Inflammatory

[ProSense]

June 30, 2007

Inflammatory

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Larry Johnson comments:

Preliminary, unconfirmed reports indicate a nuclear blast has occurred at Glasgow’s international airport. No one has seen the mushroom cloud or heard the blast, but something by God is happening and it must be terrible. There is smoke and fire. In fact, a car is on fire. It must be Al Qaeda. Only Al Qaeda knows how to set themselves on fire inside a car. Please. Flee to the hills (leave you doors unlocked). Oh the humanity!

As events unfold I’m simply asking that folks take a big deep breath and try to keep things in perspective. Are there jihadist extremists in the world who are willing to kill innocents? Absolutely. Are they amenable to negotiation? No. I am not in the, “have you hugged a terrorist today” camp. However, we need to stop equating their hatred with actual capability.

If today’s events at Glasgow prove to be linked to the two non-events yesterday in London, then we should heave a sigh of relief. We may be witnessing the implosion of takfiri jihadists–religious fanatics who are incredibly inept. While I am not an explosives expert I am good friends with one of the world’s foremost explosives experts. Propane tanks and petrol (gas for us Americans) can produce a dandy flame and a mighty boom but these are not the tools for making a car bomb long the lines of what we see detonating on a daily basis in Iraq.

My main beef remains that much of the cable news media reacts to this nonsense like a fifty year old guy on Viagra or Cialis–they pop major wood. And the same warnings are appropriate–an erection lasting more than four hours may be harmful. Amen.

Thursday a single explosion killed five U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, and I don’t see the media or the wingnuts flame about that.

I do take terrorist attacks seriously, even inept ones. I live in New York, remember. Episodes like this are what make me crazy about people who still support the Iraq war — the “why don’t you want to fight al Qaeda?” whackjobs. If that’s who we were fighting in Iraq they might have an argument. But most of al Qaeda is sitting safe and sound in Pakistan, or elsewhere, just watching us shoot ourselves in the foot in Iraq. The bulk of the violence there is between Sunni and Shi’ia militants, not al Qaeda, and both those groups are getting very good at playing the U.S. to do some of their fighting for them. Makes me crazy.

I don’t even have to look at the rightie blogs to know what they’re saying. The evil terrorists are evil, and liberals don’t understand that, which is why they don’t want to fight in Iraq. The reality that our fighting in Iraq isn’t stopping terrorist attempts in Britain doesn’t sink in.

[uppityperson]

1. THANK YOU.

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t

[Octafish]

3. Thank you for an oustanding post, ProSense.

Larry Johnson is exactly correct regarding the Glasgow Airport event.

Regarding the Big Picture: You are absolutely correct in what is important.

Meanwhile, the warmongers are making a killing.

[bonito]

4. Ding K&R n/t

[annabanana]

5. When it's right, it makes sense, doesn't it? Thank you.. . .n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

6. "The reality our fighting in Iraq isn’t stopping terrorist attempts in Britain doesn’t sink in."

Is this piece "having it both ways"? "Reality" of "terrorist attempts in Britain." Is the point about cable news, or about terror? I don't mean to be argumentative. I'm trying to understand.

[ProSense]

8. No, the point is the right wing want's to have it both ways. It has nothing to do with the hype! n/t

[karlrschneider]

7. Gots ta kick & rec this one.

:kick:

[ProSense]

9. Hypocrisy:

Bush caught in hypocrisy, proves Kerry right, again

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. The real burning question - Is Paris Hilton OK?

grrrrrrrrrr.

nice post.

[Morgana LaFey]

11. Is he for real re Glasgow? There's not a thing in LBN that I cd see

WTF is going on??????

[Breeze54]

13. No, he's not serious or credible.

Yes, two people driving a van, crashed it into the Glasgow Airport and it exploded.


But they didn't mean any harm by doing that! :sarcasm:

[Breeze54]

12. Boring

Are you satisfied now?

Do you think everyone agrees with you now because

you think you are smarter than everyone else?


Your fear is showing.


Pull your pants up and zip up your fly.

[ProSense]

14. Police arrest 2 after London, Glasgow incidents

Police arrest 2 after London, Glasgow incidents

1 hour, 43 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Sunday they had arrested two people in northern England in connection with an attempted car bombing in London and an incident at Glasgow airport in which a car was rammed into the building.

"Police have this evening arrested two people in connection with events in London and Scotland on the 29th and 30th of June," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The arrests were made in the county of Cheshire by counter-terrorism officers, the statement said.

Two men rammed a petrol-filled, four-wheel-drive vehicle into Glasgow airport on Saturday in what police called a terrorist attack. The men were arrested and one was taken to a hospital in critical condition with burns.

The attack came barely 36 hours after police thwarted a possible al Qaeda plot in London in which two cars loaded with fuel, gas canisters and nails were left in the centre of the capital poised to detonate.

A caller to BBC television said he had been in a car on a motorway in Cheshire when traffic had been brought to a halt by unmarked police cars in all three lanes.

The man, named as Peter Whitehead, said he saw a woman in what he called Muslim dress and two men in suits step out of a car which had pulled to the side of the motorway.

more

[ProSense]

15. Kick!

Bush spares Libby from prison

25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term on Monday, issuing an order that commutes his sentence.

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Those options are dwindling, however. The most likely move is an appeal to Chief Justice John Roberts, but it's unlikely that Roberts would overturn a unanimous ruling to spare Libby prison. Barring such an intervention, it seems only Bush could spare Libby prison time.

Roberts is a Bush appointee but judicial politics haven't helped Libby so far. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who sentenced Libby and refused to delay the prison term, was a Bush appointee. Two of the three appellate judges who denied Libby's request Monday were appointed by Republicans.