Lahore, Pakistan - The terror plot uncovered by the British police today shows the hallmarks of al Qaeda operations and suggests that the alienation of Muslim immigrants from Western societies continues to aid terrorist recruitment. The plot's timing was likely meant to protest U.S. and British support for Israel's bombing of Lebanon.
The tactics and strategies employed by a variety of Islamic extremists can be seen in this thwarted plot. In homage to 9/11, these terrorists planned to use airplanes as weapons of mass destruction even though many analysts had concluded that tightened security at airports would prevent extremists from exploiting air travel. Clearly, the terrorists thought otherwise. Airplanes offer mass casualties, mega global disruption and the potential for economic chaos. Al Qaeda has always hankered for these things in its attacks.
Today's plot has strong echoes of the 1995 attempt by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the architect of 9/11 -- to blow up eleven airliners simultaneously across Asia in 1993. Mohammed is now under CIA detention, but the terrorists could well be tipping their hats to him, because with his lurid imagination and multiple disguises, Mohammed is still revered as the genuine 'romantic' hero of al Qaeda in the mold of 1960s freedom fighters.
Moreover, al Qaeda have a habit of never abandoning a good idea until it succeeds. 9/11 was itself a partial repetition of an earlier attempt to blow up the World Trade Center.
This plot clearly involves British Asians, who after the July 11 bombings in London last year have been recognized as one the most alienated Muslim groups in Europe. They are ripe for recruitment by Islamic extremists and al Qaeda. Despite the London bombings last year and riots in France, little has been done by governments to address the problems of Europe's large Muslim minorities, their chronic poverty, joblessness and lack of integration with mainstream society.
In addition, just as at least one of the bombers responsible for last year's London attacks traveled to Pakistan, some of those arrested today are likely to be British Pakistanis as well. After the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan has become the center of global terrorism and its soil still hosts extremist leaders from al' Qaeda and the Taliban as well as from Central Asia, Chechnya, Kashmir and Indonesia. Pakistan's own extremist groups provide back up and sanctuary to the foreign terrorists.
Even though this plot must have been months in the planning, the war in Lebanon and the widespread Muslim belief that the U.S. and Britain are cooperating to allow Israel to bomb Lebanon without restraint has most likely determined the timing of today's attempted attack.
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