Suspected plot to kill Blair foiled

[LittleApple81]

Suspected plot to kill Blair foiled
Ben English
London
17aug04

BRITISH anti-terror authorities have foiled a suspected al-Qaida plot to assassinate Tony Blair. Police swooped on two Lithuanian asylum-seekers believed to be spying on the British Prime Minister's constituency home in England's north.
Just days after Osama bin Laden approved a plan to target world leaders in the next phase of al-Qaida's global terror campaign, the men were caught with surveillance equipment less than a kilometre from Mr Blair's country home.

Sources said the pair raised alarm bells because they displayed the hallmarks of al-Qaida spying behaviour.

Using a stolen car fitted with false number plates, they filmed roads and traffic surrounding their suspected target and were carrying a highly detailed map of Trimdon, County Durham.

more at link: (I don't know much about the Herald Sun...)
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10465545%255E663,00.html

[nickinSTL]

1. Lithuanians?

Working with al-Qaeda?

:wtf:

[Catfight]

2. You know, if you drop the "B" in Blair, you get BUSH!

[Democat]

3. Lithuanians?

Are they part of the "coalition of the paid off?"

[iconoclastic cat]

4. There has to be a joke in here somewhere...

[amber dog democrat]

5. Lithuanians ? ? ?

< snyp " they displayed the hallmarks of al-Qaida spying behaviour. "> ????

Not that it would be that great a loss - I'd think for all the disasterous decisions Bush's Poodle has been involved in - aiding and abetting the Chimp, they'd leave him alone. Great Brittian is already being harmed with Blair in place as PM.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Sounds a highly dubious story to me

the only other mention of it on the web is this: http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10465043%255E401,00.html

which says it came via the Daily Express - a tabloid. It also says:
"After their arrest, the Lithuanians were deported. Police said they were satisfied no security issues were involved."

Problems with the story:

Lithuania isn't somewhere you quickly associate with al Qaeda;

Lithuanians can't seek asylum in the UK - they're members of the EU. This gives them the right to work in the UK (but not to live if they're out of work; but they can't seek asylum, and were stopped from doing so a bit before Lithuania joined the EU);

If "intelligence chiefs are reportedly working on the theory the men had been hired by intermediaries to keep higher-ranking members of the terror cell at arm's length", then they wouldn't have deported them (as the news.com.au story, by the same journalist, claims) - they'd keep them in custody, which they could, if the car was stolen;

One of the stories says "police said they were satisfied no security issues were involved".

[allemand]

7. "Lithuanian asylum-seekers" does make no sense

On 1.5.2004 Lithuania joined the European Union...

[Imalittleteapot]

8. Is Rove working for Blair now?????????????

Sounds like it.

[daleo]

9. To assume they were after Blair is also stretching it a bit

From the article: ""To dismiss these as nothing more than a couple of wandering foreigners out to see the British countryside is stretching it a bit," a source said."

The only really suspicious thing is the stolen car. The camera and map would not be surprising for tourists. I have often possessed these very items when on vacation.

On edit - If someone really wanted to do in Blair, they would probably try to sneak chicken bones into his dog dish.