Friday August 11, 4:52 PM
London airline plot echoes 1995 Al-Qaeda plan in Asia: experts
An alleged terror plot to blow up US-bound jetliners from Britain is eerily reminiscent of a foiled 1995 Al-Qaeda conspiracy to explode planes from Asia over the Pacific Ocean, experts say.
Liquid explosives smuggled on to planes with timed detonators were key to Operation Bojinka, which planned to blow up in mid-air flights from Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore.
But the plot hatched in a drab Manila apartment was thwarted after a fire at the premises led police to discover explosives and computer disks containing detailed plans to bomb a dozen airliners two weeks later.
The masterminds were Ramzi Yousef, now serving life in a US prison for his part in the bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York in 1993, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the brains behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
The latter was later captured in Pakistan which handed him over to the US authorities.
On Thursday British police arrested 24 people and said they had foiled a plot to smuggle liquid explosives and electronic devices on board 10 flights to cities in the United States.
Arabinda Acharya, an analyst with the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told AFP that the plots bore striking similarities.
"Both plots have similarities," Acharya said. "In both the explosive was to be liquid and brought on in hand luggage."
Yousef had favoured nitroglycerin gel, although no details of the liquid in the London case has yet been released.
"That is why people are not being allowed to take liquids or gels onboard aircraft. This method has been around for a decade or more," said Acharya.
Where the London plot appears to differ is that the bombers were allegedly prepared to blow themselves up while the Manila bombers planned to use timers and get off the aircraft.
"London to US is direct whereas in Asia it is easy to take a US-bound flight but connect with other cities in Asia before crossing the Pacific," Acharya said of the 1995 plan for bombers to disembark during a stopover.
Acharya said the men would have caught the aircraft on the regional leg of the flights and carried nitroglycerin in saline solution bottles typically carried by contact lens wearers as part of their hand luggage.
Each bomber would set a timer and leave the aircraft in places like Hong Kong and Singapore well before the aircraft was turned round for the US leg of the flights.
Avelino Razon, who was head of the Manila police force at the time, told AFP he was not surprised would-be terrorists would hatch a similar plot.
"All of this (the evidence) was turned over to the Americans ... so it comes as no surprise that they would try it again," Razon said.
The 1995 plot was unmasked on January 6, 1995, with the plane bombs planned for January 21 and 22 that year.
"If it had not been for the fire in Youssef's apartment we would not have uncovered the plot. The number of dead would have been huge," Razon said.
According to investigators, Yousef, an engineer like his Pakistani father, arrived in Manila in the fall of 1994 with plans to assassinate then US president Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II during separate state visits to the Philippines.
But both plans were scrapped in favor of bombing US-bound aircraft, with Yousef operating from an apartment in Manila's Malate tourist district and conducting small-scale test runs.
After the fire, Youssef slipped out of the Philippines via the Muslim-populated southern island of Mindanao.
Officials and analysts said the two plots were alarmingly similar and bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda.
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the plot "had a lot of members, and it was international in scope," likening it to the 1995 Manila operation.
Robert Mueller, head of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said the reported plan, which British authorities said they had thwarted, had "the earmarks of an Al-Qaeda plot".
source