We’ve all been outraged at the Bush administration at one point or another. Even Republicans, Libertarians, evangelicals – popes and priests – if they’re honest about it will tell you that something BushCo has done in the last 6-years has pissed ‘em off, in some way. For me, it’s been everyday and just about everything they’ve done. But, that’s another story.
Today, an article in The Independent Online caught my attention. The more I read the more incensed I became. Thankfully, it was a reasonably short article – powerful but mercifully short.
The gist of the article is below:
Back in August of this year, an announcement that British authorities had thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up ten major airline flights originating in London, over the Atlantic Ocean/or major U.S. cities, (depending from which side of the Atlantic you get the story from) commandeered the American 24/7 news cycle. The Brits arrested 24-people suspected of planning to carry out the plot, and the terror alerts on both sides of the Pond were raised to the highest level for days afterward.
Well, it seems the original terrorist plot involved many more people than the initial 24 arrested in Britain.
From the article:
A team of suspected terrorists involved in an alleged UK plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners escaped capture because of interference by the United States, The Independent has been told by counter-terrorism sources.
Yes, in their overzealous quest to control the news cycle yet again and appear to be ever-diligent in keeping Americans safe from terrorists, American intelligence officials insisted on “helping” Scotland Yard and MI5. Their help (read: meddling) inevitably allowed a whole 2nd team of would-be-jihadists escape capture.
An investigation by MI5 and Scotland Yard into an alleged plan to smuggle explosive devices on up to 10 passenger jets was jeopardised in August, when the US put pressure on authorities in Pakistan to arrest a suspect allegedly linked to the airliner plot.
As a direct result of the surprise detention of the suspect, British police and MI5 were forced to rush forward plans to arrest an alleged UK gang accused of plotting to destroy the airliners. But a second group of suspected terrorists allegedly linked to the first evaded capture and is still at large, according to security sources.
The escape of the 2nd team prompted the Brits an the U.S. to maintain the highest terrorism alert for a full 3-days after the arrests, subsequently resulting in changes of what passengers in both countries can carry on planes to this day.
The operation was one of the largest undertaken by the police and MI5, yet two counter-terrorism sources suggested that the intervention of the Americans was due to "inexperience and naivety" and that they were after a "short-term success". (emphasis added)
So how did American intelligence manage to screw things up and allow a potential threat to the American people and our overall national security to escape arrest and perhaps attack us another day?
American intelligence chiefs are understood to have persuaded the Pakistani authorities to arrest a British citizen, called Rashid Rauf, on Wednesday 9 August this year.
Mr. Rauf was suspected of being closely linked to group of men and women in Britain who were allegedly involved in the airliner terror plot, and the arrest prompted emergency meetings involving ministers, police and intelligence chiefs who were still investigating the case.
These people never cease to amaze me. It’s really nothing short of a miracle (knock on wood) that we haven’t been attacked again on U.S. soil. With a gang of arrogant, bumbling fools like these protecting us, all I can say is that it’s a damn good thing we have competent allies.
The article’s here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/...