Ten of the arrested men, who are all aged in their 20s and 30s, are UK citizens.All are being detained on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism after raids on addresses in London, Bushey in Hertfordshire, Luton, and Blackburn. They are considered to be general intelligence material held by the terrorist network, which is known to favour targeting airport and aircraft, as well as financial institutions.Mr Khan was under investigation for several months by MI5 before his arrest and it was his links with a suspected network of al-Qa’ida supporters, including an alleged high-ranking commander in Britain, that led to the raids in London and the home counties on Tuesday. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested on 13 July, had stored photographs of Heathrow, as well as pictures of underpasses beneath several buildings in London, Pakistani intelligence officials say.But these images are understood to have been non-specific, several years old, and did not include details or plans of an attack. Senior British counter-terrorist sources yesterday denied they had found any specific plot to attack Heathrow or any other British airport.The source of the alarming stories about a plan to bomb Britain’s biggest airport appears to be four-year-old information held by an al-Qa’ida computer expert arrested in Pakistan last month. Above all, the tour can only raise the profile of the election, underscoring the Democrats’ contention that this time the race is so close, and the stakes are so high that no one can afford not to vote.It is a sobering thought that for all the hullabaloo surrounding US elections, turnout rarely exceeds 55 per cent, the lowest average of any advanced democracy. If Springsteen, his own band of bothers and sisters in Vote for Change, and ACT have their way, this time enough Democrat-sympathisers will become Democrat voters to evict Mr Bush from the White House..

It began with tales of a “terror alert in US and Britain” and culminated in a “plot to bomb Heathrow”. In the past few days anyone following the American and British media or listening to US security chiefs would be in little doubt the two countries were facing an imminent attack by al-Qa’ida. MoveOn , the arch-liberal online group that has already produced a host of generic anti-Bush ads, is closely involved in organising the tour. Proceeds from the concerts – 34 have already been announced – will go to America Coming Together (ACT), another pro-Democrat group which is seeking to register new Democrat-leaning voters and get them to the polls on 2 November. Given that one recent 10-day tour by the Boss netted $38m, it will be also a powerful source of funds, even though the money cannot go to the Kerry campaign, which is already committed to the $75m spending ceiling between convention and election day allowed by federal campaign finance rules.But the party will benefit hugely. The indirect impact, however, may be considerable.At the very least, a Springsteen tour, even one that preaches mainly to the already converted, guarantees publicity for the Democrats. At bottom, however, this native of the thoroughly mainstream, utterly unglamorous state of New Jersey conjures up a pre-existing eternal America, of disillusioned old soldiers and down at heel bars, of construction sites and good ol’ boys without helmets belting down interstates on their motorbikes.

Undoubtedly the Boss has plenty of Republican fans, but most people are no more inclined to be influenced in their voting intentions by pop stars than by famous actors, baseball players, retired military officers or even ex-presidents. I disagree with him.”Springsteen set out his views in most detail in his New York Times piece, and he sums up the case against this President in the most mainstream fashion. It is an earthy down-home America that the President’s master strategist Karl Rove might reasonably scour for untapped Bush votes.Nor will the tour be (or at least is is not planned to be) a frontal assault on Mr Bush, ?a Whoopi Goldberg. Participants intend to be, in Springsteen’s words, to be “Bush questioners, not Bush bashers”. The tone, right now at least, is more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger.As Boyd Tinsley, a member of the Dave Matthews Band, told The Los Angeles Times this week, “I don’t hate Bush I think George Bush, like me, loves America He’s doing what he’s doing because he loves America. But the Springsteen venture is different, not least because the Boss is the very epitome of a certain mainstream America, and has rarely been identified with partisan politics.He did join forces again after 11 September with the E Street Band of his glory days to produce his widely-praised album The Rising, with its signature track “My City of Ruins”, seen as a personal hymn to the devastated New York. In this unprecedentedly intense election year however, the bonds are tighter than ever.Yes there are conservatives in Hollywood (Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Charlton Heston to name but three), but this year actors, writers and directors have given eight times more money to Mr Kerry than to the President.And in 2004, the support has been on-screen as well as off-screen.