Washington, Nov 3 - House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement regarding new reports that the intent of the foiled August 2006 terrorist attack in Britain was to blow up multiple airliners over U.S. cities to kill the maximum number of American civilians:

“This revelation is a chilling reminder that the terrorist enemy is continuing to plot twisted new ways to kill American men, women, and children here on American soil. British and American authorities were able to thwart the airline plot in Britain last August because they'd been given the surveillance and law-enforcement tools necessary to do the job. Without these tools, thousands of innocent Americans would have been murdered by terrorists on American soil three months ago.

“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her Capitol Hill Democrats voted to deprive our law enforcement and homeland security personnel of these and other tools needed to fight and win the Global War on Terror. They voted against the Terrorist Surveillance Program that enables our law enforcement authorities to listen to calls being made by al-Qaeda operatives to the U.S. mainland. They voted against reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act that ensures our law enforcement and counter-terrorist personnel can fight terrorism without their arms tied behind their backs. They voted against border security measures that will help us prevent terrorist operatives from infiltrating our security systems and operating covertly inside our county. They voted against giving our intelligence personnel the guidance needed to legally extract vital information from captured terrorists.

“Time and time again, Ms. Pelosi and her followers have put their political priorities and liberal doctrine ahead of the security needs of the American people. It would be dangerous to entrust House Democrat leaders with authority at a time when this clear and present terrorist threat to the American people continues to exist.”

“A group of alleged terrorists arrested in London in August planned to blow up airliners over U.S. cities to maximize casualties, rather than over the Atlantic Ocean as many intelligence officials originally thought, according to recent remarks by a senior FBI official.

“The comments by Mark Mershon, head of the FBI's New York field office, indicate that U.S. and British intelligence officials now think that the airliner plot was aimed at maximizing the potential loss of life and economic impact.

“‘The plan was bring them down over U.S. cities, not over the ocean,' Mershon said Oct. 24 at the Infosecurity 2006 conference in New York, according to Government Security News, which first reported the remarks this week.

“Authorities had previously said it was unclear where the alleged terrorists intended to detonate liquid explosives, which they planned to smuggle onto as many as 10 transatlantic flights.”