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U.K. police arrest 5 near U.S.-used airbase on terrorism suspicion · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: We're tracking a major story developing today in Britain. The
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  Speaker 1: US military says it's working closely with UK officials after
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  Speaker 1: five men were arrested near an American Air Force base
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  Speaker 1: in Gloucestershire, England. The individuals are under investigation for offenses
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  Speaker 1: involving explosives and preparation of a terrorist attack. Let's go
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  Speaker 1: now to CBC's Julia Chapman in London. Julia, tell us
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  Speaker 1: what police are saying.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Eli, there is a multi-agency response underway led by
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  Speaker 2: British counter-terrorism police. And it all started when local police
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  Speaker 2: received a call just before 1 a.m. local time this
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  Speaker 2: morning reporting three suspicious vehicles heading in the direction of
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  Speaker 2: the airbase RAF Fairford. Armed officers went in and arrested
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  Speaker 2: five men in a village called Welford on the edge
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  Speaker 2: of the airbase. British army bomb disposal units are still
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  Speaker 2: on the scene. Aerial footage has shown a robot examining
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  Speaker 2: three white vans there. The police cordon covers the entire village,
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  Speaker 2: so every resident had to be evacuated. 85 households in total.
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  Speaker 2: Residents were woken in the early hours of the morning
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  Speaker 2: by police knocking on their doors, telling them they had
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  Speaker 2: minutes to leave. And they won't be able to return
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  Speaker 2: to their homes tonight. Many will be spending the night
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  Speaker 2: with friends and family. Local officials are helping to put
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  Speaker 2: up those with nowhere to go. An officer from the
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  Speaker 2: local police force, Richard O'Cone, gave an update a little earlier.
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  Speaker 3: The emergency services have well-rehearsed plans for dealing with major
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  Speaker 3: incidents such as this. Work to establish the full nature
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  Speaker 3: of this incident is ongoing and we are in constant
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  Speaker 3: communication with our partners both locally and nationally. In particular,
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  Speaker 3: we are working closely with our partners in counter-terrorism policing.
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  Speaker 2: Now, this hasn't been declared a terrorist incident, although it
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  Speaker 2: still could be. That's up to counter-terrorism police. But the
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  Speaker 2: nature of the suspected offences is very serious, and it
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  Speaker 2: means that police have up to two weeks to keep
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  Speaker 2: the suspects in custody before they have to release them
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  Speaker 2: or make any potential charges.
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  Speaker 1: And Julie, that really gets to, I think, the big
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  Speaker 1: question around this is motive and what we know that
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  Speaker 1: was driving this alleged attempted attack.
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  Speaker 2: Well, police have stayed very tight lipped on that. But,
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  Speaker 2: of course, RAF Fairford hosts U.S. Air Force personnel. And
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  Speaker 2: it has been used as one of the bases that
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  Speaker 2: the Americans are using to launch attacks against Iran. The
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  Speaker 2: UK initially didn't want to greenlight those attacks. The former
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister Keir Starmer held off at first. He eventually
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  Speaker 2: gave in to that request from President Donald Trump, so
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  Speaker 2: long as the operations could be defined as defensive. Iran's
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  Speaker 2: Revolutionary Guard told the UK that that made it a
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  Speaker 2: legitimate target. There are reports in some British media that
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  Speaker 2: sources are telling them There is a likely link to Iran,
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  Speaker 2: but officials are also on high alert for potential hybrid
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  Speaker 2: attacks by Russia. And there is a possibility that no
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  Speaker 2: state actor was involved. Now, British officials have been in
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  Speaker 2: touch with American counterparts throughout today. And speaking a little earlier,
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  Speaker 2: President Donald Trump welcomed these arrests.
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  Speaker 4: The arrest in the UK was fantastic. Working with Britain,
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  Speaker 4: it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation.
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  Speaker 4: They were looking to do big damage to our port.
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  Speaker 4: And working with the British worked out great.
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  Speaker 2: The president's comments seem to contradict the police update that
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  Speaker 2: This was all a response to a call from a
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  Speaker 2: member of the public rather than an intelligence led operation.
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  Speaker 2: He may be revealing more than the British authorities are
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  Speaker 2: willing to at this stage. The police are saying very
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  Speaker 2: little for now. But local residents had in recent days
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  Speaker 2: been reporting that security was being beefed up. around RAF Fairford.
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  Speaker 2: For now, we don't know the exact nature of the
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  Speaker 2: threat or who was behind it or any details about
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  Speaker 2: the five men who are currently being questioned in custody.
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  Speaker 1: I know it's late there, Julia. I appreciate you staying
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  Speaker 1: on the story for us. That is Julia Chapman reporting
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  Speaker 1: in London. For more on the arrest, we spoke with
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  Speaker 1: Will Geddes in London. He's a security specialist and the
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  Speaker 1: host of Frontline with Will Geddes on YouTube. We asked
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  Speaker 1: him for his take on the alleged plot to attack
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  Speaker 1: the British airbase.
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  Speaker 5: It's an interesting but very typical kind of modus operandi
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  Speaker 5: that we've seen historically, particularly for individuals that are seeking
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  Speaker 5: to undertake terrorist attacks. And what we know is that
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  Speaker 5: five individuals have been actually apprehended. There has been a
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  Speaker 5: photograph that has been released of these individuals, which gives
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  Speaker 5: us some degree of.
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  Speaker 6: Direction, if you like, to whom might potentially be behind this.
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  Speaker 5: One can only deem that there was something very specifically
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  Speaker 5: interesting meant in terms of a malicious attack against RAF Fairford,
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  Speaker 5: because they had raised their own threat level to level delta,
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  Speaker 5: which is probably the highest level they can raise it to, only.
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  Speaker 6: About a week ago.
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  Speaker 5: So these questions of this not being intelligence led and
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  Speaker 5: being purely triggered off the back of a concerned citizen
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  Speaker 5: that saw these three vans charging through the streets, I
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  Speaker 5: think is leading us to believe that there was intelligence
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  Speaker 5: of a possible attack.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting, because there was already that kind of advanced level
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  Speaker 1: of awareness. Now, in July, Iran's Revolutionary Guard publicly named
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  Speaker 1: the bases used against Iran as legitimate targets. And we
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  Speaker 1: know that this base has been used for strikes on
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  Speaker 1: Iran since March. So do you think, can you connect
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  Speaker 1: the dots? Is there legitimate concern about potential or possible
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  Speaker 1: Iranian involvement?
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  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 5: I think we are drawing some fairly distinct lines to
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  Speaker 5: it being Iran sourced or motivated.
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  Speaker 6: Now, who actually organized it?
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  Speaker 5: Who actually set about the plan for carrying out this attack?
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  Speaker 6: Well, that could be a number of proxies.
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  Speaker 5: And one thing that we do know historically, not only
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  Speaker 5: in the UK, but also in Europe, is this newly
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  Speaker 5: emerged group that came about at the beginning of the
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  Speaker 5: year called Hayyi. Now, Hayyi had never existed before, but
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  Speaker 5: is purely motivated by the agenda of the IRGC in Iran.
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  Speaker 5: And we know that they've carried out similar types of attacks,
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  Speaker 5: which have involved ordinance of some.
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  Speaker 6: Description, as well as prominent targets.
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  Speaker 1: So.
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  Speaker 5: It really comes down to who will claim this now.
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  Speaker 5: If it is its hay, they will claim it. If not,
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  Speaker 5: it could be proxies. And again, we know Iran will
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  Speaker 5: actually invest in recruiting low-level criminals, quite.
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  Speaker 6: Often quite young, to carry out these kinds of attacks.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, if that's confirmed, that would be a major
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  Speaker 1: development in terms of the widening scope and Britain becoming
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  Speaker 1: kind of the part of the battleground of the continuing
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  Speaker 1: war in Iran. But let's talk about, speaking of that war,
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  Speaker 1: the U.S. president and some of the comments from Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump who said arrests in the U.K. were a great
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  Speaker 1: thing and the suspects were looking to do big damage.
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  Speaker 1: What do you make of that, Will?
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  Speaker 5: Well, the one thing we know about President Trump is
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  Speaker 5: he's sometimes a little indiscreet in how much information he
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  Speaker 5: reveals that the authorities probably want to keep to themselves
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  Speaker 5: for the time being. But I would say that certainly
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  Speaker 5: draws again lines to the fact that EOD have been involved,
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  Speaker 5: which no doubt meant that there was a high suspicion
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  Speaker 5: of some kind of combustible devices, explosives or otherwise involved.
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  Speaker 5: that were contained within these three vans. Now, the individuals
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  Speaker 5: also pictured on the curb sitting down, obviously zip-tied or
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  Speaker 5: certainly handcuffed, without their shirts, would say that there was
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  Speaker 5: a suspicion that they could have been wearing body-worn suicide devices. Now,
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  Speaker 5: the vehicles themselves could have been VB IEDs, as we
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  Speaker 5: would call them, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or they could
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  Speaker 5: have been simply a deployment point. from which these individuals
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  Speaker 5: would potentially then go to ground and attack individuals, maybe
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  Speaker 5: at the gate, at the perimeter of this particular airfield. Again,
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  Speaker 5: we probably will never get to the real detail of
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  Speaker 5: exactly what they planned, other than when it evidently gets
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  Speaker 5: brought into court.
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  Speaker 1: And then following up on the indiscretions of the president,
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  Speaker 1: as you described them, he also said we had the
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  Speaker 1: suspects under view for a long time and we got them. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the Press Association is reporting that this was
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  Speaker 1: not an intelligence led operation. Now, you've already kind of
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  Speaker 1: questioned that. But what do you make of the president
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  Speaker 1: saying this was, you know, in part some kind of
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  Speaker 1: British American surveillance operation?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I would say that pretty much confirms it was.
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  Speaker 5: I doubt the president would speculate that it was an
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  Speaker 5: intelligence-borne operation. He would have got very detailed, very precise
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  Speaker 5: briefings what was going on. And inevitably, you know, the
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  Speaker 5: interception or interdiction of these vehicles at the very late
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  Speaker 5: stage of their attack plan is not untypical because the
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  Speaker 5: authorities will want to intercept. I've also had whispers that
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  Speaker 5: British Special Forces 22SAS were involved in that interdiction. And again,
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  Speaker 5: to mobilize them at the very last minute would be challenging.
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  Speaker 5: So inevitably, I'm sure they were on standby, not too
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  Speaker 5: far from the vicinity of where these individuals deployed from.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, very challenging.
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  Speaker 1: I imagine like a massive operation in kind of a small,
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  Speaker 1: typically sleepy village. So before we let you go, Will,
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  Speaker 1: what will you be looking for and kind of watching
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  Speaker 1: for next as we wait for this investigation to play out?
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  Speaker 5: They're going to hold them, obviously, in custody for two
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  Speaker 5: weeks while they're, no doubt. forensically going through all their devices,
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  Speaker 5: going through their properties, looking at absolutely everything they possibly
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  Speaker 5: can about who these individuals are, who they've been in
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  Speaker 5: communication with, the tradecraft that was probably employed to putting
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  Speaker 5: together AI. explosive devices, if indeed there are any explosive devices,
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  Speaker 5: and trying to get as good a clearer picture to
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  Speaker 5: then prosecute these individuals. So for the time being, I
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  Speaker 5: think it's going to go quite quiet. There will no
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  Speaker 5: doubt be lots of speculation in social media. And one's
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  Speaker 5: got to caution against obviously believing or going down any
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  Speaker 5: particular rabbit holes on that until the authorities absolutely come
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  Speaker 5: out with categoric statements.
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  Speaker 1: Will Geddes is a security specialist and host of Frontline
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  Speaker 1: with Will Geddes on YouTube.
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  Speaker 6: Thank you.