London Press Gives Further Details on Arab Plot to Kidnap British Jews

Further details of an alleged plot by Arab terrorists to kidnap two Anglo-Jewish millionaires who are major supporters of Israel appeared in the British press today. The plot was exposed by a British detective who infiltrated a pro-Arab organizations. According to the Daily Mirror, the Foreign Office has the names of two Arab diplomats who were allegedly the local contacts of the kidnapers and were to have supplied them with funds.

The Evening News reported yesterday that the intended victims were Charles Clore, 65 and Lord Seiff, of Brimpton, 80, and their families who were to have been drugged and flown to an El Fatah hideout in the Middle East where they would be held for ransom. The Mirror reported that the kidnap plans were discovered in the course of four police raids in and around London. The paper said detectives found a list of 11 other Jews earmarked for kidnapping and papers listing the day-to-day movements of some of them. The Mirror quoted a detective who led the raids as saying that the El Fatah plans “may sound far-fetched, but every detail had been analyzed, checked and carefully worked out.”

Scotland Yard officials declined to say today whether there was any connection between the arrest of Capt. Trefor Owens Williams, 40, in Bracknell, on charges of planning to blow up an airliner of another country and charges made by Paul Rose, M.P., that an Arab organization was recruiting British nationals to sabotage El Al airliners at Heathrow Airport, London.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Williams made a full confession of involvement in an espionage plot. A quantity of explosives was in his possession. He was held without bail on charges that could carry 14 years imprisonment.