There was a most peculiar piece in the August 29th New York Times, headlined Details Emerge in British Terror Case.

The “details” that have “emerged” are just… what is the right word? I’m going to say, retarded. For example, British police said that:

… the suspects still had a lot of work to do. Two of the suspects did not have passports… the suspects had neither made reservations nor purchased plane tickets…

In other words, the suspects had not done anything on an airplane, nor were they in a position to do anything on an airplane.

… investigators have still not determined whether there was a target date for the attacks or how many planes were to be involved… police [are] still investigating the basics: “the number, destination and timing of the flights that might be attacked.”

In other words, we don’t know what they were planning to do, if anything. Nothing is known about the plan. Nothing. Forgive me, I’m confused: why the fuck are you calling it a plan?

Look at what the article says the police found in the houses of the men who were arrested. All their houses were searched. Here’s what they managed to find.

  • a plastic bin filled with liquid
    • presumably water
  • batteries
    • present in every household in England
  • empty drink bottles
    • present in every household in England
  • rubber gloves
    • present in every household in England
  • digital scales
    • perfectly ordinary
  • a disposable camera … leaking liquid
    • present in almost every household possessing both a small camera and a small child
  • a computer memory stick that showed … airline schedules for flights from London to the United States
    • perfectly ordinary
  • a list … items included batteries and Lucozade bottles … [and] a reminder to select a date
    • perfectly ordinary
  • jihadist literature and DVD’s about “genocide” in Iraq and Palestine … a book called “Defense of the Muslim Lands”
    • Scary perhaps, but so’s this book I have, The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read – and this CD, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

This is the evidence they found, pointing to a terrorist conspiracy. Oh, it’s terrifying all right – terrifyingly stupid. But here’s the real kicker.

… officials [are] still unsure … whether any of the suspects was technically capable of assembling and detonating liquid explosives while airborne.

So, they’re accused of formulating a plan that probably would not have caused much damage even if they had tried it. In fact, experts are not sure whether anyone could ever assemble and detonate liquid explosives while airborne.

So, to sum up.

  1. These men had done nothing wrong.
  2. We do not know that they were planning to do anything wrong.
  3. We do not know that their plan, if they had one, could have succeeded.

The war on terror – what terror? Have you seen any terror? The only terror I’m seeing comes straight from the White House (and its annex at 10 Downing Street). We have the sole source of a trillion wasted dollars’ worth of terror; a million ruined lives’ worth of terror, living right here on Pennsylvania Avenue.