United Kingdom
In 2003 Tony Blair sent armoured vehicles and hundreds of troops to London Heathrow Airport because the UK security services claimed there was a planned Al-Qaeda attack. MI5 said they received detailed intelligence in February 2003 about a plot to hijack planes flying from Eastern Europe and to fly them into Heathrow, to punish the United Kingdom for supporting the Iraq War.
On July 7, 2005, four members of Al-Qaeda, three of British Pakistani descent and one of British Jamaican descent attacked London's public transport. Three bombs were detonated on the London Underground and one on a double decker bus. The attacks took place between 8:50 am and 9:47 am. 56 people died during the attacks (including 4 terrorists) and around 700 were injured. The attack occurred the day after the city was selected to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
In September 2009 Tanvir Hussain, Assad Sarwar and Ahmed Abdullah Ali were convicted of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as drinks on 7 aircraft leaving from London and going to North America. British and US security officials said the plan – unlike many recent homegrown European terrorist plots – was directly linked to al-Qaeda and guided by senior Islamist militants in Pakistan.
Read more about this topic: Al-Qaeda Involvement In Europe
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or kingdom:
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democratic monarchy: equality before consumption, fraternity in consumption, and freedom through consumption. The dictatorship of consumer goods has finally destroyed the barriers of blood, lineage and race.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)