While British ministers were worrying about protestors on the Right...

While the British government and the Left side of the British media have been focused on the perceived threat posed by the English Defence League, something else has been going on: Rashid Rauf 'training dozens of British terrorist recruits in Pakistan.'

Pakistani officials have warned that Rashid Rauf, the terrorist linked to the trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, bas been involved in grooming two dozen British recruits to carry out new attacks.

Pakistan intelligence said that Rauf, who mysteriously escaped from police custody and was then reported killed by a missile fired by US drone last November, used the name Khalid to recruit fellow Britons for training at a camp in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

One official said that Rauf was involved with a group of Arab and Uzbek terrorists in a camp in Matta Cheena village in south Waziristan.

Rauf is said to be a key lieutenant of the group's leader, explosives expert, Abu Nasir. "He is an explosive expert who has effectively devised methods of explosives using easy-to-get ingredients that are virtually undetectable or can raise no alarms for authorities," said the intelligence source.

"We know that they are planning a very serious attack and it is very important for us to arrest all of them.

"If they are able to strike it is going to give a bad name to Pakistan once again for no reason."

Intercepted emails and text messages between Pakistan and the UK had indicated Rauf's involvement under the name Khalid after the authorities decrypted the communications.

British security and intelligence officials have said they believe Rauf may have survived the missile strike and could be planning further attacks.

A US informant called Bryant Neal Vinas, who has admitted planning a suicide attack, was arrested by the Pakistanis last November and said he had met Rauf shortly before the missile strike.

He gave information that has led to the arrest of two cells allegedly planning attacks during a European summit in Brussels and last Easter in Manchester.

Yep, sure sounds like those folks protesting Islamofascist extremism in Britain are the real problem, all right.

I just hope that security on the planes, trains and buses in Britain is as tight as the security forces say it is. Oh, and that they've managed to out-think Al-Qaeda with respect to what other targets terrorists might choose that haven't been given such tight security up until now.

Monty Python's Scotland Yard

So, like, a couple of days before Easter, the whole of British law enforcement swoops down and arrests 11 Pakistani nationals and one British citizen in what the police call a "major terrorist plot." The police had to advance the timetable for their arrests because the Metropolitan Police's counterterrorism chief accidentally held a report on the plot in a way that let a press photographer get a clear and readable picture of it.

And now? 12 arrested after alleged 'Easter bomb plot' released without charge.

Eleven of the men - all Pakistani nationals - now face being deported after they were transferred into the custody of the UK Borders Agency.

They were released after investigators spent 13 days searching for evidence following the arrests from a number of addresses in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire under the Terrorism Act.

Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith had previously claimed the operation had uncovered a "very big plot" against the UK, and police chiefs defended their actions yesterday.

However, questions are being asked as to the timing of the raids and the basis for the alleged intelligence of a plot given that no evidence was found.

The operation was run by Greater Manchester Police, together with MI5, but it was ultimately authorised by the then natonal head of counter-terrorism, Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick.

The raids led to his resignation, after he inadvertently allowed details of the operation to be photographed.

So the police believe that these men are a clear and present danger to Britain's security, but after 13 days of searching, they can't come up with concrete evidence to support that belief. Of course, Muslim advocacy groups in Britain are quick to point out that this is just more official harassment of their co-religionists:

Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Instead of releasing them with good grace and making clear a mistake has been made, the government is seeking to deport them, citing a very vague national security threat. That is a very dishonourable way of proceeding."

Turn a terrorist plot into a propaganda victory against British counterterrorist operations. Brilliant.

It almost has me expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

The diminishing value of racial profiling

The Scotsman newspaper reports that al-Qaeda is recruiting non-Asians to convert to Islam and carry out jihad in Britain: Al-Qaeda's white army of terror.

As many as 1,500 white Britons are believed to have converted to Islam for the purpose of funding, planning and carrying out surprise terror attacks inside the UK, according to one MI5 source.

Lord Carlile, the Government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, said many of the converts had been targeted by radical Muslims while serving prison terms.

Security experts say the growing secret army of white terrorists poses a particularly serious threat as they are far less likely to be detected than members of the Asian community.

It appears that British law enforcement understands how the jihadist threat is evolving and is trying to adapt to match. It remains to be seen whether the public understands the issue, and whether the political class has the guts to back up law enforcement. A silver lining in this story is that it aligns with the political correctness of the political class: now law enforcement is saying that the color of a man's skin isn't the best predictor of his propensity to jihadist murder.

UK letter bomber "a confused young man" angry at Government security measures

A British letter bomber, responsible for injuring eight people, was "a confused young man" angry over the development of the British surveillance state.

Cooper had for years harboured a seething resentment over what he perceived as the growing threat to Britain's civil liberties.

The increase in surveillance cameras, anti-terrorist measures and "overbearing" Government control were a constant source of frustration. He had campaigned peacefully against identity cards and the treatment of anti-nuclear protesters, but it was getting him nowhere.

The catalyst for his change in tactics came in 2003 following the decision to hold on record the DNA of his father, Clive, despite his being cleared of an allegation of assault.

Cooper, a confused young man who had difficulty forming social relationships, suddenly had a cause to channel his anger.

The hate rhetoric of the Left, the seething over its impotence in changing security and defense policy, is more than the expression of inchoate rage. It's the seedbed for this type of domestic terrorism. Watch for the "Kos Kidz," the readers of The Daily Kos blogsite, to start falling into this practice in the not-distant future.

Pagans may be humor-challenged

Of course, I'm not a pagan, so I can't judge how offensive this is, but it seems that the movie studio was within its rights to pull this promotional stunt.

Pagans have pledged to perform "rain magic" to wash away Homer Simpson, the cartoon character, who was painted next to their famous fertility symbol, the Cerne Abbas giant, yesterday.

The 17th century chalk outline of the naked, club-wielding giant is believed by many to be a symbol of ancient spirituality.

Many couples also believe the 180ft giant, which is carved in the hillside above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, is an aid to fertility.

A Homer Simpson brandishing a doughnut was painted next to the figure in a publicity stunt for a film company.

It has been painted with water-based biodegradable paint which will wash away as soon as it rains.

D'oh!

Islamofacist aikido: using the West's bureaucracy as a weapon

The United States won the Cold War by forcing the Soviet Union to collapse under the weight of its own bureaucracy. Now the international Islamofascist movement is using the same technique against the societies of the West.

Special Branch and MI5 officers are forced under human rights laws to spend hours form-filling before carrying out the most basic surveillance tasks.

The problems are made worse by undermanning and mean that only a handful of the estimated 150 Islamic extremist suspects in Scotland are under constant surveillance.

We have discovered serious misgivings among officers about manning levels and the law under which they operate, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

We can reveal that:

• Getting permission for the most basic surveillance operation, such as observing a building, takes up to half a day of paperwork and referrals to senior officers;

• Authorisation for a full-scale surveillance operation, such as following a suspect, can require up to three days of bureaucracy;

• If requests are rejected, officers have to spend around three or four hours filling in forms to explain why;

• Keeping one suspect under 24-hour surveillance takes between 24 and 36 highly trained staff, but there are thought to be just 250 Special Branch officers in Scotland;

• Health and safety regulations mean officers are generally restricted to working maximum shifts of eight hours;

• Most operations have to be justified at monthly and three-monthly intervals, requiring many hours of preparation.

Insiders have told Scotland on Sunday they believe that, largely as a result of these and other rules and regulations, as few as 10% of suspected extremists are under high levels of surveillance.

This, at the same time that member of the U.S. Congress want to put regulations in place "supporting the troops" by straitjacketing the Department of Defense in the length and frequency of an individual service member's deployments. What our Congressmen (and so many others in the West) fail to understand is, whether or not we are conducting a Global War on Terror, the Islamfascists are undoubtedly and wholeheartedly conducting a Global War on Us.

'Spooky' how some jihadist doctors threatened terrorist acts -- and then other jihadist doctors did them

'Spooky'? A jihadist claiming to represent a cell of 45 doctors posts a threat to commit terrorist acts in the USA, and the only way the authorities can describe the parallel to the London and Glasgow attacks is 'spooky'?

Anti-terrorist police found details of the discussions on a jihadi site run by one of a three-strong “cyber-terrorist” gang.

They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south east London heard.

One message, thought to have been sent on February 12 2005, read: 'We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.

“The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy.”

This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.

The message discussed targets at the base, adding: 'These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units.”

It also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.

Tsouli replied to the message by saying “He needs the recipe for making car bombs,” and a “recipe” was supplied by one contributor, including gas cylinders as one ingredient.

Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

However, sources said it was “definitely spooky” that the use of doctors for terrorist purposes was being discussed in jihadi terrorist circles up to three years ago.

What's 'spooky' is that this discovery didn't prompt British authorities to tighten their scrutiny of Muslim physicians in Britain two years ago. The jihadists have a track record of doing the things they brag about planning. Shouldn’t the authorities have learned long since to take these kinds of threats seriously?

Our God is f**kin' LOVE, and He'll f**kin' KILL anyone who says different!

Ayman al-Zawahiri seems to be a bit tense these days:

Al-Qaida's deputy chief called on all Muslims to join the holy war against the West.

"May Allah pluck out your eye if you haven't yet seen that jihad is an individual duty," the transcript quoted al-Zawahri as saying.

Could be a reaction to the public relations reversals al-Qaida has been suffering in recent weeks, with Sunni leaders in Iraq turning against them (actually, that's been going on for over a year -- American news outlets had to wait until after the 2006 elections to break the story) and the Muslims in Britain feeling pressured to distance themselves from jihad.

In a strongly worded statement Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), condemned the barbarity of the London and Glasgow car bomb attempts.

"Let us be absolutely clear," he said. "Those who seek to deliberately kill or main innocent people are the enemies of us all."

He pledged on behalf of the MCB "all the necessary support" to prevent "such murderous actions". He said: "When the house is on fire our responsibility is not to blame each other, it is to extinguish the flames...."

Dr Abdul Bari said: "It is our Islamic duty not only to utterly and totally condemn such evil actions, but to provide all the necessary support to prevent such atrocities taking place". He added that the events of the past few days had been "very disturbing and challenging".

Well, okay, Dr. Abdul Bari was referring specifically to terror in the UK.

"It looks sadly as if the terror threat currently facing our country will be with us for some time to come," he said at a press conference called in response to the bomb plots.

"There is no cause whatsoever that could possibly justify such barbarity. Those who engage in such murderous actions and those that provide support for them are the enemies of all, Muslims and non-Muslims, and they stand against our shared values in the UK."

One may hope that the good Doctor and his coreligionists may someday extend their outrage at and opposition to terrorist murder to those places and times when the victims are, say, Iraqis, or (dare one dream?) Americans and Israelis.

How to cripple an industrialized economy - no bombs required

A suspicious package forced the closure of a terminal at Heathrow Airport and cancellation of over 100 flights.

The departure lounge has been partially evacuated

Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4 has reopened after a suspect bag sparked a security alert.

The Metropolitan Police said it was dealing with the item which was found at the terminal just before midday.

But thousands of departing passengers are facing long delays as airport officials begin re-screening them.

All international flights from the terminal were cancelled until the evening while all European flights have been cancelled until further notice.

The alert comes after failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow....

A spokesperson said: "We have had to cancel 108 flights in total.

"Our flights to and from Terminal 1 at Heathrow are operating, but with some delays."

Isn't that swell? But wait - there's more!

Earlier on Tuesday a controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect device near Hammersmith Tube station.

During the morning rush-hour the station in west London and surrounding roads were closed when a suspect device was found at about 0825 BST.

There was an unconfirmed report the suspect objects had turned out to be three abandoned fire extinguishers.

Up to 8,000 commuters were forced to find alternative routes into work as Hammersmith and Barons Court stations were closed for an hour.

There were also severe delays for motorists as Hammersmith Broadway was closed between King Street and Shepherd's Bush Road as well as Hammersmith Bridge.

What does it all mean? Well, it means that all the Islamofascists have to do to shut down Britain's capital is to leave knapsacks and briefcases casually unattended in airport terminals and at Tube stations. No bombs required: the extra precautions that these suspicious packages will trigger will shut down transport and cost the economy billions of pounds.

What clues do you need?

The authorities in the UK don't seem to be very imaginative in predicting terror threats.

Strathclyde Police Chief Constable Willie Rae confirmed the attack was being linked to two car bombs found in London on Friday.

He also revealed a suspect taken to the city's Royal Alexandra Hospital was found to have a suspect device on him....

"There was no prior intelligence to suggest that Scotland was going to be the target of a terror attack," he added.

How about this: the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is a Scotsman -- what additional clues would you need to know that Scotland would be a prime target for a terror attack?

As they will do with every change of government in the West, the Islamofascists will test the resolve of the new administration with terror attacks. Clinton was tested with the first World Trade Center bombing and the Mogadishu Black Hawk Down incident, and Clinton proved wholly spineless. Bush was tested with the 9/11 attack, and proved resolute. Spain was tested with the 3/11 attacks and proved spineless. Britain will be tested again and again, and one hopes that they will pass each test.

This is socialized medicine

When the Government acts as the single payer for health care, it also acts as the sole decider of what health care it will pay for. If you find that it won't pay for a treatment that you believe is vital to your quality of life, what can you do? Sue.

In the first ever High Court challenge of its kind, a judge was urged to force the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), to reconsider its block on the drugs for those newly diagnosed with the disease.

If successful, the case, brought by the drug company Eisai and backed by the Alzheimer's Society, could precipitate a flood of legal actions from patients refused other drugs on the NHS by Nice.

Nice decided last year that Aricept, Reminyl and Exelon - three acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) - should no longer be made available on the NHS to patients in the early stages of the disease.

At a cost of £2.50 a day, the drugs were too expensive when weighed against the benefits to patients with mild Alzheimer's, it said.
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But, as the case got underway, Alzheimer's sufferers and their carers protested outside the court claiming the drugs had given them "a stay of execution" and the effect of taking them was "like a fog being lifted."

Inside, Mrs Justice Dobbs heard that Keith Turner, 68, a former chiropodist from Hastings, East Sussex, who was diagnosed in April 2004 and prescribed Aricept, claimed: "It's given me back my life. It's given me back my independence."

"Life was slipping away so fast. But that has all now changed because of this drug", he said in a written statement.

His wife said: "Without a shadow of doubt this one-a-day drug has given us our lives back to the full."

It was "abhorrent and disgusting" that Nice was suggesting that carers like her would be better off in terms of health and quality of life the sooner their sick relative went into care, she said in a statement.

"Even when Keith deteriorates - as we accept he ultimately will - each day we live together at home will be a day we cherish and value," she added.

"Christianized medicine," my foot.

Hail to the Iron Lady

Twenty-five years on, the lady's still not for turning.

Baroness Thatcher drew parallels between the Falklands conflict and British deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan today during an emotional broadcast to mark the 25th anniversary of the conflict. [Hear her broadcast here.]


Baroness Thatcher in Portsmouth yesterday

In the radio message recorded for the British Forces Broadcasting Service, she said the battle to reclaim the Falkland Islands was a "just" cause.

She added that the struggle against "tyranny and violence" continued today, and that serving troops could draw "hope and strength" from previous victories.

Lady Thatcher's message has been beamed to the islanders and British troops around the world.

God bless you, Mrs. Thatcher.

Something with poison in it, I think.... Poppies...

The Afghan government has tumbled to the notion that allowing billions of narco-dollars to flood into a restive region isn't the best way to counter the insurgency there:

The Afghan government has demanded that British troops destroy the opium trade in the country after a record poppy harvest that threatens to flood Europe with cheap, high-purity heroin.

Officials are so concerned that they want the British to abandon their policy of non-intervention in the drugs war.

Counter-narcotics officials argue that the insurgency faced by the British in southern Afghanistan and the trade that centres on the province of Helmand are now indistinguishable and must be dealt with as such.

Billions? Not an exaggeration. In 2004, Afghanistan was estimated to produce 4,200 tons of opium with a value of US$600 million. And now:

Figures for this year's opium harvest show that Helmand is producing more than half of the world's heroin, even with British troops present, and that production has soared by 30 per cent in a year to a record 6,100 tons.

The Afghan government realizes it can't defeat the insurgency without taking on the opium trade.

"The drug dealers, the Taliban and the warlords are the same network," said Gen Khodaidad, Afghanistan's deputy minister of counter-narcotics.

"Nato should destroy these people. They should hit their headquarters, their convoys, the drugs labs and factories.

"Drugs are the main source of income for the Taliban."

The Afghan government has figured out that drug money pays for the Taliban to hire the warlords to protect the poppy farmers to generate the drug money to... you get the idea.

"This may be the place where the military has to get involved. There is an increasing relationship between the Taliban and the drugs trade. Drugs feed corruption and a lack of governance. Any security is an illusion unless the drugs issue is tackled."

The Taliban are estimated to earn tens of millions of dollars by charging a tithe for protecting poppy fields, where farmers benefited this year from good weather and corruption among officials.

However, the British, whose military forces operate in Helmand province, are slow to get this. For them, the operative theory up till now has been not to do anything to upset the local population.

Officials in Kabul were incensed when British psychological operations teams put out radio broadcasts in April that announced that British soldiers would not destroy poppy crops because they knew people had a livelihood to earn.

A senior Western diplomat in Kabul said: "Nato is adamant that it will not become a poppy eradication force, but there is a need for them to provide much more active support on interdiction and trafficking, even security for (Afghan) eradication teams."

It makes sense. The Taliban and warlords cannot defend the poppy fields from aerial attack. If the NATO forces (or Afghan forces with NATO support) destroy the crop this year and make a credible promise to destroy it next year as well, the opium industry in Afghanistan will collapse, and opium buyers will abandon Afghanistan for more secure sources of supply. The Taliban and the warlords will no longer be able to extract their livelihoods from the sweat of the local population, and will have nothing to offer except the certainty that they will bring war, death and destruction to the locals.

Burn the poppy fields -- using napalm if necessary -- and let the poppy farmers know that NATO will not let another poppy crop mature in Afghanistan. Tell them that the days of allowing opium cultivation so that the farmers can feed their families are over -- that it's time for the farmers to find other crops (perhaps with outside aid) or starve.

Is the British government capable of understanding this imperative? If not, will they rearrange their deployment to let American forces do the job?