Three days have passed since the Telegraph published its investigation into Hizballah activity in London four years ago.
“Terrorists linked to Iran were caught stockpiling tonnes of explosive materials on the outskirts of London in a secret British bomb factory, The Telegraph can reveal.
Radicals linked to Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant group, stashed thousands of disposable ice packs containing ammonium nitrate – a common ingredient in homemade bombs.
The plot was uncovered by MI5 and the Metropolitan Police in the autumn of 2015, just months after the UK signed up to the Iran nuclear deal.”
The Times of Israel adds:
“Acting on a tip from a foreign intelligence agency, MI5 and the Metropolitan Police raided four properties in North West London, discovering thousands of disposable ice packs containing ammonium nitrate, the Telegraph said.
A man in his forties was arrested on suspicion of plotting terrorism, but was eventually released without charges. […]
Sources told the Telegraph that the UK plot was at a very early stage and no targets had been selected. It said UK intelligence used to opportunity to try and establish what Hezbollah was up to and so did not disrupt it immediately.”
The Telegraph’s report has raised additional issues in the UK:
“The story has led to questions as to why details of the raid were kept secret, why Members of Parliament were not informed and why the incident was never mentioned during extensive debates about whether all of Hezbollah should be banned as a terrorist organisation.”
Not least for those reasons, one would of course have thought that the UK’s national broadcaster would have reported this story. However three days on, the most recent entry under the ‘Hezbollah’ tag on the BBC News website is dated February 27th.
No coverage of the story has been seen on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page or on its ‘London’ page.
Notably, this would not be the first time that the BBC has ignored such a Hizballah related story.
Related Articles:
BBC remains silent on Hizballah terrorism in Europe
Man described by BBC as ‘a businessman’ gets terror designation
BBC still describing Hizballah as “militants” after Bulgarian announcement
Whitewashing Hizballah on BBC Radio 4
Usual mantras in BBC News report on Hizballah designation