Too Close

This just in: British security people are good. There have been a few public and probably dozens of unknown terror plots that James Bond's less-fictional colleagues have broken up. This time, they almost weren't good enough:

LONDON (AP) - Police thwarted an apparent terror attack early Friday after an ambulance crew reported seeing a smoking car parked near Piccadilly Circus that turned out to be packed with gasoline, nails, gas cylinders, and a detonator.

The explosives - safely defused by a bomb squad - were powerful enough to have caused "significant injury or loss of life" - possibly killing hundreds, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said.

The moral of the story: if you see a smoking car, call the coppers; don't wait for somebody else (like an on-duty ambulance) to do it.

Hat tip to Drudge.