18 August 2006

If you go down to the woods today...

The Guardian reports:
"Anti-terror police investigating the alleged plot to blow up passenger planes have discovered a suitcase containing bomb components, it was reported last night.
According to the BBC, the find was made by officers searching King's Wood in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A police source told the BBC that the suitcase contained "everything you would need to make an improvised device".
Scotland Yard would not confirm or deny the reports last night, or even disclose whether a suitcase had been found."

I suppose that it's not outwith the bounds of possibility but, if I were a putative terrorist with a load of chemicals and/or detonators to hide, I rather doubt if I would stick them in a suitcase and dump it in a nearby wood. I mean, it's not really secure, is it? Kids or people walking dogs might come across it. Or it might get damp in the rain. If you can't (or don't want to) hide it in your attic or basement, than a quiet lock-up would be a better bet.

Then there's that ubiquitous police source, who invariably has something to reveal that will bolster the justifcation of the authorities in having taken action. Would that be the same 'source' that indicated that Mr de Menezes was wearing a bulky jacket, was running and jumped the barriers at Stockwell tube station?

Incidentally, also in The Guardian (here), Craig Murray reminds us that not all detainees turn out to be guilty:
"More than 1,000 British Muslims have been arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, but only 12% have been charged. That is harassment on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% were acquitted. Most of the few convictions - just over 2% of arrests - are nothing to do with terrorism, but some minor offence the police happened upon while trawling through the lives they have
wrecked."

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