Nothing changes

British and Pakistani authorities joined forces to block the plot to bomb the airliners, officials said. British police acted urgently overnight, arresting 24 people.

Where was Homeland Security? If the United States, according to Shrub “is at war” (DUH) than why are the British and Pakistanis the ones in the trenches and kicking down doors? Why are they doing the dirty work? Further down in the NYT story we are name checked as a participant in the run up to the take down but where were we when the doors were being kicked down? I've had my rights as an American stripped to the bone so that we can be CCed on emails? Big Brother is listening to my phone calls and monitoring my bank account, I want action. I want my sacrifices to be worth something. My question is, as it is always, if we knew they were out there doing these things, why didn't we arrest them earlier? It’s not as though we need arrest warrants or probable cause any longer, we don't have to wait to do these things, why is it that we hung on until now?

"At the same time, Republicans began a concerted effort to use Mr. Lieberman’s defeat to portray Democrats as weak on national defense, reprising a theme that they made central to the last two national campaigns. The attacks came in searing remarks from, among others, Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and Vice President Dick Cheney, who went so far as to suggest that the ouster of Mr. Lieberman might encourage “al Qaeda types. ”.From The New York Times


Aug 10, 2006 5:01 AM
A plot to blow up aircraft flying from the UK was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale, a police spokesman says.
Sadly, we can imagine it too well.

Aug 10, 2006 6:23 AM
The U.S. has raised its threat warning to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States in response to a terror plot disrupted in London. According to The Associated Press, the terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines, two U.S. counterterrorism officials said.

Aug 10, 2006 7:29 AM
Some of the flights involved in the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic planes in mid-air would have been going from the United Kingdom to New York, Washington, D.C., and California, a U.S. government official said.

Aug 10, 2006 8:03 AM
A senior U.S. administration official (Dick Cheneys' office) tells CNN that intelligence on the foiled airline terror plot indicates "very strong links to al Qaeda."

August 10, 2006 7:47 PM
U.S. officials say British agent infiltrated alleged airline terror cell, and cell members met suspected Al Qaeda operative in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda is the only terrorist group operating out of Pakistan? Tell me another one. Every guy with a kalashnikov and a death-wish is Al Qaeda? Bushco has been good for enrollment but lets not get ahead of ourselves here. Every.One.Hates.Us.There. Swing a cat hit a guy who wants us dead. He doesn't have to be Al Qaeda, he was probably some other garden varity America Hater. It's not like there is a limited seating capacity on the bus to Death-To-Americaville or that they're having a hard time giving away tickets for a fast trip to Suicide Bomberboro.

Oddly, in a related story theNew York Times says that it might not be them.

In Washington, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, said that the plot “had all the earmarks of an Al Qaeda plot,” but he said there was no evidence linking the suspects to the terrorist organization, or of any plot within the United States. Other officials said it was possible that the plotters had worked in isolated cells and were not all acquainted with one another.

The ear marks being "organization" and the use of "airplanes". Everyone knows Al Qaeda copyrighted that method of destruction! damn it, keep up! The suspects are from Egypt, one of our friends despite their human rights record and mistreatment of women. It could be perhaps this group is not our favorite terrorists but maybe another group that hates us. There are so many. I'm sure that Hezbollah would also like to take us down now, too. The wars in the Middle East have made us all so much safer then we were before.

Have you noticed that no matter how many of our civil and constitutional rights Bushco takes away from us, the attacks on our privacy, the petty humilations we endure all in the name of HOMELAND SECURITY, that all the bad guys have to do is get on a plane?


Keep a happy thought for Alphagal today as she tries to get home from Boston.