, if they could get on several flights at the same time, planned to carry out the attack within days."

The Washington Post traces the history of the investigation back to "the aftermath of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on London's transit system".

The Post also looks at a possible al Qaeda connection: "Strong indications of an al-Qaeda link to the alleged airliner-bombing plot uncovered in London yesterday suggest that the terrorist network has survived and adapted despite heavy blows to its leadership and organizational structure over the past five years, U.S. intelligence officials said."