Five Released Near U.S. Air Base as Questions Grow About Wider Threat

FAIRFORD — British counterterrorism police released five men on bail Monday after arresting them near RAF Fairford, an air base used by the U.S. military. The decision leaves an urgent question: Have investigators identified everyone who may have been involved?

Police said officers arrested the men after a report of suspicious vehicles near the base Sunday. They were held on suspicion of explosives offenses and, later, preparing a terrorist act. Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said the men remain under investigation and face strict limits on their movements and contact with others. He said investigators are pursuing multiple lines of inquiry, including whether people acting for a foreign state were involved. Police have not publicly established that there was a wider group or identified a foreign sponsor.

Release on bail is not a finding that the men are innocent. It is also no reason to set aside the possibility of other people or other threats. The public deserves to know, when investigators can safely say, whether anyone else is being sought and what steps are being taken to protect personnel at the base. Police say the investigation remains active and that their security advice reflects the threat they are assessing.

RAF Fairford matters to the United States. The U.S. Air Force describes it as a forward operating location for bombers that supports American and NATO forces. An attack there could put U.S. service members at risk on British soil.

If American personnel were attacked, the first response would depend on the facts: who carried out the attack, whether others remained at large and whether there was evidence of direction from abroad. U.S. and British authorities could coordinate to protect the base, treat the injured, investigate the attackers and prevent another strike. Any decision to use force beyond those immediate protective steps would require its own assessment of the evidence and legal authority.

An attack would not automatically mean war. The United Nations Charter recognizes a nation’s right of self-defense after an armed attack. NATO’s collective defense treaty also provides a process for responding to an armed attack on an ally, but it does not require every member to take the same action or automatically launch a military strike. If a U.S. president introduced forces into hostilities, the War Powers Resolution would bring Congress into the process.

For now, no attack on RAF Fairford or U.S. personnel has been established in this case. The five men have not been convicted. The immediate duty is to follow the evidence wherever it leads, determine whether anyone else poses a threat and make sure Americans serving overseas are protected.