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Wed Sep 29 03:00:39 BST 2010

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____________________________________
 From: jalperin at alum.mit.edu
Reply-to: med-events at list.pitt.edu
To:  med-events at list.pitt.edu
Sent: 9/28/2010 8:58:19 P.M. Central Daylight  Time
Subj: Re: [Med-events] CONCERN

'Mumbai-style' terror attack on UK, France and Germany  foiled

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/29/terror-attack-plot-europe-foiled

Wednesday  29 September 2010

A plot to launch "commando-style" attacks on Britain,  France, and 
Germany has been intercepted and foiled by drone attacks on  militants 
based in Pakistan, security and intelligence sources said last  night.

The plan for suicidal onslaughts similar to the 2008 atrocity in  
Mumbai - where 166 people were killed in a series of gun and grenade  
assaults - was disrupted after a combined operation involving US, UK,  
French and German intelligence agencies, officials said.

British  security and intelligence sources, who have been concerned 
for some time  about the possibility of a Mumbai-style attack in 
Europe, confirmed that  they believed a plot was being hatched from 
Pakistan.

The increased  rate of coordinated US drone raids along the border 
with Afghanistan is  believed to be a response to intelligence 
gathered about the plot.  Security sources insisted that attacks in 
Europe were not  imminent.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, however, has been evacuated twice  because 
of a bomb scare in the past two weeks, a precaution that may have  
been prompted by the intelligence.

No further evidence of such a  plot was provided. Jonathan Evans, the 
head of MI5, earlier this month  spoke publicly about the continuing 
threat of terror attacks in the UK. In  his speech, he suggested that 
around 50% of the plots identified had links  to Pakistan - a decline 
on previous estimates that suggested the figure  was nearer 75%.

The terror group behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks was the  outlawed, 
Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

In the aftermath of the  attack western intelligence agencies gained 
access to computers seized  from the Islamist group which listed other 
potential targets outside the  Indian subcontinent for commando-style 
terror strikes.

Nine of the  gunmen were killed - but a lone survivor gave Indian 
investigators a full  confession that the assault was planned in 
Pakistan by Lashkar, a militant  group that originally began an armed 
campaign against the Indian army in  Kashmir.

US military briefings suggested the latest missile attacks in  
Pakistan had been coordinated by the CIA and were an unusual example  
of using drones to pre-empt possible terror plots.

"There are some  pretty notable threat streams," one US military 
official told the Wall  Street Journal, adding that the significance 
of the threats is still being  assessed by counterterrorism experts.

The CIA is believed to have  launched at least 20 drone strikes this 
month in Pakistan's Federally  Administered Tribal Areas, the region 
bordering Afghanistan That is the  highest monthly total in the past 
six years, according tofigures from the  New America Foundation think 
tank which monitors drone  operations.

Four people were reported killed in the latest raid on  Monday by US 
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that are operated remotely  out of air 
force bases in the US. A senior al-Qaida leader was among one  of 
those killed in drone raids, Pakistani and US officials said  
yesterday.

There has also been speculation that some of the attacks  may be 
targeted against the Islamist Haqqani network, a group that has not  
previously operated outside the region.

The group controls the area  in north-western Pakistan where 
intelligence officials suspect Osama bin  Laden may be hiding.

American officials declined to comment on specific  plots in Europe or 
elsewhere but acknowledged that targeted drone strikes  in Pakistan 
were meant to disrupt militant networks planning  attacks.

"It shouldn't surprise anyone that links between plots and  those who 
are orchestrating them lead to decisive American action," a US  
official told Reuters.

"The terrorists who are involved are, as  everyone should expect, 
going to be targets. That's the whole point of all  of this."
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