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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 1:15 p.m. ET: LONDON -- British counter-terrorism police on Thursday arrested two men aged 18 and 32 in east London in an operation that was aimed partly at protecting the London Olympics, sources told NBC News.
The two were detained on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," the police said in a statement. Both were being held at a police station in central London, the statement added.
The detentions were not a result of a long-running investigation and it did not appear that those arrested were involved in a sophisticated plot, the sources said.
Missiles on my apartment? London resident balks at Olympics security measures
Two separate addresses were searched in relation to the arrests, police told NBC News.
It can be assumed that the decision to make arrests rather than tale time to investigate further was made with the closeness of this summer's Olympics in mind, the sources said.
Report: Fake bomb exposes Olympic security
British officials have beefed-up security measures ahead of the games, which are due to start in a month and have put the British capital in the world spotlight.
NBC News' Michele Neubert and Keir Simmons, and msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this report.
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London police...keep up the good work! This would be a really good time to watch carefully every muslim since we know the goal they all have...killing innocents!
Have not the British ended up as a bunch of jokers?
British considered that they were great and smart.
They gave shelter/protection and asylum to all sorts of Islamic radicals and terrorists of the world. They gave doles too!
Some were wanted in their own nations!
Again most of the Pakis have been in terrorist plots or Trojan horses!
Now British have to enjoy what they did!
Swiftly ignoring that you're a borderline racist who has interpreted the article entirely according to your own prejudices....
It turns out the two men arrested were from the armed Basque separatist movement ETA.
So white Europeans. Not Muslims.
@ Ligeti, it still doesn't say that in the article so you're getting the info from somewhere else.
bart martin , 1 Muslim terrorist attack in London versus several dozen Irish ones. There are still bombings in Ulster every couple of months.
And then these two turned out to be Spanish christians. Should England shoot some Muslims anyway, just to be on the safe side?
Good point Jack.Muslims are unfortunatly involved in 90% of all terrorism in the world-This is of course diffferent than saying 90% of all Muslims are terrorists. But even if it was only 10%..a not unreasonable figure.it would justify keeping tabs on all of them as a group. Not profiling..just common sense. And VERY necessary!
90% of London terrorism is from the Irish
Vier you´re living in the past.Don´t you remember the 2 buses the Muslims blew up a few years ago.The Irish haven´t committed a terrorist act in MANY years.The Muslims are now definitely no1 in England and by a long shot.And that goes for the whole world!
@Bart Martin - not quite correct: in 2005 4 Muslim suicide bombers blew themselves up, 3 on the London Underground and 1 on a double-decker bus.
During the last 12 years there have been 11 successful terrorist bomb attacks in the Mainland UK: 7 have been by the Real IRA (2000-2001), 3 have been by Muslims (2005[London],2007[Glasgow], 2008[Exeter]), 1 was a series of letter bombs targeted against 'the authoritarian state' (2007).
The two men arrested here were from the Basque separatist movement ETA - it doesn't mention which country they were preparing acts of terrorism against - it might have been Spain.
As the British Security Services make clear there are several ongoing threats from several different sources pursuing diverget agendas: Muslim, Irish, Far Right (in 1999 there were 3 very nasty Neo-Nazi nailbombs and several other plots have been disrupted in the past couple of years), Eco-terrorists, animal rights campaigners and lone nutters.
The article doesn't say, but you can bet it's those dang Buddhists yet again.
Not entirely clear. Did these 2 attempt to drive in the traffic lanes reserved for high party officials or did they attempt to stay in their apartment after being evicted to get higher rents?
Would it be worth mentioning that there's actually far-right and eco terrorists operating in the UK as well Muslim ones. And the Irish terrorists have been dormant on the mainland for a long time.
But I'm with Adam44 - it's the Buddhists - their crack self-immolation squad!
"British officials have beefed-up security measures ahead of the games, which are due to start in a month and have put the British capital in the world spotlight."
So there will be too many security checks for the law abiding citizens while visiting UK during games!
Can't the Olympic games committee drop the Dow Chemicals from being one of the sponsors!
If they don't Olmpics means money, shows, tourism and hoaxes!
Can we hire these British Police here in America , because Every Arab here in America is a Trojan Horse !
Why let them in first place?
It is better to start kicking all Torjan horses one by one. They have made our lives including travels miserable.
Let us start by Pakis and Saudis!
The IRA and ETA have legitimate reasons, muzzies don't, especially the Pakistanis!! What's their beef w the Jews??
Really? The IRA have legitimate reasons? Please explain them, as being British I fail to see them
Those OPEN immigration policies of the past have come back and bit the BRITS in the ass.
Interesting that msnbc carried this story about two arrests in London in an anti-terror police action, but completely ignored yesterday's anti-terror action in which six suspects were arrested in London. In all likelihood this is because the first two arrested were suspected Basque separatists, whereas yesterday's suspects were Islamic extremists. As usual, Islam gets the kid glove treatment from some elite media who take great pains to avoid associating it with terrorists, even though the terrorists themselves state in no uncertain terms that Islam is what instructs and inspires them in their murderous deeds.
In all Likelihood? Isn’t that just speculation on your part Adam? After all it could be that they were Irish and it was ignored so that the Irish peace process looks good (after all the Queen did shake hands with the man who is responsible for killing her cousin a while ago) I’m guessing the media outlets that have reported the arrest of the six have been pretty sparing of the details right?