Thank God, BECAUSE OF ALERTNESS OF BRITISH POLICE ONE OF WORLD'S BIGGEST TERROR PLOT TO BLOW PLANES IN MID-AIR HAS BEEN FOILED.

THE TERRORISTS PLANNED TO BLOW 10 FLIGHTS BOUND FOR USA. 21 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED IN UK. BRITISH POLICE SAID IF THIS HAD GONE THRU IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DEVASTATING.

NEWS IS ALL OVER: BBC, CNN, FOX NEWS, ETC.

THANK GOD. THANK GOD.

well to despo girls. i only meant i dont agree with your saying "if U look around, the biggest terrorist gangs are muslims ". these types of statements causes general hatred towards muslim. for me terrorist has no religion because no religion says to kill.

It is all a big PROPAGANDA to instill fear among the citizens.

Go watch "V for Vendetta" and you will catch the drift.

.
i am constantly amazed by people who keep insisting the isreal-palestine conflict is about religion

for iran, maybe it is

but for the palestinians, it has always been about the right to live as human beings

It's a bit worrisome to see the level of ignorance displayed in some of the postings. Before condeming all Muslims, how about considering the fact that person who tipped the authorities was a Muslim (as per CNN) and that Pakistan, which is a very Muslim country,provided information to British authorities about the plot.

How many Muslims have been killed in Afganisthan ? How many so far in US occupation of Iraq ? How many in Israeli Occupation of Palestine ? And How many in the current war in Southern Lebanon ? And yet you ask where that rage comes from ?

Lets talk about fairness. he he Lets not get swayed by the MEDIA !!

I agree with Neutay about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Nowadays is it very hard to believe the western media and trust their government.
The fact that the Pakistain authorities tipped the British official about the plot, and a muslim man tipped the authorities about the planned attack makes me believe even more that it is a government planned propaganda.
We have seen that Pakistan despite having a military rule has enjoyed a very good relationship with western countries in the past few years. The fact that most of the perpetrators of this planned attack had spent time in Pakistan makes me believe that it was all coordinated between governments of these countries. Pakistan to enjoy a good relationship with western countries since its arch rival is developing at a galloping pace makes me believe that it is happily following western orders and pick some people as scapegoats.
I am not a conspiracy theorists but in last few years I have come to believe that western countries are not always victims and given the present changes in politics and emergence of super powers like China and India and the need to control oil in middle east, all the events that have been going around recently could be self inflicted so as to legitimize any military actions and to win allies.

Hurray - Interesting thoughts. I concede there is a lot of spin associated with incidents like these, but to imply this may have been a massive inter-govermental collusion and consipracy is a bit of a stretch at this point, especially in the absense of any evidence to that affect. However, I too believe governments are quite capable of anything, much more than what the gullible media wants us to believe, but in this case I don't think the facts are strong enough, not yet atleast, to prove that there was government involvement in this.

As I said before ...what goes around comes around. What Israel is doing to its neighbours with US's full backing is good KARMA ? Over 600 innocent civilians(like you and me) dead in Lebanon alone in the past 2 weeks, compare that to how many Israelis or westerners. Forget Palestine, Iraq, or Afganisthan.

Israel is allowed to buy whatever weapon it wants, whenever it wants !! And yet there are all sorts of economic sanctions where other countries in that area that want to do that same. These fuggers all talk about democracy and freedom when THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE ELECTED HAMAS...he he USA stopped all their aid saying they are terrorists.

This is nothing but total hypocricy.

Captain Haddock, I don't fully believe that this was all planned by the government but I do suspect. With people here in US and UK turning extremely against war in Iraq and Israel-Lebanon, there is a great need for support. If Iran and Syria is to be attacked by US and its allies, it would need support from other governments and their own people. Having constant terror threats would make people belive that they are being targeted by outsiders who need to be punished before they can succeed with the attack. This would mean a preemptive war just like in Iraq.
Besides, before the 2004 election we saw so many terror high alerts like Orange, Yellow in US during each and every holiday or at almost any occasion. And right after Bush won the election there were very few if any such alerts. So does the government want us to believe that so many terror threats from last few months went to almost no alerts in these recent few months? It was all BS, and people here in US still buy to it.
CIA operates in every part of the world. Anyone could be a CIA. Not just an american citizen. Especially government official from poor countries who are very corrupt could easily be bought by CIA. I sometime wonder if Deuba is not a part of CIA. He came to US so many times, and we all thought and still think he has such a good relationship with US. I wonder why.

Heading off Ankara's nuclear temptation
Jon B. Wolfsthal and Jessica C. Varnum International Herald Tribune
THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2006
WASHINGTON Nothing good can come from a nuclear- armed Iran. But in case the international community needs additional motivation to head off Tehran's nuclear ambitions, states should consider that a nuclear Iran might cause Turkey - whose incentives to go nuclear have been steadily mounting - to pursue a nuclear option of its own.

As a NATO ally, prospective member of the European Union and secular bridge to the Islamic world, Turkey is a much-needed and increasingly rare source of stability for the region and the global nonproliferation regime. Should the Turkish domino be overturned by a nuclear Iran, it could take other states with it - including Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia, with unpredictable consequences

It is not by chance that Turkey has no nuclear weapons. Great diplomatic efforts were made in the 1960s and 1970s to dissuade it from obtaining them. Turkey's ratification of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1980 - a decade after it was completed - was largely predicated on NATO and U.S. security guarantees.

Embedded in the global nonproliferation regime ever since, Turkey is able to enjoy the peaceful benefits of nuclear technology and there are no suspicions, let alone evidence, that Turkey has violated any of its nonproliferation commitments.

Turkey's security situation is changing rapidly, however. The fighting in Lebanon could spill over at any time. Kurdish separatists, emboldened by the situation in Iraq, threaten Turkey's territorial integrity. General unrest in Iraq and the unpredictability of Syrian policy put Turkish leaders on edge. Adding a nuclear Iran to this equation - with missiles capable of targeting all of Turkey - makes it obvious why even optimists wonder about Turkey's ultimate nuclear direction.

When the Cold War ended, so too did Turkey's absolute confidence in NATO's security commitment. Fortunately, Ankara has responded to growing uncertainties by seeking further integration with the West. Yet even as Turkey's neighborhood becomes more dangerous and its strategic value to the West increases, it is the oft-neglected partner.

U.S.-Turkish relations remain cool in the aftermath of Turkey's 2003 refusal to allow the transit of U.S. troops into Iraq. The increase in terrorism against Turkey by the Iraq-based Kurdistan Workers Party, along with the perception that the United States is doing too little to stop it, have further exacerbated tensions.

Meanwhile, the EU continues to hedge on Turkish membership, and even the current Turkish government's strong commitment to the EU accession process is beginning to waver.

Amid these uncertainties, a nuclear Iran might be too much for Turkey's leaders to process, and might push them to the nuclear edge. That Turkey recently decided to invest $1 billion in missile defense is a reminder of its real and growing concerns about Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

Beyond preventing Iran from proliferating, the best hope of keeping Turkey non-nuclear is to convince its leaders that the West remains fully committed to its security. The EU must convince Turkey that the sacrifices it continues to make toward the goal of accession are not in vain, the United States should be more attentive to Turkey's concerns about Iraq, and NATO should recommit itself to the ultimate preservation of Turkey's security.

Evaluating Turkey's worsening security situation, one inevitably concludes that its policy makers cannot help but keep the nuclear option in reserve, even while remaining committed to nonproliferation. The West must therefore be willing to undertake policies that will strengthen the position of Turkish leaders trying to hold the nonproliferation line by alleviating the threats Turkey faces.

If we deal now with the root causes of Turkey's incentives to obtain nuclear weapons, we may still be able to avert a major crisis.

(Jon B. Wolfsthal is a nonproliferation fellow and Jessica C. Varnum is an Armstrong Leadership intern at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington.)

Israel wants hastened shipment of US rockets: NYT 1 hour, 45 minutes ago



Israel has asked the Bush administration to hasten delivery of short-range anti-personnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, which it could use to strike Hizbollah missile sites in Lebanon, The New York Times reported on Friday.

Sourcing its report to two American officials, the newspaper said the request for M-26 artillery rockets, which are fired in barrages and carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area, is likely to be approved shortly.

But the newspaper said some State Department officials want to delay approval because the rockets, while likely effective against hidden missile launchers, would also likely cause civilian casualties if used against targets in populated areas.

The United States has already approved the sale of the M-26 rockets, but the weapons had not been delivered when the Lebanon crisis erupted. Israel needs the rockets now, officials said, because it has been unable to suppress Hizbollah's Katyusha rocket attacks by using bombs dropped from aircraft and other types of artillery.

The shipment might be approved along with a directive to Israel that it must be especially careful about firing the rockets into populated areas, a senior official told the paper.

The newspaper said the United States maintained a moratorium in the 1980s on selling cluster munitions to Israel, after it learned civilians in Lebanon had been killed with the weapons during the 1982 Israeli invasion. But the moratorium was lifted late in the Reagan administration, and some types of U.S. cluster munitions have been sold to Israel, one senior official said.

State Department officials "are discussing whether or not there needs to be a block on this sale because of the past history and because of the current circumstances," the senior official was quoted as saying in the Times.

He added that it was likely that Israel will get the rockets, but will be told to "be careful."

The report noted that the Bush administration has backed Israel's offensive against Hizbollah by rushing arms shipments to the region, including a shipment of precision-guided munitions that one official said included at least 25 of the 5,000 pound "bunker buster" bombs

MORE ATTACKS IN INDIA JUST GET READY...HOW MANY INNOCENT NEPALESE LIFE IS GOING TO GO IN VAIN ... WE WILL COUNT!!!!

The american media has been trying to associate 9/11, London bombings, Madrid bombings, and recent UK terror plot to the same kind of terrorism India is facing. India has been facing terrorism of its own for more than 5 decades. India's terrorism has no connection to the ones west has faced. India has its own political and ethnic problems.
So I say to the west not to link India's terrorism with theirs to get more support and legitimize attacks on other countries.

Hurray - I agree with your last comment about attempts to link it all together even in cases where no such link exists. Thought you might find this article interesting:

- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HH18Df03.html

Be skeptical ... be very skeptical
By M K Bhadrakumar

One of the significant contributions to the "war on terror" by Britain's home secretary David Blunkett before his abrupt departure from the Tony Blair cabinet last year was his statement on terrorism in the House of Commons that specifically flagged the possibility of a "dirty bomb" being planted in Britain by terrorists.

That was in November 2002, when preparations were already in an advanced stage for the march to Baghdad. We are still waiting for the dirty bomb and its lethal radiation. The dirty bomb genre, however, provoked two years later a brilliant television series on BBC2 by acclaimed documentary producer Adam Curtis, titled The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear.

Curtis's argument was that much of the threat of international terrorism turns out to be in actuality "a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians ... In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power."

Curtis placed al-Qaeda terrorism in a long line of dramatic panics in Britain's checkered history since the Elizabethan era, which included the arrival of Spanish raiding parties, French revolutionary agitators, anarchists, Bolsheviks, and Irish republicans.

Naturally, Curtis comes readily to mind a week after British authorities arrested some two dozen Muslims on August 10 for plotting to blow up trans-Atlantic flights from United Kingdom to the United States. Not a shred of evidence has since seen the light of day in this Mother of all Dastardly Plots.

Meanwhile, wild stories of new plots in the making are in circulation. The latest was the "breaking news" regarding the emergency landing of an aircraft in Boston on Wednesday due to the tantrums of an "unruly" woman passenger. Last weekend, Michigan police locked up three hapless Palestinian-Americans for allegedly plotting an act of terrorism. The three "terrorists" were caught red-handed purchasing 80 cell phones from a Wal-Mart store.

Michigan police concluded that the cell phones could be used as detonators to blow up the Mackinac Bridge, which connected the peninsula's upper and lower parts. Subsequently it transpired that the three detained "terrorists" bought and sold cell phones to make a living.

The London plot itself is becoming curiouser and curiouser. Reports have appeared that the British security agencies were feeling increasingly uncomfortable that their American counterparts rushed to make out that the alleged plot was linked to al-Qaeda. More importantly, it appears that sources in London have begun distancing themselves from the plot by claiming that the British side was pressured from Washington to go public with the plot despite a lack of evidence and clear and convincing facts whether any conspiracy in fact existed at all.

Not surprisingly, the loudest voices of skepticism about the alleged plot are heard in Pakistan, where of course the public is habitually cynical over anything that goes to the credit of the establishment. This despite the insistent claim that the UK, US and Pakistani security agencies had actively coordinated in thwarting the plot - a scenario that cast Pakistan as a plucky, feisty partner in the "war on terror", quite contrary to the prevailing impression that Islamabad is possibly indulging in doublespeak.

The skeptics in Pakistan feel that the entire plot is a crudely executed hoax by the Bush administration. It was not only the so-called "jihadi" circles in Pakistan that ridiculed the plot but even sections of opinion, which usually put primacy on reasoning. The Pakistani newspaper Daily Times commented editorially, "There is a horrible war going on in Lebanon and it is not unfolding in favor of Israel, US and UK. Iraq has gone bad; Afghanistan is getting worse.

"The Bush-Blair duo is in trouble at home and both need something really big to happen to justify their policies and distract attention from their losses ... the past record of intelligence agencies everywhere suggests they are quite capable of blowing up or underplaying things for better media management of their respective governments' performance. So a bit of skepticism is in order."

Adam Curtis had an explanation for the dilemma facing the saner sections of opinion in times of public hysteria. As he explained two years ago, such plots, when blown up in larger-than-life terms and whipping up an atmosphere of hysteria, have a way of trapping us. In the process, we get "trapped by a fear that is completely irrational".

Indeed, in a poll after the plot story broke, 55% of Americans voiced approval of Bush's handling of terrorism and homeland security. A beaming Bush promptly promised his nervous nation that the terror fight may last for "years to come". Democrats are beginning to accuse the Republicans of using the scare to political advantage ahead of the November elections to the US Congress.

Former US president Bill Clinton said: "They [the Bush administration] seem to be anxious to tie it to al-Qaeda. If that's true, how come we've got seven times as many troops in Iraq as in Afghanistan? I think that Republicans should be very careful in playing politics with this London thing because they're going to have a hard time with the facts."

All the same, it is extraordinary that the mainstream media in the US could so willingly suspend their disbelief over the patchy official claims that the plot was a "real idea" of cosmic significance. Furthermore, they dutifully ran "expert opinions" by commentators on the alleged plotters' al-Qaeda connections. Not a single mainstream newspaper in the US challenged the plot theory as such - leave alone pointed out the patent gulf between the London plotters' ambition and their ability to pull it off.

It could be that they have succumbed to the "suspiciously circular relationship between the security services and much of the media" (to quote Curtis) in which official briefings become the stuff of dramatic press stories and prompt further briefings and further stories.

At any rate, terrorism thrives on bluff. Think of the horrific bomb blasts in Mumbai last month. Unlike the ethereal London plot, it was tangible; it was verifiable. It was of a piece, by all indications, with the cycle of violence ripping apart India's composite society for the past decade or so since the Babri Mosque was pulled down by vandals incited by Hindu fundamentalists.

Yet, in the wake of the Mumbai blasts, an attempt has been made to link the abhorrent violence to al-Qaeda. As if al-Qaeda is an organized international network. As if it has members or a leader. As if it has "sleeper cells". As if it has corporate-style affiliates and subsidiaries. As if it has a strategy towards India.

Indian media people seem to be unaware that al-Qaeda barely exists at all and that it is more an idea about cleansing the impure world of Islam corrupted by the al-Adou al-Qareeb (Muslim apostates) and al-Adou al-Baeed or the "far enemy" (Israel and the Western powers), through violence sanctioned by religion explicitly for such extraordinary times.

Indian opinion makers seem to believe that countering al-Qaeda justifies a national security objective. Some among them no doubt fancy that a closer "strategic partnership" with the Bush administration becomes possible if only India were to assertively stake claim to be a frontline state in the "war on terror". But there is no way that India can hope to gain entry into the exclusive, charmed circle that comprises the US Central Intelligence Agency, Britain's MI6 and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

The so-called Islamic terror network is the trinity's fabrication. It has become what would be known in intelligence parlance as an "asset" or an "instrument". The "intelligence assets" do enjoy a certain measure of independence and autonomy vis-a-vis their sponsors but that is part of the art of dissimulation. Al-Qaeda has incrementally become then a situation or a chain of events in politics that can arouse a particular emotional reaction instantaneously.

M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including India's ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001).

Hurray..where there is islam involved their is link!! Note that.. they are all brothers .they are interconnected ..not only with same agenda and motive but also strategic ways...this is JIHAD !!!

The only way to bring peace in this world is to wipe away the whole arab/ islamic world, usa and the uk. if these three are not there there won't be any more war in this world.

Excellent article Captain Haddock. This is precisely what I was trying to get to without of course so much details and facts.
And while we keep on hearing of capture and murder of Al Qaeda members, the supposed leader Bib Laden is still at larger. Once in a while we do hear that he is wandering around the streets of Pakistan. It may be a hoax but in my opinion I do believe that even if he may not be wandering off, he may be resting either in a luxurious suite or in a miserable prison cell held captive or a scapegoat by CIA and ISI.

IMI and Samir - There is no merit to your argument. Or if you think there is, you haven't brought it out in your comments.

Hurray - Honestly, I don't think much will change if Bin Laden is captured. Al Qaeda has been so hyped up and has now become synonymous, in the minds of some, with militant Islam. Bin Laden is a small player in militant Islam. The biggest threat of militant Islam comes from failed states like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and to some extent Egypt and Iran.

hey captain ..how many times do i need to tell this thing again and again in how many thread and in how many ways!!!.i think you should know better than me the way u potray yourself as scholar of these sectors!
try finding the real motive of fundamentalist muslims ..they are linked ..it is not as WMD in iraq stunt by bush..this is the fact ..from Africa to Australia..

on joke:if you put muslims in mars..they will terrorize the martians too..hahaha

I have never thought of myself as a 'scholar' and if that is the image you have of me on your mind, I can only laugh at the gap between your perception and my reality.

" try finding the real motive of fundamentalist muslims ..they are linked ..it is not as WMD in iraq stunt by bush..this is the fact ..from Africa to Australia.."

The fact of the matter is in some cases they are, in some some cases they are not. Each case has to be dealth with objectively and the facts and circumstances maybe different each time (as article by Bhadrakumar pointed out). But to generalize all Muslims as terrorists and all acts of Islamic militancy as a coordinated grand conspiracy sounds a bit like saying man never landed on the moon.