11 August 2006
Written by Jakob
Lessons for Bush
Ok, so we’re all pretty pissed off about the fact that we can now no longer carry laptops and so on onto our flights. Our eminent Rainer has already covered that. And a lot of people seem to think that there was never any plot at all, that this was a bluff, a fake in order to boost diminishing popularity figures of you-know-you. I don’t think so, I find it easy to believe that terrorism is real, and directed at Western powers. I’m just kind of happy they nabbed these people before the could set themselves off. Having 600-800 (presuming three planes were hit) innocent people hurtling down from 10000 meters above the Atlantic ocean would be a Bad Thing™. So in fairness, if we’re to put up with some hassle for a few days, I’m quite ok with that (as long as it’s sorted out by the time I go flying myself in two weeks, of course).
What I do find interesting, though, is HOW these guys were caught. They were caught by police work. Not by invading some faraway country, not by flying UAV drones over Birmingham, not by mistakenly bombing wedding parties. Police work, and intelligence was what did the trick. There’s also a case to be made for the fact that it was cooperation that sorted out this mess, which mightn’t seem like such a big surprise but really should be cause for concern in the US.
Here’s what happened: The MI5 and Scotland Yard were getting fed information from the nice boys of ISI (Pakistani intelligence; the same fellas who helped the CIA fund the Mujahedin against the Soviet Union in the 80′s), and this information was crucial for the Brits to foil the plot. I can’t claim to have any reasonable knowledge about British intelligence at all, but I would assume that they’re quite competent (highly educated population, rich country meaning vast budgets, a long history of threat scenarios etc.). Yet they still needed help. Luckily, they got that. The only reason the UK was being helped, was because they have decent ties with the Pakistani government. Had this been a plot emanating from terrorists based in, say, Iran, and directed against US interests, you can rest assured that Ahmadinejad wouldn’t have bothered phoning George up to let him know.
This is something the US should be feeling slightly iffy about, since they’re being led by that born-again, Christian, former cokehead GWB. And GWB doesn’t speak with nations he doesn’t like (Syria, Iran, North Korea…), because he has this ideological hang-up which tells him that interaction with the USA is good for countries (which it, for most part, also is) whereas non-interaction with the USA is bad for countries (again, this is true in most cases). This prevents him from opening direct talks with ANYBODY that he considers a wee bit naughty, because you shouldn’t “reward bad behaviour” or “give terrorists legitimacy by talking to them”. And this half-arsed concept of “principle” is what he bases foregin policy on! Not particularly reality-based, but hey – we’re talking rapturists here. So isolation it is, then, and when the shit starts hitting the fan (ie. Hezbollah right now, or future terror plots like the one the Brits uncovered yesterday) he doesn’t have any framework in place for diplomatic leverage, or for gaining access to information gathered by others than his immediate allies.
For fuck’s sake, George. Start talking to people – especially the Iranians. And do it NOW, before another a bunch of people get killed because of something you could have stopped. You could even bring up the issue of Lebanon, Israel and regional stability whilst you’re at it. Sound good, eh?