Details on the British Terrorist Arrest

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Details are emerging:

* There was some serious cash flow from someone, presumably someone
abroad.

* There was no imminent threat.

* However, the threat was real. And it seems pretty clear that it would have bypassed all existing airport security systems.

* The conspirators were radicalized by the war in Iraq, although it is impossible to say whether they would have been otherwise radicalized without it.

* They were caught through police work, not through any broad surveillance, and were under surveillance for more than a year.

What pisses me off most is the second item. By arresting the
conspirators early, the police squandered the chance to learn more about
the network and arrest more of them -- and to present a less flimsy
case. There have been many news reports detailing how the U.S.
pressured the UK government to make the arrests sooner, possibly out of
political motivations. (And then Scotland Yard got annoyed at the U.S.
leaking plot details to the press, hampering their case.)
I still think that all of the new airline security measures are an
overreaction. As I said on a radio interview a couple of weeks ago:
"We ban guns and knives, and the terrorists use box cutters. We ban box
cutters and corkscrews, and they hide explosives in their shoes. We
screen shoes, and the terrorists use liquids. We ban liquids, and the
terrorist will use something else. It's not a fair game, because the
terrorists get to see our security measures before they plan their
attack." And it's not a game we can win. So let's stop playing, and
play a game we actually can win. The real lesson of the London arrests
is that investigation and intelligence work.

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/europe/28plot.html?ex=1314417600&en=3bd0e2092e48e4f1&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss"]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/europe/28plot.html?ex=1314417600&en=3bd0e2092e48e4f1&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss[/URL]
or http://tinyurl.com/gnbeb

The above URL is unavailable in the UK:
[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/business/media/29times.html?ex=1314504000&en=d2eb8d24ef801b5f&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss"]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/business/media/29times.html?ex=1314504000&en=d2eb8d24ef801b5f&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss[/URL]
or http://tinyurl.com/n3lxo
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-2322630,00.html
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/
http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2006/08/the_uk_terror_p.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1854503,00.html
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tmclo/2006/tmclo060817.gif
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ericburns/stark/series.php?ID=39633
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/terrorism_secur.html
 
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