NO EVIDENCE OF NETWORK OF AL QAEDA CELLS IN THE UK
CLAIMS OF MONEY TRANSFERS FROM PAKISTAN TO BRITAIN TO FINANCE TERRORISM DISMISSED AS RIDICULOUS BY EXPERT
It will go down as the most successful terror attack that never actually happened.
The uncovered plans to allegedly bomb 10 transatlantic flights out of Britain with liquid explosives was enough to throw British and American airports, and airliners, into total chaos last month.
But investigations have revealed the 10 Plane Terror Plot was not the result of Al Qaeda networks reaching into the UK, propped up by money from Pakistan.
As with the London Bombings of July 7, 2005, the alleged terrorists appear to have paid their own costs to set up the attacks, which may have amounted to less than $US10,000.
The gulf between the reality of British terror plots and the 'War On Terror' spin of President Bush and Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, about Al Qaeda's global terror network, continues to widen.
But it is vital for pro-War On Terror leaders like Bush, Howard and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to sell hard the myth that homegrown terrorists are trying to attack British, American and Australian targets because "they hate freedom" or because "they hate our way of life".
To admit that the West is increasingly becoming a breeding ground of homegrown terrorists, angry at the civilian casualties of the 'War On Terror' would be to destroy the mythology they have been burnishing and furnishing, and reinventing, for more than four solid years.
From the UK Independent :
The alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, described as one of the most highly sophisticated terrorist operations ever organised, would have cost less than £ 7,000 to carry out, according to security sources.
Estimates vary on the total cost of the disruption caused last month by the alleged plot. But all sources agree it is upwards of £300m.
It had been claimed that huge sums of money were transferred from Pakistan to "blow up" as many as 10 aircraft packed with passengers heading for the US.
However, the alleged attacks would have cost no more than the money estimated to have been spent on the 7/7 suicide bombings in London last year, and there is no evidence of vast amounts of money coming from abroad.
The explosive mixture, which would allegedly have been used to produce bombs on board the planes, including a volatile liquid known as HMTD, is fairly inexpensive to buy.
Seven "martyrdom videos", allegedly made by six suspects, one allegedly stating "as you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will be killed", would have had a total production cost of less than £15.
The police also allegedly found computer memory cards, CDs and DVDs containing details of the attack, altogether costing less than £500.
Two of the alleged plotters did not even have passports. The maximum costs of two passports obtained under a fast-track system in a day would have been just over £200.
Other items allegedly recovered in connection with the plot included plastic buckets, batteries, empty drinks bottles, digital scales and a disposable camera.
The biggest cost of such an attack would have been the airline tickets.
"There was an awful lot in the media about how money had poured in from Pakistan. But there is absolutely no evidence of this.
"Does it really make sense for money to be sent from an impoverished country like Pakistan to a vastly wealthy place like Britain? Sympathisers here could easily subsidise attacks. In any case, such an operation would have been very cheap to mount".
There is also no evidence, despite media reports to the contrary, that any "terrorist mastermind" had flown in from overseas to run the mission.
According to security sources, most of the alleged terrorist plots that have been discovered in this country were organised by small groups of people.
"We have not come across any evidence of a grand, well-funded al-Qa'ida branch here," said a source.
"There is very little or no connection between the various groups of people we have arrested on different jobs.
"What we are talking about, effectively, are home-grown plots using material which is easy to get hold of and pretty cheap to buy."
