Major incident declared this morning near RAF Fairford with home evacuated.

Good on ya’ Rocknroll5me 🍷👏🏻

Talk about being extreme, either way!

It’s incredibly extreme to accuse both the police and our entire justice system to somehow be compliant with decisions made just because you don’t agree with them.

Absolutely our justice gets it wrong and I think some people I think should get bail do not and vice versa.

Btw, a debate is simply that, sometimes good posters include credible facts and links and statistics.

However, it’s not a contest to see how many “likes” you get. We are not on fb 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

The whole country can speculate- speculation is a well loved activity! 😊

What facts do we actually know - BBC

Who are the five men
The five men were initially detained on suspicion of committing offences under the Explosives Act before being further arrested on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act. Counter Terrorism Policing said they were UK nationals aged between 23 and 25, all from London. They have not been named. They were released on police bail subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others as they remained under investigation, Assistant Commissioner Taylor said.

The White Vans
BBC Verify has also been looking into the branding of the three white vans parked near RAF Fairford.
A verified image shows a red logo on one of the vans reading "Fuel 2You", with a mobile phone number also visible.
When contacted by the BBC, the number went straight to an automated Lycamobile voice message system. BBC Verify found no evidence that "Fuel 2You" is a legitimate company operating in the UK or a real brand name. However, BBC Verify contacted Fuel2U, a company with a similar name which delivers diesel across the UK. A spokesperson told us the vans were "nothing to do" with the company.

What sparked the arrests
A resident who called 999 to report the three white vans in Whelford village said it was "pure luck" that she spotted the vehicles. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she arrived home to find the driveway and road blocked and saw a "large group of hooded and masked men”. The woman told the programme she called the Ministry of Defence police at RAF Fairford but received no answer. She then rang 999 at 01:36 BST and said "within 10 minutes the village was full of armed police".

A large cordon remains in place near the base, while 85 households who were evacuated on Sunday have now been told by Gloucestershire Police that they can return home. But police have said a cordon will remain around the three vehicles.

Airspace restrictions have also been put in place above the base - nobody can fly within a five mile (8km) zone encircling it without permission. Banned items include balloons, kites, parachutes and para gliders. Several people have told the BBC they were woken by police in the early hours of Sunday and ordered to leave.

UK Government response
Prime Minister Andy Burnham chaired a Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon and urged people not to speculate while the authorities establish the full facts. Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Monday, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting thanked members of the public for their vigilance and quick action to alert emergency services. He added that the farmer who told the BBC about her 999 call "did the right thing" in reporting the men but said she only had a "partial picture", without expanding further. The defence secretary said "this is not the time for me to speculate" over whether there was any Iranian involvement in the plot.

The Iranian embassy in London said it "categorically rejects and strongly condemns" what it called "unfounded and malicious speculations" linking Iran to the incident, adding that these would "serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK”. In a statement, the embassy said Iran "reserves the right to take appropriate legal measures, as necessary, to safeguard the rights and interests of the country and its people in response to misleading and damaging media narratives”.

What is RAF Fairford used for
RAF Fairford has been used as a forward operating location by the US Air Force (USAF) for decades.
The base was occupied by USAF Strategic Air Command during the Cold War and later the first Gulf War in 1991.
B-52 bombers were also deployed by USAF from RAF Fairford on raids to Iraq in 2003.

Cossy

Btw, a debate is simply that, sometimes good posters include credible facts and links and statistics.

However, it’s not a contest to see how many “likes” you get. We are not on fb 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Nobody said it was a contest, but posters on GN are free to say they like/ agree with another and in fact do that all the time.

Thank you LemonJam
Facts not fiction.
But it was very interesting to read the 'theories'.

Yes LemonJam those facts are freely available on the Internet and all over the news.
It doesn’t get us to the true reason as to why the men were arrested and bailed.

nanna8

You wouldn’t want to be a policeman, must be very upsetting and frustrating. Maybe a good hard look at the bail justices is required ?
Oh, and dear * Doodledog* I was trying to respond to a comment you made about there being no far left. You brought the topic up, not me. Whatever.

No I didn’t (read back). And twisting things doesn’t disguise the fact that you haven’t explained what you mean by saying there are far more from the ‘far left’ in the UK (or Australia if that’s what you are saying) and how you arrived at that conclusion.

Oreo Absolutely, they can and they should

Oreo

Yes LemonJam those facts are freely available on the Internet and all over the news.
It doesn’t get us to the true reason as to why the men were arrested and bailed.

What do you think the true reasons are?

Are you inferring that some conspiracy has occurred?

A least two people on here have explained in full detail. What is it that you are actually questioning?

What aren’t you questioning Cossy ? 😄
I haven’t heard / seen any real motive as yet for the masked men and their nefarious doings but fuel thieves does sound the most likely so far.

Cossy

Oreo

Yes LemonJam those facts are freely available on the Internet and all over the news.
It doesn’t get us to the true reason as to why the men were arrested and bailed.

What do you think the true reasons are?

Are you inferring that some conspiracy has occurred?

A least two people on here have explained in full detail. What is it that you are actually questioning?

It doesn’t get us to the true reason as to why the men were arrested and bailed

Exactly- the true reason as to why the men were arrested and bailed rests with the authorities who continue to investigate. Posters merely speculate meanwhile 😊

Surely the true reason why they were arrested was that they were seen acting suspiciously? The true reason why they were bailed is that on the basis of the evidence available there were no grounds to keep them in custody.

Two people explaining in full detail ….
They can’t explain as they don’t know😄 so yes it’s all speculation apart from the fact that the men are not terrorists.

Oreo

What aren’t you questioning Cossy ? 😄
I haven’t heard / seen any real motive as yet for the masked men and their nefarious doings but fuel thieves does sound the most likely so far.

I’m not questioning anything? I’m quite happy to wait for the full facts.

My “view” is certainly could be a simple botched robbery, but it could be anything at all.

Comparing “why” this crime warranted bail and other “crimes” that are totally unrelated don’t is interesting, but utterly irrelevant.

Terrorists may be held for longer than normal.
They have not been held.
Safe to conclude that despite Trump lending a hand, they are not Terrorists.

Oreo

Two people explaining in full detail ….
They can’t explain as they don’t know😄 so yes it’s all speculation apart from the fact that the men are not terrorists.

They explained completely and in full how our bail system works, then gave an opinion on why these men were bailed, based on facts.

Casdon

Surely the true reason why they were arrested was that they were seen acting suspiciously? The true reason why they were bailed is that on the basis of the evidence available there were no grounds to keep them in custody.

I agree. I’m sure some people will not!

Cossy

Oreo

Two people explaining in full detail ….
They can’t explain as they don’t know😄 so yes it’s all speculation apart from the fact that the men are not terrorists.

They explained completely and in full how our bail system works, then gave an opinion on why these men were bailed, based on facts.

I’m not interested in bail conditions or comparisons nor have I mentioned them.

Suspected terrorists can be held up to 14 days so what we know is that they aren’t terrorists.

Casdon

Surely the true reason why they were arrested was that they were seen acting suspiciously? The true reason why they were bailed is that on the basis of the evidence available there were no grounds to keep them in custody.

True, but it’s the reason they were acting suspiciously that interests everyone.

You need to have a certain way of thinking to stick to the known information and wait for updates Cossy, I think. So many people leap to conspiracy theories, whatever the subject. The same thing is happening on the Ranulph Fiennes thread.

I think you are getting posts muddled up Cossy

It’s called speculation Casdon which is what everyone in the country does and news threads would wither away after 4 posts on GN if we didn’t all do it.Until the true facts are revealed it’s all we have ( apart from realising they aren’t terrorists.)

I know what speculation is, I was the first one on this thread to mention that I thought it was inappropriate in these circumstances. It’s fine for imponderables like politics, where making guesses about what might happen in the future, but with criminal investigations like this, it isn’t, in my mind anyway.