UK police arrest 2nd suspect
LONDON (AP) — London police said a second man has been arrested in connection with the London subway attack.
Police said yesterday that a 21-year-old man was arrested late Saturday night in Hounslow in west London. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act.
Two men are now in custody for possible role in the attack that injured 29 people.
Britain’s terror threat level remains at “critical” — the highest level — meaning that authorities believe another attack is imminent
Police on Saturday arrested an 18-year-old man in the port of Dover — the main ferry link to France — and then launched a massive armed search in the southwestern London suburb of Sunbury.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump seized on a terrorist attack in London on Friday to promote his ban on travel to the United States by Muslims and, in the process, ran afoul of Britain by claiming without evidence that the assailants had been “in the sights” of British police.
In a fusillade of early morning tweets, Trump cited the chaotic scene in a London Underground station as Exhibit A for his hard-line policies.
His ban on visitors from predominantly Muslim countries, he wrote, should be “far larger, tougher and more specific” — a statement that seemed calculated to mollify his political base after a week in which Trump suddenly began playing dealmaker with Democrats on immigration.
But Trump’s assertion that the assailants had been known to Scotland Yard angered Prime Minister Theresa May, who said it was not helpful for anyone to specu- late while an investigation was underway.
It was the latest episode in which Trump was at odds with Britain over sensitive security issues.
In June, he criticized Londons mayor Sadiq Khan over his response to another terrorist attack, misconstruing Khan’s words. In March, the White House press secretary at the time, Sean Spicer, repeated allegations that a British intelligence agency had wiretapped Trump Tower, which British authorities dismissed as “utterly ridiculous.”
Trump’s assertions were also a sign that for all the talk about a more disciplined White House under the new chief of staff, John Kelly — who has urged the president to have tweets vetted by his aides — Trump was still determined not to censor himself on social media and was fully capable of roiling the diplomatic waters with a single unguarded post.
At 6:42 a.m., Trump tweeted that “sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard” carried out the attack, which injured at least 29 people in the blast and ensuing panic.
It was not clear where Trump got that information, though 23 minutes earlier, “Fox & Friends,” a program he regularly watches, broadcast a report in which a security analyst said he feared that London police had already known the identity of the attackers.
“Can someone tell Scotland Yard?” asked Brian Kilmeade, one of the hosts of the program.
White House officials tried to play down the contretemps, saying Trump was referring to the long-standing efforts of British law enforcement authorities to investigate wouldbe terrorists, not to anyone involved in Friday’s attack.