Glasgow Attack Seen Tied to London Bombs
Pastor Dale Morgan
Glasgow Attack Seen Tied to London Bombs*
Sunday July 1, 2007 4:46 AM
By IAN STEWART
Associated Press Writer
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) - A Jeep Cherokee trailing a cascade of flames
rammed into Glasgow's airport terminal on Saturday, shattering glass
doors just yards from passengers at the check-in counters. Police said
they believed the attack was linked to two car bombs found in London the
day before.
Britain raised its terror alert to ``critical'' - the highest possible
level - and the Bush administration announced plans to increase security
at airports and on mass transit.
One of the men in the car was in critical condition at a hospital with
severe burns, while the other was in police custody, said Scottish
Police Chief Constable Willie Rae. Five bystanders in Glasgow were
wounded, although none seriously, police said.
Rae said a ``suspect device'' was found on the man at the hospital and
it was taken to a safe location where it was being investigated. He
would not say whether the device was a suicide belt, but British
security officials said evidence pointed to the attack being a suicide
mission.
Police later arrested two more suspects in the London and Glasgow plots
in Cheshire county in northern England, Scotland Yard said early Sunday.
``I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is
linked to the events in London yesterday,'' Rae said at a news
conference. ``There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that
this is being treated as a terrorist incident.''
Police foiled the earlier plot Friday after two cars were found in
central London packed with explosives - one outside a nightclub near
Piccadilly Circus and another parked nearby.
A British government security official said the methods used in the
airport attack and Friday's thwarted plots were similar, with all three
vehicles carrying large quantities of flammable materials. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
information.
Police and MI5 had no specific intelligence warning of a plan to attack
Scotland, but they have monitored a host of suspected terrorists and
plots there, he said. It was not yet clear whether there was an
international element to the planning or funding of the attacks, the
official said.
The new terror threat presents Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot who
took office on Wednesday, with an enormous challenge and comes at a time
of already heightened vigilance one week before the anniversary of the
July 7 London transit attacks, which killed 52 people.
``I know that the British people will stand together, united, resolute
and strong,'' Brown said Saturday in a televised statement.
President Bush was being kept informed of the situation, the White House
said. ``We're in contact with British authorities on the matter,'' said
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, in
Washington.
The green Jeep barreled toward Glasgow's main airport terminal shortly
after 3 p.m. Witness Scott Leeson said bollards - security posts outside
the entrance - stopped the driver from driving into the bustling
terminal, but the nose of the vehicle smashed the glass doors.
``If he'd got through, he'd have killed hundreds, obviously,'' he said.
AP photographs from the scene showed the car hit the building at an
angle and was poking into the terminal. The Jeep struck the building
directly in front of check-in counters, where dozens of passengers were
lined up, police said.
Lynsey McBean, a witness at the terminal, said the driver kept trying to
push the car forward after it got stuck, and ``the wheels were spinning
and smoke was coming from them.''
She said one of the men then took out a plastic gasoline canister and
poured a liquid under the car. ``He then set light to it,'' said McBean,
26, from Erskine, Scotland.
Police subdued the driver and a passenger, both described by witnesses
as South Asian - a term used to refer to people from India, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and other countries in the region. The previous round of
terrorist activity in Britain, in July 2005, was largely carried out by
local Muslims, raising ethnic tensions in Britain.
Witnesses said one of the men was engulfed in flames and spoke
``gibberish'' as an official used a fire extinguisher to douse the fire.
Glasgow police spokeswoman Elisa Dunn said five bystanders were treated
for injuries - one of whom was hospitalized with a leg injury.
About 2,500 people were evacuated from the airport and all flights were
suspended. Police said Liverpool Airport and roads around Edinburgh were
also closed.
The attack left passengers shaken and stranded on the first day of
summer vacation for Glasgow schools. At the time of the crash, the
airport was bustling with families heading out on vacation.
Meanwhile in London, police were gathering evidence from closed circuit
television footage, as forensics experts searched for clues into the
foiled bombings. The two Mercedes cars had been loaded with gasoline,
gas canisters and nails in one of the capital's busiest areas on a night
when Londoners like to go out and party. Security officials and police
denied an ABC News report that they had a ``crystal clear'' picture of
one suspect from CCTV footage.
The vehicles were found abandoned in the early hours of Friday in what
police believe was an attempt to kill scores or even hundreds of people.
Detectives said they were keeping an open mind about the bombers'
identities, but terrorism experts said the signs pointed to a cell
linked to or inspired by al-Qaida.
One car was abandoned outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub on Haymarket in
the heart of London's entertainment district. The other had been towed
after being parked illegally on nearby Cockspur Street and was
discovered in an impound lot about a mile away in Park Lane, near Hyde Park.
London police said extra officers were being deployed at landmarks,
airports, train stations and bus terminals across the capital Sunday,
and had been ordered to step up the use of stop and search powers. Armed
police would patrol at major rail stations, it said.
At least 450 officers would monitor a rock concert at London's Wembley
Stadium on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess
Diana, police said.
Airports and mass transit systems around the U.S. were also tightening
security, though the U.S. did not plan to raise its terror alert status,
the Bush administration said.
In the New York area, officials at the airports went on a heightened
state of alert and police manned vehicle checkpoints. No threats had
been made against the airports, said Steve Coleman, spokesman for the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Brown came to office pledging to win back the support of voters
disenchanted over the Iraq war. But he backed Tony Blair's decision to
send troops to Iraq in 2003 and has shown support for greater
anti-terror measures that have angered Britain's some 1.8 million Muslims.
The Glasgow incident carried reminders of a foiled plot in December 1999
to attack Los Angeles International Airport, when customs agents stopped
an Algerian-born man in a car packed with 124 explosives. He was jailed
for 22 years and prosecutors said he was intent on bombing the Los
Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium.
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