12 detained and counting

The police are searching another house in Liverpool in connection with the alleged terror plot. There's no official news on the 12 men who've been arrested - the police still have 26 days to question them without charge.

The four names of the arrested men are circulating in the media but we're not going to broadcast them as things stand for legal reasons - but we understand that two of them were recruited to John Moores University through a recruitment office in Peshawar, Pakistan and in the last few months visited Pakistan together. There's some controversy brewing over the student visa system and the extent of British-Pakistani cooperation in screening them all.

Downing Street tried to damp this down by saying Gordon Brown had spoken to President Zardari and the two men had committed to do all they can to stop terrorism.

About 10,000 students come from Pakistan every year and under the new points system they are checked against watch lists, have to have a place at a registered institution and show they have the correct qualifications. Universities will also have to report when they go missing. But some people, including the Pakistani high commissioner, seem to think we should go further. The high commissioner thinks Britain should hand the names of applicants to Pakistani security services for vetting.

That's something Britain is showing little interest in. But the immigration minister, Phil Woolas, is on record as saying that abuse of the student visa system, before the changes, was a loophole in Britain's border controls. He'll be debating whether things should change with Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary. Mr Grayling has opposed the government's plans to record all entry and exit to and from Britain on an e-borders database and Mr Woolas is keen to take him to task on that.

Of course none of this rules out the possibility that there was no plot, these arrests come to nothing and the individuals are all innocent.(This extract is taken from the Channel 4 Snowmail, dated today)

What is wonderful is that supposedly the most intelligent people in Britain are working for the Anti-terrorist agencies. How come, then, that they deny that the most dangerous – potentially- terrorists already reside in this country and are included amongst the most trusted of immigrant? Or have everyone forgotten the Glasgow Airport plotters and the schemes they had in place?