Grim Intel Said Behind British Airways Cancellations

The New York Post and the London Times have been reporting that specific and disturbing intelligence has been behind the recent cancellations of British Airways Flight 223, which returned to service Saturday afternoon.

According to the published reports, citing officials, an al-Qaeda terror team has been plotting to hijack the London-to-Washington British Airways Flight 223 and crash it into the nation's capital.

Reportedly, the disturbing intelligence came from a foreign source inside al-Qaeda, who explained that the terror group wanted to strike hard during the holiday. Named as sources are "al-Qaeda detainees in Turkey and Saudi Arabia."

Some of this insider information has been supported by e-mail intercepts, officials said, according to the Post report.

"The intelligence is good enough that they know what flight it is, but they don't know who the bad guys are," said Neil Livingstone, chief of Global Options international security company.

According to the Post report, British officials also had corroborating intelligence that al-Qaeda terrorists might try to strike a target in Washington or blow up the plane in the air over the capital.

Terrorism officials say they don't know if they've averted an attack, and they're not sure how good the intelligence was.

"[T]hey have sophisticated intelligence operations themselves," an unnamed official said. "They try to mask any information they communicate to each other."

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