FIVE men were arrested near RAF Fairford today on suspicion of explosive and terrorism offences after they were reported travelling towards the airbase. Three “suspicious vehicles” were reported to police at around 12.45am, with armed officers arresting the men in the Whelford area under the Explosives Act before further arresting them…
Page A6From§Eachthe early bird edition — 27 September 2026
President praises 'fantastic' UK arrest, then says the same suspects were 'looking to do big damage'
As it ran on the front
Sunday morning, armed police arrested five men near RAF Fairford, the Gloucestershire base that flies U.S. strikes on Iran, after three vehicles were reported heading toward it around 12:45 a.m. Bomb squads checked the vans, about 85 households were evacuated, and British police opened the case under the Explosives Act, on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act. By Sunday afternoon, in Chicago, the president had already used that arrest once as proof his Iran war worked. Then he called the same operation "fantastic," the police work "an amazing job." Two different jobs for one afternoon, same five men, same arrest.
This week the story moved a third time. The president told reporters the suspects had been under watch for some time, and said, of them, that they were "looking to do big damage." None on the record so far. Whatever surveillance existed did not prevent the raid it is now offered to explain; it arrived, as a detail, only after the raid needed a bigger story than the police had given it.…
…(cont) Every version rests on one fact that never moves: an arrest made under British law, by British police, stated once and consistently — suspicion of explosives offenses, suspicion of preparing a terrorist act. Nothing in that account changes across the week. What changes is what gets bolted onto it from Chicago: a war's vindication Sunday morning, a compliment to a foreign police force Sunday afternoon, a claim of foresight by midweek. Three different uses, one unchanged arrest.
The president has, over several days, made the same case do work as a war's justification, then as praise for an ally, then as proof he saw it coming, in whatever order that week's argument needed. None of the three tellings contradicts the British police account. All three sit on top of it, like weight on a scale that never gets checked. The five men are still in Gloucestershire, in a British process that runs on its own account and asks Washington for nothing — including the story Washington keeps deciding to tell about it.
“One arrest, three different jobs this week: proof his war worked, a compliment for foreign cops, proof he saw it coming first. The facts on the ground never moved between those tellings — only the excuse for the war did, and Congress still hasn't voted on that war.”
“Look, the president complimented a foreign police force and shared what intelligence he had — that's transparency, that's a leader walking you through the process. Sure, it was "fantastic" Sunday and "watched all along" by midweek, but timelines get complicated, everybody knows that... wait, did I just say the story changed? That's not — that's not what I meant.”
Earlier in this story
- President calls same UK terror arrest proof of his Iran war, then hours later 'fantastic' police work By Sal · the matinee edition, 27 September 2026
- President turns British bombing arrest into confirmation of his own Iran war, hours later. By Sal · the noon edition, 27 September 2026
- Five men arrested near Fairford bombing plot, twelve days after Washington moved to sell Israel more 2,000-pound bombs By Sal · the coffee break edition, 27 September 2026
- Men arrested for explosives near base flying Iran strikes, weeks after Washington cleared 20,000 more bombs By Sal · the sunrise edition, 27 September 2026
The receipts
The RAF Fairford base has been used by U.S. forces involved in targeting Iran since the start of the war in February.
President Trump suggested that several of the men who were nabbed and stripped down by British cops on terrorism charges had been under surveillance for some time.
British police announced on Sunday morning that five people were arrested "on suspicion of offenses under the explosives act" close to a major air base.
The British counterterrorism police say the men were arrested after three suspicious vehicles appeared to be traveling toward R.A.F. Fairford early on Sunday.
British police declared a “major incident” on Sunday near a major Royal Air Force base used by the United States for strikes against Iran, with five men arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act that appeared to involve three vans. RAF Fairford, which the United Kingdom authorized the U.S.
President Trump on Sunday praised law enforcement in the U.K. for its work in arresting five men suspected of planning a terror attack on a U.S. air base “The arrest in the U.K.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.