British terror suspect Saajid Badat has admitted plotting to blow up a plane on its way to the US using a "shoe bomb", according to news reports yesterday.
The court heard he had agreed to be a suicide bomber with the intention of destroying a passenger aircraft while it was in the air en route from Europe to the United States.
And his guilty plea has been hailed as a victory by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch.
But according to State Prosecutor Richard Horwell, "... he did not take that flight. We accept by then he had withdrawn from the conspiracy which by then he had been party to for an appreciable period of time"
Now nobody would claim this was a totally cool guy, but let's face it, he didn't actually do anything illegal, he thought about it a bit, and then decided against it.
So the person that they have actually managed to convict, because for once they have some evidence ("three years of intensive and painstaking international investigation", according to the head of the Anti-Terrorist branch), hasn't done anything at all.
Meanwhile, thousands of people are locked up, tortured and killed in Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Guantanemo, and around the world by the US, the UK and their axis-of-evil allies. Since they are unable to bring any of these "terrorists" to justice, we must assume, despite the way they are treated, that they are even less guilty than Saajid Badat, convicted today under English law of not being a suicide bomber.
And his guilty plea has been hailed as a victory by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch.
But according to State Prosecutor Richard Horwell, "... he did not take that flight. We accept by then he had withdrawn from the conspiracy which by then he had been party to for an appreciable period of time"
Now nobody would claim this was a totally cool guy, but let's face it, he didn't actually do anything illegal, he thought about it a bit, and then decided against it.
So the person that they have actually managed to convict, because for once they have some evidence ("three years of intensive and painstaking international investigation", according to the head of the Anti-Terrorist branch), hasn't done anything at all.
Meanwhile, thousands of people are locked up, tortured and killed in Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Guantanemo, and around the world by the US, the UK and their axis-of-evil allies. Since they are unable to bring any of these "terrorists" to justice, we must assume, despite the way they are treated, that they are even less guilty than Saajid Badat, convicted today under English law of not being a suicide bomber.
Comments
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What are you talking about?
02.03.2005 07:54
Paul Edwards
How dare
02.03.2005 11:07
AG
If he can go to jail for conspiring to blow something up
02.03.2005 11:19
We catch the small fish who in hte end did nothing wrong only to allow the big fish to remain alive.
?
terrorist or suspect?
02.03.2005 13:53
bud_hoover
Re:
02.03.2005 21:00
There's having a little think about a silly dream. And there's being a fully signed up co-conspirator. Sounds like this guy falls into the latter camp.
Don't get me wrong, the state terrorists are worse. But terror is terror. I don't support that kind of murder whoever it is that's planning it.
Ozymandias
A summary of "terrorist" arrests
02.03.2005 23:08
This conviction was splashed across the media as an example of the kind of terrorist we're up against. Hardly a week goes by where there's no press hysteria about an Al Qaeda threat (although we're not to understand that this is a war against Islam).
Yet despite the hundreds of arrests, scarcely anyone is ever convicted of what might be described as a crime (I'm sceptical of "conspiracy", it's like being arrested for resisting arrest!).
This site
offers some of the arrests and outcomes over the past few years.
Still, let's put our faith in the government eh? Unless the Lords manage to squash it, we'll never need to worry about trying these terrorists. We'll just lock 'em up and throw away the key.
mini_mouse