Terrorists Again

Yeah, I'm beginning to think they botched this series of arrests pretty bad. I'm interested to see what sort of evidence gets brought up in court against them, because there isn't a lot that I've seen. Don't get me wrong--I'm glad they're caught, IF they were really trying to blow something up. Which is doubtful, given the evidence I've seen so far.

Space Flower, by the way, the page in the link explained that, too--the sort of chemicals they were working with would smell really, REALLY bad. Concentrated sulfuric. So no matter how few people there were on the plane, they WOULD notice. Even if they couldn't see it. And the stewardesses would notice as well--it isn't a five minute process, it takes quite a while. The bathroom wouldn't work, either, it's too confined an area, and like I said, components of the material they were making need to be kept well below 0 degrees--not an easy feat in an airplane, especially in a tiny bathroom.

EDIT: Plus, the whole time, they could've used something like Astrolite, which isn't too difficult to make, does nearly as much damage as RDX or PETN (the only barrier being its low density), and is indetectible in airports. You can even find instructions on how to make it online, I've seen them. And if they're being supported by Al-Queda, they might as well step up to a more powerful explosive, since the materials aren't too hard to acquire. The RDX I mentioned earlier is a solid explosive, and can be made by a moderately experienced chemist. Once made, it's undetectable by airport scanners, and it's plenty powerful.

I should just come right out and say it, they where probably fake arrests that were totally baseless. Most of the "terrorist" they catch are just normal people they release a few weeks later or stupid people they talked into it then arrested them when they agreed to do it.

To be honest there probably isn't a single terrorist in the US. Its all government bull. Like shark said, a terrorist doesn't have any reason to try and blow up any planes in the US, it just makes their case worse. Thats probably why there isn't any. If there was actually terrorist in the US they would just set off a car bomb every week in some random town.

...now we're getting somewhere.

I just heard that gel insoles you put in your shoes are also banned.

Like I said before. Soon you’ll have to travel naked.

I wonder is these reported terrorist activities correlate with drops in support for bush or the war or something. Nah.

Just found out that the Brits knew about the terrorists months ahead of time, and were prepared to arrest them, but postponed it on request from the USA. So it might have been a real terror incident, albeit an ill-planned one, but it was blown out of proportion and was never posing a credible threat to citizens.
Video here:
Politics-Terror Nexus

I'm really pissed off at the Republicans now. I do think that terrorists are a threat--they consider America "the Great Satan," so it's not a matter of publicity--it's a matter of religious extremism. Especially since the Koran is pretty explicit about how to treat "infidels". I just think that the way we're dealing with it is beyond stupid. It's putting us at further risk. I found a statement a while back on the sheer idiocy of the "terror threat level".
"Do you check the terror threat index every morning?"
"No, I guess not. I mean, who would?"
"The terrorists."
That's all it really is, honestly. The average citizen isn't going to go on there and see the threat level, and if they do, what are they going to do about it? "Oh, threat level is orange today. Better get out the Glock in case I see any Islamo-fascists in ski masks on the way to work." But a terrorist can log on, and in twenty seconds can get a quick estimate on how alert the security in airports is going to be today. It wouldn't be hard to just wait for a low terror threat day, THEN go blow up some planes, would it?
It's just plain stupid.
We ought just keep letting the CIA, NSA and FBI track terrorists, arrest them quietly, without broadcasting it for political leverage, and get them locked up in jail. That's how to make America safer, not by broadcasting our vulnerabilities on the internet and television.

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We ought just keep letting the CIA, NSA and FBI track terrorists, arrest them quietly, without broadcasting it for political leverage, and get them locked up in jail. That's how to make America safer, not by broadcasting our vulnerabilities on the internet and television.[/b]

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You bet it is. I expect it would be a hundred times more efficient.

Yet for the government, postponing the date of their arrest (if they really did) makes them look better. That much is obvious enough to an eight year old. What's more impressive, the terrorist who is quietly removed and gets nowhere with his plan or the one that's broadcasted across the media and told to have "intentions of blowing up twelve planes on the way to America!"? I think the answer is obvious.

Still, in a way, they could have had a valid reason for delaying their arrest, one that's more than "we need to get more votes". This is an espionage kind of operation we're talking about, and those are never simple. They could've been giving the terrorists enough rope to hang themselves in the hope that they might implicate others in their plan and reveal links to other terrorists, maybe ones more dangerous than those clowns. After all, they seemed very clumsy in their plan setup. That whole "setting up 'My First Chemistry Set' on board the flight" plan is, well, not a plan at all. If anyone would reveal the identities of other possible conspirators, it would be them. But I'm just playing devil's advocate.

Like people say, though, the plan was pretty stupid. Probably would have failed even without intervention. So I'm inclined to think it was almost 90% about looking good for the voters. What's new, eh?

On the religious note, I know at least one of the terrorists was British, a "recently converted" Muslim. Kind of strange. A couple of people here (in the UK; like my parents) are getting at least slightly anti-Muslim. As for the more impressionable media-kids at school, I know a lot seem to think Muslims have bombs strapped to their back. :|

...i thot there was that one guy that made a liquid bomb and used a casio or something as a detenator that they modeled this attack after. There is a way to do it is what I'm saying. The other guy only killed one person with his bomb...but a few more bombs the size of his on a plane and i could see this new plan maybe working. If he got that bomb on and it worked i really don't see why these terrorists, if they used a little more tact, couldn''t have done the same?


yeah for sure they wern't a real threat, did the news in the USA make it seem like it was a real threat? It's not like the police can arrest people the very second they hear of a terror plot. The terrorists recently caught in canada were being monitered for months by the police. They were just waiting till there was enough evidence to be able to put many of them in jail for a long time...and to make sure they could catch all of them...and learn of possible connections.


I'm thinking there are terrorists they take down without telling anyone. If you spent a lot of money on security and spying etc etc...i think politically why wouldn't you advertise what you are doing is working?

Yea they tried to make it out as a huge threat in the US. They wouldn't let anyone bring any water on the plane or any drinks or toothpaste or anything else that was a liquid or gel. And they made everyone throw it all away if they had any. The way they reacted you would think that another terrorist could be doing the exact same thing over here. Of course that is total bull because they probably weren't even going to really do it over there in the first place.

Anyone who actually believes terrorist is a real threat only has to look at the border to see what a joke it is. If the government thought there was real terrorist why would they leave the border open?

The reason they delayed their arrest is probably because they were trying to find some evidence. Right now they have no evidence, they don't even have a motive. They are probably going to be released quietly a few weeks from now and no one will notice, which happens to most of the "terrorist" they catch and which have no evidence on.

As for secrets arrests no one ever hears about, thats a great idea. People can just disappear in the middle of the night and we will never know what they did. Because we really do trust our government that much.

Nah, actually the British had already collected the "evidence" (apparently, they'd had the group under surveillance for more than a year, but hadn't picked up anything big. Then a guy being interrogated in Pakistan told them that the group was planning said bombing. Like I said--the guy was being interrogated. Under such circumstances, they like to say anything you want to hear just to get away with their lives. So this guy in Pakistan points the proverbial finger. The surveillance guy hadn't heard anything of the sort, but apparently they dug up some chat room conversations and emails, plus the interrogation, and that's all the evidence.)

Anyway, the Brits had already found out all the information they were going to get, which was circumstantial at best, and nonexistant at worst. But either way, they had all the evidence they were going to get, and they were prepared to make the arrests, but the US stepped in and asked them to postpone it for a bit.

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Originally Posted by Tsen

Nah, actually the British had already collected the "evidence" (apparently, they'd had the group under surveillance for more than a year, but hadn't picked up anything big. Then a guy being interrogated in Pakistan told them that the group was planning said bombing. Like I said--the guy was being interrogated. Under such circumstances, they like to say anything you want to hear just to get away with their lives. So this guy in Pakistan points the proverbial finger. The surveillance guy hadn't heard anything of the sort, but apparently they dug up some chat room conversations and emails, plus the interrogation, and that's all the evidence.)

Anyway, the Brits had already found out all the information they were going to get, which was circumstantial at best, and nonexistant at worst. But either way, they had all the evidence they were going to get, and they were prepared to make the arrests, but the US stepped in and asked them to postpone it for a bit.
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The police over here are hardly known for their skills at catching terrorists are they? A foreigner getting shot in the head four times for running through a train station is excessive to say the least.

Still though, better too harsh than too soft eh?

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Originally Posted by badassbob

The police over here are hardly known for their skills at catching terrorists are they? A foreigner getting shot in the head four times for running through a train station is excessive to say the least.

Still though, better too harsh than too soft eh?
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That depends on if your shooting him to shut him up or because you actually think hes a terrorist.