Contradictions, anomalies, questions mount in UK terror scare

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Thursday August 17, 2006 15:12

by Terence

So it was all bogus. No evidence.

We were told last week that the 'Terror Plot' was only days away from being implemented. Now it turns out there were no bombs made, they had NOT bought any airline tickets and that some of the so-called plotters didn't even have a passport. That would mean they would not even get pass the check-in desk. In other words there was no plot.

So it is just like all the other scares that had no substance to them and it was purely designed to hype the fear and ratchet up further police state measures and basically intimidate the population.

According to the latest reports on the bogus terror plots, there is no hard evidence whatsoever. The latest blurb from the corporate media is that those arrested are being held for longer periods. Its quite clear this is designed to stretch things out and by next week or so, the story will be dropped when they finally have to let them go free. That way most of the public will think they are still arrested and therefore there was something to it.

The report says:

Indeed, one week on, it seems that the current alert is unravelling, and that it is of a similar type to previous “terror plots” that subsequently proved to involve nothing concrete, with much of the supposed evidence resulting from the activities of police informants working as agent provocateurs.

And interestingly the report (URL below) gives an insight into the total contradictions around the Pakistani link which was one of the main bits of 'hard' evidence.

It is claimed that Rashid, described as the alleged plot’s “mastermind,” was detained late on Wednesday, August 9, causing an accomplice to make a “panicked telephone call to a British suspect, directing him to go ahead with the airliner plot,” several reports said. The government and police, the story goes, had to take urgent measures to avert this disaster.

However, there are numerous conflicting accounts as to the timing of Rashid’s arrest, with several reports that he has been in custody in Pakistan for more than one month. Similarly, the location of his arrest has been given variously as Karachi, Lahore, Bahawalpur and the Afghan border.

Moreover, as of yesterday, Pakistani authorities reported that there had been no request from Britain for Rashid’s return. There is no extradition treaty between Britain and Pakistan, but such a request could be made under international conventions.

The so-called “Pakistan connection” raises even more questions.

Reports of the number of those detained by the Pakistani authorities vary from 7 to 17. The Independent newspaper noted, “Remarkably little information has emerged from Pakistan about the arrests. Well-connected journalists are complaining that their usual sources have dried up, which is unusual in Pakistan, where the intelligence services like to boast to journalists of their successes.”

Any “details” that are supplied by Pakistan must be regarded as suspect. Notorious for its use of torture, it is one of the favoured destinations for CIA “rendition” flights. The Guardian cited Ali Hasan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, that “torture was endemic and that there was no doubt it would have been used on Mr Rauf.”

The Pakistan government has used its role in the alleged terror plot to curry favour with Washington. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a rally marking Pakistan’s 59th anniversary of independence that his government’s role in disrupting the alleged plot proved it was fighting terrorism “along with the world community.”

This has not stopped government and intelligence agencies of various countries briefing at odds with one another. Pakistan officials have been keen to insist that Rashid was arrested on the Afghan border as he crossed into Pakistan, but this has been flatly rejected by the Afghan authorities and British security sources, who told the Independent that some of the statements from Pakistani officials should be “treated with circumspection.”

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Comments (13 of 13)

wtf

by omg

Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:56

like he does not have an ulterior motive as the airports ryanair fly into are the most effected by the time delays and thus his company has the most to lose money wise,

tis all about cash with michael, he would sell his grandmother if he thought the return was good enough

Micheal O'Leary of Ryanair tells it straight.

Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:25

In the report: UK terror scare: Airlines threaten legal action against British government at the URL below, Micheal O'Leary tells it straight about the bogus terror plot.

Since that fateful day when the UK government announced it had prevented mass murder on a massive scale, even though this is in fact what it has been involved in Iraqi for the last 5 year, ludicrous security measures have been imposed over air-travellers.

Ryanair's Micheal O'Leary is having none of it because it is imposing huge costs and delays and also because he knows the whole thing is just political games. From the report it says:

At a press conference last week, O’Leary posed beside an actor dressed as Winston Churchill, under the slogan “Keep Britain flying.” He demanded that security be reduced to the usual levels set down by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) within seven days, or the airline would take legal action against the government. He complained, “We are now body searching five- and six-year olds flying to Spain for a vacation with their parents. We’re not adding to security, we’re adding to public hysteria.”

Describing the security measures as “insane and ineffective,” he ridiculed the idea that Britain was at risk from “lethal toiletries,” and queried why, if the terror threat was so grave, similar measures were not being imposed on the London subway and bus network, which has previously been targeted for attack.

In a later statement, he queried whether there had, in fact, been a plot to bomb aircraft. “We may not have seen any attempt to blow aircraft out of the sky,” he said. “Where is the evidence?”

'They desperately want another 9/11'

by M Cotton

Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:24

They desperately wanted the first 9/11.

Canada's own bullshit bomb plot

by R. Isible

Fri Aug 18, 2006 17:02

In what looks like a complete setup job by Canadian security forces (probably CSIS, the same people who sent Canadian citizen Maher Arar to be tortured in Syria), some more internet "plotters" were detained a month or so ago on the foot of having obtained ammonium nitrate (a staple of IRA bombs for decades). Local sources inform me that Canadian farmers find it impossible to get hold of ammonium nitrate because the government got worried about it after Timothy McVeigh's escapade. It now seems probable that a Canadian government agent provocateur suggested the plot and obtained the ammonium nitrate for them. This is government creating terror. Time to dig up copies of Conrad's _The Secret Agent_ again (after ignoring all the irritating conflating of anarchism with nihilism).

Overview (note the IKEA bag, a staple of terrorists):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/toronto-bomb-plot/ind....html

Guerrilla News Network. Sharia advocate admits to being CSIS agent provocateur:
http://www.gnn.tv/threads/17589/Canadian_Agent_Provocat...age=1

The Register debunks binary liquid bombs

Fri Aug 18, 2006 16:48

The Register normally concentrates on salacious tech-industry stories. This piece is a debunking of the feasibility of what the "security sources" allege the alleged (and currently detained without trial) bombers were up to.

Ex UK Ambassador scoffs at Blair/Bush terror plot

Fri Aug 18, 2006 16:41

Craig Murray (the ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan) writes in Counterpunch about the unlikelihood of the current bomb scare being anything other than a propaganda move by Bush and Blair "[they] desperately want another 9-11". Also includes interesting details about the unsavoury Stalinist past of home secretary Reid.

Ryanair set to sue UK government for compensation

Fri Aug 18, 2006 16:34

O'Leary ridiculed the so-called security measures introduced by the UK and pointed out that Ryanair would be able to claim compensation, but was willing to forgo this if the pointless searching of people and restrictions on carry-on luggage were removed. Describing the new measures introduced in response to the (wholly unproven) allegations of a plan to bomb airplanes variously as "farcical" and "Keystone Cops", the budget airline operator also accused the government of providing a propaganda victory to extremists.

And a big big hand for 1984.

by number 6 - legalize freedom campaign

Fri Aug 18, 2006 13:11

Are we all ready to give up our Liberties for a 'safe' World?

Fake Terror never fails to implement an open Prison for all.

Are you all ready to be implanted with a micro-chip half the size of a grain of sand through a vaccination scare program?
This is to replace a biometric Passport.
T'is on the way Folks.

Get ready for a 666 barcode implant so you can be SMART-ED
Satellite monitoring and remote tracking.

B.C.N.U.

Bogus Terror Plot result: Biometric testing to be introduced

Fri Aug 18, 2006 12:35

As a result of the bogus terror plot last week, we can already see some of the results coming in, although there are many, but one of these as reported in the Scotsman says:

BIOMETRIC testing is set to be introduced at European airports under plans for stringent new security measures revealed yesterday in the wake of last week's alleged terror plot.

Passengers would have their fingerprint or iris scanned under the measures proposed by EU interior ministers, which would also use passenger profiling to try to identify potential terrorists.

But as is clear and now pretty well documented, there was no plot last week, nor was there any other week over the past few years. (e.g. the so called Ricin chemical weapon plot) They have been all made up for purely sinister political reasons and they are to terrorise and subdue the population, rob them of their liberties and to usher in police state measures. Already Congress in the US is now accepting spying of it's own citizens, something that would have been totally unacceptable to Americans years ago.

The report can be found at the URL below

And US Mobile phone terror plot falls apart too.

Thu Aug 17, 2006 19:52

And people might also remember the Mobile phone terror plot a week or so ago, where there was some Arab-Americans arrested as it was claimed yet another evil plot was foiled. This time the supposed plot was to blow up a bridge in Michigan using the phones to trigger them.

Again like all the other cases, this is falling apart because there is no evidence since there was never any in the first place. When the story broke there was much made that they had bought a whole load of Mobile phones recently blah blah blah.... it turns out that this is what they did for a leaving, buying and selling phones.

It was reported:

Prosecutors in Ohio dropped terrorism charges yesterday against two men from Michigan who were arrested last week, saying they could not prove that the men were involved in a terrorist plot.

On Monday, the FBI said it had found no evidence that three Texas men of Palestinian heritage who were arrested Friday in Michigan had terrorist ties or were planning to blow up the Mackinac Bridge.

Well now isn't that a surprise? Funny the way the bogus plot hit the news while Lebanon was been subjected to state terrorism with hundreds been killed and thousands injuired and to boot one of those arrested happens to be of Palestinian origin.

EU terror proposals

Thu Aug 17, 2006 17:38

EU plans to implement further interference with privacy and convenience. Among the details are "biometric" checks, fast-tracking of 40,000 important people (not you and me, but rich business travellers), and racial and religious targetting.

The only positive aspect is that people will possibly reduce their use of the most environmentally destructive way of travelling :
Flying is our most effective means of wrecking the planet: every passenger on a return journey from Britain to Florida produces more carbon dioxide than the average motorist does in a year.10 Every time we fly, we help to kill someone.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2003/12/16/a-weapon-wit...ings/

flight 923 was better.

by iosaf

Thu Aug 17, 2006 17:08

Yesterday flight 923 "United Airlines" (the company that brought us 911) left from Heathrow for Washington DC. It landed at Boston accompanied by 2 USAF fighter jets. WTV the local company got their helicopter lense within sight to show people calmly leaving the aircraft which was on a distant isolation air-strip. & then Fox News (the company that brought you president Bush's first victory and Iraqi WMD) decided that a woman had a jar of vaseline, a screwdriver, a box of matches, and a note from Al Qaeda.

They continued with this utter bullshit for 2 hours, by which stage not only every other US network was quoting them both Sky News and the BBC decided to repeat the complete fabrication.

After three hours during which news telly viewers worldwide watched the WTV helicopter footage of the passengers allighting and sniffer dogs double checking the luggage it transpired that a well stressed and culturally terrified little old lady had had a claustrophic attack.

* no vaseline.
* no screwdriver.
* no jar of vaseline.
* no note from Smersh HQ in Afghanistan or even a polaroid photo of Osama.
* she wasn't even a muslim or of suspicious arabic / asiatic appearance

Today I note the whole charade is happening again at Sydney airport. Flight nine 23 if anything shows us that the combination of US terror alert culture and easily upset O.A.P.'s on long flights with "complete fabrications" posing as live news reporting is :-

* serving the supposed interest of Al Qaeda.
* putting people off air travel.
* spoiling people's holidays.

Time to abandon all our traditional liberties

Thu Aug 17, 2006 15:26

I meant to add that from the above report John Reid British Home Secretary famously said in a speech just made before last weeks raids:

“warning us all of the dreadful evil threatening us and complaining that ‘Some people don’t get’ the need to abandon all our traditional liberties.

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Contradictions, anomalies, questions mount in UK terror scare

Comments (13 of 13)