re: Update on the British bomb plot
"Good old-fashioned police work," as I have tried to get across several times, works quite well if your terrorists are located in a country with good, old-fashioned police. Not an option for other places. As you might recall, the first step in the war in Afghanistan was to ask the Taliban to apprehend and turn over the terrorists. I think we actually killed a couple of them then when they laughed themselves to death.
Incidentally, the "good old fashioned police work" involved intercepting communications, and several tactics that would have been illegal in the U.S., such as being able to hold suspects for a month without charges.