BBC NEWS: Ex-BNP man 'wanted to shoot PM' (hat tip: Lenin)
Remember the case of the biggest-ever haul of explosive chemicals the police found at a house in Lancashire last October, which hardly made ripples in the national media but was reported in Pendle Today?
Well, Robert Cottage has now pleaded guilty to possession of explosives, and we have this information courtesy of his wife who alerted the authorities:
Louise Blackwell QC, prosecuting, said the case had come to light after Mr Cottage's wife became increasingly concerned about his behaviour.
Kerena Cottage suffered mental health problems and told her social worker that her husband had several crossbows and chemicals stored in his home.
She also revealed he wanted to shoot Mr Blair and local peer Lord Greaves, Miss Blackwell told the court.
When police raided his house on 28 September 2006 they discovered 21 types of chemicals which, when combined, could form explosives.
Miss Blackwell said they also uncovered a document called the Anarchy Cookbook, which detailed how to make different types of bombs.
Ball bearings - which the prosecution claim could be used as shrapnel for explosive devices - were also found, along with four air pistols.
After interviewing Mr Cottage, detectives raided Mr Jackson's home on 1 October and found a bow and arrow and two nuclear protection suits.
While I'm sure they are not the only people who have ever talked about how good it might be to get Blair or Prescott out of the way, the fact remains that raids on Muslim properties get huge press coverage with the victims (as they often are) smeared in the press, while a raid on a BNP-supporting white racist's house, which really does result in a huge haul of explosives being recovered, interests only Pendle Today until the blogs pick it up. I hope this is the last we'll hear of the apologists who said "he only had them to play games with rockets!".
'...with the victims (as they often are) smeared in the press.'
Of course you are right, but how do you smear a couple of sad losers who downloaded the Anarchist Cookbook (aka How To Blow Your Hands Off In Three Easy Stages) and went so bat-shit that their own families turned them in for being evidently a danger to themselves and others.*
I am jumping the gun and basing this on the way they seemed on the news, but I doubt if the coppers who lifted them ever thought they were dealing with a well developed and serious conspiracy. Dangerous, nasty, but a local mental health issue more than anything else.
There has been far too much press insolence when muslim properties have been raided, a symptom of the wider disregard the press seems to have for due process. Maybe balance would have been better served if this case had been played up a little more, but balance at the cost of inflating a paranoid folie a deux into something it isn't - a significant national issue.
Don, what about this?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13497335/
There was a huge stink about this this past summer and they were called Muslims and it turns out they were not even so... ya, if the media wants to smear some sad losers with no real plot, they will..
If there was a huge stink, I missed it. Not sure how this is relevant.
I seem to recall the media saying there were rocket launchers and stockpiles of explosives and a masterplan.... not two sad losers, 300 tins of beans and some weak hydrogen peroxide.
To me this is a big example of how Muslims are unfairly treated. That's nothing new, I know, but this as an example of real terrorists are treated, and how Muslims are raided and shot. An example which few could spin their way out of... and that's why it's not in mainstream Media.
Just a side note, when they relelased Phd Student, and he said 'It's a Police state for Muslims', I don't know about you, but when I heard the defensiveness of the goverment, I thought they are scared! A nerve has been touched, and they are defensive because it is a statement close to truth... so shouldn't we continue this line? or is it better to not 'aggitate' them further? what dyo reckon?
This is all a load of tosh blown out of proportion by the media. If Robert Cottage had a stockpile of semtex then that would be cause for concern, but all he had was a few completely legal household chemicals that when correctly combined would result in an explosive. Chances are you have exactly the same chemicals at home albeit in a smaller quantity.
As for the ball bearings. They are available from a bike shop. Should pedal bikes be banned on the grounds that certain components make good shrapnel?
Abu,
I could yet be shown to be wrong, but these guys as 'real terrorists'? You think so?
The IRA were real terrorists, AQ are real terrorists as are Shining Path and countless others. But these schmucks?
Yes, the terrorist activities of a few (but an organised and effective few) who have self-defined as Muslims has caused a panicked and (perhaps) agenda driven over-reaction which has led to law abiding citizens who happen to be Muslims being deprived of the security which is every vcitizen's right.
But this particular case is a weak one to make as (on information so far available) they were not remotely comparable to real terrorists who have claimed thousands of lives.