129. Al Qaeda’s Deadliest Plot: Why You Can’t Bring Liquids On Planes (Ep 4)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Time is of the essence to stop the Al Qaeda plotters from taking down multiple airliners and MI5 are rushing to make arrests. But is there enough evidence to charge them with terror offences? In the final episode of our series on the Liquid Bomb Plot, David and Gordon unpack the suspenseful moments before the plotters are arrested and how everything nearly went so wrong. ------------------- Join the Declassified Club to go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, regular livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. Just go to ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠ or join on Apple Podcasts. ------------------- Get a 10% discount on business PCs, printers and accessories using the code TRIC10. Visit https://HP.com/CLASSIFIED for more information. T&C's apply. ------------------- EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ ⁠⁠https://nordvpn.com/restisclassified⁠⁠ Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee ------------------- Email: therestisclassified@goalhanger.com Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@restisclassified Video Editor: Alice Horrell Social Producer: Emma Jackson Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com.
0:17.3	Music The plan to bring down transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs, the plotters watched by Britain's MI5, but had the CIA blown the operation by getting a key suspect early without telling their closest ally.
0:38.5	Well, welcome to the rest is classified.
0:40.1	I'm David McCloskey.
0:41.2	And I'm Goulden Carrera.
0:42.5	I don't love that question that we started.
0:44.8	It is a question.
0:45.1	It is a question.
0:46.3	I know.
0:46.7	I know.
0:47.2	When we left off last time, I should say, with the MI5 and the British police,
0:51.5	watching this crew of airline bomb plotters trying to understand who's
0:55.8	involved, where their targets might be, and ensure, I think, critically, that there was enough
1:01.3	evidence to charge them. The target of the bomb plot is, of course, transatlantic airliners
1:07.0	headed to the U.S. and in the U.S. government right up to President Bush and the CIA.
1:12.9	Everybody is getting anxious about just how close this plot seems to be to coming to fruition.
1:21.2	And as we talked about in the last episode, there's been a bit of an incident with the Pakistanis where simultaneous, sort of an
1:30.9	overlap with a CIA visit, the Pakistanis have actually moved on Rashid Ralph, the mastermind
1:36.7	of this plot, and arrested, potentially at the CIA's behest, kind of a key plotter in this transatlantic airline bomb plot.
1:47.0	And with Rashid Ralph now in Pakistani custody, is his arrest going to blow the operation?
	...

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