Terror police find 'martyr tapes'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Police investigating an alleged plot to bring down airliners have found several martyrdom videos in the course of their searches, the BBC has learned.

According to unofficial police sources, the recordings were discovered on laptop computers.

Scotland Yard has refused to comment on what officers are finding.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5265182.stm

Either the BBC or the police will look damn stupid if this isn't true. A definite claim like that would be bound to be part of any court case, wouldn't it?

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. I'll bet they didn't. If they had them we would have already seen them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. That would completely screw up any court case

There is absolutely no way something like this could be shown publically without prejudicing a trial.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. And all of the rest haven't screwed up a court case?

"Foiled liquid bomb plot!"

"Suitcase stashed in the woods near the homes of several of the bombers!"

"Pakistani A-Q money connection!"

Etc, etc, etc.

They have released all the "evidence" that they have already. The news about them searching the woods
was a pretty good indication that they have no actual evidence of anything.

[dipsydoodle]

16. You might have overlooked YouTube etc.

There are other ones on there already.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. From the people arrested last week?

That would imply either the police put them there, or there are associates of those arrested who put them there.

[dipsydoodle]

20. On the BBC tv news

tonight they said "the videos the police had got from the computers had people who had the appearance of some of those arrested" Sounds to me like the usual "they all look the same"

No I didn't plough through the YouTube stuff - dunno what they look like anyway. I only like watching ones like this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8 Get a load of that - 7 million hits !

[lgn19087]

19. Exactly nm

nm

[Rex]

2. Terror police, is that like the Thought police?

Well good! Now they have some proof and will show them on BBC! Right!?

[MrPrax]

3. Which court cases...

As Acting Deputy PM Prescott as just said:

Prescott lets slip that some suspects won't face serious charges

John Prescott let slip yesterday that some of the 24 people arrested last week over the alleged transatlantic terror plot will not face serious charges.

The Deputy Prime Minister made the admission during talks with Labour's Muslim MPs on how best to tackle Islamic extremism. During the 90-minute meeting, Mr Prescott briefed the MPs that the police only had enough evidence to bring serious charges against some suspects but not others.

His comments are likely to infuriate officers involved in the huge investigation into the alleged plans to detonate bombs on flights. They came as the police made a further arrest in the Thames Valley area under the Terrorism Act 2000. Concern had already been voiced about Government interference after the Treasury last week published the names of 19 suspects whose assets had been frozen after the arrests.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, was also accused of jeopardising a future trial by claiming that the police were confident that the "main players" were in custody.

Telegraph

THe police were complaining that the government is jeopardizing the case, but now the police uncover 'martyr' tapes and leak it to the press? :shrug:

But this is odd, because a Washington Post piece from Wednesday has the police complaining about how difficult it will be to get all the evidence together in 28 days.

"...Experts say the primary reason police could use nearly a month to complete a probe is because of the complexity of investigations into the alleged plot to smuggle liquid explosives hidden in hand luggage aboard flights.

"You've got laptops, you have to bring in translators to translate all the documents in there, and sometimes it's inopportune to release all your suspects _ particularly terrorism suspects _ while all that is being downloaded and translated," said Cliff Knuckey, a retired police detective who has worked on terrorism investigations.

"Terrorism investigations are different, simply because you're dealing with people who will do their best not to compromise their plans and who will do anything not to be compromised."

WP

Pretty damn quick that they were able to do all that in a couple of days and figure out they were 'martyr' tapes...:shrug:

[frylock]

4. no passports, no tickets, but they made martyr tapes?

[Rex]

6. Priorities; make tapes THEN buy tickets and get passports.

Sounding more and more like the 'Miami 7'. :eyes:

[KittyWampus]

17. Bet the Covert Agent was holding the camera.

[maddezmom]

5. IIRC didn't they already find some?

or am I thinking of another case?

[Virginia Dare]

7. I said from the get-go...

if laptops were found with all sorts of incriminating evidence on them, the tin foil hat was going on for good.

[auburngrad82]

8. Here's a still shot from one of the videos

That terrorist looks familiar...



Liberal bumper stickers

[dipsydoodle]

12. And another one of the suspects

[daleo]

10. I can't recall a court case in the past

So, I don't have a great deal of faith that there will be one now.

WTC boming #1 is the only exception that comes to mind.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Probably be charged with

Urinating in a public convenience, "looking at me in a funny way " and being in possession of curly hair and thick lips. You'd definately need to be English to remember the origin of that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Or, as a Muslim police officer said, "travelling while Asian"

Meanwhile, one of Britain's most senior Muslim police officers has criticised reported government plans to introduce a system of "passenger profiling" at the country's airports to help airlines identify those they believe could pose a risk to security.

The Times reports that Department of Transport officials are considering the system which would use intelligence to examine factors such as passengers' travel histories.

But Mr Desai told the BBC2's Newsnight that such a system would be "hugely problematic" if it targeted people from certain ethnic backgrounds.

"What you are suggesting is that we should have a new offence in this country called 'travelling while Asian', he said.

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/news/aviation/air-passengers-face-sixth-day-delays-$447629.htm

"Is he sir? I can't say I'd noticed".

[dipsydoodle]

15. "Is he sir? I can't say I'd noticed".

To know that line you obviously do remember the sketch. One of my friendsis Police Superintendent and he called round last night. I mentioned the "travelling while Asian" line to him and we then proceeded to try and remember the whole sketch. He immediately said "Is he sir? I can't say I'd noticed".

That was what had bought it to mind. I tried to find the whole sketch on Yahoo but blanked.