London reactionDowning Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday had he known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot. He has known about it in general terms for months, and has spoken to President George Bush about it.
They discussed it in more detail on Sunday, during a conversation on a secure line in which the British prime minister outlined what he knew of the cell being monitored by security services.
Downing Street officials said he had also mentioned the specific surveillance operation. Mr Blair warned the president that it showed there was a specific threat to US airlines and urged total secrecy, warning premature leaks would destroy the monitoring of the group.
From his holiday home, he spoke again to Mr Bush on Wednesday at around 8pm UK time, again mentioning the security threat, but primarily discussing fresh plans to break the deadlock at the UN on the Middle East. Hours later police and security services were in contact with their US partners to say a specific threat was being acted upon.
The decision to sanction the raids took British government ministers by surprise. Transport secretary Douglas Alexander was on holiday on the Scottish island of Mull on Wednesday when he was told he needed to be briefed on a threat to UK aviation.
An official flew to meet Mr Alexander who returned to London for the first Cobra committee meeting that began a little before midnight and was chaired by home secretary John Reid.
The discussion centred on how to handle the likely transport disruption yesterday.
Largely the same group met again at 5am yesterday to discuss details of the raid, and how to handle the media, including early morning statements from Mr Reid and Mr Alexander as well as the need to involve local communities in the fight against terrorism.