Controlled blasts reported at Glasgow hospital

[Lord Zentei]

A British bomb squad today performed two controlled blasts at a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, where a suspect in Saturday's airport attack is being treated. At least 19 locations were searched and seven suspects detained in "a fast-moving investigation," Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said.

...

Sources: Three doctors among suspects in Britain terror plots

Story Highlights

• Doctors from Jordan and Iraq among those in custody, sources say
• Seven people now in custody as Britain is put on highest state of alert
• Controlled blasts at hospital where Glasgow airport attack suspect treated

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Investigators are focusing on at least three doctors believed to have played a role in the attempted terror attacks in London and Glasgow last week, sources said Monday.

Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla, 27, has been identified as one of the two men who rammed an explosives-laden SUV into a terminal at Glasgow's airport on Saturday, one of the sources said.

British authorities believe those two men are the same ones who parked two car bombs in central London on Friday. The cars, packed with fuel and nails, could have killed hundreds if they had been set off.

In addition to Abdulla, police also arrested Dr. Mohammed Asha, a Jordanian-educated physician who moved to England two years ago, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. Read about Asha's history

Asha, 26, was picked up late Saturday on a motorway in the Cheshire area of northern England, a source said. Police say he was arrested with a 27-year-old woman, identified by Asha's family as his wife.

Asha's house in Newcastle-on-Stratford has been searched since his arrest Saturday night. Neighbors there said that another doctor is also part of the probe.

Police have sealed off the home of the unnamed doctor and his wife, which is about two miles from Asha's home in Newcastle-on-Stratford. Forensic teams are searching the house, where the doctor and his wife have lived for about a year, neighbors said. Police would not confirm any details about their search.

It is unclear if the doctor and his wife are in police custody.

Asha's family in Amman, Jordan, is distraught and has not heard anything from the British Embassy or from London, his older brother, Ahmed Asha, said.

Asha was not a religious person and was in the top of his medical class, focusing on neurosurgery, his brother said.

The family is especially worried about Asha's 2-year-old son, who was born in Britain shortly after the couple moved there. The family does not know who is taking care of the young boy since both parents have been arrested, the brother said.

On Monday, a bomb disposal unit performed at least two controlled explosions on a suspicious device at a hospital where one of the suspects in Saturday's Glasgow attack is being treated for severe burns. Watch as bomb squad arrives at hospital Video

A CNN crew at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Glasgow heard two blasts, which occurred about an hour after a bomb disposal truck was spotted outside the medical facility.

Sources say one of the two suspects behind the Glasgow attack works as a doctor at Royal Alexandra, although it is not clear which one.

On Sunday, police conducted a controlled explosion of a vehicle in the hospital's parking lot. Police said there was no indication the vehicle contained explosives.

Shortly after the suspect was admitted following Saturday's attack, police confiscated a suspicious item from his body and called for a partial evacuation of the hospital. Police later said the device was not believed to be an explosive.

Authorities suspect the two men who rammed the Jeep Cherokee into the Glasgow airport on Saturday are the same people who parked two car bombs in central London a day earlier, security sources said.

The government said on Monday that police had searched at least 19 locations for evidence. Seven suspects had been detained, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told the House of Commons.

Police were tracking the two men suspected in the Glasgow attack even before it occurred, sources said.

It is believed that the two suspects shared a rental house in the village of Houston -- about two miles from Glasgow's airport. Police searching the house would not provide any details about who lived there or why it is part of the investigation.

No one else was seriously hurt in Saturday's incident at Glasgow.

Those who witnessed the flaming Jeep Cherokee smash into the airport Saturday said one of the passengers was shouting "Allah" as he fought with police and a second man set himself on fire.

Airport worker John Smitten, who ran to help police in the aftermath of the crash, said the second man who was "covered head-to-toe in flames" also tried to fight policemen after a taxi driver used a water hose to put out the fire.

The attack at Scotland's busiest airport came 36 hours after the two car bombs were found in London.

British police and security sources said they believed the two London car bombs were to be remotely triggered, possibly by mobile phones, but failed to detonate.

The weekend's incidents come days before the second anniversary of July 7, 2005, when four Islamic extremist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system in the deadliest strike on the city since World War II.

[Dartzap]

Nothing to get excited about really. one of the blasts was just to open a car door, apparently.

[Lord Zentei]

Nothing to get excited about really. one of the blasts was just to open a car door, apparently.

Well, at least they're zeroing in on the perps.

I was rather surprised to see that three doctors were suspected, though.

[Acidburns]

Yes, I would have liked to have thought that Doctors were above such insanity.

[chitoryu12]

Yes, I would have liked to have thought that Doctors were above such insanity.

Not really considering that the driver of the Glasgow jeep was an Iraqi doctor. Must have been swallowing too many of his own pills.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Considering the apparent incompetence of all involved, how the hell did this specific 'terror' conspiracy get this widespread?

[Sephirius]

This is like that without a trace episode...

[MKSheppard]

They're up to five doctors involved now.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Impressive, a real-life Doctor's Plot.

[Invictus ChiKen]

It might well be the SUV was meant to do more damage than it was able to do. Just a run of bad luck for them, good luck for us.

That or, I dread to say it; the attack was either a distraction or an attempt to spread a virus.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It might well be the SUV was meant to do more damage than it was able to do. Just a run of bad luck for them, good luck for us.

That or, I dread to say it; the attack was either a distraction or an attempt to spread a virus.

Ugh. The prospect of this being cover for a bio-war attack is a pretty fucking ugly one.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

In an even more bizzare twist a doctor in Australia, a foreigner resident in Australia, who works at an Australian hospital, was arrested trying to leave the country in connection with the events in Glasgow. This, to me, makes the situation rather more troubling.

[Invictus ChiKen]

Okay now I am worried...

This makes my bio attack theory more likely.

[LadyTevar]

For those with the "Bio Attack" idea, I have one question: Doesn't fire kill most bugs? So why would they have this supposed bio-weapon around things that are going to become huge firebombs?

[Invictus ChiKen]

Does the term diversion have any meaning for you Lady T?

[Broomstick]

What diversion is needed to spread a virus? Just have a bunch of infected, sick people ride on long-distance flights.

No, I think they were trying to blow shit up and weren't able to pull it off. Just because someone is competent in one area doesn't mean they're competent in others.

[Invictus ChiKen]

Conceded.

[Chris OFarrell]

What diversion is needed to spread a virus? Just have a bunch of infected, sick people ride on long-distance flights.

Yeah, this is a little bit of overeaction.

In the classic definition of a diversion, you do something to DIVERT ATTENTION away from what you are going to do.

Someone tell me if launching a series of terrorist attacks across London is going to make the Police and investigative services MORE or LESS on alert? Make the Government MORE or LESS likely to raise wider alert status, look suspiciously at other possible attack vectors...

Or would it make more sense to not try to blow things up, but quietly release the bioweapon with no fanfare into key distribution vectors and walk away, then wait for the cataclysm?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

For those with the "Bio Attack" idea, I have one question: Doesn't fire kill most bugs? So why would they have this supposed bio-weapon around things that are going to become huge firebombs?
:roll:

I'm not saying it's terribly likely.

[PainRack]

Yeah, this is a little bit of overeaction.

In the classic definition of a diversion, you do something to DIVERT ATTENTION away from what you are going to do.

Someone tell me if launching a series of terrorist attacks across London is going to make the Police and investigative services MORE or LESS on alert? Make the Government MORE or LESS likely to raise wider alert status, look suspiciously at other possible attack vectors...

Or would it make more sense to not try to blow things up, but quietly release the bioweapon with no fanfare into key distribution vectors and walk away, then wait for the cataclysm?

Well....... assuming competence and dire conspiracy theories, its possible for the first to work.

If you only have a mildly infectious disease that isn't very lethal, it might be better to stoke up media attention so as to inflate the "threat" value of your attack. It would also make every common cold look like a serious threat to the public.

[Colonel Olrik]

For those with the "Bio Attack" idea, I have one question: Doesn't fire kill most bugs? So why would they have this supposed bio-weapon around things that are going to become huge firebombs?

I'm not saying it's terribly likely.

Smart terrorist doctors would create the diseases and keep themselves safe while using cheap, expendable and even unwilling pawns to spread the disease. How many people would they manage to inoculate before being caught, working in the NHS?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

For those with the "Bio Attack" idea, I have one question: Doesn't fire kill most bugs? So why would they have this supposed bio-weapon around things that are going to become huge firebombs?
:roll:

I'm not saying it's terribly likely.

Smart terrorist doctors would create the diseases and keep themselves safe while using cheap, expendable and even unwilling pawns to spread the disease. How many people would they manage to inoculate before being caught, working in the NHS?

I think we should just be really fucking glad that they didn't think about this, more or less, yes.

[Dartzap]

Funny fact: You Americans are far more concerned about the whole comedy terrorists than anyone over here

Hell, even the damn media is only giving it ten minutes on the main news bulletin now. Then its off to the rest of the world to show that we're not really that bad off and that Chinese people have some really bad miasma.

[Sea Skimmer]

For those with the "Bio Attack" idea, I have one question: Doesn't fire kill most bugs? So why would they have this supposed bio-weapon around things that are going to become huge firebombs?

Actually a number of biological agents, like anthrax are so resistant to fire that even purpose built incinerators have a hard time destroying them. Even less hardy stuff could still be dispersed into the air, and all that heat flowing into the sky from the fire would be quite effective at doing that. Remember a fire might burn up 99.95% of the agent by weight, but that last .05% would still be more then enough to infect someone.