Alleged Pope Plotters Freed Without Charge.
(Sept. 19) β It appears that six men suspected of plotting a terror attack against the pope in London were actually just street sweepers joking around on their lunch break. The men were arrested on Friday for what authorities at the time described as a terror plot against Pope Benedict XVI, who's been visiting Britain this weekend. The men were quizzed by counter-terrorism experts and police raided eight homes and two businesses in London, including a street sweeping operation, as part of their investigation. No weapons or suspicious materials were found.Now the men have been released altogether, without any charges. Scotland Yard spokesman Alan Crockford told CNN that they were all freed overnight. The men, aged 26 to 50, all work at the same street sweeping firm, Veolia Environmental Services, and were having tea in their work cafeteria on Thursday when a colleague overheard them joking about how easy it would be to assassinate the pope, The Daily Mail reported. "It would be pretty difficult to shoot the pope, wouldn't it, as his car is bulletproof?" one of the men said, according to The Sunday Mirror. "Yeah, but I bet an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) would get through that easily enough," another said. The men laughed and then changed the subject. But one of their coworkers who overheard the exchange was concerned enough about their conversation to report them to police. The employee told investigators that the men had access to the pope's route, because they were assigned to clean those London streets ahead of Benedict's procession. Police swooped in on the men as they prepared for a 6 a.m. street-sweeping shift on Friday. They were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows U.K. authorities to hold suspects without charge for as long as 28 days. "It wasn't something that we could have taken a chance with, given that the pope was in the country that day and the men had access to the pope's route," an unnamed police official told the Mirror. "The men could have been joking, but they could also have been a viable threat." Veolia Environmental Services is a contractor for the Westminster City Council, and has 650 street cleaners on roads around Parliament, Westminster Abbey and other tourist attractions.
