A SPECTER IS HAUNTING THE WORLD -- THE SPECTER OF FEAR

This story from AP stinks on a couple levels, so I'll take one at a time. The first bit simply shows me that our U.K. allies -- allies in a struggle against illiberal fanaticism -- are as nutso with fear & power as we are:

A [British] district judge ruled Wednesday that British investigators have until next week to investigate the suspects arrested in an alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners, saying they could be kept in custody without charge . . . The judicial order was the first major test of a new terrorism law that lets suspects be held for as long as 28 days without charge so investigators can solidify their cases . . . Previously, police were able to detain people suspected of terrorism offenses for 14 days only. But the new legislation, which became law earlier this year, also created new offenses, including preparing a terrorist act, giving or receiving terrorist training, and selling or spreading terrorist publications . . . Home Secretary John Reid, Britain's chief law-and-order official, acknowledged that some of the suspects would likely not be charged with major criminal offenses, but said there was mounting evidence of a "substantial nature" to back the allegations.

(Emphases added). I don't know much about British law, but general concepts of "Due Process" & "The Rule of Law" developed out of the same Anglo-American common law traditions. However one wishes to label, rationalize or explain these developments, they're the same thing we're fooling around with in the States: bastardizing notions of justice & fair play out of deference to fear, demoguery, and politics. Individuals likely never to be "charged with major criminal defenses" are being "kept in custody without charge" so that "new legislation, which became law earlier this year" can allow "investigators [to] solidify their cases" and help Blair & Reid look tough in the eyes of the population they've scared shitless with constant pronouncements of danger & doom.

Shameless & disgusting.

And, moving to part two of the Stinkfest covered in the AP piece, we cross the pond back to the Land of the Free & The Home of the Fearful. Now many of you undoubtedly recall Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, telling us last Friday that the aborted London terror plot "has the hallmarks of an al-Qaida-type plot," based on "the complexity, the sophistication, the international dimension and the number of people involved."

Perhaps it sounded like the standard boiler-plate we've been fed for so long you barely noticed it. Hey, I join you there, even though I realize this bullshit probably does the job scaring & alarming many folks. Anyway, seems that in the midst of this massive British terror investigation, they've been cooperating with intelligence agents in Pakistan. And here's the article's distillation of what two of those fellas told the press:

The would-be bombers wanted to carry out an al-Qaida-style attack to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 strikes, but were too "inexperienced" to carry out the plot . . . if the terror cell members arrested in Pakistan and Britain had appropriate weapons and explosives training, they could have emulated massive attacks like those five years ago in New York and Washington as well as the July 7, 2005, London bombings. [But] the detainees in Britain and Pakistan had not attended terror-training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan and had relied on information gleaned from text books on how to make bombs.

(Emphasis added). Now, I'll admit these two agents spoke only on condition of anonymity, a device to gather news information I'm not a fan of. And it is only two guys. But we know Chertoff's in spin mode, because that's pretty much what his job is. The two intelligence agents may be lying as well, but that doesn't seem to be a job requirement.

I know who I believe. You?