Hmmm. Not only did the Saudi secret service have the precise details of the bomb packages, the female alleged terrorist in Sanaa gave her phone number to the courier company. As all ultra dangerous highly trained al-Qaidah operatives are obviously taught to do.
Meanwhile David Cameron ups the 9/11 hype by saying the bombs might have been detonated on the plane. Well certainly, they might. Except that, given the parcels changed cargo planes three times, it would be difficult to know when they were on a plane and where. And why then address them to Jewish organisations in Chicago, which might arouse suspicion coming from Sanaa, rather than a fictitious uncle or a mail order curtain company?
I still think this probably was another half-arsed terrorist attempt, like the liquid bomb plot or the man who set fire to his gonads. Super dangerous and deserving all the hype it plainly was not.
Couldn’t agree more. The devices themselves may have been more sophisticated than the typical AQ lorryload of ANFO, but the delivery was embarrassing. Why send them direct from Yemen, a country on every watchlist? Can these masterminds really not get a small quantity of explosives into a less suspicious origin country (like, for instance, Saudi)?
But eventually one of these nut-jobs – and there’s a lot of them to go round – is going to be successful. McVeigh was no genius, but try dismissing the damage he did to the familes of those he killed.
‘But eventually one of these nut-jobs – is going to be successful.’
Yes, I agree but the likelihood that it’s going to the CIA, MI6 or Mossad is far greater than a nut-job particularly as they have experience in past bombings.
I think you’ll find that AQ have quite a bit of experience of bombing too. And I’m not aware of Sir John Sawers threatening to kill me just cos I quite like a drink now and again.
“and there’s a lot of them to go round”
“I think you’ll find that AQ have quite a bit of experience of bombing too”
From where do you get your info on ‘Al Quaeda’, Alan?
And why do you imagine they want to bomb the US and/or its allies and interests?
LONDON(AP)
“European air officials accused the United States of imposing useless and overly intrusive travel security measures, calling Wednesday for the Obama administration to reexamine policies ranging from online security checks to X-raying shoes.
British Airways’ chairman made the first in a wave of complaints, saying in a speech to airport operators that removing shoes and taking laptops out of bags were “completely redundant” measures demanded by the U.S.
He was joined less than 24 hours later by British pilots, the owner of Heathrow airport, other European airlines, and the European Union. The EU submitted formal objections to a program that requires U.S.-bound travelers from 35 nations to complete online security clearance before departure. It called the system burdensome and said it could violate travelers’ privacy. …”
That was published October 27, 2010.
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory?id=11979353
Now we have conclusive refutation. The Europeans are all wet and confiscating toothepaste and baby formula and the subjecting all passengers to X-irradiation is clearly absolutely essential.
Phew, the airline security industry must have been worried there for a bit.
PS Craig, can you summarize your response to this Crawford person? What would you do with a warning of a possible terrorist attack on a civilian target in Britain based on evidence from torture in Uzbekistan?
Presumably, you’d tell Karamov to fuck off and withdraw the ambassador from Tashkent.
Would that increase the risk of a terrorist attack on Britain? From the kind of people tortured by Karimov, presumably not much. Perhaps it would lessen the risk.
But then it would piss off the imperialists, who need a bit of terror now and again to justfy the continued War on Terror. So would telling Karimov to get stuffed result in more synthetic terror — you know, the kind of incident which is followed by a government cover-up and no judicial inquiry.
Oh, sorry, you’re right, it was the Jews and George Bush that carried out 9/11. My mistake.
I believe those were planes and not bombs, Alan. What do you know about their bomb-making capacity?
And how do you know about the numbers in ‘AQ’ now? And why, as I said, do you believe Al Quaeda wants to attack the US and its allies? For what reason do they want to do this?
Anyway, we’re obviously deep into that David Icke part of the evening, so I’ll leave you with your alien lizards and Protocols of Zion and say good evening and goodnight.
No answers. I see. Ok.
It’s a strange world when you have to avoid the MSM in order to read some sanity. The Guardian/Observer is all over this ‘story’ as, of course is the NYT. The SMH has a nice video on its front page, too. Just for fun, I checked Le Monde: I don’t speak Surrenderez, but “Des colis pieges ravivent le spectre du terrorisme aux Etats-Unis” doesn’t take a linguist to understand.
One wonders if a certain level of credulousness is required to work for the larger corporate newspapers. The Guardian is particularly embarrassing example; this is meant to be a centre-left newspaper, but seems to just use this liberal cache to serve power more effectively, if I may briefly channel Chomsky.
It’s simply just embarrassing. A reasonably intelligent 6th former might pose the question of where the information came from, why so many journalists seem so swiftly clued up, and query the timing in the light of the wikileaks debacle. But, our Oxbridge educated professional journalists seem incapable of the same insights. It’s just deeply embarrassing, really, and The Guardian is very close to being in my ‘blocked’ list.
Thank goodness you wrote ‘Jews’ correctly for one minute I thought you were ‘Larry’
;-})
Thank goodness you wrote ‘Jews’ correctly for one minute I thought you were ‘Larry’
;-})
what plane were they on?
http://www.yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=2707&MainCat=3
Alfred said it. If we don’t start taking our warnings seriously, we are going to get much more serious reminders that we’re in danger. After all, the Powers That Be know that dropping the odd cargo plane out of the sky is a small price compared with failing to let them do whatever they want, with unlimited secret powers, in perpetuity. And if the threat of that happening isn’t cutting it…
The entire basis of this is amazing to me. “Terrorists” are supposed to be all about making us afraid. If government ministers and their pet press-corps weren’t raving about this, who’d know or care about it? What happened to Thatcher’s maxim that we should deny terrorists “the oxygen of publicity” ? Nuts are always sending the odd bomb here and there. If the entire western world has to reconsider all transport and mail policies, on the basis of a feeble letter-bomb or two, we’ve lost it.
Of course when we were dealing with the IRA, because those were _real_ terrorists, their presence was not hyped by the government. They wanted to minimise their exposure. Even after bombing the entire Tory party at Brighton, they were played down. Today, if someone fires a cap-gun in the name of AQ, the real danger is being stampeded by government spokespeople in their rush to the cameras.
hey everyone its called
The October surprise….Google it!
oh by the way is the American 6th fleet based in Bahrain
Sorry to sound such a cynic, but look at the timing. Busy election times in the USA – time to remind us to be frightened. Busy times for Israelis building illegal settlements too.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/UPSYemen.php
I had a big post planned for Mr Campbell, slamming his amazingly condescending and obnoxious questions. Requiring obviously good people to condemn obviously heinous acts is a cheap and dirty way to smear someone, as Campbell well knows. But I don’t wanna engage with his shit so I will post something positive instead.
Rap News: War on Journalism (Wikileaks)
youtube.com/watch?v=NXbCwq4ewBU
(really funny, great production)
(Bagh)Dad’s Gonna Kill Me – Richard Thompson
youtube.com/watch?v=G-yySxecVAg
CheebaCow: you’re right; it was utterly crappy. I might have to rescind my own ‘declaration’ in fact: hurrah
for violent attacks! Now I’m off to discriminate against a woman.
That rap News is core: thanks for posting.
Seems like the first sensible comment I’ve read on this. Whatever other interests may be behind scenes, the Saudis seem intent on destabilising Yemen, and perhaps creating pretext for US intervention in this strategic country.
The British government meanwhile welcomes any diversion now, and especially one it can use to play up national ‘security’.
And just when British air industry was saying security requirements were exagerrated!
i wonder if alan campbell will get the fact that the comment at 8.35 is a joke? possibly not, one needs a sense of humour. it is, alan, it is.
Read Sibel Edmonds on the whole operation re. to ‘The War on Terror’:
Go to ‘The Highjacking of a Nation, Parts 1 and 2’.
http://www.justacitizen.com/
It seems that it is ‘allies’ of the USA/UK; in collusion with the Military Industrial Complex in the USA/UK (etc.), who are conducting these wars, basically to line their own pockets.
The govts are front companies composed largely of revolving-door figures who are themselves on the point of gaining lucrative deals for themselves with the MI Complex.
In matters such as these, there is no democracy.
The Yippies were right, circa 1968.
Read David Hume, circa 1750.
Marr will be pleased with his efforts for the Evil Empire this morning. He has had Sir JockStrap Stirrup on his show (Stirrup is shortly to be enobled apparently) and St Theresa of ‘Maydenhead’ elaborating on the logistics of the ‘bombs’.
‘We are at war with the terrorists and I cannot go into details.’ she said.
May be half-arsed, but I would hate to be on board if one of those things went off..
“The October surprise….Google it!”
I was going to mention the October Surprise myself.
If I were to posit a low-level conspiracy I would have thought it would have been wise of Obama to claim that there had been a number of terrorist attacks thwarted over a certain period of time during his presidency and only now revealed to the public.
The original “October Surprise” was a non-existent event that was George Bush senior’s belief that President Carter would get the hostages free through some devious deal with the Iranians in the run-up to the election.
It never happened.
Instead, the Iranians held on to the hostages until Reagan was elected and on the very day of his inquguration released the hostages which, for them, was a propaganda coup as it showed that they had beaten a US president.
Of course, the conspiracy theory here is that Reagan had done a deal with the Iranians and had asked the Iranians to hold on to the hostages until Reagan had won and to give Reagan some kind of Gold star on assuming office.
(By the way, those of you who have read Norman Baker’s book would recognise the deeper conspiracies that went on when a certain journalist, Danny Carasalo (sp?) went probing further into it).
Naturally, I find this all a bit far-fetched.
“Read David Hume, circa 1750.”
With pleasure, sir. I always enjoy reading Hume. About what specifically though?
“May be half-arsed, but I would hate to be on board if one of those things went off..”
It was a cargo plane, so you would have had to have gone as a parcel.
alan campbell – “Oh, sorry, you’re right, it was the Jews and George Bush that carried out 9/11. My mistake.”
Come on Alan. From someone who grew up in my country, I find that rather pathetic.
On one hand, Yemeni officials are denying that cargo planes departed in the past 48 hours and another that says a woman was arrested based on intelligence from the UAE and US.
Of course, this could just be initial confusion which will, no doubt, be clarified in due course.
Would you agree that MEPs were right to ask for the removal of certain restrictions (e.g. water) on aircraft? Such checks are not required on most internal US flights which seems peculiar. Security expert Bruce Schneier calls it a waste of money.
We are asked to believe both that the bomb was intended for a synagogue in the US and that it was designed to blow a plane out of the sky.
Damn those Ay-rabs are good.