But there's an unreported subtext, an aspect of this case which has not just been unreported but
actively suppressed: the alleged plot was so unlikely that
it must be considered impossible.
The
alleged plot, as described in breathless detail by US and UK officials
such as Michael Chertoff and John Reid, involved attacks on as many as
a dozen aircraft simultaneously, with the objective of killing "
hundreds of thousands of people", as Chertoff said at the time.
We've been told that the
plotters were planning to smuggle
ordinary household liquids such as acetone and hydrogen peroxide onto
airplanes, mix them together in the sinks of the airplanes' restrooms,
and produce explosives capable of knocking all those planes out of the
sky simultaneously.
But it didn't take much research to find out
that the reaction which makes explosives out of acetone and hydrogen
peroxide takes at least several hours (some sources say two or three
days!) You'll forgive me if I don't link to any of the bomb-making
recipes, especially since the FBI considers that a serious offense now,
despite the fact that some of the most accurate bomb-making recipes
reside on the FBI's own website. But let's not get bogged down in
tricky administrative details!
Then
a bit of math revealed
that the quantity of explosive needed to puncture the fuselage of a
plane is at least fifteen times as much as anyone could make in a tiny
airplane sink. So, unless each of the accused plotters had fifteen or
twenty accomplices – who could all find sinks to work in without being
detected – there would be no way for a plotter to make enough
explosives to take down a plane.
But at Heathrow, officials imposed strict security anyway,
even after all the so-called plotters had been arrested.
And airline passengers are bound by very strict rules to this day,
supposedly to defeat the threat that the alleged liquid bombers
supposedly posed.
But it's all a sham. It couldn't possibly be
anything else. Either the Brits are lying about everything and there
never was such a plot, or else there was a plot but it was impossible
to pull off and therefore of little or no danger. Certainly there was
no way any number of terrorists making bombs from acetone and peroxide
could kill hundreds of thousands of people! There's really no way –
barring outrageous assistance from the flight crew – that anyone could
make a peroxide bomb on a plane at all.
Nonetheless, Rashid Rauf is still being held in Pakistan on multiple charges.
In
addition to his terror-related charges, he's also accused of carrying
forged identity papers. The terror charges were dropped in December,
then reinstated, and his case was delayed because the police didn't
file a charge sheet. Later when they did the paperwork, we learned that
Rashid Rauf is accused of possessing 29 bottles of hydrogen peroxide
for the purposes of terrorism. His trial – off and on and off – was
scheduled to resume April 16th, but he hasn't appeared in court, then or since.
The nature of the mechanism whereby Rashid Rauf's
29 bottles of peroxide in Pakistan
were supposed to be used in attacking airliners leaving Heathrow for
the USA remains to be explained, as do the circumstances of his arrest,
and the nature of the trigger whereby his arrest caused a wave of
arrests in Britain. We've had a number of reports on these issues and
they have differed greatly in ways that have never been explained,
satisfactorily or otherwise. The entire case is strange from one end to
the other.
It was widely reported that Rashid Rauf was the
mastermind of the plot, although in some accounts he was described as
the mastermind's assistant, and in other versions he was represented as
merely a messenger. But he was always portrayed as the al-Q'aeda
connection, for there never was any doubt that this alleged plot was
the work of al-Q'aeda.
And perhaps because al-Q'aeda was
established by the CIA through their friendly cutout, the Pakistani
intelligence service (ISI), and
Rashid Rauf is alleged to have ISI connections, it came as a surprise to see reports indicating that Rashid Rauf also had connections to the
banned terrorist group JeM.
How
and when was he arrested? Accounts differ. How was the news of his
arrest connected with the arrests made in Britain? Accounts differ.
Some say he was arrested a week before the others and tortured by the
ISI until he revealed the names of those who were arrested in Britain.
Others
say he was his arrest happened just before the others and was noted by
an associate who sent a message to the alleged plotters in Britain –
telling them to go ahead with their plan! – or that Rashid Rauf sent
such a message himself. The "go" message would have come as a shock to
the alleged plotters, since only one of them had any airline tickets,
and some didn't even have passports. But it was allegedly intercepted
by the British authorities, who had supposedly had all these people
under surveillance for months, and this, we are told, was the reason
for their arrest.
Having spent nine months arranging for the
accused plotters to enter a plea, the swift British justice system now
shifts into overdrive, with the trial scheduled to begin in April of
2008.
British authorities attribute the long pre-trial period to an abundance of evidence. But
an enormous police search
of the woods near where some of the suspects lived was called off in
December, apparently because of the cost of the investigation (nearing
30 million pounds – roughly $60M) and the apparent fact that they have
apparently found very little – if anything at all – in their previous
months of searching the woods.
For a recap on the accused, the
charges and the pleas, here's the most recent report from the BBC
(slightly edited for grammar and punctuation):
Accused deny airliner bomb plot
Twelve men accused of plotting to bring down an airliner with a bomb have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
They
denied charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause an
explosion on an aircraft between January and August last year.
The defendants also denied other charges in an indictment which contained 27 counts.
They are due to face trial at Woolwich Crown Court in April 2008.
The
accused were: Abdul Ahmed Ali, 26, from Walthamstow, east London; Assad
Sarwar, 26, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; Tanvir Hussain, 26, of
Leyton, east London; Mohammed Gulzar, 25, of Barking, east London;
Ibrahim Savant, 26, of Walthamstow; Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, of
Walthamstow; Waheed Zaman, 22, of Walthamstow; Adam Khatib, 20, of
Walthamstow; Umar Islam (also known as Brian Young), 29, of High
Wycombe; Donald Douglas Stewart-Whyte, 20, of High Wycombe; Mohammed
Shamin Uddin, 36, of Stoke Newington, north London and Nabeel Hussain,
23, of Chingford, east London.
Other charges
Additionally,
Nabeel Hussain is accused of involved in the preparation of terrorism
by meeting Mr Ali, having a will contemplating a violent death, and
taking out a bank loan worth £25,000.
Mr Ali, Tanvir Hussain, Mr
Savant, Mr Khan, Mr Khatib, Mr Islam and Mr Sarwar denied separate
charges under the Explosives Substances Act.
Other charges on the indictment include possessing articles for use in terrorism.
A 13th man, Mohammed Usman Saddique, 25, of Walthamstow, will face a separate trial.
He
denied being involved in the preparation of terrorism by owning a
number of mobile phones as well as a CD containing titles such as Bombs
And More.
Abdul Ali's wife, Cossor Ali, 25, will also face a trial on her own.
She denied failing to disclose information which could have prevented a terrorist act.
All of the accused, except Cossor Ali and Nabeel Hussain, who are on bail, appeared by video link from prison.
There's a bit of new information in this report, such as the fact that
Mohammed Usman Saddique is in trouble because of the names of the
tracks on a CD. But not much.
In other recent Liquid Bomber news,
four British newspaper groups have agreed to pay substantial libel damages
to Abdul Rauf for having falsely reported that he was detained for
questioning over suspected involvement in the plot. Two of the papers
had previously printed retractions and apologies. There was
a similar report in the Turkish Press
at the time, but there's been no correction or apology from Turkish
media, let alone a libel settlement. Nor has there been any mention of
the fact that Abdul Rauf is Rashid Rauf's father.
This is the second time British newspapers have made substantial payments over inaccuracies in their reporting.
Amjad Sarwar was paid £170,000
in December after British papers falsely reported that he had been
arrested in August along with the others. Amjad Sarwar's brother, Assad
Sarwar, is one of the twelve facing "conspiracy to murder" charges.
It's
tough not to speculate that the British media may be growing tired of
huge libel suits and wondering how they could have been led so badly
astray. And it's also tough not to speculate that the longer Rashid
Rauf stays in Pakistan, the better it might be for UK authorities, who
could be severely embarrassed by whatever he might say in a British
courtroom. At this point it appears that the most incriminating thing
he could say would be "Yes, I know the bombing plot was impossible, but
I convinced all these aspirational jihadis to pretend they were
planning to do it, so that you would have somebody to
arrest when you needed to claim you'd made
a major achievement and inject
another jolt of fear into
the bogus War on
bogus Terror."
===
Sixteenth in
a series.
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