Comments on: “Rocket man” DID have explosives for war

By: Don

Don — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 18:44:00 +0000

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.

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 18:25:51 +0000

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?

By: Abu Adam

Abu Adam — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:30:22 +0000

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?

By: Bringiton

Bringiton — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:48:04 +0000

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.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:16:35 +0000

If there was a huge stink, I missed it. Not sure how this is relevant.

By: Danya

Danya — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:52:53 +0000

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..

By: Don

Don — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:35:21 +0000

‘…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.