Britain’s largest and longest-running terrorist investigation ended last month with the conviction of three British Muslims. Their 2006 plot involved blowing up transatlantic airliners with the hope of killing up to 10,000 people. That near-disaster offers a pungent reminder of the global danger posed by U.K.-based radical Islam.
The Heritage Foundation calls British Islamism “a direct security threat” to the United States, and The New Republic dubs it “the biggest threat to U.S. security.” Officialdom agrees. The British home secretary compiled a dossier in 2003 that acknowledged his country offered a “significant base” for terrorism. A CIA study in 2009 concluded that British-born nationals of Pakistani descent (who can freely enter the United States under a visa-waiver program) constitute America’s most likely source of terrorism.
