"al-Qaeda planned to hijack Heathrow flights and fly planes into the airport and a Canary Wharf skyscraper, an official US report has confirmed.
Reports of the plots had previously surfaced in the media but this is the first time they have been officially confirmed.
It is believed the plots were disrupted by security services, although no arrests are thought to have been made.
The Department of Homeland Security report, dated 16 June 2006, lists nine attempts by al-Qaeda, not including 11 September, to attack aviation targets worldwide.
The original reports of a possible plot against Canary Wharf emerged in late 2004, but the details were murky and officials declined to confirm them.
In February 2003, tanks were deployed to Heathrow Airport to deal with a suspected terrorist threat, a move which proved controversial. It is not believed the deployment of the tanks was linked to the same Canary Wharf plot confirmed by the US report.
One attack named in the report, planned for the summer of 2003, aimed to use camera flash attachments as stun guns as well as cameras to disguise bomb components.
In this plot, the airliners were to be crashed into targets in the east coast of the US, Australia, Britain and Italy.
The report makes clear that al-Qaeda remains interested in attacking aviation targets and "likely desires a successful repeat of a 2001 suicide hijacking against the United States".
It lists a number of ways that it could use aircraft as weapons or target different parts of the industry. Amongst the areas of concern are the use of lasers to blind or distract pilots.
The report says the Department of Homeland Security "continues to receive information on terrorist threats to the US aviation industry worldwide; however, there is no recent information to suggest near-term operational planning may be under way within the United States".
What are your opinions to this?
It actually kinda shocked me that things are getting closer and closer to the uk these days!
xxxx
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