August 10, 200618 yr Scotty flies back tomorrow. I'm sure he's on a direct flight from Toronto to Dublin. Don't think he'll be affected too much ( hope not anyway).
August 10, 200618 yr A poster from another forum has been confined to her house today - whilst many of her neighbours & friends have been evacuated - the arrested people all seem to have lived quite close to her - :unsure: :o Really Icr ?? That's awfull when your actually living that close to the terrorists. I think Scotty is flying back tomorrow ( if the flight isn't cancelled ofcourse)
August 10, 200618 yr It's taken me ages to post this evening :angry: And by the time it's posted someone else already posted, sorry!!!!!! :cry:
August 10, 200618 yr That's ridiculous :angry: They could have made an exception ......it's not that often someone is playing in Knebworth, is it :unsure: I think they should of made an exception, Hertfordshire County Council wouldn't allow it, some people missed the concert entirely, and some of them abandoned their cars on the motorway leading up to Knebworth and ran for it to get there in time.
August 10, 200618 yr Really, sounds like a nightmare missing the concert. Total chaos, hope that doesn't happen in Milton Keynes :(
August 10, 200618 yr Milton Keynes will be fine Nicky, Just heard on the news that some of the people arrested today were as young as 17 :o
August 11, 200618 yr Author more news from my local paper http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...525-952,00.html THE people plotting to blow up US-bound flights from Britain were "a couple days from a test, and a few days from doing it", according to a US intelligence official. British police have arrested 24 people including some of Pakistani origin over a plot to commit "mass murder" by blowing up aircraft flying over the Atlantic to the US, and more arrests are on the way. There are reports five suspects are on the loose. US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said it would have been a disaster on the same scale as the September 11 attacks that killed almost 3000 people. Mr Chertoff said the plan would have involved co-ordinated multiple suicide bombings. President George W Bush tightened airline security and said the plot was a "stark reminder" the US was "at war with Islamic fascists." "If these plotters had succeeded in taking down multiple jets carrying hundreds of people, we would have seen a disaster on a scale comparable to 9/11 with hundreds and maybe thousands of people being killed," Mr Chertoff said in a television interview. He said al-Qaeda might have been involved, that the US was in a race against "terrorist ingenuity" and that the sophisticated plot was "in the top level of the kind of terrorist activities we've seen over the past 10 years". About 10 trans-Atlantic flights were targeted, including those of US and British airlines but possibly others as well, an intelligence official said. American ABC News reported that the plot included concealing explosive gel or liquid in a sports drink and detonating it with the flash from a disposable camera. The UK arrests came as tough new security measures brought chaos to airports on both sides of the Atlantic overnight in what US President George W Bush described as a stark reminder his country was at "war with Islamic fascists". Pakistan said its intelligence agencies helped thwart the plot and had arrested an unspecified number of people. Pre-dawn raids were carried out in London, the west central English city of Birmingham and the Thames Valley area of southeast England after intelligence of what one officer described as a bid to cause "untold death and destruction". "We can't stress too highly the severity that this plot represented. Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale," Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, from the Metropolitan Police, told reporters. Exact details on the number of planes allegedly targeted, the airports from which they were due to fly or the people in custody were still sketchy after what Mr Stephenson said was the "first phase" of the operation. Searches were being conducted at a number of properties. First news of the arrests filtered out of the Met's New Scotland Yard headquarters in central London in a six-paragraph, 140-word press statement at 5.35am (2.35pm yesterday AEST) today. "Today's arrests are the culmination of a major covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months," the statement said, adding that the investigation was likely to be "lengthy and complex". Home Secretary John Reid then made a short, sharp and to-the-point statement from the stark Home Office television studio shortly after 7am. In the two-minute, 53-second announcement, Mr Reid largely repeated the Met's earlier line but revealed the country's terrorism alert had been raised to the maximum level - "critical" - at 2am. Yesterday, Mr Reid said in a speech that Britain was facing its "most sustained period of serious threat" since the end of World War II from a new breed of "unconstrained" terrorist using "means of mass destruction". http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5212009,00.jpg
August 11, 200618 yr Author http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...174-953,00.html Airport 'more mental' than ever THE London cabbie summed it up as we approached Heathrow and a wall of people and luggage at 5.30am. "I don't know what's going on, love," he said, "but this is more mental than I've ever seen it." Thousands of passengers stood on the footpath, unable to squeeze into the departures zone. Inside, thousands more stood in queues, going nowhere. Departures boards next to most flights simply said: Please Wait. Chinese whispers rippled along the queues about security scares and a terror plot, but no one knew for sure what was going on. Finally airport staff handed out a notice saying no hand luggage could be taken on board, except tickets and passports. They warned to expect lengthy delays, but wouldn't say why. Mobile networks struggled to cope with businessmen phoning to cancel meetings, anxious tourists phoning travel agents, and families simply trying to find out what was going on.
August 11, 200618 yr Still waiting to hear from my daughter who has hopefully flown to Majorca out of Gatwick this morning. I assume they would have been delayed but from the Gatwick site it looks like things are returning to normal for some airlines. I'm sure she'll be in touch soon, but it doesn't help now that you've got to put everything, including mobiles, in your main luggage! I hope everyone travelling in the next few days has a safe journey!
