Airport chaos and the plane bomb plots that never were.

[Gromit]

After two years of chaos at UK airports and huge disruption to many people that any terrorist could only dream about, it turns out that the plot to bomb transatlantic aircraft did not stand up in court.

8 men with beards and funny clothes were acquitted of the charges at Woolwich Crown Court after a lengthy and costly trial. A jury listened to all the evidence, and decided that there was no credible evidence that these men intended to blow up any planes.

Which is a bit embarrassing.

Are we doing the terrorists job for them and terrorising our citizens ourselves?

[Gromit]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7605583.stm

[Gromit]

"8 men with beards and funny clothes who were found in the posession of a plethora of bomb making equipment and who had links with Al Qaeda top command."

Except the evidence did not support that assertion.

The verdicts explained here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7605011.stm

[Gromit]

Amendment:

"Unable to reach verdict' is not an acquittal, but the gist is, they are not behind bars today.

[sp1814]

Actually, you know what this story proves?

It shows that the security services and police should be left to get on with gathering evidence and intelligence regarding suspected terrorists without having the people breathing down their necks screaming for arrests the moment Muslim fanatics attend demos waving placards.

There was a security analyst on the BBC news last night who alluded to just that!

[anotheoldgit]

After two years of chaos at UK airports and huge disruption to many people that any terrorist could only dream about, it turns out that the plot to bomb transatlantic aircraft did not stand up in court.

Which is a bit embarrassing.

Not in the least, we should be extremely grateful, that we have highly skilled people to weed out these rats, before they can do us real harm. It matters not that the evidence did not prove without a shadow of doubt that there was a plot to blow up aircraft.

There was plenty of evidence that these scum bags were buying chemicals, and using batteries to make detonators etc,etc. to blow up whatever.They also made videos of themselves, preaching their hate. It also shown what devastating results there was of using the chemical mixtute in plastic drinks bottles.

A jury listened to all the evidence, and decided that there was no credible evidence that these men intended to blow up any planes.

Whether they were intended to blow up planes, trains,buses or whatever the end results would be the same, and I don't mind in the least being held up a little longer, before I board a plane.

Perhaps you need a bomb under your ars*e Gromit? Then perhaps you will wake up to things that are going off around you (excuse the pun).

[Quinlad]

I wonder which is worse.

a) Being asleep and therefore oblivious to the dangers around. Or...
b) Being wide awake but having waking nightmares in which you dream up the level of danger we face.

Neither's ideal.

[Haggisdj]

These suicide bombers seem to be willing to die for their cause but if things go wrong they never seem to be willing to stand up in court and be 'man enough' to say, 'yeah it was me'.

[ludwig]

It's strange. They charged them specifically with plotting to blow up aircraft which basically allowed them to get off on a sort of technicality, which was 'well we can't know for sure they were planning on blowing up aircraft, they could have been planning to let the bombs off in the airport terminal'.

[keyplus90]

People say �Oh I will kill every one�. Now it depends who those people are and a court case will start against them. Saying is one thing a doing is another. I am sure many people like these who film themselves and all this are mainly the ones who want publicity. And of course media is providing that.