In this Discussion
- jedi_grrlie August 2006
- kissteam1 August 2006
- The End Has No Jen August 2006
- tune1shade August 2006
- woodmaid8 August 2006
Panic in the skys
so all flights have been grounded to and from the UK and the USA i think
21 people have been arrested as they were trying to kill a shit load of passengers
21 people have been arrested as they were trying to kill a shit load of passengers
Comments
Airline bomb plot 'suggestive' of Al Qaeda
US Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff says the plot to bomb multiple airliners flying between Britain and the United States was "suggestive" of an action by the Al Qaeda network.
"The operation is in some respects suggestive of an Al Qaeda plot," Mr Chertoff said, but added that investigations were continuing and a "definitive conclusion" could not yet be made.
"This plot appears to have been well planned and well advanced with a significant number of operatives.
"While this operation was centred in Great Britain, it was sophisticated. It had a lot of members, and it was international in scope."
Mr Chertoff says the plot involved attackers carrying components of the bombs in the form of liquid explosives and detonating devices disguised as beverages, electronic devices or other common objects.
The US Government has responded by raising its threat level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States to severe, or red, for the first time.
Mr Chertoff says arrests in Britain have "significantly disrupted this major threat" and that there was no current indication of any plotting "within the United States".
He says the United States is also sending air marshals to Britain to provide expanded security coverage.
"But we cannot assume that the threat has been completely thwarted or that we have fully identified and neutralised every member of this terrorist network," he said.
More arrests likely
British police earlier announced the arrest of 21 people suspected of involvement in the plot, but have hinted that more arrests are likely.
British Home Secretary John Reid says police are confident "the main players have been accounted for" in the alleged plot to blow up US-bound aircraft.
Pre-dawn raids were carried out in London, the west central English city of Birmingham and the Thames Valley area of south-east England after intelligence of what one officer described as a bid to cause "untold death and destruction".
"We can't stress too highly the severity that this plot represented. Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale," Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, from the Metropolitan Police, said
Exact details on the number of planes allegedly targeted, the airports from which they were due to fly or the people in custody were still sketchy after what Deputy Commissioner Stephenson said was the "first phase" of the operation.
Searches were being conducted at a number of properties.
Deputy Commissioner Stephenson refused to comment on the people in custody but hinted strongly that British Islamists were behind the alleged plot, as Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said those arrested were of Pakistani origin.
The officer instead says police had informed community leaders about the operation.
"This is not about communities. This is about criminals. This is about murder, people who want to commit mass murder," he said.
"This is not anything to do with any particular community. This is about people who might masquerade within a community behind certain faiths."
"This is about people who are desperate, desperate people who would want to do things that no right-minded citizen of this country or any other country would want to tolerate."
Edit: I am an awful person. Why? I think that this entire thing was fabricated in order to enstill some sort of faith for the government in the hearts of the American people.
I feel bad that I don't believe... but there is so much fear and it's ridiculous.
What happened to being happy?
Edit: I am an awful person. Why? I think that this entire thing was fabricated in order to enstill some sort of faith for the government in the hearts of the American people.
I feel bad that I don't believe... but there is so much fear and it's ridiculous.
What happened to being happy?
While I sincerely doubt the British Government gives a flying fuck about scaring Americans, it is entirely possible that it is a scare tactic for the British.
Having said that, I don't necessarily believe it. Terrorism clearly does happen and as cynical as I may be I don't think England needs to be scared anymore than they were from the London Bombings last year. Besides, if it were a scare tactic I'm sure it would have been the US who faked it in a shoddy attempt to make themselves look better on a global scale (God knows they could do with some good PR).
It's times like these I'm glad I live in Australia. Call me crazy, but I don't think anyone cares enough about this shitty little desert country to want to bomb us.
I hate terrorists! Grrrrr
Edit: I am an awful person. Why? I think that this entire thing was fabricated in order to enstill some sort of faith for the government in the hearts of the American people.
I feel bad that I don't believe... but there is so much fear and it's ridiculous.
What happened to being happy?
Lately I've been feeling the same way. I look at all these pictures and footage from the middle east, and I just can't believe it. I'm sick of being scared.
What is wrong with the middle east? Why do they cause so much international strife?
The reason I want to move to Switzerland so badly is because they're neutral, and it'd be nice if I didn't have to worry about terrorists bombing my country. I know it's silly, but I'm sick of wars and I'm sick of the news. It's so sad that our world today is having so much trouble. Really, why can't we all get along?
What is wrong with the middle east? Why do they cause so much international strife?
The reason I want to move to Switzerland so badly is because they're neutral, and it'd be nice if I didn't have to worry about terrorists bombing my country. I know it's silly, but I'm sick of wars and I'm sick of the news. It's so sad that our world today is having so much trouble. Really, why can't we all get along?
Who's to say the Middle East are responsible for "so much international strife"? To be fair, wouldn't it technically be the terrorists - many of whom originate from the Middle East but are not representatives of itand also don't have a monopoly on being terrorists either - who cause so much international strife, followed by the US who following a completely unrelated terrorist attack felt it necessary to invade Iraq?
I'd also have to say that the world today is having no more trouble than the world in the past or the world that will exist in the future. Shit like this has always happened and always will happen. It's a sad fact of life that people suck and so long as people suck war is going to happen.
Honestly, there's not much point in being scared of dying at the hands of terrorists since your chances of being hit by a drunk driver and bleeding to death internally on the side of the road while you wait pathetically for the Ambulance that arrives too late is probably much higher.
Honestly, there's not much point in being scared of dying at the hands of terrorists since your chances of being hit by a drunk driver and bleeding to death internally on the side of the road while you wait pathetically for the Ambulance that arrives too late is probably much higher.
Those are such good points.
I don't know why I'm getting freaked out. I mean, yeah, I have to fly to France in two weeks, but I flew to Italy when my school cancelled a trip there that involved 200+ students and teachers, not to mention their parents, because of "threats against Americans" in Italy. And I came out fine.
If it's your time to go, it's your time to go, you know? If it happens to be on a plane....well, you'll get the most amazing roller coaster ride of your life and then you're gone. (Mommy said that to me once.)
That's not really true. Yes,there were wars back in the day, and there always have been. But the reasons for the wars in the past were usually for better reasons. Wars were for independence and to overcome opression, these wars are over who deserves land more and whose religion is right. When the Puritans thought that their religion was right, they moved, they didn't rade villages and murder innocent people. Aren't we supposed to improve our methods of fixing problems as time goes on? It seems like we're just getting more immature.
Are you fucking kidding me?? Do The Crusades ring a bell???
Wars in the past were not for better reasons. Yes, I'll give you a few wars for independence, but please. Wars in the past were just as much over who deserves the land more and whose religion was right as they are today. We're the same old war-minded societies as we were centuries ago, nothing's changed.
Wars in the past were not for better reasons. Yes, I'll give you a few wars for independence, but please. Wars in the past were just as much over who deserves the land more and whose religion was right as they are today. We're the same old war-minded societies as we were centuries ago, nothing's changed.
God, Katy, there's no reason to be rude. What does that accomplish?
I wasn't trying to be rude. I was trying to point out that your argument was, well....not a good one?
I really think that war, whether it be today or hundreds of years ago, is very rarely justifiable, whatever the cause. There is hardly ever a "better reason."
As Jedi_grrlie said, Wars in the past were for more often than not for the same stupid reasons as wars are today. Religion and land rights has always been a major cause for war and devastation. Granted there are a few wars for 'better' purposes but I'd say they're in the minority. After all, the two world wars were started for completely horrible and stupid reasons and that's pretty recent, in my opinion.
I don't think it's fair to say we've got more immature. I do think we've gotten better, however we have a lot further to go.
The problem is that everyone who starts a war believes that their reasons for starting a war are good reasons. People who start war over religion think they're doing it for a good reason, people who start war over land think they're doing it for a good reason and when the Iraq war was started as disgusting as it is, most Americans and many international people felt that we had "good reason" to do so.
People can justifty anything if they really want too.
It used to be that the rules of war were followed. Instead of having battles in towns with civilians, they had battles in empty fields or other uninhabited areas (China vs. The Huns, almost all American wars before the urn of the century, and basically everything before the turn of the century). Sure, there were exceptions, but when people would pillage and burn down villages, is what thought to be the lowest form of war. It used to be that people respected the other side enough to not harm the women and children.
Now we just bomb everything and ask questions later. If a civilian dies, well, it was for the greater good, and in any war, there will be innocent deaths.
I think what it really comes down to is that no one has any respect for anyone these days, and that IS immature.