Al-Qaeda Terrorist Prisoners Plotted To Escape In Hijacked Helicopter – UK

Al-Qaeda terrorists in a British jail were caught planning to escape in a hijacked helicopter.

Accomplices on the outside were to hire the helicopter for “business” then force the pilot to land in prison at gunpoint.

Nine Muslim inmates plotted to kidnap the jail imam during prayers with weapons hidden in the prison mosque.

According to the plan they would then move to a sports field using the imam as a shield and be picked up by the helicopter.

Wardens at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, acting on a tip-off, went to the plotters’ cells hours before the escape attempt was due to start.

The nine, including convicted terrorists, will now be transferred to other jails.

A source told the Sun: “This would have been one of the most damaging escapes ever. The intelligence was very strong and from a good source. It had to be acted on immediately.

“It involved some of the most dangerous al-Qaeda terrorists in jail, all of whom are a massive threat. It had been planned for months and the use of a helicopter shows it was sophisticated.”

Source

US Warns – North Korea Test-fire of Missile Would Be Provocative

The U.S. warned North Korea that test-firing a missile would be viewed as “provocative” after reports the communist state was preparing a rocket launch days after declaring the Korean peninsula was on the brink of war.

“North Korea’s missile activities and, you know, its missile programs are of concern to the region,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington yesterday. “A ballistic missile launch by North Korea would be unhelpful and, frankly, provocative.”

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies believe North Korea may be preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, Yonhap News said yesterday, citing an unidentified South Korean security official.

Kim Jong Il’s regime announced Jan. 30 it was scrapping all military and political agreements with South Korea, accusing the government in Seoul of pursuing confrontational policies that were pushing the nations toward conflict. Analysts said North Korea’s rhetoric may have been aimed at drawing the attention of the new Obama administration in Washington.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006, has rejected international demands that inspectors be allowed to remove samples from its Yongbyon reactor, the source of the regime’s weapons-grade plutonium. The refusal has stalled six- nation disarmament talks that also involve the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Taepodong-2 Missile

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies recently observed a train carrying a long cylinder-shaped object believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile, Seoul-based Yonhap reported. The launch preparations are likely to be completed in a month or two, the news agency cited the intelligence official as saying.

via Bloomberg.com: Japan.