British Jury Renders Split Verdict in Airliner Bomb Plot

The prosecution service said it was considering a new trial on the airliner charges for all defendants except Gulzar, a step that is allowed because the jury didn't reach a verdict. The statement stressed that the jury had not rejected the existence of a plot to bomb airliners; it simply could not reach a decision based on the evidence presented at trial.

The timing of the arrests of the defendants stirred intense debate in Britain. Some British security officials complained at the time that they wanted to keep the suspects under surveillance longer before arresting them, but that U.S. officials participating in the investigation pushed for a quick arrest.

Sajjan Gohel, a security specialist in London, said the case "illustrates the way that different countries handle these cases differently." He said British officials tend to keep terrorism suspects under surveillance longer to learn more about their networks, while U.S. officials often prefer to arrest suspects as soon as plots are discovered.

"These guys had not even bought plane tickets," Gohel said. "Perhaps it would have been preferable to wait longer to see what these guys were planning."

He added: "This will have consequences for future counterterrorism operations. The Crown Prosecution Service will not want this to be repeated. They will be more reluctant to take the advice of Washington on these cases."

John Miller, an FBI spokesman in Washington, declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation. "This case represents the challenges of operating in the prevention mode in the post-9/11 world," Miller said. "You can get out ahead of the threat, you can stop it from going forward, but when you do it's harder to prove the conspiracy."

Miller added: "The second-guessing is always going to be there. But if you don't prevent the threat, the second-guessing is going to be louder." Bob Ayers, a retired U.S. intelligence officer who is an international security specialist at Chatham House, a foreign policy institute in London, dismissed critics who say the arrests came too quickly.

"I would suggest that they would be the same people who would be vitriolic if the authorities hadn't acted quickly enough," Ayers said. "The number one operational consideration of the British authorities is the protection of human life. And you don't put that at risk to better ensure a conviction by the Crown Prosecution Service."

The important thing, he said, is that some of the charges stuck: "Radicals have been taken out of circulation. They will be incarcerated, and as a result the country will be a small bit safer."