AFP - WASHINGTON (AFP) - US authorities issued their highest level "Red" terrorism alert for the first time after the discovery of a plot to bomb multiple US jets flying home from Britain, an operation officials said bore the imprint of the Al-Qaeda movement.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Red threat warning, covering US-bound planes from Britain, was ordered after British police announced the arrest of 21 people allegedly involved in the operation, which US officials said was in the "final stages of planning".
"This had the earmarks of an Al-Qaeda plot," said Robert Mueller, head of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the plot involved using liquid explosives and detonating devices disguised as beverages, electronic devices, or other common objects.
Security measures immediately imposed on all flights to and within the United States included banning passengers from carrying any liquids, gels or lotions in carry-on luggage.
Chertoff said the plot "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 can not yet form a definitive conclusion," he said.
Chertoff said the operation was to involve "multiple explosions in multiple aircraft" though he declined to speculate on the number of targetted planes or identify the airlines, other than to say they were US carriers.
He likened the plot to a foiled Al-Qaeda plan in 1995 to detonate bombs on 11 airliners flying to the United States over the Pacific.
Thursday's arrests were the result of extensive investigations and US President George W. Bush had discussed the plot "in recent days" with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
"This is an ongoing investigation that will play out over several days and weeks," Snow said, calling the plan "a direct threat to the United States."
Bush has been on his Texas ranch enjoying a 10-day vacation from Washington and was scheduled to give a speech on the economy in Wisconsin later Thursday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also involved in discussions of the threat during the week and attended meetings with Homeland Security officials on the matter, including one early Thursday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
News of the plot came first from London overnight when British officials announced the arrests of 21 people in and around London over what Home Secretary John Reid called a plan to cause "mass murder on an unimaginable scale".
Reid told a press conference that British police were confident that "the main players have been accounted for" but US officials stressed that investigations were continuing.
"We have no indication at this point in time of plotting within the United States aligned at all or at all intersecting the plotters and the UK," the FBI's Mueller said.
"But that does not mean that there are not others around the world that have the same aspirations and would undertake the same type of plotting," he said.
Chertoff said the plotters had been very close to carrying out the attacks when British police move in.
"They had accumulated and assembled the capabilities that they needed and they were in the final stages of planning before execution," he said.
"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," he said.
"There were very concrete steps under way to execute all elements of the plan."
In addition to the Red alert covering US-bound flights from London, the Homeland Security department raised the threat level to "high," or orange, for all commercial aviation operating in or destined for the United States.
The advisory system, created after the September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States, consists of five levels: "low," or green; "guarded," or blue; "elevated," or yellow; "high," or orange; and "severe," or red.
The threat level was raised to "high," or orange, after July 2005 subway bombings in London, and since then has remained at "elevated," or yellow.
At Dulles International Airport outside Washington, photocopied signs taped up on walls announced that no liquids or gels were allowed past security. Cardboard boxes and garbage bins quickly filled to overflowing with toothpaste and shaving cream containers.
Several travelers willingly threw away their bottled water, but one woman was reluctant to throw out a 100-dollar beauty product.