The Sleepers Have Awakened?

So, what do we know 48 hours on from the first failed terrorist attack involving car bombs in London, followed by the fiery attack on the Glasgow airport? Well, we've got some names and occupations to go along with all the speculation.

At least one of the five people in custody was a doctor: Dr Mohammed Asha.

That should once again undermine the "root causes" crowd's argument that poverty is behind terrorism.

A total of seven people are now being held in connection with the UK bombing campaign as two more people were taken into custody. The two men, aged 25 and 28, are believed to be of British origins. Meanwhile, more details have emerged over the others in custody:

On Monday, Staffordshire Police closed off Priam Close, in Bradwell, two miles from Chesterton, where one of the people being held, Dr Mohammed Asha, lived.

Dr Asha, 26, who worked as a junior doctor at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, and a 27-year-old woman believed to be his wife, were arrested on the M6 in Cheshire on Saturday night.

Another 26-year-old man was arrested in Liverpool on Sunday.

Warrants have been issued which allow police to further detain the three people, who are being held at Paddington Green police station, until Saturday.

A man arrested by police at Glasgow airport suffered severe burns

Two men were also detained at Glasgow airport on Saturday after the attempted attack.

One had severe burns and remains in a critical condition, and under armed police guard, at Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Paisley.

The first five people arrested are believed to be of Middle Eastern nationalities.

Two of the seven in custody are doctors and more information about Asha has come out:

Dr. Mohammed Jamil Abdelqader Asha has been identified as a suspect in the U.K. terror plot. He was arrested by British police this weekend near Cheshire, England. He has not been charged with any crimes, but police have been searching his home in Chesterton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, north of London.

Asha graduated from a Jordanian medical school in 2004. He registered in 2005 with the General Medical Council, the British medical-doctor registry.

He works as a physician at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent.

I expect intel agencies to focus on whether he has any links to al Qaeda in Jordan, which is Zarqawi's country of origin. They'd probably look for clan and family links to terrorists; quite a few terrorists involved in al Qaeda are related by family or clan.

The Glasgow jeep apparently contained propane gas canisters, just like the two cars discovered in London, along with quantities of gasoline. It would appear that the three vehicles involved were rigged to set off fuel air explosions, but were either discovered before they could explode or were fizzles.

Security in the UK remains on its highest alert level.

UPDATE:
Still more details on Asha's background; he was apparently worked "... in the neurology department at the North Staffordshire hospital, in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent. He qualified in Jordan in 2004 and is registered to work in this country until 2008, it is thought he holds a Jordainian passport and is of Palestinian origin."

Also interesting is that his father is hoping to get the Jordanian government involved in securing his release.

Jamil Abdel Kader Asha, Dr Asha’s father said that he learnt about his son’s arrest through the media and claimed his “son is incapable of such acts”. He called on the Government in Jordan to intervene and secure his son’s release. “Not all Arabs are terrorists," he told the AFP news wire.

Jamil Asha confirmed that his son had obtained his medical degree in Jordan before moving to the UK. “I cannot imagine he had any other goal than to realise his ambition by studying in Britain,” he said, describing his son as pious but not extremist.

UPDATE:
The identity of the second doctor held in British custody has been released:

Police said one man arrested in Glasgow is Bilal Abdulla.

According to the British General Medical Council's register, a man named Bilal Talal Abdul Samad Abdulla was registered in 2004 and trained in Baghdad. Staff at Royal Alexandra Hospital said one suspect was a doctor of Middle Eastern or Iraqi origin who worked there.

UPDATE:
Make that three doctors of the seven that are in custody.

UPDATE:
Can you say five doctors in custody in relation to the car bomb plot? I knew you could.

UPDATE:
Actually, make that six doctors, as another doctor was taken into custody, this time in Australia.

A MAN arrested at Brisbane’s international airport overnight over the UK terror plots was a registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital in Southport.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the 27-year-old man was arrested at Brisbane International airport yesterday. He did not have a return ticket.

The man, who Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said was not Australian-born, was arrested at the airport at 11pm (AEST) by a counter-terrorism team comprising Queensland police and Australian Federal Police officers after advice from UK authorities.

Mr Beattie said he understood the man had been attempting to leave Australia.

Brisbane Airport has confirmed that only one flight was delayed last night, a flight to Kuala Lumpur.

It appears that the person arrested may have been trying to get to Malaysia, which some folks have fingered as being supportive of the jihad in Thailand that has killed over 2,300 people in just the past two years with multiple bombings, beheadings, and school torchings.