(Europe) Security Forces Lose Track of Cell Armed w/ SA-7s

[Drizzt]

Sunday Mirror


February 16, 2003, Sunday

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 9

LENGTH: 143 words

HEADLINE: SAM-7 CELL 'LOST'

BYLINE: ALAN RIMMER

HIGHLIGHT:
ALERT: Troops at Heathrow

BODY:


SECURITY services are desperately trying to trace a gang of terrorists armed with shoulder-launched missiles they had tracked across Europe - but lost as they approached Britain.

Members of the al-Qaeda terror cell had been identified by GCHQ, Britain's secret eavesdropping centre, but when they disappeared the Government ordered the unprecedented security blanket around Heathrow. Intelligence experts managed to listen into communications between an al-Qaeda activist in the Balkans and a unit based in London.

They learnt that a cargo of four Sam-7 missiles - capable of shooting down a passenger jet - had been driven on a lorry across the Continent and smuggled through Dover.

The security forces also discovered that the terrorists had obtained a consignment of AK-47 machine guns, which can spray hundreds of rounds per minute.

 

[Hutch]

If this be true, it bodes very ill for all of us. I always thought that if TWA800 was in fact a shoot-down by the bad guys, then commercial aviation was headed down the gurgler, and a large portion of our economy with it. Hope that: 1) it's a hoax, or 2) They catch 'em quick.