U.S., Britain differed on arrest timing

LONDON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. and British authorities disagreed over when to arrest suspects in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights, NBC News reported.

Citing a senior British official with knowledge of the investigation, NBC said British police planned to continue running surveillance of suspected plotters for at least another week, but U.S. officials pressured the British to arrest the suspects sooner.

There have been reports that attacks were imminent, but the British official told NBC the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets, and some did not even have passports. However, the official said police believe one suspect was ready to conduct a "dry run."

British authorities had wanted to let the dry run proceed, but American officials argued against that.

At the White House, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Frances Townsend denied the report.

"There was unprecedented cooperation and coordination between the U.S., (Britain) and Pakistani officials throughout the case," said Townsend, "and we worked together to protect our citizens from harm while ensuring that we gathered as much info as possible to bring the plotters to justice."

Townsend said there was no disagreement between U.S. and British officials, but an unidentified U.S. official told NBC there was disagreement over timing.