Posted on 08/10/2006 7:32:41 AM PDT by sergey1973
PRAGUE, August 10, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The British authorities are in no doubt -- after an operation lasting several months, the security services have foiled an imminent terrorist attack.
British Home Secretary John Reid said the security services had raised the threat level from "severe" to "critical," the highest possible level, which, according to the website of MI5, the British Security Service, means an attack is expected soon.
"The police, with the full knowledge of ministers, have carried out a major counterterrorism operation to disrupt what we believe to be a major threat to the United Kingdom and international partners," Reid said today.
London Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said the plan had been to commit mass murder.
"We cannot stress too highly the severity that this plot represented," Stephenson said. "Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale."
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
Trains. Don't forget trains. And tall buildings. Any enclosed area that packs in a lot of victims.
Avoid large crowds. Especially rock concerts.
But by definition the Dixie Chicks will not have large crowds, but don't go there anyway.
"What is the attraction of terrorists to airplanes? Are they hypnotized by shiny objects?"
I'll try to play a psychiatrist to answer this question. I think it's two things that makes airplanes so attractive to terrorists, especially Islamic ones.
1) Blowing up of airplanes full of infidels in mid-air, hijacking airplanes, or using them as guided missiles like on 9-11 make for a terrible but surely spectacular crime that bound to get the world attention. All terrorists are craving for the world attention so they are attracted to airplanes as attention-drawers.
2) Maybe in Jihadist mind, dying in airplanes in the air is the surest way to paradise because in many religious traditions, sky, clouds, mountain tops or something above the earth is often associated with the place were Divine resides. Plus, when you are in the airplane in the air, you feel a bit beyond this world. Craving for something beyond this world is a human aspiration. In a perverse and twisted way, Jihadists also crave for something beyond this world. Since killing infidels in Islamic Jihad tradition is the road to paradise or heaven which is beyond this world, killing infidels in airplanes perhaps make it especially attractive to these brainwashed monsters.
THAT my friend is a very good question. Wish I had an answer. It wouldn't suprise me.
I wonder if it's something like this: if it flies and is not a bird or an angel it is probably Satan's minions, so fair game.
OTOH the terrorist do want to shut down this country. We cannot/should not allow them to force us into living in fear.
Now will all civilized countries kick out proponents of the ideology of death, and keep new ones from coming in?
No one's living in fear. But I'd gladly let someone look through my bag before I get on a plane. I do think we have to be concerned about the border, and need to get on the stick there.
We bomb them into submission or non-existence like Japan in WWII.
So far I didn't here if there was a connection, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were. For now, I didn't hear any information other that 3 missing Egyptian students were already found and apprehended.
Thank you all for your responses to people who claim this is Bush's fault. The lib nuts are out there and I want to make sure I don't forget any responses to them.
Just concerened about the 'we're all gonna die', 'we're losing the war crowd' crowd. Vigilance is alway a good idea. I simply REFUSE to be terrorized, I REFUSE to allow the terrorist to dictate how I live, where I go, what I do.
Over at KOS, they're debating whether this is real or not or just a counter-punch to Lamont's anti-war win.
"In the back of my mind, I worry that this threat might be trumped up in order to divert attention from the disastrous US and British policy (or lack of policy) in Lebanon.
More likely, we have an informant in the UK that identified a potential plot that was in the dreaming stage but had not progressed to actual implementation. Rather than act like security professionals, the Brits are acting like panicked nannies. Very sad."
"How many of these f*ck*ng stories have turned out to be either blown waaaay out of proportion of just plain old outright lies? I'm sorry, but I don't trust a word the government or press tells us - at least until we've had a few weeks to figure out what's spin and what's real.
Sorry, but if I don't get scared when they tell me to get scared, that's NOT because I'm a conspiracy theorist; it's because they've give us every reason in the world to distrust them and no reason in the world to take their word for sh*t."
"just a tad suspicious, given Cheney's warning that Lieberman's defeat is "disturbing" because "Al Qaeda wants to break the will of the American people." What's with all the sudden Al Qaeda warnings, when they stopped talking about those guys for years? And on opening day of THE WORLD TRADE CENTER, no less? You don't find that just a tad too convenient, on the heels of Lieberman's clear defeat and the shift in the American public's mood i.e. 60% against the war in Iraq?"
"There may be real terrorists involved here, but they keep watch on these guys so that they can pull them out of their hat just when it's most helpful politically. They have an inventory of terrorist plots that they keep on ice at all times, precisely because they want to make use of them for political purposes. The terrorists are real enough, but that doesn't mean that you can take at face value the things that Bush, Chertoff et al. are saying."
And it goes on and on...Sick puppies.
Thanks.
I'll be sure to remember the word "idiot".
If I really expressed what I think of those "people", Jim would ban me so I try to keep it nice. ;)
"Now will all civilized countries kick out proponents of the ideology of death, and keep new ones from coming in?"
I wish I had a positive answer, but obviously I don't. I would simply have stopped any Muslim immigration into this or any other Western or non-Muslim country. I don't care if they are "peaceful" or "moderate". Most of Muslims are non-violent, but they could (and often do) aid and abbet those Muslims who are ready to fulfil the commandement for Jihad.
Saving lives and countries from Jihad threat should be above any other considerations. Also, Islamic activism should be treated as subversive Political activity rather than legitimate religious activity. Otherwise, we may all end up under Jihadi thuggish rule.
I LIKE that!
I second that. It would be like Raid on terrorism instead of bug. To be most effective do this on "holy days" where they migrate there to stand around and pray to Satan.
Yes? The problem is you're looking at this as if it was a conventional war, when what we are fighting is a guerrilla/counter insurgency war on a world wide scale. And the way you fight one is different han the way you fight the other. Not to mention that you are (apparently) misidentifying just who the enemy is.
OK, say we do bomb Mecca? What happens the next day? The 1.3 BILLION Muslims just say "Oh well I guess we'll just find another religion"? Not to mention what the rest of the world will do.
The problem with simplistic solutions is they are almost always wrong, that's why simplistic is such a bad thing.
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