Eight in Custody in Thwarted U.K. Terrorist Plots

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JOHN YDSTIE, host:

Police in the Australian city of Brisbane have detained an eighth suspect in connection with the attempted terror attacks in London and Glasgow, Scotland. Authorities stopped a 27-year-old doctor at Brisbane airport late yesterday as he was trying to leave the country. Of the seven suspects arrested in Britain, five are believed to be members of the medical profession. The search for more information is stretching anti-terrorism resources in Britain to the limit.

For the latest developments, we called Kim Sengupta, a reporter for London's Independent newspaper. Good morning.

Mr. KIM SENGUPTA (Reporter, The Independent): Good morning, John.

YDSTIE: Police suspected the attempted attacks are linked to al-Qaida, but they were not carried out in a very professional manner like previous al-Qaida attacks. Does that suggest these attacks are the work of a different group?

Mr. SENGUPTA: Well, the whole term al-Qaida is, as you know, John, fairly loose. You know, I spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan, and very often the authorities there blame things on al-Qaida, but, you know, al-Qaida's quite an amorphous organization. You're entirely right, the attacks were not particularly well planned.

There have been reports that this was an Iraq-style attack. But the significant difference is that the car bombs in Iraq tend to have explosives in it, whereas in the attempted attack in London and the attempted attack in Glasgow, they were using a fairly convoluted means of explosion and detonation. And although the authorities are claiming that it's al-Qaida linked, I think that's more of a short form for the attacks being carried out by foreign-based terrorists rather than our own homegrown ones.

YDSTIE: And they don't provide any specific evidence of al-Qaida links?

Mr. SENGUPTA: Not at this stage, no. I mean, what may emerge is that these people have received training in camps in Pakistan, whereas we know there is al-Qaida influence. But officially, they haven't produced anything to show that there was a link between Osama bin Laden and this particular plot.

YDSTIE: What do you make of the fact that most of the people arrested so far are either doctors or associated with the medical profession?

Mr. SENGUPTA: Well, this is quite extraordinary, John. I mean, none of us can remember a case like this. These people appear to have been chosen because they were in a respected profession, and also, of course, the fact there's a huge shortage of trained medical staff in the national health service in Britain. This put them in a position to be allowed to enter the country without that many checks, and shows a degree of focus and imagination, almost, on part of the terrorists.

YDSTIE: Gordon Brown took over as Britain's prime minister last week. This is certainly his first big challenge. How's he handling this differently from the way Tony Blair might have?

Mr. SENGUPTA: I think the overall impression is that he has done it fairly well. He has been more low-key than Mr. Blair would have been. The response has been more measured, less aggressive talk, and I think the feeling among the opposition parties as well is that he is trying to include them in the process, which sometimes wasn't the case in the past.

YDSTIE: Kim Sengupta is a reporter for The Independent newspaper in London. Thanks very much.

Mr. SENGUPTA: Thank you.

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