Bomb Plot In Britain

Brendan Loy has extensive coverage; I have house guests.

A friend remarked to me that Karl Rove's arm has grown long indeed, if he can get the Brits to announce this a day after the Dems go with Lamont in Connecticut.  Mike Allen of TIME explains my friend's elation [as does Jacob Weisberg].

UPDATE:  Staying with the Lieberman angle, here is the Times' coverage of the Lieberman-Lamont reaction.  One senses that the Times is amused by the inexperience of their creation.

Lieberman first:

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman seized on the terror arrests in Britain today to attack his Democratic rival, Ned Lamont, saying that Mr. Lamont’s goals for ending the war in Iraq would constitute a “victory” for extremists, including those accused of plotting to blow up airliners traveling between Britain and the United States.

“If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” Mr. Lieberman said at a campaign event at lunchtime in Waterbury, Conn. “It will strengthen them and they will strike again.”

Over to Ned,with the Times tossing darts:

In a telephone interview from his vacation home in Maine, Mr. Lamont said he was disappointed with the personal tone Mr. Lieberman’s remarks, and questioned the connection between the Iraq war and the new terrorist plot. He also continued his strategy of trying to link Mr. Lieberman’s views with those of the Bush administration, whose approach the senator has tended to support in the fight against terrorism.

“Wow,” Mr. Lamont said, after asking a reporter to read Mr. Lieberman’s remark about him. “That comment sounds an awful lot like Vice President Cheney’s comment on Wednesday. Both of them believe our invasion of Iraq has a lot to do with 9/11. That’s a false premise.”

...

Mr. Lamont hesitated when he was asked if Mr. Lieberman’s criticisms were beyond the bounds of acceptable political combat.

“To try to score political points on every international issues...” Mr. Lamont said, before pausing and stopping himself. Then he added, “Why do I have to say anything?”

Good question.  It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

The hired help did a better job with the Lamont response:

Mr. Lamont’s campaign manager, Tom Swan, said in an interview that Mr. Lieberman would pay a political price with Connecticut voters for aligning himself with the Bush administration on homeland security strategy.

“Did Karl Rove write this attack line for Joe?” Mr. Swan said, referring to the president’s senior adviser. Mr. Rove told reporters this morning that he had called Mr. Lieberman, whom he described as “a personal friend,” on the primary day on Tuesday to wish him luck against Mr. Lamont.

And dare we address the "substance" of the vacationing Mr. Lamont's remarks?  9/11 is now ancient history (so ancient we forget the year!).  Regardless of whether there was a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda back then, the issue before the nation is whether terrorists will be emboldened *TODAY* if we abandon Iraq to its fate.

I do hope Mr. Lamont manages to get beyond a mere parroting of anti-war talking points and actually finds time to focus on the issues here.  He is on the path to becoming a US Senator, after all.

MORE:  Bush used the phrase "Islamic fascists" today; that, and "Islamo-fascists" have come out of the White House before, but not often.

Comments

[Other Tom]

The gist of the moonbat reaction: "You have to question the timing."

[Timing]

Rove's reach or Plames?

Larry Johson was where and doing what?

The pattern for both is the same. They out. Plame was better at it.

[SteveMG]

Yeah but Rove's tactics are getting boring.

It's always Muslims. How about some Episcopalians just to shake things up?

Toss in a Presybertian every now and then, a little change of pace keeps things interesting.

Hah, some genius.

SMG

[Redcoat]

Luckily for us there were no leaks to the N.Y Times,all these guys would be in the wind,instead of under arrest.

[SteveMG]

Presybertian?

Close enough.

It was still witty, though.

SMG

[Emma]

Wow, that liquid explosives things is really crazy! How did they discover the first one of these/or the plot in the first place?

[The Unbeliever]

Or, as a commenter over at Ace put it:

Rove must have bungled things in Outlook Calendar: this terror plot happened the day after Connecticut, not before.

Gettin' sloppy, Karl.

[sbw]

[Lest this attempt at humor was overlooked at the end of the Joementum thread] I heard a rumor that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were photoshopped into Lamont's victory celebration picture by Karl Rove...

[lurker]

"Wow, that liquid explosives things is really crazy! How did they discover the first one of these/or the plot in the first place?"

What else other than our friendly NSA terrorist surveillance program?

I see that Qatar stopped a flight to arrest a hijacker. Either he's a terrorist or mentally unstable.

[cathyf]

This morning in his speech, Bush said:

"This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation,"

Is this the first time Bush has publickly and explicitly used the term "Islamic fascist" as opposed to the vague "terrorist" or "evildoer" or the like?

(I myself think "deatheater" is a good word, but freely admit that it does not communicate effectively with those who are not Harry Potter fans...)

cathy :-)

[PeterUK]

You are, enmasse, condemned to suffer the
penalties commensurate with your callous disregard for your own helpless children.
Muslims, in particular, should remember there are no innocent victims amongst your
people when it comes to the WoT. You are considered terrorists until proven otherwise. Sorry, this is the new american way.

Posted by: Semanticleo | August 09, 2006 at 05:50 PM

[The Unbeliever]

cathyf, I believe Bush has used Islamist facists on a couple of occassions, but given the number of terrorism or national security-related speeches he's made, his usage of the term is rather rare. I think as recently as 2-3 days ago The Corner was noticing that Bush doesn't use the term very often, and they wished he would make the point more instead of sticking to the ROP line.

[lurker]

Allahpundit noticed the same thing, cathyf:

Bush said, "the United States was "at war with Islamic fascists."

Quite frankly, I'm glad to see them targetting Islamic fasicsts and jihadists. He wasn't directing this towards Muslim moderates that have no desire of Jihad.

Even Blair had to warn Bush to protect this intelligence leak.

Debbie Schlussel's source says that these London suspects are connected to Islam Jihad.

[lurker]

Funny that truth laid bear had to show various charts where all "hot" topics other than today's news bottomed out for today.

What's up with Israel-Hezzie war? Any today's news? UN still struggling with the ceasefire or resolution or what?

No one's interested in how many rockets fired into Israel?

[Jane]

Cathy,

I noticed the same thing - it was the first line out of his mouth. About time. Good.

It's the only thing I remember from his speech. As it should be. I hope he keeps it up!

[larwyn]

Dateline: Times Bldg, Manhattan

Pinch stands over Keller glaring:
"How the hell did our crack reporters miss this months old story?"

Keller: "Rocky has a bad back."
-------------------
Where is LJ?
An Ace commenter has answer:
I couldn't help myself, Ed. I had to go look at that rat hole myself.

You wouldn't believe the post there by good ol Larry Johnson. He claims to be sitting in Europe waiting for a plane back to the states on Friday. He is trashing the Brits response to this sayiing it is overblown, there is no real threat and/or it is a trumped up charge to cover for "distastorous" policies in Lebanon.

This man was in the friggin CIA and this is his analysis? No wonder we had a 9/11.
Posted by: JackStraw at August 10, 2006 09:57 AM
--------------------
Greg Kelly reported from Crawford during the 8am edt hour about Blairs concern when sharing news of UK investigation months ago.
Per Kelly, GW personally warned Muller and Gonzales.
Hmmm no wonder they threatened to resign when told to give back Jefferson papers. Told to do their jobs with no leaks and then carry out raid on Jefferson's office in manner to insure no leaks and they get repremands!
Also reasons they are going hot and heavy into leaks investigations. The set up for Mac's bang of a summer does have *R/S/S's magic touch.

*remember those boring days of FNL when we had to entertain ourselves?

Please READ THE BELMONT CLUB TODAY.
Absolutely amazing and a saver for all time. Read it and you'll see.

Finally this from another Ace commenter:

The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.

---Theodore Roosevelt
Posted by: hobgoblin

[larwyn]

Caught this on MSNBC:

Buchanan asks:
"If we have someone in custody for already commiting a death penalty crime and we think he has information that might save more innocent lives, we shouldn't apply coersive interrogation methods?"

Answer that McCain and Graham.

What do you think MI5 is doing right now with 50 out there not arrested.

And how do we know that an entirely different cell isn't working same plot from the WestCoast to P.M. Howard's land.
They don't much like that plain speaking wonderful man. And he's
got lots of "multicultural AH's running "local" goverments - like
SanFran on speed.

[jerry]

I figured Rove got the Pakistani's to set up this fake terrorist cell, ready for arrest at the most auspicious political moment.

[Neo]

"You have to question the timing."

Exactly what day is a good day for this sort of thing ?

But what is the skinny on how this too is an "inside job", like all those handbills being passed out outside at Stone's film ?
Are these "real suicide bombers" or would they have been blownup by Pedators with missiles ?
Maybe the "Evil Cheney" has Robo-Muslims now.

[Other Tom]

The moonbats question the timing of everything. Whatever happens, it's all pre-arranged by Rove for political effect.

[Other Tom]

The moonbats question the timing of everything. Whatever happens, it's all pre-arranged by Rove for political effect.

[I question the timing of this double post.]

[larwyn]

Doug Schoen, Dem Strategist on FOX just now asked if Lamont/Lieberman outcome would be different if election was today.

You can guess his answer - but you would have to see his tells; rapid blinking and head bobbing - almost as good an imitation of the SNL liar character as done by Syrian Amb Imad Mostapha!

Oil went down 3% as market believes that demand for air traffic and auto travel will be reduced.

[Marcel]

It would be a pleasant change if the White House stopped playing politics with National Security. Comments by Cheney, Snow and others show once again that there is more effort being expended to destroy Democrats than in dealing with Al Queda.

[Gary Maxwell]

Seems to me that most of the effort being exerted to destroy Democrats is being sourced from inside operatives. Near as I can tell, they dont need any outside help.

[Marcel]

Good. Then the Administration can spend more time focusing on Bin Laden and his still-operative terrorist network.

[larwyn]

It is a Right Wing Conspiracy

There are several answers to why today when ~50 terrorists are still at large.

I just figured it out:

Reuters in HQ'd in LONDON
- even with the Official Secrets Act they picked up something
- Reuters' stringers in Pakistan also knew of plot (wonder why)
- MI5 realized that Reuters' was
going to leak - they wanted to get their own scandal off front and center.

So, wait - it all the fault of EUReferundum's Richard North and Charles Johnson of LGF.

(Cleo, Pete and Sam should like that)

[boris]

Then the Administration can spend more time focusing on Bin Laden and his still-operative terrorist network

What they would rather be doing than dealing with back stabbers, cowards, and subversion.

[larwyn]

A J Strata wonders if the arrest of the 2 Michigan men in Ohio with the passenger lists, cell phones and $11,000.00 might have been the trigger for the roundups.

MI5 would fear that their arrest would trigger the scattering of rest of the "crew".

But one could turn that on head, and it really wasn't an alert deputies(note plural)doing a traffic stop on these guys. They could have been under covert watch for months - they admitted to buying 600 prepaid cell phones for a man in Dearborn, Michigan. That's a suburb of Detroit, home of pro Hezzie demos.

[Jimmy]

So 50 homegrown terrorists are on the loose in Great Britain? When does the invasion start?

I feel so much safer knowing there's 138,000 troops in Iraq.

Jesus Allah Joseph Smith you people are such sheep.

Be sure and change the bedsheets for the guests since I'm sure you wet all over them.

[Extraneus]

Comments by Cheney, Snow and others show once again that there is more effort being expended to destroy Democrats than in dealing with Al Queda.

Which is the bigger threat to national security?

[topsecretk9]

Larry is just so pathetic, I actually feel sorry for the loser.

[The Unbeliever]

It would be a pleasant change if the White House stopped playing politics with National Security. Comments by Cheney, Snow and others show once again that there is more effort being expended to destroy Democrats than in dealing with Al Queda.

Typical, you got the cause/effect backwards. The Democrats are being destroyed because they are refusing to deal with terrorism and national security, not because the WH is on some kind of top secret political maneuverings. I know this is a hard concept for some of our friends on the left, but when you spend all your time and political capital on defeatism, negativity, and showing your underbelly to a foreign enemy... you're bound to reap some political fallout.

If you have a problem with the WH answering political questions, you may want to go whining to the reporters who ask those questions. For example, go read the full transcript of Cheney's remarks, and you'll see the reporters were practically harassing him trying to get him on the record about the effects of the CT primary or the November elections. Do you honestly expect him to respond with "no comment" to every single question, or to give the Democrats a pass on their woefully bad record?

[topsecretk9]

Hey Jimmy, there is at least one Kos Diarisrt who has your number

Sometimes dKos can be so very disappointing. Here's some basic facts that some people seem to be having trouble dealing with regarding this morning's news of a thwarted terrorist attack. If you wrote a diary or comment this morning about how bullshit these latest threats are, please print this out and tape it to your monitor.

* bluesteel's diary :: ::
*

1) Terrorists genuinely exist and are trying to kill innocent people, regardless of anything done by George W Bush.

2) Not all reporting done on terrorist attacks is produced in order to cover up something else.

3) Not all reporting about terrorism designed to keep people scared.

4) The thwarting of a major attack is genuinely newsworthy.

[Jimmy]

Uh Topsecret-how does anything in my comment contradict anything BlueSteel said?

I don't deny terrorist are trying to kill me.
But that fact doesn't scare me.

And I think Bush's approach, e.g. invading Iraq, is doing absolutely nothing to prevent terrorism.

How did 138,000 troops in Iraq prevent this terrorist bombing?

[The Unbeliever]

So, the KosKiddiez are accusing Bush of coordinating terror warnings in order to annoy the left or to discredit their candidates? And they start letting the accusations fly right after an actual major terror plot is thwarted... hmm...

I question their timing.

[Jimmy]

Actually Unbeliever-you can almost detect a certain glee about a new terrorist plot on the right.

Ha Ha Ha you pussies! Terrorists are real!

Jesus Christ-you're like Linus in the pumpkin patch and the goddamn Great Pumpkin finally showed up. Save me president Bush!

It's just sickening how scared and sheepish you all are.

Grow a spine.

[The Unbeliever]

How did 138,000 troops in Iraq prevent this terrorist bombing?

Gee, I dunno, maybe by forcing al Qaeda to fight the war on two fronts, instead of allowing them to concentrate on their plots in Great Britain/the United States? Or by killing off Zarqawi, who might have provided the necessary expertise to carry the airplane bombing successfully? Or maybe by eliminating the funding provided by Sadaam Hussein, which could have been used to buy fancier bomb-making equipment?

[Jimmy]

You're right the first time- you dont know.

[SteveMG]

How did 138,000 troops in Iraq prevent this terrorist bombing?

Should we send them to Great Britain?

Please, the security and military arsenal of the United States consists of much more than 138,000 troops.

The diversion of those resources to Iraq are hardly preventing us from attacking al-Qaeda elsewhere.

SMG

[cathyf]

I don't deny terrorist are trying to kill me.
But that fact doesn't scare me.

You are an idiot. Quod erat demonstrandum.

cathy :-)

[The Unbeliever]

Actually Unbeliever-you can almost detect a certain glee about a new terrorist plot on the right.

Uh huh. Obviously "reading comprehension" isn't your strong suite. Here's the Politics For Dummies summary, just for you. The emotions currently occurring on the right are, in no particular order:

(1) Relief that the plot was thwarted before it could be executed

(2) Happiness that more terrorists are behind bars, instead of roaming free

(3) Anger at the left for STILL not getting the fact that we are in a literal war against terrorism, as evidenced by your own posts

(4) Mockery of the idiots who think Bush/Rove/Haliburton drummed up this whole thing

Try to remember that it's not our fault the left is so totally hopeless when it comes to national security or anti-terrorism. Your chronic inability to maturely deal with an existential threat represents a horrendous failure of ideas, and although I'm not a psychologist I'm pretty sure it's unhealthy for you to take out frustration at your own shortcomings on the opposing political party.

[PeterUK]

"I don't deny terrorist are trying to kill me.
But that fact doesn't scare me."

It doesn't Little Jimmy? Why I can smell you from here.

I've met many very brave people in my life Lil' Jimmy,one characteristic runs through all of them,they don't shoot their mouth off how brave they are and all of them admit to being afraid,whistling in the dark are you Lil' Jimmy?

[PeterUK]

"It's just sickening how scared and sheepish you all are."

The word is "sheeplike Lil' Jimmy,sheepish is what you should be for your peurile outburst,
grow a brain.

[windansea]

How did 138,000 troops in Iraq prevent this terrorist bombing?

Jimmy...please count how many terror attacks in the USA since we liberated Iraq

go ahead...use your fingers :)

[Jimmy]

"although I'm not a psychologist I'm pretty sure it's unhealthy for you to take out frustration at your own shortcomings on the opposing political party"

Ditto, dipshit.

[SteveMG]

It's just sickening how scared and sheepish you all are."

This line is getting a little bit tiresome.

According to folks on your side, Bush is taking away all our liberties, destroying the Constitution, angering the whole world and paving the road to political perdition.

And we're the ones acting skittish?

SMG

[His Mother]

I must appologise for Jimmy,he is a good boy as a rule,it is just that his acne has flared up and he refuses to wear his glases.

[The Unbeliever]

Aww, we drove Jimmy into "No YOU are!" mode already. I was hoping he'd last a little longer.

TM, the quality of the trolls in here has declined sharply as of late...

[Jimmy]

Look Bush is at 36% approval in today FoxNews poll. That's the FoxNews which is almost unwatchable rightwing propaganda and one of whose former faces is now Bush's spokesman.

You've now got Buckley, Will, and certain others starting to question Bush's wisdom from the right.

This house of cards is collapsing. Time to face a brave new world.

And now we have to give up our hand gels?

[Gary Maxwell]

Are you guys really having a dialogue with a real life troll whose email address is :

bushsux@cheney2.com ?????

WTF