Apparently, it was claimed earlier today that the mastermind behind the British bombings, Haroon Rashid Aswat, is an asset for MI-6.
This is Odd
by John Cole| 29 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
This is Odd
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ppGaz
If it’s Faux News ….
I wouldn’t believe their assertion that the sun came up this morning, unless I got corroboration from somewhere else.
But for lovers of intrigue, this looks almost as juicy as a missing blonde.
TallDave
Guh?
Steve
Very interesting. We had a diary about this guy on dkos a couple weeks back. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that there was a typical administrative fuckup; the US Attorney from Seattle wanted to indict him and some others, Washington said they could only have one of the guys because they preferred for terrorism cases to be handled by the experienced office in New York; and somehow, when the New York office got around to issuing the indictments, someone had forgotten about this guy. He was living in the UK all along, but presumably he would have been extradited if an indictment had been issued.
If the Justice Department actually declared hands off as a favor to British intelligence, that puts quite a different spin on the story. Imagine if we had done the British this favor and then he ends up planning a bombing in the US instead of the UK. Someone would definitely get fired, er, receive the Medal of Freedom for that one. As it is, the British will have to clean up their own mess if this pans out.
BoZ the Rider
Since this is coming from FOX news, we can assume that this is the good part of the story! Just wait till the dirty stuff pops it’s head out.
I’m pretty sure after this, some Britons on the inside are going to be extremely pissed off and start talking. Some heads are going to roll, and that might be literal. We might see a modern day riot in downtown London if we’re lucky!
I hope for the Brits sake they’re able to throw every last person responsible off their island and into a jail somewhere deep within the third world. It would help them a great deal in reclaiming their nation and might inspire us here in America to do the same.
Bob
Yeah, Asshat. They let him go.
Andrew Milner
Keep in mind the source: Fox TV, those basdiards of truth and impartiality (sarcasm, for the humorously challenged). Look for the hidden agenda. Are they trying to link Iran and/or Iraq with the London bombings? Thus to justify further attacks on Iraq or a surprise attack on Iran.
BoZ the Rider
No, I don’t think so this time around. Other than nations in Africa, the US, and the UK, only Pakistan was mentioned. Remember, they only serve the United States government, not Britians.
I don’t think a surprise attack on Iran would be a surprise at this point. Cheney has made it very clear that the next terrorist attack on this nation will result in Iran being the focus. The rumor mill has it that we’re talking conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. It could just be empty threats… I do know that Israel would be involved in a joint airstrike against nuclear facilities. Nothing wins hearts and minds like nuclear fallout!
Finally, there is a disturbing trend in 9/11 and 7/7, and that is the terror drills being run at the same time at the same place. On 9/11 you have NORAD running hyjacking simulations in the Northeast and FEMA in NYC on 9/10. In London, you had the consulting firm running a terror drill at the same time at the same places that the bombings took place.
Sometime this month, a nuclear terror drill is suppose to be run in the United States. Lets hope the trend is just a freak coincidence, although I wouldn’t be surprised if something terrible did happen. Congress is out of session till September, which would mean the White House is in complete control all this month.
Let’s hope this is paranoia!
Stormy70
Really? I would have never thought you were paranoid. You seem so grounded in reality.
Scipio Africanus Minor
Muslims cannot be trusted. If we had no Muslims, there would be NO terrorist threat. Muslims should be 1. Identified; 2. Arrested; 3. Stripped of Citizenship from all Western countries; 4. Deported
Sojourner
Did he really say this? If he did, what an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Where?
Emma Zahn
Should I look for the Civil Defense booklet they gave us at school during the Cuban Missle Crisis or will they be issuing new ones?
Sojourner
You didn’t get the new one? It’s much simpler than the original. Basically, you bend over, grab your ankles, and kiss your butt goodbye.
Much less drama than scrambling into fallout shelters or under desks.
ppGaz
Duck and Cover with Bert the Turtle
Duck and Cover was a fun game for kids of all ages!
The great part was, you could be at recess, or stealing a candy bar from the corner drugstore to impress that cute redhead in your 7th grade class, or in the cafeteria, when … BOOM … the important suit-wearing people could decide to incinerate the whole fucking world and turn you and your school and your whole town into a smoldering junk heap.
I tell you, for a 7th grader back then, it was a great way to teach respect for government and authority. Kids today need that kind of discipline, too.
DougJ
Clearly, if and when we are next attacked, we will have to look at Iran as the prime suspect. The mullahs there, I hope they are comfortable now, because they are soon to be due for a big surprise from the U S of A.
Freedom is on the march.
John S.
Yes, we’ll just go off and fight a tri-frontal war when we can barely keep things under control in Iraq and Afghanistan. What an intelligent choice attacking Iran would be…
I don’t know about freedom, but stupidity is definitely on the march.
ppGaz
And, we don’t have the manpower for a war with Iran. Iran would not be a cakewalk occupation like Iraq was.
It seems to me the pooch has been screwed. Not only did invading Iraq not solve any problem that helps us now, it has stretched our forces and readiness beyond thin. Where do we get the resources for Iran? Take the weary Iraq forces and shift them to Iran, where they will be asked to take on a situation considerably more deadly than the one they are in now?
The next 2-4 years could be a nightmare. Bush and his people will fuck with the Iraq forces for political reasons, because support at home is sagging and an election is coming up. In the midst of this, and as Americans then watch Iraq descend into abject civil war, where will these potatoheads get the support and will to back a war against Iran?
I don’t see Iran as being doable, in any way, shape or form. And the people in charge in Iran know this, and they are going to act from a position of strength to rearrange the furniture over there to their liking; a new Iran-Iraq coalition is likely, and there is going to be nothing we can do about it. We’ll have taken a mild case of regional instability and turned it into a giant clusterfuck that is ten times worse than what we started with.
Putting our fist into the hornet’s nest of Iraq may turn out to be the biggest single mistake this country ever made. It may not… but it may. It’s an experiment, and one without proper planning, without controls in place, without a clear set of goals and without an end game on the chalk board.
Forget Doug. He’s a lunatic who has absolutely no clue about anything. The people you need worry about are the people in the White House, the Executive Office Building, and the Pentagon. These people are ideologues, and obsessed. They are self-interested and put their interests above those of the country.
“He tried to kill my daddy.” If you doubt that George Bush sees this situation as if it were a tiff between frat houses, just remember that astounding statement. The man is planning a war in the most dangerous part of the world, and he says something like that.
“Dead or alive” he said.
“Mission Accomplished” his handlers crowed.
“Bring it on” he foolishly and disgustingly challenged.
“The insurgency is in its last throes” his babysitter bragged.
These are dangerous, incompetant people fooling around with live ammunition.
Fasten your seatbelts.
frontinus
Wow, that Archive.org link was about as painful to read as a typical BJ comments thread. That extended tirade on the bible thumpers is really paying dividends, John….
It’s funny in an ironic sort of way that quite a few people have issues with Fox but not CRG. Surely I couldn’t be the only one that got a laugh out of that?
John, just an FYI to keep silly posts like this from popping up in the future–if you see someone(professor and Britannica contributor? WTF) talking about al-Muhijaroun ignore that person since they folded their tent nearly a year ago. Especially if that person is speaking from an outlet that posts about Sbrenica being a hoax, 4,000+ troops dead in Iraq, Osama bio blaming the CIA, etc. File CRG next to Freeperland, Larouche, Raimondo, Counterpunch, Chris Floyd, Pepe Escobar, etc.
As for the video, Loftus sounds like a nutter. He outright states the guy is a “double agent” then doesn’t offer much proof other than his apparent outting by the 20 calls to the lowly bombers. Sure his movements in and out of England are fishy but that’s wholely relative to how omniscient you think government agencies are. Apparently Loftus has more faith than I. It just cannot be possible that British intelligence were as incompetent/inadequate as our own. The FBI and CIA were in the dark about Zubaidah until Ressam spilled the beans in his LAX plea deal. And this was the travel agent for al-Qaeda and gatekeeper to the Afghan camps. Yet I’m to believe that Mi-5 and Mi-6, who Loftus says our guys think are appeasers and such, are beyond comparable mistakes? Sorry, it might make for good television on Fox but you have to admit it’s pretty freaking out there.
John S.
The only two countries in the world that actually have the military manpower (possibly) to be engaged in multiple conflicts such as this are China and India.
And yet, mysteriously, they both seem to be staying well beyond the fray…I wonder why.
Stormy70
Our military can still kick anyone’s ass three ways from Sunday, and twice on Monday. This post certainly brought out some looney toons. Some of you might want to adjust the antenae on the tin foil helmet you are wearing 24/7. LOL
tBone
But what about Tuesday through Saturday?
It’s not tinfoilism to recognize the fact that our military is stretched very thin right now. If we end up in another war while still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, bravado is going to be no substitute for boots on the ground.
Sojourner
Great! I do hope the military will stop its whining about not enough recruits and discontinue the re-enlistment bonuses. What a waste of money. How do I know? Because Stormy said so.
TallDave
It’s not tinfoilism to recognize the fact that our military is stretched very thin right now.
Well, with tens of thousands of troops defending W Europe from the imminent threat of Soviet invasion, how can we not be?
BoZ the Rider
U.S. Northcom Newsroom
You ask, I provide. A nuclear terror drill in Charleston, SC sometime in August. Thats dangerously close to me and horribly close to some family members.
People are right about the military on both sides. The military can easily beat the Iranian army because we have the air power they haven’t even imagined before. That makes a whole lot of difference when we can hit their supply lines and fortified units. It’s the postwar peacekeeping thats the hard part and the one we simply do not have the manpower to conducted properly.
Some dead British guy said (back when Iraq was simply a British colony) that to properly keep the peace, you need one soldier per 100 citizens. Thats means we need 250,000; we’re 100,000 short. I read that bit in an old Newsweek.
An attack on Iran would require many more soldiers for peacekeeping. I don’t think anyone in Washington is willing to bring back the draft though. However, it isn’t entirely out of the question that they create some kind of compulsory service like a few countries already have. Serve 2-3 years doing community work or enlisting in the army, that sort of thing. What do you people think?
Sojourner
Politically, this would be extremely difficult. The reality is that, in the early days of the Iraqi war, when its popularity was at its highest, people were told to go out and shop. That was the extent of their obligations, as defined by this administration. Now that the war is becoming very unpopular, it would never fly. Even the hawks on this issue, like Stormy, would never consider enlisting. As the number of hawks decrease, the likelihood of any sort of draft goes way down. Given that even Bush is unwilling to encourage a bunch of boy scouts to consider enlisting when they’re of age, I doubt even he has the balls to do it. Certainly, the Repub politicians wouldn’t.
tBone
I’m all for the idea of mandatory national service. The chances of it ever happening seem slim to none, though.
John S.
I think that if Iran decides to invade the United States, I’d be more than happy to do more part to protect my country, my home and my fellow citizens.
But go to Iran for another pre-emptive coup/democratization? Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to pass.
frontinus
Yeah, the great thing about a national service program is that it would be relatively easy to implement. We already have blueprints and everything.
Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst
Nationalsozialistischer Arbeitsdienst
Reichs Arbeitsdienst
Take your pick.
BoZ the Rider
We also have blueprints for a draft if need be. As someone in prime drafting age, I’ve taken a point to look at the offical regulations regard it. If they’re really pushed, upon 2 weeks of notification, you could be forced to ship out to boot camp for a quick 6 weeks of training. Education defferments could be ignored depending on how the Congress makes the bill, and since Vietnam the US and Canada have signed a nice little treaty where Canada ships you back home if you run.
There is, however, one little thing that I’ve taken an interest in regarding any prospects of a draft or compulsory service.
I’m not sure what legal ramifications a draft would hold in regard to this Amendment. I know you are paid if you’re drafted, so does it still constitute servitude?
frontinus
Boz, my post was mocking you so not an attempt to strike up a conversation. Anyways, I think 99 people out of a 100 would agree that universal, mandatory conscription is more authoritarian than less-than-universal, mandatory conscription but there’s always that 1. And apparently BJ’s gotten quite a few of them in the last few months.