GB News Breakfast halted its usual programming for a breaking update on the suspected terror plot at RAF Fairford, after police confirmed that no explosives were found in the vehicle involved.
Guest comments on the unfolding situation
Former Editor of The Sunday Express, David Wooding, was a guest on the show and commented on the strange sequence of events. He said: "Honestly, Agatha Christie couldn't make a plot like this, could she? Is it a farce, or is it a whodunit? It seems that the farmer who called the police at just after midnight on Saturday, Sunday morning, wasn't the person who actually alerted the police. It was somebody who was among the group of five young men in their 20s who were carrying out the terrorist plot or whatever it was they were up to."
He added: "I found this baffling to begin with because we had President Trump live on the day saying we foiled it, and we think, well did they foil it, or was it the farmer who foiled it? Now we find out it was neither. They foiled it themselves. So was it a foreign power doing a dummy run? If so, how did they get five British young men in their 20s to take part in this? It really is bizarre."
Police and bail details
Wooding further explained: "It seems that the balaclavaed people, which the farmer spotted, were not these young men. They were the police who were already on the ground. So the whole thing is raised more questions than answered. It's really incredible, and of course we're doing our best not to speculate here because we none of us know."
He pointed out: "Counterterrorism rules are very strong in this country. If...you have evidence that somebody's going to commit some sort of attack on British soil, you can keep them in custody for up to two weeks. There's no need to free them after 36 hours. They don't need they don't even need an excuse, like 'Oh well, we can't find any evidence, let them go.' They could still keep them for two weeks and continue to question them. So that makes you think. Well, maybe it wasn't a terrorist attack after all. So it needs somebody to come out and tell us what is going on here."
Investigation continues
He was speaking as it was reported that the suspected bomb plot against RAF Fairford was foiled after one of the suspects called the police themselves. One of the five men reportedly dialled 999 in the early hours of Sunday before they were arrested in the Gloucestershire village of Whelford, close to the base.
The men, who were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and later terrorism, were all released on bail on Monday. The men, all British nationals from London and aged between 23 and 25, remain under investigation. In an update on Tuesday, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, said they "must adhere to strict conditions" as officers continue to follow lines of inquiry.
