Glasgow Airport Incident
Apparent car bombing attack at Glasgow Airport. The two drivers appear to have been arrested.
The eyewitness description suggests rank amateurs with no training. They didn't actually get close enough to do much damage, and their behavior suggests that something went very wrong-- what with one of them on fire and trying to get into the trunk.
Larry Johnson points out that Friday's similar incident in London was similarly a SNAFU.
Long may terrorists be clueless screw-ups who can't start fires in cars because they leave the windows rolled up and starve the flames of oxygen, and who scramble around to manually detonate things while on fire themselves.
Just remember what screw-ups these guys are when Alberto Gonzales comes to you with a plea to repeal the Bill of Rights in order to deal with them.
posted by Juan Cole @ 6/30/2007 07:20:00 AM
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11 Comments:
Professor Cole,
Though we are fortunate from the standpoint of the loss of human life that these terrorists were incredibly incompetent, as you said yesterday (in one of the few sane posts to come out of the 'sphere sadly) the purpose of these attacks is to create fear, disrupt people's lives, and injure the British economy which this attack no doubt will. Even the incompetent attacks have a grave impact, which is why we need to reduce tensions around the globe.
Attorney General Gonzales' policies of indefinite detention and torture only further those tensions, the incompetence of the terrorists notwithstanding. We can defeat these guys without selling our soul in the process.
But I don't think it's much support for your post that you quote someone who's first instinct on the discovery of two bombs in the heart of London was to call them a "crock of crap." Solidarity was your first instinct, not cyncism, and it was completely correct.
Although I agree with your premise I have to say that as a UK resident the fact that they screwed-up this time doesn't reassure me too much.
The people trying to commit these crimes are probably UK citizens or long time residents. The repercussions of their actions on community relations will be devastating, to say the least.
The 911 terrorists were clearly 'foreigners'..which helped Americans externalise the threat, how can the average, Murdoch-press reading/watching, Brit become reconciled to these 'home grown' jihadists, and the communities from which they emanate?
Thank God these morons aren't anywhere near as competent as the terrorists involved with the attacks in London (in 2005), Madrid, Istanbul, or Iraq.
(Knock on wood)
What's the over/under on how long it will take Bush to link these incidents to the War in Iraq?
"Just remember what screw-ups these guys are when Alberto Gonzales comes to you with a plea to repeal the Bill of Rights in order to deal with them."
I feel a song coming one, or perhaps a play. "Waiting for Snafu."
Or just maybe, it's only gas.
Your comment about 'leaving windows rolled up' is completely inaccurate. Either the first or the second Mercedes was left with all four doors open. In both cases the detonators failed to operate, despite the mobile phones having been called twice each.
What gives the lie to claims of aQ involvement are the SNAFUs in London and Glasgow, and the previous London attempt following the Tube mass murder.
It seems to me that these people are trying to make DIY detonators using instructions downloaded from the Web, or similar.
These incidents have been blown way out of proportion. They were failed attacks by incompetents inspired by the UK and US's aggressive foreign policies. Perhaps the inhabitants of the UK and US should comfort themselves that the enemies they are making are not as well armed as they are. Daily deaths, attacks on civilians, in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan are very real and successful.
"Rank amateurs?" These idiots didn't even rise to that lofty height!
As a Brit of almost 50yrs of age who came to the States in 2001 I can tell you that I lived through the most active years of the IRA's bombing campaign on the "Mainland."
Now THERE was a bunch who knew how to set off a BOMB! Oh yes indeed, the boyo's knew their stuff alright, but I don't remember Dear Old Blighty being turned into a walled prison camp just because a bunch of "terrists" insisted on blowing shit up and killing innocent civillians to get their point across.
And even Maggie didn't invade Eire and carpet-bomb Dublin, with all the attendant "co-lateral" damage, to get the Evil-Doers!
The sky didn't fall, the World didn't end... just something to think about.
Fearmongering and exageration of threats led a majority in our country to support invading Iraq, so I hope people in the UK don't fall into those patterns.
The reports that these devices "could have killed hundreds" are bizarre, given the difference between it's construction and the construction of car bombs in Iraq that go off in crowded areas and kill ... dozens.
The Media (eg.CNN) has nattered on about how we are preparing to deal with a rash of car bombs here in the U.S. They can never resist fearmongering. It stirs their juices. Not that I am against being prepared to stop car bombings. I just wish they didnt pretend that was a new, all Al-Quaeda ploy. I seem to remember that it was a truck bomb that went off in Oklahoma City. Two American citizens set it off, with devastating results. How quickly the Media forgets when hoping to stir up a frenzy. Terrorist attacks can be homegrown. We don't have to "fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them here." They can be born and bred in the good ole USA. Terrorism, as Bush/Cheney conveniently ignore, has no boundaries, no ethnic nor racial identity, and need not be a foreign import.
Fearmongering is never the work of citizens or society members, and alqaeda doesnt just blast empty places, it goes for the most casualties it can get .
Fearmongering is the work of governments who wish to prolong their occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan without losing the support of their own people.
Since we now live in a 'Multicultural Society' its fair to assume that every muslim in and around Glasgow is now a possible terrorist. It appears to me that a certain 40 year old ' Rivers of Blood' speech by a Mr John Enoch Powel is a very accurate account of our society today. He seems to have been able to predict very well indeed.
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