What did the FBI know?

According to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, FBI agents in London began avoiding the subways months ago.

Jul 7, 2005 | Newsweek's Michael Isikoff has taken his share of abuse lately for Newsweek's not-true but-true reporting on the desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, so he ought to get some credit for this: Back in November, Isikoff and Mark Hosenball wrote a piece for Newsweek in which they said that U.S. law enforcement officials were extremely concerned about "evidence regarding possible active Al Qaeda plots to attack targets in Britain."

How worried were law enforcement types? This worried: "According to a U.S. government official," Isikoff and Hosenball wrote, "fears of terror attacks have prompted FBI agents based in the U.S. Embassy in London to avoid traveling on London's popular underground railway (or tube) system, which is used daily by millions of commuters. While embassy-based officers of the U.S. Secret Service, Immigration and Customs bureaus and the CIA still are believed to use the underground to go about their business, FBI agents have been known to turn up late to cross-town meetings because they insist on using taxis in London's traffic-choked business center."

Recent Stories

Can't forget the Motor City
All three leading Republicans pass within shouting distance of each other at the Detroit auto show, but no cars or models get caught in any crossfire.
Can't forget the Motor City
All three leading Republicans pass within shouting distance of each other at the Detroit auto show, but no cars or models get caught in any crossfire.
Mike Huckabee gets serious in a big way
The former Arkansas governor has finally found the idea maven -- Jim Pinkerton -- to add heft to his just-folks shtick.
Mike Huckabee gets serious in a big way
The former Arkansas governor has finally found the idea maven -- Jim Pinkerton -- to add heft to his just-folks shtick.
The ghost of primaries past
A Myrtle Beach debate shows Ronald Reagan is still the patron saint of South Carolina Republican politics.

Daily Newsletter

Get Salon in your mailbox!