Donald Trump Issues Major Statement on RAF Fairford 'Terror BOMB Plot'
The US President issues a surprising update.
Donald Trump says the five RAF Fairford terror suspects should not have been released on bail.
The US president suggested the five men arrested “might be” related to the Iran war, adding "we know everything about them".
And Mr Trump claimed he was surprised by Scotland Yard's decision to release the group on bail.
The British nationals – all aged between 23 and 25 – were let out with “stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others”.
It is understood that the material found in three vans near the airbase was not viable explosives, but police have stressed that the investigation is continuing.
Asked if the arrests in the early hours of Sunday morning were linked to Iran, the American leader said in the Oval Office: "Might be, but I will tell you, I would have said, don't let them have bail, cashless bail.
"Is it cashless bail?
"I guess that was one of the problems that we had, which started the whole mess of crime, and we're ending cashless bail.
"But over there, I'm surprised that they released them. I wouldn't have done that. Look, they've been very good. They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them."
The five men were arrested on Sunday night with suspected explosives near RAF Fairford, prompting fears of a major attack possibly orchestrated by Iran.
A major incident was declared and 85 households were evacuated as Army bomb disposal teams examined three vans seen driving towards the airbase by a farmer.
But counter-terrorism chiefs confirmed the five men – who all live in London – have been released on police bail.
And detectives confirmed they are probing whether Iran was behind the alleged conspiracy.
One line of enquiry is whether a group paid by Tehran to "either knowingly or unknowingly" act on its behalf is behind the plot.
Speaking outside Scotland Yard on Monday, the head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, said: “There is significant interest in whether the current geopolitical context has a bearing on this incident.
“At Counter Terrorism Policing, we are working within this context every single day and, at this stage, we are keeping an open mind in this investigation.
“We have, as you would expect, ensured that our protective security advice and posture remain commensurate to the threat.
“But be assured, we are considering this from every possible angle, including that this may be actively committed by proxies or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state.
“To respond to incidents such as these, rapid mobilisation is necessary, as we cannot take the risk whilst assessing that threat.
“However, once we understand the threat more clearly, we seek to return affected communities to normality as quickly as possible.”
President Trump told reporters on Sunday that the suspects were looking to “do big damage”. He also claimed the group had been under surveillance “for a long time”.
Officers said "multiple new lines of enquiry" have emerged during the early part of their investigation.
A villager in Whelford dialled 999 after she saw three vans and a group of masked men near the base.
The farmer said she “definitely” saw more than five men running around in the trees.
She said: “It's such a flash moment of seeing them. But there were definitely more than five, we think maybe between eight and 10 of them were there at that point.
“A lot of them had their faces covered. They were all wearing [something] similar. You'd have thought perhaps they'd been told to wear quite similar, slim-fitting clothes."
The farmer said: "I saw a group of Middle Eastern-looking young guys running off through the trees. Some of them had masks or balaclavas on, and they all scattered ahead of us as we drove back past.
“Some of them ran into the fields, and some of them turned to run towards the air base. We realised this was something pretty serious.
"We knew the air base had a credible threat of a terrorist attack before last night. So as soon as I saw them I was worried."
And the resident suggested police and intelligence agencies may have been sitting on crucial clues.
She said: "We thought something was going on as they had housed B1 bombers at the base until earlier this week when they were moved. And then suddenly they started blocking entrances to the air base.
“They started blocking those with diggers and tractors and things early in the week, which seems a bit Dad’s Army to be honest.
“By Friday they had sent all their civilian staff home, and then because this is a small village, we started noticing people who weren’t local and the suspicion was they were plain clothes police of some kind. We all knew something unusual was going on.”
Suggestions that UK authorities had advance notice of the plot were dismissed, with Whitehall sources insisting the arrests were not pre-planned despite comments by President Trump and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting that appeared to suggest otherwise.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage hinted the authorities were holding back key details.
He said: “Donald Trump is telling you more about the national security situation and about what I privately know, than we, as a country, are being told.
“We are in a very serious situation. A very serious situation.
“We have cells, inside this country, of people who are enemies to us. And that's why Trump's saying what he's saying.”
Scotland Yard and MI5, alongside American intelligence officers, are examining whether Tehran orchestrated the conspiracy to kill American troops stationed at RAF Fairford.
But the Iranian embassy said: “The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base.
“The circulation of such fabricated speculations, particularly in the aftermath of the criminal acts of aggression committed by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Iranian people, will serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to take appropriate legal measures, as necessary, to safeguard the rights and interests of the country and its people in response to misleading and damaging media narratives.”
Antonio Giustozzi, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, the UK’s leading defence and security think tank, said: ““If it is Iran-related, it could be hardliners trying to undermine Iranian government efforts to negotiate a settlement of the war with the US, or proxies such as Hezbollah, unhappy Iran is not paying sufficient attention to their interests.
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“But it might also be that Tehran has decided negotiations with Trump are going nowhere, despite recent Iranian concessions, and that the pressure has to go up.
“In Iran, the armed forces have issued the state of maximum alert, in the expectation of US strikes, so this attempted attack might have been intended as a warning against further escalation.”
