BRITAIN/BLIX REPORT: Alerts and security scares marked another day of tension in Britain yesterday as hundreds of thousands prepared to descend on London for today's anti-war demonstration, writes Frank Millar.
While the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, carried the battle to the anti-war protesters - telling them such mass opposition would be punishable by torture and death in Baghdad - thousands of his citizens suffered more delays and inconvenience as a security alert closed Heathrow Airport's Terminal Two for an hour-and-a-half.
The latest scare came as flights got back to normal at Gatwick after Thursday's arrest of a 37-year-old Venezuelan found in possession of a live hand-grenade.
As police continued questioning him, British Airways confirmed the suspension of flights from Caracas for at least several days pending an inquiry by its staff into how the man managed to board his BA flight to London without the device being detected.
Two people arrested during a separate incident at Heathrow on Thursday were released yesterday, but anti-terrorist officers continued to question four others, arrested in Langley, Berkshire, not far from Heathrow, also on Thursday.
While the two men arrested at Heathrow were released without charge, one of them was last night in the custody of the immigration service. At the same time West Yorkshire police confirmed that two men had been arrested after being found acting suspiciously near the perimeter fencing of Leeds-Bradford Airport.
The two men, believed to be Iraqi Kurds aged 25 and 26, were detained at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Thousands of passengers had to stay overnight at Gatwick or nearby hotels after Thursday's arrest and subsequent closure of the airport's north terminal forced the cancellation of 21 outgoing flights and disrupted many more, while an estimated 4,000 BA passengers were affected by yesterday's alert at Heathrow.
Tensions among passengers there were also reflected in an increasing political temper on all sides ahead of today's central London demonstration against military action in Iraq, which organisers predict will attract support in the "high hundreds of thousands".
In a pre-emptive attack Mr Blair's spokesman accepted that the protesters' views were "sincerely held" but said a similar protest in Baghdad would be punishable by torture, imprisonment and death at the hands of a regime the spokesman also branded as tyrannical, dictatorial and evil.
This significant hardening of Downing Street rhetoric came as it was announced that Mr Blair would present a "strong defence" of his hardline position on Iraq during his appearance at the Labour Party conference in Glasgow this morning. That appearance is thought to have been rescheduled to avoid an anti-war demonstration outside the conference centre.
However, the Liberal Democrats leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, who will address today's demonstration in London, cited the deep disquiet within Labour's ranks last night, as he warned Mr Blair of potentially "very serious" consequences should he proceed to war in light of Dr Hans Blix's second report to the UN Security Council.