Incredible lengths UK government went to to thwart Al Qaeda terror attack on Heathrow
Share:
The size of a “ring of steel” thrown round Heathrow to foil an Al-Qaeda terror attack surprised Home Secretary David Blunkett. About 450 heavily-armed soldiers from the Grenadier Guards and Household Cavalry, some in armoured vehicles, joined 1,050 other troops and armed police to guard the airport in February 2003. MI5 had received intelligence that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden planned a missile attack on Heathrow with a portable weapon.
Mr Blunkett told the Labour Cabinet “The Armed Forces had not been expected to use their military hardware so visibly and this had, perhaps, led to the threat seeming more dramatic than was the case.”. Ministers dismissed claims the ring of steel was “merely a tactic” to build support for the impending invasion of Iraq by British and American forces. Three months earlier, Al-Qaeda fired two shoulder-mounted Sam-7 missiles at an Israeli airliner with 270 passengers after it took off in Mombasa, Kenya. The pilot saw the missiles streak past and decided to fly on to Israel.
Newly released files about the same Labour Government show how Tony Blair defied "Big Beast" Labour MPs when he gave eastern European migrants unrestricted access to work in the UK. The then-Prime Minister faced a wave of warnings from senior ministers over his plans to allow mass migration more than 20 years ago, documents state.
Deputy PM John Prescott and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw both urged delay, urging the Government to impose some controls. But others - including Home Secretary David Blunkett - argued that the economy needed the “flexibility and productivity of migrant labour” to prosper.
