MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
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And I'm Melissa Block.
Today, Britain downgraded its terror threat level from critical to severe. Police there continue to interrogate 23 people accused of plotting to blow up planes headed to the United States.
The disruptions that the alleged plot caused to the airlines are easing, but as NPR's Rob Gifford reports from London, travelers still face plenty of problems.
ROB GIFFORD reporting:
The threat level of critical, meaning that an attack is imminent, has been in place since the police first swooped in on suspects in dawn raids early last Thursday morning. Home Secretary John Reid, in announcing today it would be lowered to severe, was at pains to stress that the public should still be extremely vigilant.
Mr. JOHN REID (U.K. Home Secretary): The change in the threat level does not mean that the threat has gone away. There is still a very serious threat of an attack. The threat level is at severe, indicating the high likelihood of an attempted terrorist attack at some stage.
GIFFORD: Reid said yesterday that counterterrorism officers are investigating a number of other conspiracies and that four serious plots had already been disrupted in the past 12 months. Police continued their interrogation of the 23 suspects, and began to search wooded areas near the home of one of those arrested.
Pakistani officials are continuing their interrogation of a Briton of Pakistani origin they say was a key person in the plot. Pakistani newspapers have reported that it was transfers of funds disguised as donations for last year's Kashmir earthquake relief that first alerted intelligence services to the Pakistani side of the suspected plot. Militant groups in Kashmir were among those helping with earthquake relief.
Meanwhile, British government ministers have been meeting today with Muslim leaders, many of whom signed an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair over the weekend. The letter urged Blair to consider the impact that British participation in the invasion of Iraq and perceived support for Israel was having in radicalizing British Muslims. Among those taking part in today's meeting was the Deputy General Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Daud Abdullah.
Mr. DAUD ABDULLA (Muslim Council of Britain): We have to break out of the state of denial that there is no link between what happens abroad and what happens here in the United Kingdom. While it is good to protect civilian life at home and to uphold laws at home to preserve human life, so too we must uphold international law to preserve the lives of civilians abroad.
GIFFORD: Senior British officials such as Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett have completely rejected a connection between British foreign policy and any suspected plot, saying it amounts to a justification for terrorism. With the reduction of the threat level, Britain's Department of Transport said air passengers would be allowed to carry a single briefcase-sized bag aboard aircraft and that books, laptop computers and iPods will be permitted again. Some executives, such as the head of cut-price airline Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, said that the air industry needed help to cope with the security situation.
Mr. MICHAEL O'LEARY (CEO, Ryanair): If the government is going to quadruple the number of security checks that the airports have to carry out, the government is simply going to have to put in the extra staffing, whether it's the army or it's the police reservists, to carry out those security checks. Otherwise, what we're going to see is a repetition of this weekend's shambles.
GIFFORD: Officials at London's Heathrow Airport said airlines cancelled about 120 flights today, or 20 percent of its daily total, down from 30 percent over the weekend.
Rob Gifford, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
