UK:AUTHORITIES IN Britain are expected to make a speedy decision on whether to seek the retrial of seven men accused of planning mass murder by means of suicide attacks on board transatlantic aircraft, writes Frank Millar, London Editor
After 56 hours of deliberations, a jury on Monday found three men - Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain - guilty of conspiring to commit mass murder through bomb explosions.
However, while an eighth man was cleared at Woolwich Crown Court, the jury was unable to agree whether the seven accused had planned as alleged to use liquid bombs to attack at least seven airliners flying from Heathrow airport to North America with some 1,500 people aboard as part of the biggest terrorist plot since the September 11th attacks on the United States.
Police were unable to comment publicly on the jury's decision amid reports of dismay bordering on disbelief at its rejection of what the authorities considered the strongest terrorism case presented to a British court.
Prosecutors and police were locked in talks in what was widely characterised as a "crisis" atmosphere, amid evident post-trial fallout in the Anglo-American security establishment. Some terrorism experts suggested the detention of British terror suspect Rashid Rauf in Pakistan in August 2006, at the request of the American authorities, had forced British police to swoop earlier than they had wished on the British terror cell in east London.
However, former head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command, Peter Clarke, still hailed Monday's verdict as a significant achievement for "the surveillance society" and the convictions secured "another important landmark in a series of terrorist cases stretching back to 2004."
The suspected airline plot had a dramatic, immediate and lasting effect on conditions for air travel, and Virgin Atlantic yesterday suggested it was now time for a review of current restrictions on hand baggage on flights. The men on trial had been accused of plotting to bring down airliners with home-made liquid bombs disguised as soft drinks. Virgin's director of communications Paul Charles said: "Maybe now is the time for a review to take a look at how appropriate the current rules are for taking liquids on board an aircraft. Certainly it's important to have restrictions in place when the country is on the highest state of alert."
But he added: "There are different rules at different airports around the world, so it would make more sense to review all of these to make sure there's continuity worldwide."
The BBC said senior British Airways sources would also like to see the restrictions lifted. The government, however, insisted they must remain in place, a Department of Transport spokesman saying: "The court has proven that a generic capability exists to create liquid bombs from domestic items."
Mr Clarke, who was still in command when the alleged conspiracy surfaced, was also adamant the restrictions were necessary. "This means of detonation is still in the hands of the terrorists . . . to think of going back to a position where the terrorists could defeat airport security, seems to me foolhardy," he said.
The American authorities last night repeated their determination to capture Rashid Rauf, who disappeared from custody in Pakistan some time after his detention in Bahawalpur in August 2006.
Prof Michael Clarke, director of the Royal Services Institute, said it appeared to be the case that a "high-level" American decision to have Rauf arrested had effectively forced the hand of the British authorities. "There is no doubt from my view that the British authorities moved in on this conspiracy earlier than they wanted to," he said.