Very Convenient Timing for Latest Terror Plot
by Charles Coughlin
Only a day after the most famous pro-war Democrat, Joe Lieberman, was defeated by a solid margin in the Democrat primary, a news story appeared about twenty one Pakistanis who were just arrested in England for a plot to use liquid explosives to down as many as ten airplanes.
A Reuters article reports “The plot foiled by Britain to blow up U.S.-bound flights would have been a disaster on the same scale as the September 11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday. The suspected plotters were ‘a couple days from a test, and a few days from doing it,’ according to a U.S. intelligence official. Chertoff said the plan would have involved coordinated multiple suicide bombings.President George W. Bush tightened airline security and said the plot was a ’stark reminder’ the United States was ‘at war with Islamic fascists.’ …About 10 transatlantic flights were targeted, including those of U.S. and British airlines but possibly others as well, an intelligence official said. ABC News reported that the plot included concealing explosive gel or liquid in a sports drink and detonating it with the flash from a disposable camera.”
Just hours after Lieberman’s defeat in Connecticut, political analysts were calling his defeat “the shot heard round the world.” Finally the neocons were thrown on the defensive. Supporting the war in Iraq could spell doom even for a three term incumbent like Joe Lieberman. If nothing else happened, the big story for the next three weeks would have been how Joe Lieberman’s relationship with the neocons led to his defeat.
This especially shrill terrorist alert –Bigger than 911!!!– sounds like a commercial teaser for the latest Spielberg movie. What are the odds that a huge terror plot would be foiled within 24 hours of the most embarrassing political setback for the neocons in the last six years? You almost get the impression that the neocons have a list of phony terrorist alerts and they can pick one out whenever they need a distraction.
The neocons are a world-wide political Movement. Tony Blair is just as closely allied to Bush as Joe Lieberman was. If the CIA would fake a terror attack, Britain’s MI6 would just as quickly fabricate an incident. Some experts are already picking apart this alleged terror plot. One chemist expressed serious doubt about the feasibility of the plan as described. It seems highly probable MI6 or CIA agents recruited some disgruntled Muslims, recorded hours of dramatic “talk” about striking out against the Western world (with agent provocateurs egging them on) and the whole exercise in entrapment is being portrayed as a serious plot with the means to carry it out.
Meanwhile, millions of travelers will be reminded of this plot as airline security takes away their cans of shaving cream, shampoo and skin lotion. We can’t trust the Bush administration and we can’t trust Tony Blair’s government in Britain. They are completely capable of fabricating more phony incidents to try to keep themselves in power. If we want to avoid terrorist attacks in the future, all we need to do is to avoid interfering in the Middle East. Sweden and Switzerland are not the targets of terrorist attacks because they mind their own business.