Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What if the Heathrow Bombers Succeeded?
LA Times via Google News ^ | 8/27/2006 | Niall Ferguson

Posted on 08/29/2006 11:26:35 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy

MAYBE IT'S because I know I have to catch a transatlantic flight on Sept. 11. Maybe I'm just too fond of "What if?" historical questions. Whatever the reason, I can't get over how quickly the world has moved on since the exposure of the Heathrow bomb plot. Ever since the revelation that a terrorist ring intended "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," I've been finding it all too easy to imagine what it would have been like if the plotters had succeeded.

We cannot assume, for obvious legal reasons, that the suspects who were charged in London are anything other than innocent, as they themselves maintain. Nor should we speculate about those who haven't yet been released or charged. So let us merely hypothesize that some young British Muslims really were plotting to assemble bombs out of liquid-based explosives and iPod-shaped detonators and to detonate them aboard multiple transatlantic planes. Suppose it had happened yesterday. Imagine yourself, in a parallel universe, turning on the radio and hearing the following bulletin:

"Five passenger aircraft have blown up in midair and crashed into the Atlantic. The planes — believed to be operated by American Airlines and United Airlines — left this morning from Heathrow Airport, bound for the United States. There are no reported survivors."

Such a calamity would at once have been dubbed "8/27." But the political consequences would have been very different from those that followed 9/11.

Five years ago, the world reacted with astounding unanimity. "Nous sommes tous Américains," wrote Jean-Marie Colombani in Le Monde. Londoners felt an intense empathy with New Yorkers.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.google.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: airlinesecurity; heathrow; lhr; londonairlineplot; niallferguson; pakistan; wot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-25 last
To: Deaf Smith
Five passenger aircraft have blown up in midair and crashed into the Atlantic

What if the headline read instead "Five passenger aircraft have blown up in midair during landing approach and have crashed into New York and and Chicago"
21 posted on 08/29/2006 1:25:04 PM PDT by RunningWolf (2-1 Cav 1975)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SerpentDove

Well then.... that is thinking ahead.
Hmmmmm.....
Not a bunch of dumb bunnies then.


22 posted on 08/29/2006 1:29:17 PM PDT by calljack (Sometimes your worst nightmare is just a start.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Ready4Freddy
What if the Heathrow Bombers Succeeded?

For starters, the Dem position would not have changed one iota. They claim that breaking up this plot in advance is proof that Bush isn't making us more safe. If the planes had been bombed, they would claim that the bombings are proof that Bush isn't making us more safe. Dems are intellectually bankrupt.

23 posted on 08/29/2006 1:44:56 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RunningWolf
Green Lasers, Solar Flares...We would have to see what the CIA came up with, complete with animation.

The quote was from the posted story.

24 posted on 08/29/2006 1:52:46 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (**Tagline is need-to-know only.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: BadAndy

"What if someone aimed a shot at your head and missed by an inch?"

I agree.

Imagine if WTC 1 attack had been taken seriously.


25 posted on 08/29/2006 3:31:47 PM PDT by dervish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-25 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson