23 thoughts on “Fighting Them There So We Don’t Have to Fight Them Here”

  2. I wonder if other countries police are a little reluctant to share data with us after that pr stunt the whitehouse pulled when they crowed about the terrorist that was captured, blowing his undercover status. Good to know they’re on the ball now.

  3. I’m a little miffed because I have to fly out of LaGuardia next week — I’ll have to remember to take my favorite lip gloss out of my purse; see, I have my priorities in order — but generally I’m not really sure what to make of the threat. It’s good that it was caught? It proves New York was in the crosshairs despite DHS’s assessement earlier this year? No one really knows what “orange alert” means? The Bush administration has done not a damn thing to decrease the risk of terrorist attacks on the homeland? Chertoff’s head is shaped funny? I think all of these are true.

  4. I’ve been reading comments on another blog and it’s made me wonder… just wonder.

    Is it just a coincidence that this terrorist plot was foiled the day after a anti-war candidate beat a pro-war candidate in a primary election?

    Am I being totally cynical or paranoid?

  5. I’m so jaded by all the manipulation and bullshit that I can’t believe a word of what they say. It’s either the boy who cried wolf or Chicken Little.
    Any chemists out there who can bring me up to speed on liquid explosives? It sounds like it’s in the family of an A-bomb in a briefcase.

  6. If we are fighting the ‘insurgents’ over there instead of having them attack us over here why do the police and intel in London keep finding insurgents in London and not Baghdad? By the logic of the current conflict( Lebanon), we should be bombing London for allowing terror to be plotted on their soil. Send in the troops Make the civilians pay….. And if the liquid bombs are coming in from London why is aunt Bertha having to give up her mouthwash before she gets on the plane in Des Moines and why is it now a red alert emergency after the Brits have arrested the gang? I think it is a theocratic plot to keep us all from having a good stiff drink( with dirty hair and fuzzy teeth) on a plane.

    And how does our army fight Sadrist militia when Maliki is an ally of Sadr and Hezbollah? How do we stop an insurgency we support? When the Sunni’s are shooting the Sadr militia and vice cersa and we need to stand with the sunni’s ( who’ve been fighting us for 3 and a half years)against deathsquads for a unity government what are our soldiers supposed to do? Notice no one answers that?

  8. Swami: I won’t repeat the idiot who practically gave us the recipe on CNN, but suffice it to say that ordinary household chemicals, things that would be perfectly ordinary to carry in a “toiletry bag,” can make a powerfully unstable chemical.

  10. i wonder how many of the 21 alleged terrorists traveled to the u.s. undetected? this would shoot down the bushies claim of being the best and only caretaker of our national security. maybe the british papers will report this, not our pravda-like msm.

  11. Now is the time for all good Republicans to piss their pants and hide under the bed.
    Wasn’t giving up all our rights protected under the Constitution supposed to prevent this stuff from happening?

  12. Folks,

    I seriously doubt the Brits shutdown Heathrow airport for hours just to bolster the GOP’s chances in the midterms.

    Heck, I’m as jaded as the worst jaded, but a little perspective here.

  13. I seriously doubt the Brits shutdown Heathrow airport for hours just to bolster the GOP’s chances in the midterms.

    I doubt it too, actually.

  15. It’s got nothing to do with bolstering the GOP’s chances for the midterm elections…It’s all about keeping the ubiquitous terror monster alive.. I might be a doubting Thomas,but it’s going take a lot more to convince me that this plot isn’t of the same caliber as taking down the Brooklyn Bridge with as dull hacksaw or Benz-O-matic torch. And of course..Chertoff claims it of an al Qaida type..yeah!

    I remember when I was in my bomb making stage of adolescence, my mother couldn’t figure out where all the vinegar, baking soda and empty Skippy peanut butter jars went..

  16. I can top that Swami….
    When I was 12 my pyrotechnic projects included saltpeter which I purchased at the local Eckerd drug store, I’m sure the drugist knew I was making gunpowder, not trying to curb my adolesent libido.How times change.I don’t think the local drug stores carry the stuff anymore, and would probabily be required to log who bought the stuff. I think playing with the saltpeter had something to do with my vision problems.
    That Chertoff creepes me out…..

  17. This political correctness fetish is proving to be the death of us. The current red alert flight security measures are completely useless. Worrying about shampoo, shaving cream, baby formula, medicines and making everyone wait 5 hours or more doesn’t do a thing to prevent dedicated Islamic terrorists from smuggling explosives components on board planes. They’ll simply secrete them in body cavities, etc.

    There is one simple countermeasure which is fast and 100% effective. Make anybody boarding a flight spit on a picture of Mohammed.

    [blog owner disapproves of statement above — maha]

  18. Anon @ 9:37:

    That was every bit as disgusting and bigoted when you posted it over at Unclaimed Territory. Don’t you have better things to do than paste the same monstrously ugly statements all over Left Blogsylvania?

  19. One of the problem with imputing conspiracies to Bush & Co. is that it assumes far greater competence and skill than they have hitherto shown.

    Obviosuly they are seeking partisan political advantage from these events and will use them to their own benefit; and that is an undeniable danger to the nation as it might well distort our response. (But it’s probably unavoidable in a democracy with competing parties)

    But seeking advantage from such terrorist events is not even remotely the same as creating them.

  20. Snowwy — I’m sorry I didn’t see #17 sooner and delete it. But it exemplifies the ignorance and myopia of much of the Right. Like James Fallows wrote recently, a prominent reason we haven’t had more terrorist attacks in the U.S. is that Muslim Americans in general assimilate into American society and are patriotic and not interested in jihad. Of course, if we allow idiots like #17 to piss them off, that could change.

    Also, many people have noted that the 9/11 hijackers weren’t really practicing Muslims. They drank alcohol, for example. It wasn’t their religion that drove them.

  21. In a way, I’m glad for #17 because it reveals the racism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia that motivate a lot support for the current War on Terror. This is why Israel’s war has so seamlessly become our own war – the core Bush supporters see one indistinguishable mass of fanatics (captured in the truly odious term “islamofascist”). They don’t see moderates, Baathists, Shia, Sunni, etc. – and they certainly don’t *see* the assimilation of Arabs in the US.

    From an ABC poll last March: “Nearly six in 10 Americans think the religion is prone to violent extremism, nearly half regard it unfavorably, and a remarkable one in four admits to prejudicial feelings against Muslims and Arabs alike.” http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1700599

    Sad to say, the views of anonymous #17 are not atypical.

  23. Disregarding the negative element of comment #17..the point about the futility of current security measures if cavity searches for potential explosive subtances aren’t conducted on all passengers is valid. What’s to stop a terrorist from inserting a plastic toothbrush case filled with a component of an explosive in his rectum and continuing the plan without the luxury of a toiletry kit. It shows me that the current measures are more cosmetic than practicle as a true security measure.

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