Time Magazine details some of the background of the “Airline Plot”.

“Wednesday night was a long and troubling one for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. A bubbling plot by British citizens to blow up airplanes had come to a boil in the past three days, and as British authorities arrested dozens of suspects around London, it was Chertoff’s job to coordinate the U.S. defenses. Scary intelligence reports pop up all the time, but this particular terror operation got close enough to being carried out that it rattled even the normally sedate Chertoff. “Very seldom do things get to me,” he told Rep. Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in a phone call late Wednesday night. “This one has really gotten to me.”

Chertoff had good reason to be worried. Senior U.S officials have confirmed to TIME details of the plot that led the secretary to ratchet up the color-coded security alert for British-U.S. flights to an unprecedented red for “Severe.” A total of 24 individuals were arrested in Britain overnight and, says one senior U.S. official who was briefed on the plot, five still remain at large. Their plan was to smuggle the peroxide-based liquid explosive TATP and detonators onto nine different planes from four carriers ‚Äî British Airways, Continental, United and American ‚Äî that fly direct routes between the U.K and the U.S. and blow them up mid-air. Intelligence officials estimate that about 2,700 people would have perished, according to the official.”

…

“Britain’s MI-5 intelligence service and Scotland Yard had been tracking the plot for several months, but only in the past two weeks had the plotters’ planning begun to crystallize, senior U.S. officials tell TIME. In the two or three days before the arrests, the cell was going operational, and authorities were pressed into action. MI5 and Scotland Yard agents tracked the plotters from the ground, while a knowledgeable American official says U.S. intelligence provided London authorities with intercepts of the group’s communications. Most of the suspects are second or third generation British citizens of Pakistani descent whose families hailed from war-torn Kashmir. U.S. officials believe the 29 members were divided into multiple cells and planned to break into small groups to board the nine planes.”

The article goes on though to say that we and other IC members are not convinced this is an Al Qaeda plot. Indeed Newsmax reports:

“These are wannabes,” the FBI agent said. “They are driven by the same ideology that drives al-Qaida, and they are inspired by al-Qaida, but they have no known ties to al-Qaida.”

Indeed, key counterterrorism officials say they have so disrupted al-Qaida and effectively isolated Osama bin Laden that the organization would have great difficulty carrying out such a plot today.

“Al-Qaida still exists, but its capability is close to non-existent,” the FBI source said.”

Possibly, but with any crime there are bound to be copycats and as we are finding out in the Miami case, disgruntled youth and gangs are being recruited, as well as young people from all different walks of life. This is far more ominious than if we did have one or two “groups” to target.

You don’t need a whole lot of coordination to pull a plot off what with the internet and cell phone to coordinate. Any group of punks (with a little cash) can get something off the ground. That makes the detection all that much harder, yet it speaks well of the fantastic job the IC communities here and in Britain did to foil the plot.

Note too from the Time article that the NSA programs WORK and SAVE LIVES. Not one piece of shared information harmed anyone except those who wanted to harm us. Stick that in your Specter and smoke it!

UPDATE: Reports that differ on the Al Qaeda connection via Fox News:

“British officials Friday identified 19 of the suspects accused of planning to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft in the biggest terrorist plot to be uncovered since 9/11. In Pakistan, officials reported signs of an Al Qaeda connection and said they had detained a “key person” in the case….

The Guardian newspaper, citing unidentified British government sources, said after the first two arrests were made in Pakistan, a message was sent to Britain telling the plotters: “Do your attacks now.” That message was intercepted and decoded earlier this week, The Guardian said.

A U.S. congressman briefed by intelligence officials, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said U.S. intelligence had intercepted terrorist chatter.

Authorities pressed ahead Friday with efforts to smash the purported terror ring. Two U.S. officials said British, U.S. and Pakistani investigators were trying to trace the steps of the suspects in Pakistan and determine whether some of them attended terrorist training camps there.”