"Allegedly"

"Alleged" can be used when referring to someone against whom an allegation has been made. The arrested men are suspects. They are suspected to have engaged in activities falling under the remit of the Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. As of yet (4/2/07) no official allegations have been made against the arrested men.

Even if we accept the use of the word "alleged" as valid, it was used in many instances as primers to speculation:
* Guardian frontpage - "members of the group are alleged to have been preparing to film the kidnap victim as he begged for mercy before being murdered, and were then planning to post the footage on the web." The Guardian then has a further two stories about the "plot" alone on page 5.
* Times frontpage - "the hostage was allegedly to be paraded in an orange jump suit." A dominating picture of Ken Bigley in such an orange boiler suit is also on the frontpage.
* Express page 5 - "alleged plot would have been a chilling mirror of how Briton Ken Bigley was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq." And so begins a nine para story devoted just to this.

No factual information is likely appear in sentences which include the following:
"allegedly foiled..."
"allegedly planned..."
"might be targets..."
"suspected plot is said to have..."
"alleged plotters..."
"alleged plot..."
"would have been..."
"If this proves to be accurate..."

Newspapers are there to give us the facts. They are not there to let their imaginations run wild on the basis of tit-bits of information from mysterious unnamed sources.

Many column inches were given over to expounding on unconfirmed reports. However, one or two paragraphs would have been sufficient to tell the public about what unnamed sources are saying:

Sources close to the investigation say that the aim of the alleged plot was to kidnap serving members of the armed forces, perhaps while they were on home leave.

Talk of orange jump suits, execution houses in Tipton, 72 hour deadlines and such is speculation. Fanning speculation, rumour and fear is not a good thing for the press to be doing.