Thwarted

I'm sure everyone's heard the plot to detonate numerous airliners on cross-Atlantic flights into the U.S. from London, UK was stymied today.

The interesting bit of information will be who are the 21 suspected terrorists detained. Are they second-generation immigrants from "Londonistan?" Are they hardened jihadists that have waged asymmetrical warfare in other conflicts such as Afghanistan, Bosnia or Iraq?

It seems right now it will be the latter. Via the NYTs:

...Mr. Chertoff drew a distinction between the suspects arrested today and the kinds of homegrown, relatively amateur plotters who carried out the London transit attacks or those who were arrested more recently for scheming to blow up buildings in Florida or tunnels in New York.

“This was a very sophisticated plan and operation,’’ he said. “It was not a circle with a handful of people sitting around and dreaming.’’

As we all know it's only a matter of time before militant Islamists succeed in another attack on the U.S. homeland. Today, because of good intelligence, we breath another sigh of relief, fortunately.