Police Probe London Train Station Fluid Scare

A bag containing cleaning fluid sparked a scare after it was left at a train station in south-west London, British Transport Police (BTP) said. A man fled after leaving the bag under a bench at Kingston train station at 1650 BST. A substance was then seen leaking across the station forecourt.

It burnt a hole in the shoe of a passer-by, police added.

Trains did not stop at the station while fire crews were called to investigate.

A BTP spokeswoman said: “British Transport Police is currently investigating a suspicious package at Kingston rail station.

“A bag containing a black liquid, later identified as what appears to be a type of cleaning fluid, was found in the booking hall.”

Passengers were not evacuated from the station, she added.

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Allegation – MI5 Recruited Al Qaeda Sympathizers

MI5 mistakenly recruited al Qaeda sympathisers who were trying to infiltrate the British secret service, it has been alleged.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer is demanding a probe into claims six Muslims were thrown out of MI5 because of concerns about their past.

Two of the six allegedly attended al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan while the others had unexplained gaps of up to three months in their CVs.

Mr Mercer, counter-terrorism sub-committee chairman, told Sky News that MI5 is believed to have detected two sympathisers at a “fairly early stage” of their secret service training.

The others allegedly did not make it through vetting procedures.

However, Mr Mercer wants clarification on how successful the security services have been at detecting enemy infiltrators.

via MI5 Recruited Al Qaeda Sympathisers Claim: Conservative MP Patrick Mercer Demands Probe | UK News | Sky News.

Five Held Under Terror Laws Ahead of G20 Summit

Police arrested five people under anti-terror legislation in Devon, but they insisted on Monday there was no immediate link to the Group of 20 summit this week in London.

The five were detained and held over the last three days after police raids in Plymouth, while officers uncovered a number of weapons, suspicious devices and extremist materials, said Devon and Cornwall Police. Read more

Report: al Qaeda Recruiting In Uk At Street Level

The al Qaeda terror network is able to “directly recruit British muslims at street level in the UK”, according to a ground-breaking new report by the UK’s premier anti-extremism think-tank.

The research paper produced by the Quilliam Foundation, just published in the US military journal, The Sentinel, says the success of attacks such as 7/7, compared with the failed bombings at Glasgow Airport and London’s West End, is proof of the “direct assistance” from senior al-Qaeda members to British homegrown terrorist, without which “few of these attacks would have ever been viable”.

Author James Brandon also rejects the consensus that al-Qaeda has adopted a strategy of “leaderless jihad”, recruiting and mobilizing followers purely through the internet. While counter-terrorism initiatives introduced since 9/11 have driven the movement underground, Brandon claims the evidence suggests al-Qaeda “continues to operate through a traditional hierarchical structure based on face-to-face contact” and is able to recruit directly in Britain.

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The report compiles evidence based on recent criminal trials to show how most of the major and successful terrorist plots in the post-9/11 era have had direct ties to high level al-Qaeda figures in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region, calling into question the idea of terrorist self-starters’.

Brandon told the Sunday Herald: “People aren’t radicalised just by watching news about Iraq or Afghanistan or Gaza. It’s a much more complex process than that. And the key thing to understand is that there are actually people out deliberately trying to radicalise other people – people aren’t just self-radicalising. And once you understand that then it’s slightly easier to deal with, because if you can simply tackle the people involved in the radicalisation then the problem to an extent goes away.”

Terror expert David Capitanchik, formerly of Aberdeen university international relations department, said: “Unlike the IRA, which was one organisation and quite easy to infiltrate, it’s difficult to infiltrate al-Qaeda as the groups are very small.”

But professor Alex Schmid, director of St Andrews university’s centre for terrorism studies, criticised Brandon for drawing definitive conclusions from a “nebulous jihadi landscape”. He said: “I have been talking to people with access to classified intelligence and they have given me diametrically opposed accounts regarding the degree of control of core al-Qaeda on plots beyond Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East.”

via Report Claims Alqaeda Can Recruit In Uk At Street Level (from Sunday Herald).

London Police Launch Counter-terrorism PR Campaign

London police launched a new counter-terrorism publicity campaign on Monday, calling on residents of the capital to keep their ears and eyes open for anything suspicious and to report it.

The campaign is not linked to any specific threat, police said, but rather a reminder that attacks have happened in the past and could easily happen again. The slogan is: “Don’t rely on others. If you suspect it, report it.”

“Terrorists can be stopped in their tracks if suspicious activity is passed to the police,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, the head of the Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command, said in a statement.

“They will not succeed if people report something unusual they have seen while going about their daily lives.

“We want people to look out for the unusual — some activity or behaviour which strikes them as not quite right and out of place in their normal day-to-day lives — and to take responsibility for reporting it.”

London has seen several failed and successful attacks in recent years, most notably the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on the Underground and the bus network which killed 52 people.

The Metropolitan Police have overall responsibility for counter-terrorism policing and have been at the forefront of gathering evidence in a series of cases against suspected terrorism plotters in recent years.

The campaign calls on London’s 8 million residents to pay particular attention to anyone suspicious who is buying chemicals, logging on to militant websites or carrying out surveillance of prominent buildings.

via London police launch counter-terrorism PR campaign | Top News | Reuters.

Terrorist in New York City Bombing Plot Released

A Black September terrorist who served only about half his 30-year sentence for planting three car bombs in New York City in 1973 was deported Thursday, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

It was unclear which country had agreed to accept the 63-year-old Khalid Al-Jawary. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deportation, didn’t immediately know where Al-Jawary was going.

Al-Jawary was convicted in federal court of placing the bombs in 1973 that could have killed and injured hundreds if they had detonated. They were timed to coincide with the arrival of then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

Al-Jawary was captured in 1991 and sentenced in 1993 to 30 years but received credit for good behavior and time served.

He was released last week from the Supermax maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo., and was held by immigration officials in Denver until his deportation.

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Official Says Bombers Targeted Children On School Trip In Cairo

Bombers targeted a French school trip to Cairo when they attacked a popular tourist site in which a 17-year-old French girl died, officials said.

Egyptian police arrested three people after Sunday’s bomb attack at the Khan al-Khalili market near the Hussein mosque, The Times of London reported Monday. The 20-plus wounded included 17 other French teens, a German, and several Saudis and Egyptians.

“Three people there were arrested on the site as suspects after the attack,” a police official said. “Others are being questioned as witnesses.”

An unexploded bomb was found nearby the blast site. Police detonated the second device safely

The teenagers were part of a group of 54 teenage students from Paris on a last-minute visit to the bazaar before heading home. The group returned from Cairo to Paris Monday, the British newspaper said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon denounced the incident.

“The government condemns with the greatest firmness this criminal act of blind and absurd violence,” Fillon said. “More than ever, France stands beside the Egyptian Republic as it faces this test and fights against terrorism.”

Police blocked off the area, full of cafes and souvenir stands, and used bomb-detecting dogs to find the second device.

Witnesses told The Times one of the bombs appeared to have been thrown from a passing motorbike, while others said that the devices were tossed from a nearby rooftop.

via Source

Terror Threat In London Severe – Highest Level Since 9/11

Security chiefs in London are extremely concerned that Israel’s actions in Palestine will provoke a furious response by Islamic extremists based in the UK, with 4,000 active terrorists identified by a former head of the Met.

With the death toll in Gaza reaching 340 London has been put on a “high state of alert” following the violent clashes outside of the Israeli Embassy in Kensington and the worrying statistic that 4,000 terrorism suspects are active in the UK.

Lord Stevens the head of the Met disclosed the figure that up to 4,000 terrorism suspects are active in the UK, and stated that police and MI5 were “still too under funded and undermanned to cope with the task they face in the decades to come. And that’s how long this will last.”

Security chiefs in London are concerned that the escalation of violence in Gaza with the prospects of a ground offensive by the IDF could provoke a violent response by Arab and Muslim Londoners with minority elements influenced by Al-Qaeda plotting reprisal attacks in London.

MI5 have outlined the possible security threats posed by Al Qaeda:

Explosive devices

These can be delivered to their targets in vehicles, by post or by a person. Currently an explosive device within a vehicle is the most prevalent means of attack. Unlike the Provisional IRA, who also used this method, Al Qaida networks often seek to ensure that their target is hit by employing a suicide operative within the vehicle to detonate the device at the required moment.

Suicide bombers are also deployed to carry an explosive device into the vicinity of a target individual or location. On some occasions the terrorists decide, as they did in the Madrid commuter train attacks in March 2004, to detonate their devices remotely, so that they can go on to perpetrate further attacks.”

Shootings

Al Qaida have orchestrated a campaign of shootings and close quarter attacks targeted against Westerners in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Most recently, on 6 December 2004, gunmen mounted an assault on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah, in which five of the consulate staff and four of the attackers were killed. Al Qaida claimed responsibility for this attack. In Europe, an extremist shot dead the Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in November 2004.

Kidnappings

There has been an increase in the number of kidnappings taking place, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. The kidnapping of UK citizen Kenneth Bigley in Iraq in September 2004 resulted in his murder.

Surface to air missiles

An unsuccessful missile attack was attempted on an Israeli charter plane departing from Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002. Similar attacks have been carried out in recent months against coalition aircraft in Iraq.

Chemical, biological and radiological CBR devices

To date, no such attacks have taken place in the UK. Alternative methods of attack, such as explosive devices, are more reliable, safer and easier for terrorists to acquire or use. Nevertheless, it is possible that Al Qaida and some other associated networks may seek to use chemical, biological or radiological material against the West. Usama bin Laden has referred to such devices on several occasions. In November 2001, he said that “if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as a deterrent”.

In a June 2002 article, Al Qaida spokesman Sulaiman Abu Gaith also said “it is our right to fight [the Americans] with chemical and biological weapons”.

In April 2005, Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian with known links to Al Qaida, was convicted of plotting to manufacture and spread poisons, including ricin, in the UK.

via Read More Thelondondailynews.com.

Killer Virus Vomiting Bug Grips Britain

Millions face being struck down by a deadly winter vomiting bug sweeping the country. You may remember this same vomiting bug struck last year, however experts are saying itr could be even worse this time.

Scores of hospitals have been forced to close wards to new patients as they struggle to cope with the influx of norovirus sufferers.

One of London’s leading hospitals has even had to turn away 999 emergency patients after being overwhelmed with cases of the virus, while another hospital has drafted in GPs to cover for staff hit by the bug.

As the crisis deepens, health campaigners are warning that hospitals face going into “complete meltdown” over Christmas and New Year.

Last year more than three million people were struck down by the bug as it reached epidemic levels. Now experts are warning that the virus could affect even more this year.

It appears to be taking hold much earlier than usual.

Last night the Health Protection Agency warned that it was expecting the number of cases to escalate.

Geoff Martin, of the campaign group Health Emergency, said: “Christmas and New Year are a notoriously busy time and the fact that hospitals can’t cope already is very, very ominous. Winter and Christmas are always extremely difficult for hospitals.

“People giving germs to each other means more flu, the cold weather means a lot more respiratory problems, especially for the elderly, and everyone’s out drinking a lot so there are more injuries that way, too.

“The busiest period is still two weeks away and it is evident that hospitals can’t cope.

“If the Secretary of State for Health does not do something about this, there could be a complete meltdown and a full-blown crisis.

“It would be the worst I have seen in five or six years.”

At its height last year the virus, which causes projectile vomiting, diarrhoea, mild fever and headaches, was striking down more than 200,000 a week. The illness can prove deadly for the vulnerable –  children and the elderly.

So far there have been 1,575 reported cases since July but officials fear the figure could be 100 times higher as most sufferers do not report it. St George’s hospital, one of London’s three major trauma centres, was forced to turn away ambulances last Monday because it had run out of beds.

Hospital chiefs said they had suffered a 14 per cent surge in demand over the weekend, compared to the same time last year.

Patients had to be diverted to neighbouring hospitals, all of which have reported serious pressure on their capacities.

A survey by the Daily Express found that hospitals across the country were, on average, each shutting off between eight and nine wards to new admissions and visitors.

At least 21 hospitals have had to isolate patients.

Daily Express

al Qaeda Extremists Planning Mass Casualty Terror Attack On UK – Intel Report

Al-Qaeda-linked extremists are planning attacks intended to cause mass casualties in the UK, a top British intelligence report has warned.

The report, which has been prepared by the intelligence branch of the British Ministry of Defence, MI5 and Special Branch, warned that secret cells of al-Qaeda extremists based in London, Birmingham and Luton are planning attacks in the UK. Read more

Channel Tunnel Shut Down After Fire

The Channel Tunnel has been closed after a fire broke out on a freight train about seven miles from Calais.

Thirty-two people on board were led to safety, 14 of whom had suffered minor injuries, including smoke inhalation.

The blaze broke out on a lorry on board the shuttle train at about 1400 GMT, about 11km (7 miles) from the French entrance, the operator Eurotunnel said.

The fire has been contained but all trains have been suspended and thousands of passengers are stranded.

The fire was detected about four-fifths of the way through the 50km-long north tunnel on a freight shuttle travelling from Folkestone to Calais.

The French Interior Ministry said the lorry, which is understood to have overturned on the train, was carrying the chemical phenol, a toxic product used by the pharmaceutical industry.

The incident resulted in “minor injuries” but no-one was seriously hurt, Eurotunnel officials said.

A train was sent to collect the people from the service tunnel and take them back to France.

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