Bush Admin Hurried Timing of London Arrests

Once again, sufficient reason to suspect that the Bush administration is at it again with their partisan exploitation of our nation’s war against terrorists. As we’ve learned, just a day after a strong critic of Bush’s Iraq war — and a distraction it represents from the actual war on terror — won the Democratic primary in Connecticut, we just knew that the public discourse just had to change… so, instead of the results of the Connecticut primary dominating the news headlines, the public heard of a foiled terrorists plot coming out of England. And now we have this:

Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests
British wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says

By Aram Roston, Lisa Myers, and the NBC News Investigative Unit
NBC News
Updated: 8:13 p.m. ET Aug 12, 2006

LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.

A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.

[...]

The British official said the Americans also argued over the timing of the arrest of suspected ringleader Rashid Rauf in Pakistan, warning that if he was not taken into custody immediately, the U.S. would "render" him or pressure the Pakistani government to arrest him.