British police comb houses after airport attack

 Continuing with the British terrorist plot:

British police searched houses near Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, on Sunday after what they said was a terrorist attack on its airport linked to two failed car bombings in London.

Britain raised its security level to “critical” — meaning the risk of another attack was imminent — following the airport incident, in which a fuel-filled, four-wheel-drive slammed into the entrance of the terminal and burst into flames.

“We are dealing with a long-term threat. It is not going to go away in the next few weeks or months,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown, himself a Scot who took office only last Wednesday, said in a somber appraisal of the terrorist threat facing Britain.

Two men, one badly burned and in critical condition, were arrested after Saturday’s attack, which took place on one of the busiest days for Scotland’s main international airport.

Two more people were arrested later in northern England. Five members of the public were slightly injured at the airport

British police comb houses after airport attack | Top News | Reuters.com

Looks like they also sealed the street:

Police combed several houses in the town of Houston, about six miles west of Glasgow, sealing off an entire street but focusing on the one house where residents said the two Asian men had lived, keeping very much to themselves.

“I don’t remember seeing them at all,” said Mae Gordon, 67. “They were the only people around here you would never see.”

Britain has seen an increase in terrorism-related attacks since the Sept 11 strikes on the United States and since it joined U.S. forces in invading Iraq in 2003. Some analysts believe the latest attacks may be designed to exert pressure on Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brown convened a meeting of Britain’s top security chiefs to discuss measures to handle the first big test of his leadership. Appearing on BBC television on Sunday, he warned that the fight against terrorism would be drawn out.

“Irrespective of Iraq, irrespective of Afghanistan, irrespective of what is happening in different parts of the world, we have an international organization trying to inflict the maximum damage on civilian life in pursuit of a terrorist cause that is totally unacceptable to most people,” he said.

British PM Gordon Brown speaks:

The prime minister was speaking to the BBC after Saturday’s attack on Glasgow Airport was linked to the two car bombs found in London’s West End on Friday.

Police are now holding five people over the attack on the airport and are searching houses near Glasgow.

The fifth person was arrested in Liverpool, Merseyside Police said.

‘Maximum damage’

The UK has moved to its highest level of terror alert – critical – after a burning car crashed into the airport and the government’s emergency response unit, Cobra, is holding its fourth meeting in three days.

Mr Brown told Andrew Marr on BBC1’s Sunday AM it was “clear that we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaeda.”

“It’s obvious that we have a group of people – not just in this country, but round the world – who’re prepared at any time to inflict what they want to be maximum damage on civilians, irrespective of the religion of these people who are killed or maimed are to be,” he said. [Look as BBC has not quoted him as saying "irrespective of Iraq...."].

Mr Brown also praised the “magnificent work” of police and security services and the public for being vigilant and for helping prevent what could have been loss of life.

He said people still needed to be “constantly vigilant” against what was a “long-term and sustained threat”.

“We have to fight it in a number of different ways – militarily, by security, by police, by intelligence,” he added.

“And I think it’s important to say also on a day like this – we’ve got to also fight it as a battle of hearts and minds.

Ken Livingstone speaks about the threat.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to demonize Muslims after a double car bomb plot was foiled in the capital, amid fears of a Islamist terror threat.

At the same time he criticized Britain over its ties with Saudi Arabia -something worrying indeed-, which he said had fuelled intolerance in the past through its Wahhabist form of Islam, creating a “major problem.”

Hmm of course, he does not say anything about his own relationship with very extremist clerics. Or his comparisons of Pope John XXIII with Al-Qaradawi:

“Sheik Qaradawi is I think very similar to the position of Pope John XXIII. An absolutely sane Islamist,” Mr Livingstone said.

He said that Sheik Qaradawi was a leading Islamic scholar calling for Islam to engage with the world, supporting democracy in the Middle East and calling for Islam to accept the changing role of women. “Of all the Muslim thinkers in the world today he is the most positive force for change,” he said.

Al-Qaradawi condemned the terrorist attacks in London but he has described suicide bombings in Israel as martyrdom operations. He has also been criticised by Jewish and gay rights groups who accused him of anti-Semitism and homophobia.

Pope John called the Second Vatican Council, which reshaped Roman Catholicism, bringing with it a new liturgy and a new approach towards other faiths.

Last night Ann Widdecombe, a former Shadow Home Secretary, criticised Mr Livingstone’s remarks. She said: “Ken Livingstone obviously has no idea either of the essentially holy nature of Pope John XXIII or the very dangerous nature of al-Qaradawi”.

James Clappison, a Conservative MP on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, added: “I must say it is not a comparison that springs to mind”.

Just the same yes…

Pope John XXIII in Wikipedia. Known as “Good Pope John” or “the most loved Pope in history“.

Al-Qaradawi on Wikipedia. Known by his support to Palestinian suicide bombers.

More at Right Truth and Stormwarning’s Counterterrorism.

First London bomb would have resulted in massive explosion if detonated h/t Mike:

I would like to remind the naysayers that propane, when released from its canister, expands over 250% and can result in a huge explosion.

More links:

BBC News

UK police search homes near Glasgow airport
CTV.ca - 46 minutes ago
Police searched a number of homes on Sunday near Glasgow International Airport in connection with Saturday’s airport attack and two foiled car-bomb plots in London’s west end.
Two more arrests over terror attacks Independent
Britain calls for vigilance after failed terror attacks International Herald Tribune
Guardian Unlimited - Monsters and Critics.com - ABC Online - News & Star
all 2,016 news articles »

Fifth terrorist detained (1st bomb).

London – A person was arrested in the British city of Liverpool in connection with the attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, police reported Sunday, bringing the total number of suspects detained to five.

Also read D.Ox: When SUV’s attack!! UK under assault from angry automobiles!!

Planck’s Constant: In my previous post I wrote that New UK PM Brown is an Idiot for vowing that under him the UK’s foreign policy will recognize that defeating terrorism “involves more than military force.” Here is a useful idiot who announced to the world that Blair’s policy in Iraq was wrong and that he would take a more conciliatory approach. How did the local terrorists greet Brown’s new policy?

Another Zapatero’s imitator. Did you know that Irish philosopher and politologue Philip Pettit, Princeton’s professor, one of the most important “philosophers-intelectuals” who Zapatero admires stated that he would not see any kind of problem in beginning a dialogue with Al Qaeda? h/t Etimologías.

Against Al-Qaeda a lot of Governments are obliged to cooperate. But if there were some reasons to think that Al Qaeda wants to talk, if there were only a little possibility of putting an end to violence negotiating with them, giving them some concessions, they would not be rejectable, yes, I really believe I would support the negotiation with Al Qaeda.

Do you want to know what is the objective of Al Qaeda, moonbat? A global caliphate. So I can consider the possibility of you wanting to be a slave. But please, never try to play with my freedom.

He is so idiot that he contradicts himself:

The negotiation with ETA, praised by Pettit in his report, collides with other of the great principles of the “civic republicanism“, exposed by author in page 241: “the decission-making can’t result in an arbitrary imposition, considered as such by the citizenry. It has to be made in a way that all people could identify with it and make it our own”". ETA’s negotiation and, above all, how this Government has made it, is rejected by a great majority of Spanish people, according the polls.

In the negotiation with terrorists there are two problems from my point of view: firstly, the negotiation in itself is an attack on freedom, on the same freedom of the people who have voted you and who, in a great majority are the target of terrorists in order to submit them to the terrorists’ views. Normally, if the people would know what the negotiations are going to give them and to remove from them really, I would safely say they would say “no, thanks“. The problem is that normally those consequences are not said.. because

… (secondly) how on earth are you going to do negotiations with terrorists, which could imply consequences to national security, in an open forum? We have seen how this Spanish “A” qualified Government -by Pettit, certainly not by me- has done them and has nothing to do with transparency. Even remotely.

I repeat: if you want to be a slave and to submit to any Mob’s group which ask for your freedom -that’s what terrorist are: MOBSTERS-, that’s your problem. But do not negotiate with my freedom or my security with the same people who are menacing it. And certainly, if you do, it would be NOT IN MY NAME. MOONBAT!!

Also read SC&A: Circling The Drain: Leftist Logic, Leftist Stupidity.

Related: Some people have claimed that the attacks on London were linked with Rushdie’s knigthood. And precisely on the Muslim protests about that was Rage Boy, about whom William Teach from Pirate’s Cove have made some photoshopping.