Looks like the UK is serious about rooting out terrorists in their midst. According to reports, 16 suspects have been arrested in connection with the latest disruption of terrorist plots.

ritish police said on Saturday they had arrested 16 men in two separate anti-terrorism operations just three weeks after uncovering a suspected plot to bring down U.S.-bound airliners over the Atlantic.

Fourteen of the men were held in London in an operation that a police source said focused on suspected “training, recruitment and encouraging others to take part in terrorist activity”.

Anti-terrorist police in Manchester arrested two men early on Saturday and were carrying out three searches but this was not linked to the London arrests, police there said.

Most of these arrests seem to be related to terrorist training camps within Great britain, and are unrelated to the airline bombing plot that was recently disrupted.

Furthermore, it appears that the Brits are taking no chances, and are engaged in a great deal of surveilance of those with suspected links to terrorism.

British police are currently trying to monitor "thousands" of potential security suspects, the head of the anti-terrorism unit at London's Metropolitan Police said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday.

In an interview recorded in July, before the arrest of more than two dozen people on suspicion of an alleged plot to blow up US-bound aircraft, Peter Clarke said Britain was facing an increasing threat from homegrown extremists.

He refused to give an exact figure about how many people he said were either directly or indirectly involved in plotting atrocities on British soil but said the number ran into four figures.

"I don't want to go down the numbers game, I don't think it's helpful," he told a BBC television programme entitled "Al-Qaida -- Time to Talk?"

"All I can say is that our knowledge is increasing and certainly in terms of broad description, the numbers of people who we have to be interested in are into the thousands."

He added: "That includes a whole range of people, not just terrorists, not just attackers, but people who might be tempted to support or encourage or to assist."

Clarke highlighted the potential for home-grown terrorism in Britain since the September 2001 attacks on the United States, implicitly citing the July 2005 London bombings carried out by four British Muslim suicide bombers.

"What we've learnt since 9/11 is that the threat is not something that's simply coming from overseas into the United Kingdom. What we've learnt, and what we've seen all too graphically and all too murderously, is that we have a threat which is being generated here within the United Kingdom."

here's hoping that we are doing the same sort of thing here in the US -- and that we can keep it secret from the ACLU, New York Times, Washington Post and other al-Qaeda associates who would rather embarrass the Bush Administration than keep America safe.

UPDATE: Surprise! Surprise! Looks like one of the targets in the current investigation may be a Muslim "school" in East Sussex. It seems like it was less interested in education students thanindotrinating them in violent jihad. So much for the "Religion of Peace".

Posted by: Greg at 03:04 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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