UPDATE: All were freed without being charged.
Unfortunately, it was almost entirely predictable that something like this would turn up during the Pope's visit. It is also not unlike a report from a few weeks ago in which jihadists posing as rail workers were to be pre-positioned to wreak havoc during the 2012 Olympics. What remains to be seen, of course, is any affiliation these five may have with larger jihadist groups -- in this case, particularly Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
More on this story. "Five Street Cleaners Held Over 'Pope Plot'," by John di Paolo for Sky News, September 17:
Five street cleaners have been arrested over a potential threat to the Pope, Sky News sources say.
Armed counter-terror officers swooped on the central London agency to which they were registered in the early hours of the morning.
The suspects, who are aged 26, 27, 36, 40 and 50, are being held and questioned under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The firm where the arrests were made is now being searched, as well as homes in north and east London.
Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said he understood the men were Algerian nationals employed by the agency to work for Westminster City Council.
He said they were due to clean streets around the House of Commons, where the Pope is due to speak, prompting police to launch the operation to arrest them.
Brunt said: "I was at a briefing last week around the whole issue of the Pope's security and the point was made then that there was no known threat or intelligence to suggest a plot against the Pope.
"What the police are dealing with today is something that has cropped up in the last 24 hours."
Dr Leith Penny, Westminster City Council's director for city management, said: "The UK's security is obviously of critical importance and can never be taken for granted and so our congratulations must go to the police authorities for their swift action today.
"While police investigations are ongoing and no charges have been brought, we can confirm that the people at the centre of the investigation work for one of our contractors, Veolia Environmental Services, who employ 650 on-street staff to keep Westminster's streets clean and free from rubbish.
"Veolia and Westminster City Council work closely with the relevant authorities to constantly ensure that all the people working on their behalf are subject to right to work checks as prescribed by the Home Office to assess their eligibility to work in the country.
"We are confident that these checks are robust and we will continue to work with the police and other authorities during this investigation."
The Pope was told of the arrests this morning, but a spokesman for the Vatican confirmed the itinerary would not change.
"We are calm, the Pope is happy and we go on with the same joy we have had until now," he said.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "Initial searches have not uncovered any hazardous items.
"Today's arrests were made after police received information. Following initial inquiries by detectives, a decision was made to arrest the five men....
They were probably upset about the Crusades, or Abu Graeb or something like that which is our fault, and were planning a peaceful attack, as Islam is a religion of peace.
Our leaders wouldn't tell us this if it weren't true.
http://whyyouexist.blogspot.com
I just heard this story on CNN. Not a word on who the suspects are, of course, so I came to JW to get the real news. Unsurprisingly, they are again believers in the Religion of Peace doing what they are told is their duty. Another day another attempted killing, this time the head of the Roman Catholic church.
Update: CNN story is playing again - they are telling the ages of the suspects and the reporter is saying "that's all we know". Questioned about the motive, she says "it's a mystery".
The MSM would be a joke if they weren't such a disgrace.
But...but...but
Everyone knows that Islam is a "religion of peace!" Our leaders have continulally reassured us of that "fact", haven't they? Didn't Muhammad state "To me your religion, and to you your religion?" And did he not say, "There is no compulsion in religion?"
Those poor, deluded followers of the "R.O.P", who so misunderstand their scriptures (sarcasm)...
The word of a pious Muslim "isn't worth a bucket of warm spit" (substitute an "h" for the "p", if you wish)!
Why in the world are the Brits still allowing Muslims to immigrate and form festering hotbeds of hostile, intolerant enemies of Western values? Oh, I know, their government and intelligentsia are shot full of moral and multicultural relativists. That will lead to the downfall of Great Britain, and it is a fortaste of things to come in the U.S. unless we wise up...
"Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said he understood the men were Algerian nationals employed by the agency to work for Westminster City Council.
He said they were due to clean streets around the House of Commons, where the Pope is due to speak, prompting police to launch the operation to arrest them."
Algerians? Why are Algerian nationals
1) allowed to be employed when there are many unemployed in Great Britain, not all of whom are adherents of an ideology that inculcates the need to remove -- by murder if necessary -- all obstacles to the spread, and then the dominance, of Islam?
2) allowed to be employed street-cleaning right around the Houses of Parliament?
3) allowed to live in Great Britain at all. They are not citizens. What are they doing there? How many hundreds of thousands of such people are living in London, living in Great Britain? Why?
Finally, is there any well-informed person left in the Western world who would dare to take issue with the following statement:
"The large-scale presence of Muslims in the countries of Western Europe has led to a situation, for the indigenous non-Muslims and for other, immigrant non-Muslims, that is far more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous than would be the case without such a large-scale Muslim presence."
U.K.: Those arrested in plot to kill Pope are "Algerian street cleaners"
Haven't they got streets in Algeria they could sweep? Y'know, deport them.
The papers likely got their wording a bit wrong: these five were not "Algerian street sweepers", but the "sweepings of Algerian streets".
The Pope offended the Muslims a couple of years ago with his 'Regensburg Address', see links under Pope Benedict at http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-islam.html
Some information (Oct 2009) on the Islamic jihad threat from Algeria:
"Exclusive: Al Qaeda's North African Connection (Part Three of Three)" by Adrian Morgan;
-for Part 1 and 2, see links at top of Part 3.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.4588/pub_detail.asp
The chances are they will be out soon after many apologies and monetary compensation for unjust and unlawful arrest.
In the meantime we can expect burning of the British flag in most muzzlum capitals.
Heard this on the news about half an hour ago where these jokers were described as simply "five men." Looked at my wife who was watching the news with me and said the chances these guys aren't Muslim is almost statistically zero.
So IF this is all a big bust and the tip was a hoax, will each and every single one of you ripping apart an entire faith of 1.5 billion people apologize at least to the six arrested men? For some reason I doubt it. And this is why your message (WHICH IS VERY TRUE AND RELEVANT) will fall on deaf ears.
If you wish to remain moral and have a legit voice, you must be consistent. If these guys are innocent the RIGHT thing to do is to apologize to them (in spirit). Otherwise, you are a simple-minded bigot. It's one thing to hate al-Queda or the Taliban because those guys have earned it. But these six men, if actually just innocent street cleaners and nothing more, shouldn't have to face your hate simply for sharing the faith of the aforementioned.
Hugh,
I believe street-cleaning is such a highly-skilled occupation that no-one in Europe - let alone the UK - has the necessary acumen to do it. Hence the need to import Algerians to do the job.
It has nothing to do with fact that the previous Labour Government instigated a covert mass immigration policy back in 2000 whose objective was to alter the very social fabric of the nation to fulfil their Marxist wet dream of a UK where no one ethnic group was a majority, and in so doing making it virtually impossible for the Conservative Party to win a General Election outright.
Other occupations which Europeans are incapable of doing include: stacking supermarket shelves, driving taxis and moving boxes from one side of a room to the other.
But if these five guys were Christians, I'm sure the general U.S. newsmedia would not mention their religious affiliation either, right? heh heh.
Of course they would! We would have the name(s) of their church(es), and the names of who taught them in Sunday School as children, coupled with an outcry for all Christians everywhere to quit being so hateful!
Double-standards kinda stick in my craw....
What the hell are you talking about? They've mentioned dozens of times that these men are of Algerian decent and the words "suspected Islamic terrorists" have already been mentioned too.
I was just watching part of the coverage of the evening service, on EWTN. It seems His Holiness and the Archbishop both arrived safely to their destination, thus foiling the plans of the would-be evildoers. Well done.
We cannot even trust Muslims to clean "shiite" from the streets properly without going berserk and wanting to flip out and kill someone.
It's past time they were all deported and sent home for our personal safety.
The West should wake up already. Under our obsession with fairness we are being unfair to ourselves. Every Muslim is a suspect as long as she or he reject the fact that everything written in the Qoran is right and till she or he apologize to the world for the blood shed and the displacement of whole civilizations from their lands since the inseption of Islam.
Till then Muslims should be treated with great vigilance because among them will dwell these elements who are obsessed with destroying us and everything that we believe in. Wake UP...
It's all about what is statistically likely. If a possible terrorist attempt of some kind is mentioned and then it turns out that no attempt occurred, this still doesn't mean that one should suspect Hindus, Christian, Jews, Buddhists, etc., on an equal plane with Muslims since the overwhelming number of terrorist actions throughout the world are perpetrated by Muslims. You play the odds. Get real.
Many Islamic doctrines are a prescription for violence and intolerance (e.g., Mohammed himself said that anyone who insults him should be killed; death for leaving the Islamic faith for another). This is why almost every single day some Islamic terrorist attack or attempted attack occurs, over 16,000 actual attacks just since 9/11. As for apologizing to the world's Muslims, man do you have it ass backwards. The Muslims of the world should apologize to everyone else for believing in a creed which has turned out to be the world's biggest pain in the ass.
Hugh said,
'Finally, is there any well-informed person left in the Western world who would dare to take issue with the following statement:'
"The large-scale presence of Muslims in the countries of Western Europe has led to a situation, for the indigenous non-Muslims and for other, immigrant non-Muslims, that is far more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous than would be the case without such a large-scale Muslim presence."
The answer to your question is No!
But the notice the caveat,'WELL INFORMED'
Theres the rub, there are not many 'well-informed' people in the Western world.
But with you and Mr.Spencer (and others) dedicated to working so hard to expose the grave threat of Islamic totalitarianism, hopefully we will have more 'well-informed' persons.
Thank You for your efforts in this cause.
Latest is that a sixth man was arrested 8 hours after the arrest of the others. Arrests were made following a police investigation by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command after a tip off received by Scotland Yard, not on the basis of any intelligence gathering by the domestic security service MI5.
@channe, if words alone are, as you submit, ''ripping an entire faith apart'', then surely your own statement should give you great cause for introspection, should it not? Truths as Facts are determinable, and can be proven empirically, and until they are, from a scientific standpoint, merely speculation. So, at this specific point in 'time' and 'place', you should, for starters, submit to the truth of logic.
"So IF this is all a big bust and the tip was a hoax, will each and every single one of you ripping apart an entire faith of 1.5 billion people apologize at least to the six arrested men? For some reason I doubt it. "
It is a good thing that you doubt that there would be no apology. While I can and do only speak for myself let me do just that so that you, I and the entire muslim world can be clear.
The time has passed long ago because of the behavior of muslims that you will NEVER receive an apology from me. Lets say for sake of argument that these "algerians" are innocent. Still they do not deserve an apology. The 16000 ISLAMIC terror attacks and even more killed from these attacks are what prohibits an apology. Their coreligionists and their actions prevent apology and prevent benefit of the doubt as to their guilt.
As far as your claim that we are ripping apart an entire faith. All I can say to that is "I am proud to rip the Islamic faith apart." it is a faith that does not belong in the modern world. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING can convince me that Islam can coexist in its current form with the rest of the world. Tomorrow if all the leading imams in the world took the Koran and Hadiths etc, and ripped out and burned every single passage that is offensive to me I would still look on with suspicion. 16000 violent attacks carried out by your coreligionists (that you REFUSE to condemn) is the reason I have that suspicion. My many many months in Iraq & Afghanistan and dealing with Muslims prohibit me from being stupid and giving Muslims the benefit of the doubt.
Do you get it yet? It is the actions of Muslims that make me look at them with suspicion. It is that simple. The violent actions and the complete lack of Muslims themselves condemning the violence is what has made you and them suspects.
Islamic lying compounds the problem. Here is your example & for the sake of not making my post too long you get one example when I got hundreds.
Muslims get caught planning an Islamic terrorists attack. The evidence is overwhelming that they got their motivation from the koran, hadiths, etc. The "friendly" CAIR or MSA stooge gets on the news and makes the claim that Islam has nothing to do with this (never mind the shouts of allah akbar) CAIR stooge says that "Islam condemns the killing of any INNOCENT person" Then we watch MERMITV with Muslims talking to each other telling each other that the ONLY INNOCENT PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE OTHER MUSLIMS & the FILTHY INFIDEL CANNOT BE INNOCENT UNLESS THEY CONVERT TO ISLAM"
The FACT that Muslims twist the word INNOCENT around to only apply to them makes it impossible for me to believe a single word coming out of a Muslims mouth.
You HAD the chance to live in peace with me and you had the chance for me to accept you and want you around. You blew that chance. 9.11.01 happened. 16000 terrorist acts committed by your religion. %99.85 acts that fall under the definition of terrorism committed by muslims in the past decade. Your ONLY way for me to see you as a fellow member of the human race ever is for YOU to renounce and fight against your very own religion.
Last thing, Let me be very clear (unlike you muslims I do NOT mince my words) I am an Atheist. My personal religious beliefs are pretty much identical to Richard Dawkins. That wins me no friends with conservative Christians. I am not a liberal though (perhaps my military service stopped that from happening) As an Atheist though I can coexist with Christians in the 21st century. What happened 500 years ago while important for understand mankind's history does not really apply to the 21st century. Witch burnings, Crusades, inquisition, are not relevant these days. For now my Atheism is protected here in the United States. There is only ONE religion that threatens my safety. Only ONE religion that is openly attempting to subjugate me. Channe you and I both know what religion that is, and I think that says volumes.
I think most of us make the mistake when the word "WE" is used.
The overwhelming vast majority of western politicians, and the overwhelming vast majority of those in the western media either have no clue about Islam or blatantly lie about Islam to attempt to defend it.
Meanwhile the civilian populace of the western world are getting more and more informed about Islam. While I can guarantee that when I turn on the news the idiot behind the desk will defend the Islamists, I also know that %99 of the "regular people" I talk to in daily life see Islam as the threat that it is.
There is a HUGE disconnect between Western Politicians & MSM News dorks and the people of the Western world. I think we make a big mistake when we use the word "WE" combining the 2 groups.
is there any well-informed person left in the Western world who would dare to take issue with the following statement:
"The large-scale presence of Muslims in the countries of Western Europe has led to a situation, for the indigenous non-Muslims and for other, immigrant non-Muslims, that is far more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous than would be the case without such a large-scale Muslim presence."
For the Leftists the presence of a large scale Muslim population is useful to its aims to humiliate and destroy the West by destroying its identity and self believe. The argument is: we are so guilt ridden that even a racist, fascist, supremacist ideology like Islam is infinitely preferable than what we have. At the core of the Lefts program is a destructive, suicidal self-loathing.
So the awareness to your question is yes the Left would argue that very point.
This interview covers this point.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/09/17/leftist-professors-and-double-standards/
The editorial comment of the interviewer, Jamie Glazov, interviewing Dr. Fred Gottheil, a professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, is spot on:
FP: Well, I would disagree with you about leftists’ genuine concern about discrimination against women, gays, and lesbians. This “concern” of theirs, as sociologist Paul Hollander has documented, is really just a weapon for them to use in their war against their own society. Destroying their host capitalist society is what matters to them and they will use whatever weapons are available to them in that quest for destruction. David Horowitz illuminates this disturbing mindset in the context of leftist academics in The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.
So the proposition we are faced with is: to defeat the threat of Islam we have to defeat the ideological program of the Left that has pervaded political thought and discourse for the last 50 year. I charge Obama with being part of this program, and the people he surrounds himself with evidence that.
So my question is: is there any well-informed person left in the Western world who would dare to take issue with that.
Some on the Left will, faced with the increasing absurdity of their program, in time have an epiphany and abandon it. However the facts and evidence, much of it chronicled by this blog, is so overwhelming that it must lead us to conclude we are dealing with closed mindset, beyond reason where evidence is irrelevant - the mission is set.
Sky News was the first to mention the suspects' nationality. Other news outlets denied it as a rumor.
Based on the news coverage earlier today, you would think that the suspects were Atheists, militant Pagans or right-wing Evangelical Christians. You see, the Pope offended Pagans when he said that the Nazis were pagan. The emphasis was on a Britain that was Secular and "nominally Protestant".
I think the BBC was hoping that they would turn out to be BNP members.
England needs to clean its own streets.
And a lot more.
One quranimal = jihadi
Two quranimals = jihad
Let me see. The 'Protest the Pope' campaign crowd in Britain, along with many others, has accused the Pope of being personally responsible for the paedophilia scandals in the Church, and demanded his resignation. Richard Dawkins has even demanded that the Pope would be arrested on his arrival in the UK. All this despite the fact that the Pope was not directly involved in the abuses and the claims of his even indirect involvement are unfounded. Then we have the accusations against Florida Pastor Terry Jones that blame him for all the attacks, actual and potential, by Muslims against Christians, Americans and even Westerners in general. If we apply the same logic used by Peter Tatchell, Richard Dawkins and other people of the same ilk to them, they could be held responsible for igniting the anger behind the plot to kill the Pope.
Human Health and Animal Ethics
These six guys may be in the same category as the flying imams.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2010/09/18/six-held-pose-no-credible-threat-115875-22571293/
The BBC quoted Scotland Yard sources saying that the men posed no credible threat, while the Sunday Mirror said the the men had simply been overheard sharing a joke in their canteen.
It must have been a pretty serious-sounding 'joke' for someone - in heavily PC Britain - to be so spooked by it that they overcome their fear of being called 'racist' or 'Islamophobic', and phoned the Authorities.
"If you see/ hear something - say something".
I hope this affaire will not deter people in future from tipping off M15 or even just the local cop-shop if they overhear something that sounds like a jihad plot in the hatching.
We don't want to be desensitised, and fail to report a real plot because we're scared we might be imagining things. 100 parcels may be innocently-abandoned parcels, one may be a practical joke and...the 102nd parcel will be a bomb.
Genuine plotters might claim to have been 'only joking'.
So
time to re-post a classic from the archives, for the benefit of all our new readers.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2007/03/i-am-john-doe.html
(Though perhaps, for England, we might rephrase the title as 'I am John Bull' or "I am St George")
'I am John Doe'
A magisterial column by Michelle Malkin
"Dear Muslim Terrorist Plotter/Planner/Funder/Enabler/Apologist,
"You do not know me. But I am on the lookout for you. You are my enemy. And I am yours.
"I am John Doe.
"I am traveling on your plane. I am riding on your train. I am at your bus stop. I am on your street. I am in your subway car [for British readers, substitute: "I am on the Underground" - dda]. I am on your lift.
"I am your neighbor. I am your customer. I am your classmate. I am your boss.
"I am John Doe.
"I will never forget the example of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be murdered in the name of Islam without a fight.
"I will never forget the passengers and crew members who tackled al Qaeda shoe-bomber Richard Reid on American Airlines Flight 63 before he had a chance to blow up the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
"I will never forget the alertness of actor James Woods, who notified a stewardess that several Arab men sitting in his first-class cabin on an August 2001 flight were behaving strangely. The men turned out to be 9/11 hijackers on a test run.
"I will act when homeland security officials ask me to "report suspicious activity."
"I will embrace my local police department's admonition: "If you see something, say something."
"I am John Doe.
"I will protest your Jew-hating, America-bashing [add, "England-bashing" - dda] "scholars."
"I will petition against your hate-mongering mosque leaders.
"I will raise my voice against your subjugation of women and religious minorities.
"I will challenge your attempts to indoctrinate my children in our schools.
"I will combat your violent propaganda on the Internet.
"I am John Doe.
"I will support law enforcement initiatives to spy on your operatives, cut off your funding and disrupt your murderous conspiracies.
"I will oppose all attempts to undermine our borders and immigration laws.
"I will resist the imposition of sharia principles and sharia law in my taxi cab, my restaurant, my community pool, the halls of Congress [British readers, substitute "the Houses of Parliament" - dda], our national monuments, the radio and television airwaves, and all public spaces.
"I will not be censored in the name of tolerance.
"I will not be cowed by your Beltway [British readers, substitute the appropriate term - perhaps 'town and county'? - dda] lobbying groups in moderates' clothing. I will not cringe when you shriek about "profiling" or "Islamophobia."
"I will put my family's safety above sensitivity.
"I will put my country above multiculturalism.
"I will not submit to your will.
"I WILL NOT SURRENDER.
" I will not be intimidated.
"I am John Doe."