We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Brace yourselves for a shock At last we can put an end to all the quarrelsome debates and ill-informed speculation
A fundamentalist Islamic movement is emerging as a common link between several of the men arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up transatlantic airliners.
Well, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
(And, by the way, I wonder what links the remainder of the men? Perhaps it was too soon to call for an end to the quarrelsome debates.)
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My, my, what a surprise.
Any mention in that article about which direction the sun will rise from tomorrow? I’m betting on east.
Whoever figured that out must be graduates of some institute of higher learning. My hat is off.
Gee, and we thought they were all members of the Klan or Aryan Nation, which have been noted for their outreach programs to the Muslim community…
And in the meantime, the UK fails the Town Square Test
These poor young people are all suffering from “Wankers Doom”
What links the others? Presumably that is a matter of the evidence on which police formed the suspicions on which they arrested them. It would be exceedingly surprising if a plot involving Britons of Pakistani origin to blow up planes were not motivated by Islamism. But note the reports says they were linked by the Tablighi Jamaat – that’s to say they were all members. Maybe they met through it. Maybe they didn’t and common membership is adventitious.
“Linked” is one of thise nasty weasel words that are used to create prejudice without saying much. “Associated” is another. Saying the suspects were linked with Tablighi Jamaat does not imply it planned or was responsible for any plot. It just offers a (prejudicial) insight into their character. It would certainly not be surprising if bombers were fundamentalists, but that does not make all fundamentalists bombers. Nor does it make these particular fundamentalists bombers. Evidence of bomb-making would do that.
Is no one else here worried by the continuing tendency of police and security services to brief the press about their suspects? (Including, in the case of celebrities, where and when they will be arrested/released in order to accomodate the photographers.)
guy herbert,
If I remember right, you doubted a few days ago whether there was any plot at all, and if the announcement wasn’t just another convenient pretext of the government to rob you of your rights.
Good to hear that you seem to have overcome your scepticism, at least on this.
Perhaps a little subjudicial leakage and more pre judement will enable them not to get a fair trial.
Wouldn’t if be nice if they got off scot (sorry Islamic Free) through some blunder on the case.
It would be rich if knacker of yard and the CPS goofed up this one. After all, it is a conspiracy, a nod and a wink will do! Perhaps even a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, will cap the case.
The sad thing is, for all the care and attention to foiling this plot, a political goof now would just be sick making. Perhaps, it would have been for the better if we had never heard about any of it and the usual agro on boarding flights had remained the same. At least Anne Coulter would have been spared wasting time on ridiculing air port non security.
Not much has changed, there will be other plots, some more deadly. Flying is now more tedious than ever. So who won this one? Personally, I am for Dennis Miller’s “Go Roman” approach to all of this terror nonsense. I imagine the Romans, God forbid that they came back in modern times, would hurl these miscreants out the back of a Hercules for one last skydive without benefit of silk.
Ho hum, Nuff said.
This just in: bear seen headed into the woods with a roll of Andrex.
Jacob,
Could you point out where I doubt the possibility of a plot?
My accusation at the time was that government was manipulating the news and making a fuss where none was required in order to use the incident for political leverage. That appears to be correct in retrospect. We now know, for example that John Reid altered his speech of the day before.
There is, incidentally, still no evidence of a plot other than official briefings. We shall have to wait a long time to discover how real the danger was, by which time it will already have become firmly fixed in the public and media massminds as having been an active plan thwarted at the last moment to bring down multiple aircraft with liquid explosives.
The “Ricin Plot” is still frequently quoted by ministers, police and their press fans as an example of how feindish terrorists are. But there no ricin, no plot, and everyone except the man who who stabbed a policeman resisting arrest was acquitted of everything. What’s more the plot proposed by the prosecution could never have worked, because it failed to inject the imaginary ricin. Some government spokesmen at least must be aware of that, but if they are, they don’t care, because it is the effect on the public (and themselves, perhaps) of a good horror story that they are after.
I have always thought Reid’s speach (a.k.a Missive Regarding Measures of State Self-Defence) was linked.
As for bears walking to the woods it was with rolls of Charmin – I heard it straight from the chicken’s lips.
UPDATE!
Pope may have connections to Catholic church, say informed sources.