Longtime readers may remember sundry Harry’s Place comments box dwellers explaining away very real acts of Islamist terrorism in the years after 9/11 as either ‘inside jobs’ or mere figments of overactive and easily-scared imaginations.
Typical comments often included the words and phrases: ‘Bush’, ‘Reichstag fire’, ‘no real evidence’ and the dead giveaway ‘scary Muslims’. Such people are much less thick on the ground as the years have passed and more and more Islamist terrorists have been banged up for their unpleasant and in many cases self-admitted crimes.
I’m pleased to report that such doubting Thomases haven’t completely vanished under the piles of evidence that have been building up all around them. Here’s ex-ambassador Craig Murray’s Boxing Day thoughts on the underpants bomber:
Regular readers know that I fly out of Schiphol some thirty times a year. Security there is ultra tight – in fact a real pain in the neck – with intensive searches and x rays actually at gate. The non-explosive and non-dangerous (as it proved) substance he had might very well prove to be duty free alcohol – it is being described by the US authorities as “incendiary” rather than “explosive”. But the BBC is still referring to an “Explosive mixture”, even though it plainly was not “explosive” as it did not explode.
The phrase ‘clutching at straws’ does seem to suggest itself, doesn’t it?
It seems to me most improbable that if Abdul Faroukh really was working for Al-Qaida, he would have been quite so open about it, as it is claimed he is being. But we will doubtless see this incident ramped up more and more to justify the occupation of Afghanistan. A BBC “security correspondent” is waffling on even now about “sophisticated explosive devices”. In fact it sounds as about as effective as a christmas cracker.
Readers are invited to speculate what level of evidence Murray would need to see before he admitted that Islamist terrorists who wished ill on the rest of us – as opposed to innocent duty-free shoppers picked on by evil neocons because of their political beliefs – actually existed.
There really is no fool like an old fool.
Hat tip: Angry Soba
