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17. Aug 2006

Tidligere britisk ambassadør om transatlantisk terrorplot: 'Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical'

 
Craig Murray, den forhenværende britiske ambassadør i Uzbekistan, har sine tilsyneladende berettigede tvivl om den historie, vi har fået serveret i medierne, om hvordan britisk politi i sidste øjeblik afværgede et kolossalt terrorkomplot:
None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.

What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year - like thousands of other British Muslims. And not just Muslims. Like me. Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests.
Så ja, der blev holdt øje med gruppen, men nej, der var ikke noget under øjeblikkelig opsejling. Men så skete der noget - der indløb tilsyneladende en forhørsrapport fra Pakistan:
Of course, the interrogators of the Pakistani dictator have their ways of making people sing like canaries. As I witnessed in Uzbekistan, you can get the most extraordinary information this way. Trouble is it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert torture. What it doesn't give is the truth.

The gentleman being "interrogated" had fled the UK after being wanted for questioning over the murder of his uncle some years ago. That might be felt to cast some doubt on his reliability. It might also be felt that factors other than political ones might be at play within these relationships. Much is also being made of large transfers of money outside the formal economy. Not in fact too unusual in the British Muslim community, but if this activity is criminal, there are many possibilities that have nothing to do with terrorism.
Under de omstændigheder er det svært helt at forstå, at man greb til så drastisk retorik og så vidtgående sikkerhedsforanstaltninger i forbindelse med anholdelserne - medmindre man da følte et presserende politisk behov:
Both in desperate domestic political trouble, [Bush and Blair] both longed for "Another 9/11". The intelligence from Pakistan, however dodgy, gave them a new 9/11 they could sell to the media. The media has bought, wholesale, all the rubbish they have been shovelled.
(...)
We will now never know if any of those arrested would have gone on to make a bomb or buy a plane ticket. Most of them do not fit the "Loner" profile you would expect - a tiny percentage of suicide bombers have happy marriages and young children. As they were all under surveillance, and certainly would have been on airport watch lists, there could have been little danger in letting them proceed closer to maturity - that is certainly what we would have done with the IRA.

In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political ...
Vi takker Craig Murray for hans fremragende og deprimerende klare analyse, og bemærker, at også Citizen Dane har fundet en reportage i Washington Post, der mere end antyder, at ... et eller andet ikke lugter helt, som det skulle gøre.

Måske, alt i alt, en udmærket prøve på befolkningens kritiske sans: Hvor nemme er vi egentlig alle sammen at narre?

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