The Latest Terrorist Arrests

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I have some more that I want to say about this subject, but I don't seem to be firing on all cylinders this afternoon, so I am going to hold off until I can compose my thoughts more intelligently.

I just wanted to thank everyone who has participated in this discussion (and the discussion is was broken off from) for remaining courteous despite the difficult nature of the subject. It pleases me that we can disagree about these hard issues and still be polite about it.

Thanks (and keep it up)!

[axordil]

BTW:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/

Intriguing.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Very interesting, Ax. Some of the suspects didn't even have passports and none had purchased plane tickets. So much for "imminent threat".

[nerdanel]

Yes, Voronwë and Ax, this:

British officials knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner.

...makes me feel glad that I didn't too strongly contest either of your assertions about the curious timing of the announcement.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Turning back to the terrorist arrests (this is, after all the thread about the terrorist arrests; the discussion about Israel's right to exist really should be going on back in the other thread), there is something that just occurred to me. Does anyone know whether the people arrested are being detained as criminal suspects to be given full due process under British law, or as "enemy combatents" of some sort. I don't recall seeing anything about that one way or the other in any news report that I have read or seen.

[Jnyusa]

Voronwë, one of them was released very quickly, and no charges have yet been filed against the others. That was the last news I heard about it (last night). I don't know what due process looks like under British law, but if they've been collecting evidence against these guys for 8 months (also last night's BBC news) it suggests to me that they will bring criminal charges rather than holding them and trying them as enemy combatants.

Jn

eta: oh man, my daughter was filling me on on our way home from Washington regarding the research she was doing over the summer. Our fourth amendment is, like, dust in the wind. We have a serious problem on our hands with the Bush administration where due process is concerned.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

From an AP report today:

Two top Pakistani intelligence agents said Wednesday that the would-be bombers wanted to carry out an al-Qaida-style attack to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 strikes, but were too "inexperienced" to carry out the plot.

The two senior agents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if the terror cell members arrested in Pakistan and Britain had appropriate weapons and explosives training, they could have emulated massive attacks like those five years ago in New York and Washington as well as the July 7, 2005, London bombings.

The detainees in Britain and Pakistan had not attended terror-training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan and had relied on information gleaned from text books on how to make bombs, the officials said.

Their comments offer a different perspective from that given by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Certainly in terms of the complexity, the sophistication, the international dimension and the number of people involved, this plot has the hallmarks of an al-Qaida-type plot," Chertoff said Friday.

I have little doubt that this "plot" has been blown all out of proportion.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I have split off the Osgiliation about Israel's righ to exist, which was both off topic, and getting heated.

The new thread is here

There was one comment in a post of Jn's that was moved that was relevant to this thread. I have moved it back here:

Re the article over US/Brit disagreement as to timing, the silver lining on that report is that it wages against a satanic view of the US. With Bush's popularity at an all time low, the war in Iraq needing some additional justication, and the neocons itching to hit Syria next, there must have been some temptation to see what would happen, some upside discussed to allowing another attack on the US with British reluctance providing the plausible deniability. The fact that they did not go this route encourages me somewhat.

Obviously there would be a big public relations downside to another attack as well, and it may be their decision was purely expedient, but at least this time the opportunism worked in favor of my security instead of working against it.

[Jnyusa]

Thanks, V.