Al Queda : Channel 4 last night

[Teagan]

Did anyone watch it? It was frightening! What is our government and secret services going to do about it?

Is it this politically correct shithead government that allows terrorists to live here and draw benefits because the government doesn't want to infring their "human rights" and are still trying to overcome the guilt that we once were a "colonial power"? Discuss. :)

[Darth Fred]

You think the UK government is too concerned about human rights to do anything about terrorists? Try telling it to the IRA terrorists "apprehended" in Gibraltar several years back. Oh wait, you can't, they were gunned down in what some eyewitnesses claim was an execution rather than being arrested, presumably because we didn't feel we could risk them detonating by remote control the bomb we thought they had already placed on a busy street.

I didn't see the program, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Al Qaeda cells in Britain are under heavy duty surveillance from MI5. I doubt they'll want to actually arrest them for a while though; firstly, they'll need to amass a nice dossier of evidence against them before launching any prosecutions, and secondly they may want to watch them for a while, and see if they lead us to bigger fish.

[Teagan]

Originally posted by Darth Fred
You think the UK government is too concerned about human rights to do anything about terrorists? Try telling it to the IRA terrorists "apprehended" in Gibraltar several years back. Oh wait, you can't, they were gunned down in what some eyewitnesses claim was an execution rather than being arrested, presumably because we didn't feel we could risk them detonating by remote control the bomb we thought they had already placed on a busy street.

Cool! The more of the scum they kill, the better!

[pnjsurferpoet]

Teagan, what was the news that upset you. I didn't see it.

[Man Of Kent]

Originally posted by pnjsurferpoet
Teagan, what was the news that upset you. I didn't see it.

A terrestrial TV show - therefore not available in the US - suggested that Al Qaeda cells operate in the UK.

No surprises really.

[pnjsurferpoet]

MOK Of course they do. The one in Northern Iraq sent a guy with ricin in January to London. He was caught by British Intelligence with the ricin. That was one more reason why Blair was into the war.

Not that the war will stop Al Qaeda.

[kevlar85]

Originally posted by Teagan
Cool! The more of the scum they kill, the better!

I think this is the infamous Death on the Rock incident in 1988? These people were only suspected IRA terrorists so on your basis why don't we just take everyone with an Irish accent and everyone who looks vaguely Arab and gun 'em down! Yes, giving criminals due process may be very boring to rednecks like the Sun editoral and Dubya but if you don't we're no better than they are.

Incidentally, in 1988 a documentary on Death on the Rock made for This Week by Thames Television was almost banned by the Thatcher government and when it was overturned by the High Court she was so enraged she changed the broadcasting rules and lo, no more Thames to make embarassing documentaries! As the London ITV franchise went to Carlton whose founder Michael Green is just coincidentally a well known Conservative Party supporter and Thatcherite.

[Teagan]

Originally posted by kevlar85
I think this is the infamous Death on the Rock incident in 1988? These people were only suspected IRA terrorists so on your basis why don't we just take everyone with an Irish accent and everyone who looks vaguely Arab and gun 'em down! Yes, giving criminals due process may be very boring to rednecks like the Sun editoral and Dubya but if you don't we're no better than they are.

Incidentally, in 1988 a documentary on Death on the Rock made for This Week by Thames Television was almost banned by the Thatcher government and when it was overturned by the High Court she was so enraged she changed the broadcasting rules and lo, no more Thames to make embarassing documentaries! As the London ITV franchise went to Carlton whose founder Michael Green is just coincidentally a well known Conservative Party supporter and Thatcherite.


Oooooh! I love winding people up! :D

[Darth Fred]

Originally posted by kevlar85
I think this is the infamous Death on the Rock incident in 1988? These people were only suspected IRA terrorists so on your basis why don't we just take everyone with an Irish accent and everyone who looks vaguely Arab and gun 'em down!

Actually, as I understand it, we had pretty solid evidence that they were definitely IRA members, and that they were planning to detonate a car bomb during the changing of the guard (streets crowded with spectators for ceremonial event, lots of casualties). That's not to say we shouldn't have tried to actually arrest them instead of executing them though.

[pnjsurferpoet]

You know what else Teagan, the UK was like the US. We were so busy trying to ensure the rights of immigrants that we were blind to the garbage we let in. Like the members of that North London mosque that produced the Shoe Bomber who tried to blow up the American plane from Paris in December of 1991 as well as the other idiot from France who got caught in America cause he wanted to learn how to fly a plane....not take off or land it. So Al Qaeda has been playing us for a long time.

[Darth Fred]

Originally posted by pnjsurferpoet
You know what else Teagan, the UK was like the US. We were so busy trying to ensure the rights of immigrants that we were blind to the garbage we let in. Like the members of that North London mosque that produced the Shoe Bomber who tried to blow up the American plane from Paris in December of 1991 as well as the other idiot from France who got caught in America cause he wanted to learn how to fly a plane....not take off or land it. So Al Qaeda has been playing us for a long time.

While you do have to be vigilant to prevent further acts of terrorism, there is a fine line to tread. It is impossible to tell who is or is not planning a terrorist attack using demographic information (e.g. whether or not they are an immigrant. Think back to Tim McVeigh, who I'm fairly sure was a US citizen), so not ensuring the rights of immigrants alone would not be enough. You would have to curtail the rights afforded to US citizens as well (which some people are claiming is happening already, under the auspices of the USAPATRIOT act). Ask yourself if you want that to happen, and whether it would actually make you any safer instead of just feeling safer. I leave you with the classic quote from Ben Franklin; "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

[pnjsurferpoet]

I agree with those concerns Darth.

[cokephreak]

Is it this politically correct shithead government that allows terrorists to live here and draw benefits because the government doesn't want to infring their "human rights"


I think you'll find that our government is doing more or less everything it can do within the law to arrest or deport these people....
unfortunatly there is not that much that can legally be done.

They could change the law, but they have done this several times already, and so far the changed laws greatest effect seem to have been the decrease in my rights of innocence and privicy.

The best solution would have been for the laws that protect the terrorists to not to have been made in the first place... But it's a little late now.