ABC: The World Today August 11, 2006
Attack was imminent when bombing plan foiled
Reporter: Kim Landers
ELEANOR HALL: We begin in Britain where the security warning remains at the level of critical amid reports from US broadcaster ABC that police are still looking for five suspects in the alleged plan to simultaneously explode trans-Atlantic planes.
In the United States the administration has issued a Code Red terror warning and the US Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff has suggested the plan could have been devised by the al-Qaeda organisation.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF: This plot appears to have been well planned and well advanced with a significant number of operatives. The terrorists planned to carry the components of the bomb including liquid explosive ingredients and detonating devices, disguised as beverages, electronic devices or other common objects.
While this operation was centred in Great Britain, it was sophisticated. It had a lot of members and it was international in scope. This operation is in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaeda plot, but because the investigation is still underway, we cannot yet form a definitive conclusion. We are going to wait until all the facts are in.
ELEANOR HALL: But having faced accusation in the past of amplifying the threat from previous alleged terror plots, the Homeland Security Chief was at pains to emphasise the imminent risk of the airline-bombing plan.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF: In other words they had accumulated and assembled the capabilities that they needed and they were in the final stages of planning before execution. I don't want to get very specific for investigative reasons about each individual step, but this is not a case where this was just in the initial thought stage. There were very concrete steps underway to execute all elements of this plan.
ELEANOR HALL: That's US Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff who said that authorities will now reverse engineer the plan to come up with new counter terrorism strategies.
Already though authorities are noting the similarity between this plot and the 1995 plan to simultaneously hijack and destroy 11 airliners, foiled when al-Qaeda key organiser Ramzi Yousef started a fire in the Manila headquarters for that plan.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF: In terms of seriousness, it's obviously hard to compare a plot that was frustrated, thank God, with a plot that was unfortunately executed.
It is reminiscent, but again I don't want to overdraw the comparison, with a plot that was hatched by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the 1990s in which he envisioned detonating bombs on 11 airliners mainly travelling over the Pacific. And that's been well publicised so that's obviously a known historical fact.
ELEANOR HALL: And that's US Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. Our Washington Correspondent Kim Landers has been speaking to two security experts about the foiled bombing plan and she filed this report.
KIM LANDERS: The airline bomb plot was foiled just a few weeks away from the fifth anniversary of September the 11th.
John Pike, a security expert and director of Global Security.Org, has told The World Today that timing and the complexity of the plot shows it was a very real threat.
JOHN PIKE: This has the makings of something that could have demonstrated to the world that al-Qaeda is still a force to be reckoned with and that Osama bin Laden knows how to do something besides making audio tapes.
KIM LANDERS: And there is no doubt in your mind that this is an al-Qaeda plot?
JOHN PIKE: Well, it has the hallmark of an al-Qaeda plot: operatives on multiple continents; a large conspiracy of several dozen people; a spectacular attack. Those are the things that we've come to associate with al-Qaeda.
KIM LANDERS: The President is blaming those who he calls Islamic fascists. Have you heard him use that term before and what do you think he means?
JOHN PIKE: Well, I don't know that the US President has used the Islamic fascist term before but it's certainly one that has gained some currency in the United States because it is basically looking at correlations between the fascism of the 20th century, which was basically an ideology that looked to the past, an ideology that glorified the use of force, and other elements. There does seem to be some commonality with al-Qaeda and the militant Islam of today.
KIM LANDERS: Dr Neil Livingstone heads an international risk management company, Global Options Inc, and is the author of nine books on terrorism.
He says today's arrests are a reminder that Europe is a core recruiting ground for terrorists because of the number of disaffected Muslims there.
NEIL LIVINGSTONE: Europe has a terrific problem in terms that it has not assimilated large numbers of Muslims who have moved there for economic opportunity. There was a sign in a demonstration the other day in London, where a Muslim protester was carrying a sign saying: "Brittain is the cancer, Islam is the answer." And this is a country that has sheltered that individual and given him opportunity.
KIM LANDERS: American authorities have now posted an unprecedented "Code Red" alert for passenger flights from Britain to the United States.
President George W Bush says everything is being done to protect America, but Dr Livingstone points out there are still many deficiencies in the aviation security system.
NEIL LIVINGSTONE: The fact that we have not addressed the issue of liquid explosives, that we still don't screen the cargo in the cargo hold, that we still have problems with the people who work in airports and their backgrounds and things of that nature. We have a lot of deficiencies in the system.
Plus we've spend billions of dollars screening passengers and we still don't have a trusted traveller program which will allow us to expedite passage for business travellers who are willing to give up certain information about themselves as well as, say, a biometric and so on, so that we'd have more time to focus on people that are truly suspicious.
And we don't do adequate profiling in our airports because it's a politically sensitive subject. So, we haven't strengthened the baggage holds of airports, we haven't strengthened the cargo holds the way the Israelis do. So there are many things we could be doing but we are not doing.
ELEANOR HALL: Counter-terrorism expert Dr Neil Livingstone speaking to our Washington Correspondent Kim Landers.
© Copyright 2006, ABC
