Cross-posted at .

News comes tonight from MSNBC that there was disagreement between U.S. and British officials on when to make arrests related to the recent terror plot. 

A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.

That’s funny, in the hours and days immediately following the arrests, it was presented to us as if the threat were imminent, perhaps even to be scheduled for sometime this week.  Here are a few examples:

do we know or have you heard anything whether the 24 who were actually arrested were the ones who were going to be doing this dry one in two days, and then of course, the act — the real thing a couple of days later? (Fox)

Britain kept its threat assessment level at “critical,” indicative of an imminent attack... New information underlined how close the suspected plotters were to mounting attacks. After the first arrests in Pakistan some days ago, word went from Pakistan to the London plotters to move ahead quickly, according to a message intercepted by an intelligence agency, a U.S. official disclosed. (AP)

The 24 British suspects in custody were arrested in early morning raids Thursday after British offi cials determined a “dry run” for the alleged plot was to be executed within 48 hours. If successful, they said, it was to be followed by the actual attacks within days. (CanWest)

So the question then, is, what possible motivation would the U.S. government have for making sure this plot went public as soon as possible?  Perhaps it has something to do with a primary in which a pro-war incumbent was unseated and a CNN poll indicating that support for the Iraq war is at an all time low.  The UN Observer explains the pattern of thwarted terrorist attacks at opportune times.

The day after Senate Democrats brought a vote to pull out of Iraq, we catch a few idiots in Miami who were supposedly trying to blow up the Sears Tower, despite the fact that they lacked the means and ability to do so. Then there were the guys busted for supposedly plotting to blow up a New York subway exactly a year after the London bus bombings. And don’t forget the release of new Osama bin Laden tapes just before the 2004 election as well as the very day after the Supreme Court decision striking down the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals. And now today, a few men in England were arrested for a plan to blow up planes flying to America, just a day after Connecticut voters flatly rejected Joe Lieberman and the war in Iraq.

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