"None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time"
That assumes that to be a "terrorist plot" every member of a cell had to be in the final stages of implementing a terrorist act.
That's not how al Qaida actually operates. Or many other terrorist groups for that matter. Ideologically prepared followers hang around at the ready, sometimes for years, Mohammed Atta was not operationally prepared to highjack a plane on 9/11/2000 but he was still a member of a terrorist network.
Murray makes the point that the UK has arrested over 1000 Muslims on suspicion of terror, but charged only 12% of them with anything. Of those, 80% have been acquitted and the majority of those convicted are not convicted of "anything to do [with] terrorism, but of some minor offence the Police happened upon while trawling through the wreck of the lives they had shattered."
I am all in favor of reasonable vigilance against potential terrorists, but some of the headlines last week made attacks sound "imminent."
There's good reason to believe that the Bush administration had a political motivation for pushing the UK.
And there's evidence it occurred: In this instance, the British were apparently not ready to pounce absent American pressure.
Normally I'd write this of fas sour grapes but I'm long past the point of trusting bush or blair
I think that what this mainly shows is how distrustful the bush/blair administrations have become in the eyes of the general public even at 'a time of war.' Things like this (true or not) should be taken with a huge grain of salt, but the fact that we dont consider it outrageous is a testimony to how much we've been lied to by Dubya and his Briton counterpart.
Rodger,
"Murray says his dismissal was politically motivated, while the British government says the diplomatic recall was for 'operational reasons.'"
They're being under-statedly gracious. Here is Murray, in a clip he proudly links to himself,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e...h?
v=eNAe9hK4Yqc
"Be skeptical. Be very, very skeptical" indeed.
He's bonkers.
Oops. Forgot to sign that comment a moment ago.
I'm not sure that Murray calling Blair and Bush killers is any more bonkers than our Vice President implying that defeating Joe Lieberman helps al Qaeda.
Both men are pandering to specific crowds.
In any case, Keith Olbermann has been making many of the same points I attribute to Murray. NBC is talking to British officials who say that they may not have sufficient evidence to prosecute the alleged bombers -- at least not successfully. And the suspects apparently had not tested bombs, did not have all the materials to make them, did not have air tickets and some did not have passports.
Again, I'm all for reasonable vigilance. The questions here are about possible political manipulation (with motive and opportunity clear) and threat inflation.
The latter is typically not certain for years afterwards.
But it always effects politics in the moment.
obviously, the story that most of the public believes is not the real story. It may be close, but we don't know how close yet
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