Thursday, August 10, 2006

Fishy Timing ...

The UK is bragging about foiling a nefarious "Terrorist Plot" which apparently involved detonating liquids on airliners.

As of this morning, your carry-on luggage for a flight outside Canada cannot contain:

Shampoo, Hair Spray, Nail Polish Remover, Creams, etc.

Restrictions on laptops, ipods and other such devices have apparently been stepped up in the UK and US as well.

The timing is interesting, since the United States mid-term elections are going through "primary" votes right now, heading towards a general vote in November. When the Democrats punt Joe Leiberman - a man who has come to symbolize the Democrats who have supported BushCo in some of their most ill chosen ventures - and replace him as a Canadidate who is a virtual unknown - you have to know that BushCo is slowly being seen as the liability that they are.

The timing of this particular round of arrests is suspicious - both Tony Blair and George Bush have just vanished on "vacations", and the Rethuglicans need a population that is scared out of their wits in order to hold onto control of the legislative houses. What better way to proceed than to put forth the nameless bogeyman of "terrorist plots". You can make them out to be anything you want until a few months later in court when it comes out that it's another Richard Reid (the "Shoe Bomber") or something equally incompetent.

[Update 15:06 10/8/06]
Just to convince us that the security people are as inept as the so-called "Toronto 17", what are they doing combining chemicals in public places - especially when they claim that the plot involved "liquid explosives"???

...or is this more "for show"?
[/Update]

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And further to the carry on restrictions, the only items that they are allowing on board is your wallet and a passport, both of which must be in a sealed see through plastic bag.

I quite agree with your analysis involving the timing of this. You will notice that even though this is supposedly a very serious threat (both countries have moved to their highest level of alert) that neither leader seems to be particularily inclined to cut short their vacations.

SB

Anonymous said...

One wonders how long it will be before we have to fly naked, after a body cavity search, all in the name of "security".

JN

www.evilscientist.ca

MgS said...

Urgh - that was an image I _didn't_ need in my head.

Now I'll have to scrub my mind's eye with a steel brush...

Anonymous said...

Remember that the bombing in Spain was timed to affect their elections there.

There are many people in law enforcement trying to do a professional job. They like to wait as long as possible in the hope of scooping up even more miscreants. There are three possible triggers for the police to launch their raids. First is the belief that there is no further benefit to waiting. Second is the belief that a nefarious deed is about to occur and that the evil doers must be stopped now. Third, as you have suggested, is the desire by politicians to send messages to the people.

Although they are linked, we are talking about two distinct events here. The first is the rounding up of alleged terrorists. The second is the reaction of the media, public and transportation industry to the first event. I tend to believe that the first event is indeed a legitimate police action. The second, however. . . .

I try not to let the actions in the reactionary event cloud my perception of the actions in the primary event. Although it is through the media filter that I receive any information about what has occurred.

-The Bungle Lord

MgS said...

I have no doubts about the professionalism and genuineness of the efforts of law enforcement officials.

I am considerably less charitable towards politicians who have taken of late to doing everything in their power to manipulate situations.

Part of me would love to lay hands on the phone records for the White House and 10 Downing St. in the last month.

Fool Ishy said...

Dude, I must say, I like your thinking on some issues, but this whole conspiracy thing is a bit of a stretch...

Aside from the assumption on your part that this crowd of political hacks can be original enough to come up with something this elaborate is a bit of a stretch, I just can't buy it!

Come on, the level of conspiracy and complicity required to pull off a gig as big as this would be unimaginable...unless you are suggesting that it was a real plot that perhaps the authorities were aware of, but held off exposing until now for political reasons...but even then, there are just too many people that needed to be on the "in" of such a conspiracy, and people have a tendency to talk...so no way it could happen.

What I hate is the fact that political hacks that have no role in busting such plots (except perhaps, to limit the funding to critical agencies involved, thereby having an adverse affect on such investigations), suddenly lay claim to "protecting the public!" Man, these people got the BALLS!

Keep the observations coming!

MgS said...

I simply find it somewhat less than credulous that every time the US Rethuglicans have some political price to pay that some major conspiracy is "conveniently exposed" - hence my suspicions that politics is playing into the game at the highest levels. (And, with the top levels of law enforcement in the UK, US and Canada essentially political appointees, it isn't exactly hard to imagine a few well placed phone calls taking place.

I do not, however, claim that the plot itself is a political construct. As you correctly point out, too many people have to be "in the know".

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