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Trump says “threats to US bombers led to withdrawal from UK airbase · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump has tonight claimed there were some threats that
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  Speaker 1: led to Washington's decision to remove all its bombers from
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  Speaker 1: RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. It's the first time he's commented
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  Speaker 1: on the issue and his words come after his own
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of State seemed to play down any suggested link
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  Speaker 1: between the move and the arrests police made near the
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  Speaker 1: base last month. Downing Street insists Zaria Fairford is safe
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  Speaker 1: after six men were released on bail as part of
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  Speaker 1: an investigation into a suspected plot. US aircraft had been
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  Speaker 1: using Fairford to launch attacks on Iran. In a moment,
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  Speaker 1: we'll take a look at how the ongoing conflict is
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  Speaker 1: now feeding into higher mortgage rates for UK borrowers. But first,
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  Speaker 1: Frank Gardner has our top story tonight.
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  Speaker 2: Off back to America. A US Air Force B-1 bomber
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  Speaker 2: departing Fairford yesterday. All 12 of them left in some
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  Speaker 2: considerable rush. And this just one week after the mysterious
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  Speaker 2: events outside the base. Five men from London were arrested,
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  Speaker 2: then later bailed, after being spotted acting suspiciously with their
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  Speaker 2: vans near the perimeter of this strategically important airbase. So
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  Speaker 2: what's going on here? Was there, is there, an alleged
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  Speaker 2: terrorist plot against RAF Fairford? And are British bases safe
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  Speaker 2: or not for US warplanes? President Trump, on the White
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  Speaker 2: House lawn today, told reporters it was no accident the
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  Speaker 2: B-1 bombers left overnight.
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  Speaker 3: We had an idea that there might be a threat,
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  Speaker 3: and why would I leave them there?
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  Speaker 2: It costs very little money to move them, you know,
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  Speaker 2: relatively closely.
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  Speaker 4: But, no, we had a threat, and if we're going
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  Speaker 4: to be threatened, we'll just move them, and that sort
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  Speaker 4: of alleviates that. And we actually know the people that
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  Speaker 4: made the threat, and they've gotten themselves to.
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  Speaker 2: The big trouble. Fairford has been in the news a
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  Speaker 2: lot this year, After some hesitation from the previous Prime Minister,
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  Speaker 2: it's from this base that US heavy bombers have been
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  Speaker 2: taking off to strike Iranian missile launch sites. Now they've
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  Speaker 2: gone home to the States, some locals are clearly relieved.
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  Speaker 4: I feel quite happy that they've gone because it's less
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  Speaker 4: of a target now, Fairford, and so it makes me
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  Speaker 4: feel a bit safer.
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  Speaker 1: Personally, I'm quite pleased they've gone because it's just been
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  Speaker 1: quite noisy.
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  Speaker 2: US military planes are also based at RAF Lakenheath and
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  Speaker 2: Mildenhall in Suffolk. Iran says it had nothing to do
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  Speaker 2: with events at Fairford, but in July it did threaten
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  Speaker 2: to attack British bases being used by the Americans.
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  Speaker 4: We now live in a world where a £ 1, 000 drone
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  Speaker 4: could wreck one of those aircraft, so I don't know
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  Speaker 4: what the threat was, but the most prudent thing to
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  Speaker 4: do would be to remove them to Texas or Dakota.
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  Speaker 4: into a large piece of American wilderness, well, they will
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  Speaker 4: be much safer, given that they were not actually doing
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  Speaker 4: very much at the minute.
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  Speaker 2: Now they've left Britain, America insists it can still deploy
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  Speaker 2: its bombers from the US. But despite the reassuring words
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  Speaker 2: from both governments, this will be remembered as a somewhat
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  Speaker 2: embarrassing moment in transatlantic relations.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Frank, I mean, it's obviously a big deal that
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  Speaker 1: these bombers have been returned to the U.S. And yet
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  Speaker 1: no one's any the wiser about what the threat was.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we do know that the threat was credible, immediate
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  Speaker 2: and deemed to be dangerous enough for them to pull
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  Speaker 2: the entire bomber wing out in just one go, pretty
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  Speaker 2: much nearly in one go, rather than a kind of
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  Speaker 2: staggered departure. So fast that some of the refuelling was
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  Speaker 2: still being done on the ground as the pilots were airborne.
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  Speaker 2: So it was pretty urgent. General Barron's referred there to drones.
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  Speaker 2: That is one bit of speculation, frankly, because nobody's coming
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  Speaker 2: out and saying this publicly exactly what it is. But
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  Speaker 2: the idea, potentially, that a copycat attack similar to what
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  Speaker 2: Ukraine did on Russia's strategic bomber force, releasing a swarm
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  Speaker 2: of drones deep into the Siberian heartland that really decimated
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  Speaker 2: parts of its bomber fleet, that would have been a fear. Now,
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  Speaker 2: you've got to remember that the context for all of
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  Speaker 2: this is that The U.S. is at war with Iran.
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  Speaker 1: We're not.
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  Speaker 2: We're just providing them the platform for these takeoffs. And
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  Speaker 2: so that makes it a risk for the U.K. There's
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  Speaker 2: a financial element to all of this for the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: These planes, these Lancers, cost over $ 300 million each.
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  Speaker 1: The U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Has already suffered catastrophic multibillion-dollar losses from the war in
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  Speaker 2: the Gulf. One hit alone on March the 27th. destroyed
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  Speaker 2: an E3 Sentry AWACS plane, cut it in half, cost
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  Speaker 2: $ 500 million, half a billion. They don't want to risk that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. All right. Frank, thank you. Frank Gardner, our security
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  Speaker 1: correspondent there. We're going to go to Washington now, get
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  Speaker 1: the view from there. Gary O'Donoghue is live for us. Gary,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we've got the president saying there was a threat.
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  Speaker 1: That's why we pulled these planes out. His secretary of state,
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  Speaker 1: Marco Rubio, said a little bit earlier today that he
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  Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily linking pulling these bombers out with what happened
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  Speaker 1: at Fairford a few weeks ago. There seems to be
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  Speaker 1: confusion there, too.
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  Speaker 3: I think the kind word would be a variety of
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  Speaker 3: different responses from senior members of the administration here. As
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  Speaker 3: you say, Donald Trump saying there was a threat. We
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  Speaker 3: know the people who made that threat, and that's why
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  Speaker 3: we pulled the bombers out. You had The Secretary of State,
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  Speaker 3: as you point out, saying that this was a regular rotation,
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  Speaker 3: don't directly connect what had happened last week with this.
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  Speaker 3: This happens all the time. And in the middle of
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  Speaker 3: all that, Clive, we had the Vice President saying this
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  Speaker 3: was done out of an abundance of caution. The Iranians
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  Speaker 3: have been trying to do this sort of thing for
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  Speaker 3: 49 years, and that's as far as I'm going. So far,
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  Speaker 3: far from a coherent, cohesive, direct message from this administration.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of mix up, a lot of confusion and
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  Speaker 3: a lot of scratching of heads about what this all means.
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  Speaker 3: Because on the face of it, pulling them all out
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  Speaker 3: in one go is a serious matter, a hugely serious matter.
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  Speaker 3: And yet we're left with multiple questions, both on this
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  Speaker 3: side of the Atlantic and on yours.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. All right, Gary, thank you.