'Plot' to kill Tony Blair thwarted

Australia News.com ^ | 8/17/04 | Ben English

[wagglebee]

BRITISH anti-terror authorities have foiled a suspected al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Police swooped on two Lithuanian asylum seekers believed to be spying on Mr Blair's home in his constituency in England's north.

The men were caught with hi-tech surveillance equipment less than a kilometre from Mr Blair's countryside home.

Sources said the pair raised alarm bells because they displayed the characteristics of al-Qaeda spying behaviour.

Using a stolen car fitted with false number plates, they filmed roads and traffic surrounding their alleged target and were carrying a highly-detailed map of the country area of Trimdon in County Durham.

"To dismiss these as nothing more than a couple of wandering foreigners out to see the British countryside is stretching it a bit," a security source told Britain's Daily Express newspaper.

Intelligence officials are reportedly working on the theory that the men had been hired by intermediaries to keep higher-ranking members of the terror cell at arms length.

"This is classic al-Qaeda behaviour, a textbook example of one way the terrorists would gather information about a possible target," the security source said.

"Video equipment like that wasn't normally the kind of gear you'd expect a hard-up asylum seeker to be carrying about.."

After their arrest, the Lithuanians were deported. Police said they were satisfied no security issues were involved.

Meanwhile, security for Mr Blair was stepped up yesterday for his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after an Islamic terror group declared Italy its top target.

The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, which admitted responsibility for the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in March, said Mr Berlusconi would "pay with his head" for failing to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq.

The group put out a statement on the Internet on Sunday after a deadline it set for Italy to withdraw from Iraq expired. It called on terrorist cells to hit "all targets in Italy".

Italian security forces were on high alert yesterday, noting that Mr Blair's visit to Mr Berlusconi's private villa in Sardinia presented a prime target for terrorists.

Italy's Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu played down the terror threat, suggesting it had not affected the arrangements for Mr Blair's visit.

[noodler]

This is so much bs.Let them clip a finger off Mr. Blair and the tide will turn against a foe which is not really his or ours.To what end? Religious fanatics have their place in heaven or hell but the point at which they strike often undermines the message.In fact the killing of innocents and indiscrimanent murder was not a tenet.Would not a devout religion look over the field and if trully heroic tackle China again.No.They got the signal there and have not the guts to go foward on anything but a short-sighted murder play against free societies.What would Allah say?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Absolutely. The terrorists are following this very carefully and the useful idiots are helping them. These leftist bastards are making it dangerous for everyone.

So I hear that McGreasedhole turned down an offer from ex-FBI dircetor Louis Freeh to head the NJ anti-terro effort for no salary, but the corrupt and love-smitten NJ governor turned him down in order to have his otherwise useless butt-boy take ther job for $100K+.

This is an excellent metaphor for the incapability of the Democrats to handle national security. I am ever more convinced that Democrats are entirely too naive and morally bankrupt to be entrusted with managing anything more strategically important than hair salons or tattoo parlors.

[Steel Wolf]

"Try and kill me, will you!? Why, I'll, uh,... I'll...I'll... send you straight home!! That's right! That'll show you! A free ticked right back to your place of residence! Uh huh! Better put some ice on that, baby. Yeah! That's right! I'm sending you safe and sound back to a comfortable place far out of my jurisdiction! Uh huh. Maybe you'll think twice before you try that one again!"

Tony, Tony, Tony. Sometimes I really wonder about you.

[ridesthemiles]

Please explain why we would stop with Iran......

[combat_boots]

Good post. That is exactly what Clinton was doing, and what he intended to do, prior to the takeover.

[wagglebee]

I said Iran next, not last. I'm thinking Syria, Lybia and I think the time will come when Saudi Arabia will need to be dealt with.

[Yonkers Finest]

Could the U.S. military really afford an invasion of Iran any time in the near future? We seem to be stretched thin as is and the Iranian army is substantially more thorough than Iraq's. Iran undoubtedly is no friend to ours that can't be trusted but can the US really afford a new war at this point in time??

[Southack]

"Could the U.S. military really afford an invasion of Iran any time in the near future? We seem to be stretched thin..."

You are confusing "occupation" with "invasion."

It takes a lot of troops to occupy and pacify a hostile nation. It doesn't take a lot of our troops to smash a foreign nation and remove its leadership from power.

We can easily roll our Armies East from Iraq and West from Afghanistan and topple the Iranian regime. Should Iraq and/or Afghanistan need to be re-conquered and re-occupied, then we'd do that again later.

So we aren't stretched "thin" in regards to our defense...just in regards to occupation...and occupations aren't mandatory.

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[Yonkers Finest]

Well that clears that up...

[Bullish]

This makes me even more convinced that we need to continue on into Iran and kill all of the jihadists.

The entire middle east needs to be re-crusaded.

The enemy is Islam.

[zip]

ping

[JudyinCanada]

I agree!

I couldn't believe what I read! Deport them? Could they hope for anything better?

What on earth kind of nonsense is that? Here we are supposed to be connecting the dots, we have two of the "dots" in custody and they are deported?

The only way this is good is if they have had micro-chips implanted and can be tracked and when the time is right, blown up by the touch of a button.

[TheDon]

You mean Tel Aviv at a temperature of several thousand degrees didn't convince you?

[Frank_2001]

Guess those fancy Swiss kindergartens are different;)

[litany_of_lies]

Does it strike anyone as odd that they would deport them rather then use them to lead back to who ever hired them?

This is probably giving law enforcement too much credit, but it's at least possble that they were promised deportation if they would allow surveillance and lead them to their bosses.

Given the keystone cops nature of so much of law enforcement, it's a stretch.

[litany_of_lies]

The only way this is good is if they have had micro-chips implanted and can be tracked and when the time is right, blown up by the touch of a button.

That would be just too cool to hope for, wouldn't it? ("Hi guys! BOOM!)

[litany_of_lies]

Whether invasion without occupation would work in Iran is highly problematic, and I would say doubtful.

The student and freedom movement is strong, but they aren't the army and they don't have the guns.

Don't underestimate how much 25 years in power has gone to the heads of the clerics and imams who run the place either. They won't go back into a secular society without a great deal of resistance. We can thank Jimmy Carter for this mess.

The only way not doing an occupation would work is if there were an outside here who could be brought in--an even then it's a maybe.

[Southack]

"Whether invasion without occupation would work in Iran is highly problematic, and I would say doubtful."

Then you don't understand the dynamics.

The military option is our strong suit. You, like our enemies, are all confusing our civilized, compassionate behavior in places like Iraq, Haiti, Afghanistan, et al with our military capability.

Technically, no force on Earth can stop our military from defeating any enemy at any time. If we want to roll a couple of our armies through Iran, then we get to do that. They have no way to stop us. If we want to bomb them, gas them, infect them, or nuke them then there is likewise nothing that they can do to stop us.

We can conquer any patch of ground, or obliterate it, or whatever we want as we see fit, technically.

We can invade, conquer, and leave any nation. Said nation acts up again in 2, 5, 10, 20, or 50 years and we can again re-invade, re-conquer, etc.

Now granted, such heavy-handedness is not our *preferred* solution, but *technically*, we have those options available to us.

That's why the whole concept of attacking the U.S. militarily is flawed. The more damage that our enemies do to us, the more devastation we will deal right back to them, up to and including wholesale ethnic slaughter on a continental scale if necessary.

Technically, our enemies can *not* win militarily.

They might be able to win *politically* if they ever figure this whole game out, but they can't win militarily. The more they escalate, the more we destroy.

Thus, provoking the U.S. into a military conflict has always been a bad idea, and the more severe the conflict, the worse that idea becomes.

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[litany_of_lies]

My point is (sorry it wasn't clear), once we win and leave, then what?

In Germany and Japan after WW2, we had to occupy even though we had confidence that the better instincts of those societies would eventually take over.

In Iraq, the same.

In Iran, we would have to occupy, even (maybe especially) after a convincing, crushing victory, which of course I know we are capable of. I'm not at all convinced that it wouldn't turn into an Islamist state again the minute we left. Of course it wouldn't have nuke capability, which is progress, but it could regrow the terrorism pretty quickly.

In hindsight, this is another reason we should have marched to Baghdad in 1991, the UN be damned. Iran might have mellowed or become more vulnerable to revolution or even democratization within as Iraq became more successful, and would not have been the PITA it is now in trying to keep Iraq from being successful. The Mullahs have had 13 more years to solidify their grip. As usual, the longer you wait, the worse it gets.

[jennyp]

Police swooped on two Lithuanian asylum seekers believed to be spying on Mr Blair's home in his constituency in England's north.

??? Why would Lithuanians be needing asylum?

Wait, let me guess: Their names are Adnanis Shukrijumas and Aymanis Zawahiris.