Yeah - did I hear right he didn't have a bomb?
I think it could be part of the terrorists plan, or a backup plan. If the guy was a suicide bomber, hey, suicide is suicide. You get your virgins either way, if you serve the cause.
And if you serve the cause by causing some people to think, gee, we're now killing unarmed men, maybe we should back off a bit, that serves the terrorists in the long run.
I think I saw something at LGF some weeks ago about someone who happened to be in a mosque here in the US and the person understood Arabic (no one else in the mosque knew this). She said that a speaker told a group to use our political correctness against us.
That could be the effect of what happened today.
"And if you serve the cause by causing some people to think, gee, we're now killing unarmed men, maybe we should back off a bit, that serves the terrorists in the long run."
OTOH, if enough people who have been suspicious enough to get themselves on a surveillance list in a heightened security period get themselves killed as a result of their suspicious activities, the terrorists might want to rethink their strategy. Security deciding between killing someone like that and allowing the probability of another 7/7/05 should always err on the side of safety for the people, IMO.
Good points. Or perhaps he was on his way to pick up another bomb.