A nicely timed plot

Quite conveniant. What is still truly amazing is that there are still people who take what they’re told by the bushistas at face value. Here’s some cynicism for you. You could say that I’m looking at this with a jaundiced eye.

What it reminds me of is the Miami plot with a bit more details added, since lessons have been learned. We are told yesterday that Lamont’s win in Connecticut, that’s in the US, is a win for the terrorists. And, hot on those heels, is this. It’s all just a little too pat for me.

In Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon, people are being killed. But that fact has been pushed off the front page. The people dying in Darfur in Sudan rarely even rate a mention. And what was on the US news tonight? How inconvenianced air travelers are because of this latest plot twist. And the sheep lap it up. But what the hell, Indianapolis Colts at St. Louis Rams on FOX tonight, so the Americans won’t be able to spend much time thinking about that other stuff. And if American football is not your style, there’s always “Big Brother” on the CBS network.

Well, hold onto your hats folks. The next three months are going to be some fear flogging times. And if that doesn’t work, the republicans aren’t above popping off an incident in the US. Remember, they can’t afford to lose the US Congress. They are too steeped in blood, corruption, and perversion to allow any sort of a real investigation to be turning over any stones.


No dead Lebanese children on TV today
by Craig Murray
August 10, 2006
http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2006/08/no_dead_lebanes.html


George Bush is just following John Reid in ensuring any trials following today's arrests are irretrievably prejudiced.

It is a fact that only the closest Blair circle bothers to deny, that if young British Muslims are turning to terrorism, it is the Blair-Bush foreign policy of war on Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine that has driven them to it. The majority of British people share their outrage at our foreign policy. That is not to condone the response of irrational violence. Terrorism is plain wrong. But it is Blair who has, through his evangelical embrace of the neo-con foreign agenda, massively increased any current threat of terrorism to the UK.

But let us do what none of the 24 hour news channels are doing; draw breath and count up to ten. What has actually happened so far?

There have been, reportedly, 21 people arrested. There have been no terrorist attacks, no explosions. US sources are reported as saying that explosive devices have been found, but no news from the Police as yet.

I am reminded of the Forest Gate arrests and the notorious "Chemical weapon vest" which was threatening London and required 270 policemen and a four mile air exclusion zone to deal with. The media was shoving that out just as uncritically as it is shoving out this air attack, even though it made no sense. Anyone who knows anything about weapons knows that for a chemical weapon you want maximum dispersal - the last thing you are going to do is wrap it in fabric around a human body. And why the air exclusion zone? Were they going to throw the vest at a passing jet? The media never did ask any of those questions.

Similarly, I recall the famous ricin plot, where again police and the professional pundits said millions could have been killed. In the event, of course, it turned out there was no ricin and no plot.

And I remember Jean Charles De Menezes, the "suicide bomber", with his "bulky jacket", with "wires sticking out", who "leapt" the ticket barriers and "raced" onto the tube. All lies.

So I am waiting with a little healthy scepticism to see the truth of this "al-Qaida plot" bringing "Mass murder on an unprecedented scale".

Of course, it helps New Labour look Churchillian, and explains why Israel had to be supported in the ethnic cleansing of South Lebanon, part of the "Arc of extremism". it is interesting that the timing of these arrests exactly today, after "months" of surveillance, was determined by the Prime Minister - the CO in COBRA, the operational command, stands for Cabinet Office.

The political timing could not have been more convenient - a junior minister had resigned over arms to Israel, and the backbench rebellion demanding a recall of parliament over Lebanon will now be containable in the name of standing together in the War on Terror. And the news agenda has been seismically shifted. The public mood is instantly tilted from sympathy for the people of Lebanon, leading to questioning of the War on Terror, to renewed fear that "Islamic fascists" are planning to kill us all.

So to recap: Blair's crazed foreign policy has made us a genuine potential target for terrorist attack. The government manipulates and spins that threat to political advantage.

We wait for the court system to show whether this was a real attempted attack and, if so, it was genuinely operational rather than political to move against it today. But the police' and security services' record of lies does not inspire confidence.


Terrorism: you can get it in a can.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2006/08/terrorism-you-can-get-it-in-can.html

It's past midday and the BBC have found nothing else to talk about yet, except for the weather (ominous banks of apocalyptic clouds rolling across a nihilistic sky toward an Islamofascist sun). Literally, all other programming has been suspended. Pundits with no opinion are being begged to find one, quickly. Arrests here, searches there, endless queues of disgruntled tourists and business travellers looking pissed off. Endless speculation is compounded by the suggestion that the fact that there is speculation goes to show how chaotic the situation is. We are then told that there is some suggestion that there were liquid explosives to be hidden in fizzy drinks cans and smuggled aboard planes.

Terrorism is insidious. It gets into everything. Spectacles. Mobile phones. Baby milk. It gets under your skin. Feel your body for any suspicious lumps. I confidently expect The Sun to inform us tomorrow that the alleged plot involved red-green chewing gum that one mashes together to get an explosion "just like in Sky's movie spectacular Mission Impossible, to be shown tomorrow night at 9pm".

Terrorism is great crisis television. John Reid MP makes a statement that not only restates what has already been said countless times, but has a ridiculously staged, ham-actor feel: 'I would like to thank the Great British public, the repository of our best surveillance; I would like to thank visitors for their patience; I would like to thank the security services; we are not complacent and that's why we have exaggerated the threat level in this case'. He then throws it open to the press for questions, adding "just give us yer name, rank and serial number". The Sun asks if this is the biggest threat since World War II as Reid claimed yesterday, and if it was a problem with an extremist wing of Muslims and if therefore Muslims have done enough. Now we know what to look forward to: "and you march for these people?"

The narcissism is astounding. Lebanon is actually being terrorised by Israel, Iraq is actually being terrorised by America, and this merciless, cruel, sadistic, reckless destruction is easily subsumed into the fabric of daily life - the first allegation of a threat of a potential attack in Britain at some unspecified point in the future, and suddenly we are encouraged to luxuriate in the fantasy prospect of annihilation. Knowing full well that the building next door is not about to be flattened under several tonnes of explosives, we are encouraged to pretend it's World War II and evince the stoicism of Blitz survivors. The Blitzkrieg is upon Beirut, but we are supposed to imagine that little Nazis are flying over our heads. Don't be complacent. Look out your windows. Keep an eye out. Don't forget to cast a nervous glance over your shoulder. Take notes. Tell the government everything. Root out the evil within. Question your own motives. Telephone the terrorist hotline if you suspect yourself of possessing the slightest nihilistic impulse. Oh - and do try to go about your daily life as normal.