I know many UK and US administration officials have been noting that this group of people had been under surveillance for some time, but it is also clear the actual plans this group had only recently came to light. What is also clear is we could have missed this attack if they terrorists paid more attention to the NY Times. The late news on the plan caused a rapid response by law enforcement since the attack was apparently only days away.

Terrorists were planning to unleash a series of deadly mid-air explosions on flights between London and America on August 16, it has been revealed today.

…

United Airline tickets dated next Wednesday were found by police at the home of one of the raided addresses.

The details seemed to have come from arrests in Pakistan, which should be a reminder to everyone that Pakistan – with all its faults and internal problems – is a solid ally of the West. Pakistan probably just saved hundreds and maybe thousands of lives. These arrests in Pakistan seemed to have exposed the details of the plot:

Two British Muslims arrested eight to ten days ago in Lahore and Karachi gave vital information about the alleged plot to detonate chemical suicide bombs on US-bound passenger jets, officials in Pakistan claimed today.

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Last night US officials told reporters that substantial sums of money had been wired from Pakistan to two of the alleged ringleaders in Britain, so that they could purchase airline tickets.

One report said they were planning a “dry run” to see if the mechanics of the plot worked – and hinted that this was what decided the security services and Special Branch to move in, ending a huge surveillance operation that had lasted a year.

Emphasis mine. Well, I guess these terrorists forgot to read the NY Times or they would have known their money transfers were not safe. Who knows what would have happened if they had adjusted their actions in light of the NY Times declaring an end to the war on terror and exposing the SWIFT financial surveillance. While Pakistan may have just saved hundreds of lives, the NY Times just came close to helping kill hundreds of people. Note that the US was the one pushing for the us of SWIFT. It may not have been possible for the UK to accomplish this feat.

It is clear now the NY Times was horribly wrong to expose the terrorist surveillance efforts of the US and the West. The media needs to sit down, stop complaining about the criticism being heaped on them (rightfully) and admit they have been used by partisan operatives to cripple our efforts and these partisans nearly got a lot of people killed. Would we have caught this without the financial transaction lead? You are either with us, or killing us it seems.

Update: This is how the left deals with terrorist threats – they make fun of it.