Five men, initially detained on suspicion of committing offences under the Explosives Act, then arrested on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act. Residents of 85 households in the Cotswolds village of Whelford evacuated to Cirencester leisure centre. A 400-metre area with three white vans cordoned off. The same men, released within hours of being seized near the Royal Air Force Fairford base in Gloucestershire after it was found that the chemicals found in their vans were not deemed “viable” as explosives. All British nationals, aged 23 to 25, and London residents. Other details on background scrupulously omitted by the police, with Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) claiming that “multiple lines of inquiry” were being pursued.
Looming large was the hypothesis that these individuals had been working at the behest of a foreign state. Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of CTP, tantalised with the suggestion that “this may be activity committed by proxies, or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state.” The men in question, according to the police, remained under investigation, with their release “subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others”.
The initial report on the movement of the men came from a farmer who had spotted the three white vans in Whelford. When she arrived home, she found the driveway and road blocked. A “large group of hooded and masked men”, according to her, were spotted. “When they saw me,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “they ran ahead of me – some into the field and some towards the neighbouring village of Kempsford. I then realised that something very unusual was taking place.”
She had been insistent on chasing the matter up. First, a call to the Ministry of Defence police at RAF Fairford. No reply. Then, a 999 call to police at 01:36 BST to report the matter. It took a mere 10 minutes, and “the village was full of armed police.” She pondered: “I believe that my 999 call foiled whatever plans they had.” What would have stung the security services was her view that they had “really dropped the ball on this”. Her arrival to spot the vans had been a matter of “pure luck”. “I am absolutely staggered that it was left to me, as a member of the public, to see and report this.” The airbase had been operating a roadblock near the entrance to the facility but none had been placed on the other roads. It was “assumed someone would be monitoring the roads around the base perimeter and taking regular patrols in the village”. Not so.
Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator for the CTP, conveyed the sense that what was unfolding was complex and planned, an account at odds with the fact that vans of masked men had been permitted to gather in the vicinity of the airbase in the first place. “This is a hugely complex and large-scale operation, involving local and national police, the MOD [Ministry of Defence], and local agencies, who are working together to progress the investigation and support the community.”
The UK Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, thanked the farmer for her deeds, but the gratitude was markedly qualified. Any suggestion that the security establishment had failed to pick up on the movements of the men was erroneous, the caller having only “a partial picture”. There was also no mention of the discrepancy regarding numbers of those arrested to the number that had been sighted by the farmer. Five arrests had been made, while the witness claimed to have seen upwards of eight to ten men.
The matter also prompted an intervention by US President Donald Trump, which was bound to only complicate matters. RAF Fairford hosts the US Air Force’s 501st Combat Support Wing, which has served to do its bit in the illegal war against Iran. Without showing any awareness of the mechanics, let alone logistics of an alleged operation against these alleged terrorists in embryo, much was made about their “planning to do big damage” at the base. Praise was heaped upon the effort made by the British (“it was an amazing job”), odd given the absence of interest shown by those at the base itself. “We had them under view for a long time,” crowed Trump, “and we got them.”
Streeting was content to sidestep any inconsistencies between operational effectiveness and haphazard luck, basking in the Trumpian sun of flattery. “Our security forces and our police, they don’t ask for praise, but I think it was a proud moment yesterday to see the president of the United States recognise the extraordinary work that our police and our security and intelligence services do every day throughout the year and throughout the world to keep us safe.”
The UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, in remarks made to a crowd at the Labour Party conference being held at Liverpool, thanked the “security services, armed forces and police for the work they did yesterday and they do all year around to help keep our country safe.” The UK had to be ready to “confront” manifold threats facing Europe and the globe.
With so much self-praise clotting the narratives, the release of the arrestees on bail served to perplex the US commander-in-chief. “I would have said don’t let them have bail,” reflected Trump. “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.”
Finger pointing was bound to take place. The Iranians – notably the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – came in for suspicion. In an act of premature adjudication, Miliband revealed to his audience that, “We will act against the proxies of Iran.” RAF Fairford, given its role in aiding US strikes on Iran, had received attention from anti-war demonstrators in March and April concerned about a widening of the conflict. Residents in the vicinity of the base have also complained about the noise and security risks posed by the facility.
In a statement posted on its X account, the Iranian Embassy in the UK “categorically” rejected and strongly condemned “the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to the arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base.” Disseminating such “fabricated speculations” in light of the “criminal acts of aggression committed by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Iranian people” would only “fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK.”
The situation offers fecund opportunities for speculation. Till this incomplete canvas is filled, we are left with contesting accounts on whether an attack was foiled because of the chance sighting by a farmer of something suspicious in the face of authorities who claim they had all matters in hand, despite coming rather late to the proceedings. Trump’s intervention did little to clarify matters. While the Midas touch turns the subject matter into gold, Trump can turn the most quotidian into an offering of pure mendacity. And where the authorities serve to praise themselves all too enthusiastically, something is often amiss.