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'Plot Would Have Killed Thousands'
EXCLUSIVE: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Offers Chilling Details About 2006 Airplane Plot and Current Terror Threats


Terrorists who had planned to detonate gel-based explosives on U.S.-bound flights from London last August would have achieved mass devastation, according to new information from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in an exclusive interview with ABC News.

"I think that the plot, in terms of its intent, was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivaled 9/11," Chertoff told ABC's Pierre Thomas. "If they had succeeded in bringing liquid explosives on seven or eight aircraft, there could have been thousands of lives lost and an enormous economic impact with devastating consequences for international air travel."

Sources tell ABC News that after studying the plot, government officials have concluded that without the tip to British authorities, the suspects could have likely smuggled the bomb components onboard using sports drinks.

The components of that explosives mixture can be bought at any drugstore or supermarket; however, there is some question whether the potential terrorists would have had the skill to properly mix and detonate their explosive cocktails in-flight.

But they can work — scientists at Sandia National Laboratory conducted a test using the formula, and when a small amount of liquid in a container was hit with a tiny burst of electrical current, a large explosion followed. (Click on the video player on the right side of this page to view the video.)

The test results were reviewed today by ABC terrorism consultant Richard Clarke, who said that while frequent travelers are upset by the current limits on liquids in carry-on baggage, "when they see this film, they ought to know it's worth going through those problems."

One official who briefed ABC News said explosives and security experts who examined the plot were "stunned at the extent that the suspects had gamed the system to exploit its weaknesses."

"There's no question that they had given a lot of thought to how they might smuggle containers with liquid explosives onto airplanes," Chertoff said. "Without getting into things that are still classified, they obviously paid attention to the ways in which they thought they might be able to disguise these explosives as very innocent types of everyday articles."

Tense Hours as Officials Learned of Plot

Chertoff speaks candidly about those moments when Homeland Security learned about the potential attack, and the terrorists had not yet been captured.

"This was very, very tightly held, because the British were concerned about any possibility of a leak getting out. Obviously, the intelligence folks knew, the senior intelligence folks, the president, senior leaders in the White House," he said. "Within my own department, only the deputy and I were initially told about this."

"I got a call telling me that it looked as if the focus had turned on an attack on the United States, specifically an attack on airliners leaving from Britain, traveling to American cities," Chertoff said. "It also became evident, within 24 hours, that the time frame within which the attack was going to take place, would not be a matter of months but … a matter of weeks or even days."

Airports in the United States and the United Kingdom were put on red alert — meaning a potential attack could be imminent — and liquids were banned from carry-on luggage as suspects were picked up, including 24 British-born Muslims and seven Pakistanis.

"We had to start about 9, 10 o'clock in the evening, when the arrests began to go down in Pakistan, and when we were first given the ability to tell other people about the plot," Chertoff said. "And we had to turn the entire process around by 6 a.m. the following morning, before people started to board airplanes.

"You had to change literally thousands of people's behavior in the course of about 12 hours. We had to train them. We had to get everybody to understand what the new rules were going to be. And you had to communicate to the public in a very short period of time.

"And so, we spent literally the entire night bringing in not only the TSA senior leadership, but also talking on the phone to the airline leadership, so that everybody would understand what needed to happen at 6 a.m. the following day," he said.

For Chertoff, the concern remained that an attack would have been carried out if they'd missed a critical detail. "There's an enormous sense of working against time, giving the analysts as much time as you possibly can, but always recognizing at the end that the benefit of the doubt has to be in favor of saving lives."

Assessing Current Risks

Since last August, the failed plot has had an enormous impact on U.S. airports, which have remained on orange — or high — alert, for nearly a year.

After authorities tested the explosive liquids, the government determined what quantity of liquid explosives could pose a risk if smuggled onboard flights, leading to the 3-ounce limit for carry-on bags.

Passengers are still restricted when bringing liquids onboard, and those rules may remain in place forever.

At the moment, Chertoff believes there is a "heightened risk" of an attack.

"We have seen that in some areas of Pakistan, the enemy has been able to reconstitute itself and get a breathing space, so to speak, where they can plan and do some recruiting and some training. We've seen increased effort to develop terrorist operatives in Europe.

"And, of course, the concern we have, because of the visa waiver program, has been Europeans either carrying out attacks against Americans on the European continent, or even coming to the United States," Chertoff said.

"When you add these things together, they don't move into a mathematical certainty we're going to have an attack, but they do suggest that there is a heightened threat, a bit more capability than there was, and, therefore, all the more reason for us to continue to raise the level of our security and our defenses," he said.

That progress was aided after the arrests last year that provided Homeland Security with information about terrorist capabilities.

"Clearly, the effort to put explosives in sports bottles was a reaction to what we had done with respect to other kinds of explosives, and … we're going to be back and forth with terrorists on this kind of cat-and-mouse process for years to come," Chertoff said.

And while he is confronted by pieces of data daily as Homeland Security tries to assess credible threats and piece together information, Chertoff said he remains continually struck by the nature of the enemy.

"You know, we go about our business during the summer, other times of the year. People are going to ballgames or watching their children graduate from high school," he said, "and it chills me sometimes to think there are people a half a world away who are spending the same period of time in a cave, trying to figure out how to kill us."

Hello Pastor Roger,

Brother, this plot was foiled, but we can be sure that many others are coming to get us. Sooner or later, many plots will succeed.

We are Christians, so we don't live in the same kind of fear that the lost do. For us, it's "absent from the body, present with the LORD." I'm not saying that we like the idea of being attacked, rather that we don't fear it as much as the lost do. Things like this are also another reminder that our time to witness to the lost might be short. We shouldn't waste much time and put things off with family or friends we've been wanting to witness to. One or both of us might not be here tomorrow.

It could be any number of things other than a terrorist attack. This short life is uncertain, and Christians should know this. It could be a car accident, a heart attack, or any number of natural or man-made disasters. We all know that we have work to do, and we shouldn't put it off. We should simply let these times be a reminder for us to do the things that are on our hearts and pray that GOD guides us in what HE wants done first. In other words, we put GOD and HIS Will first in our lives - what we should have been doing all along.

Love in Christ,
Tom


 

when i read of things like this it saddens me that humans are prepared to kill so many innocent people in this way.  it also concerns me that i may be on one of those flight to carolina when it happend on route to visit my brother Reverend William Ford. 

life is so precious

Hello Angel,

Life is precious, and there would have been a time when we could have said that as a nation. However, we kill more innocent babies every day than the number of people who died on 9/11. It's obvious how little that radical Islam values life, but I don't know how we could say that we are better. Our body count on abortions is now way over 40 million - over 3,000 per day, so this is a matter of shame for all of us. There are many times that I wonder why GOD keeps blessing us, but that answer might be the large number of Christians who are still trying to serve GOD and obey HIS Will. Regardless, I don't think that we deserve HIS Blessings. JESUS had a special place in HIS Heart for children, and GOD has made it plain throughout the Bible that babies belong to HIM. HE gives them to us as a GIFT. As a nation, we are far past due for prayer, submission to GOD, and asking HIM for forgiveness.

Love In Christ,
Tom