Plus the Brits have plenty of experience dealing with the IRA.  They know how to handle terrorists (I might add more expert terrorists).  The press are saying the recent attempt at bombings in London was foiled by "dumb luck".  I disagree.  It was foiled by an alert police officer spotting the first car bomb before it went off and triggering a massive, well-coordinated search that uncovered the second bomb.

 

So reports say that police have already got a picture of one suspect.  I wouldn't be surprised if that person was in custody in a matter of days.

 

As of this writing, there is news of a car attempting to ram the Glasgow airport.  The car subsequently exploded into flames.  It appears to have just damaged the facade of the building.  Two people (apparently the occupants of the car) are in custody.

 

I'd have to say that I suspect this is not so much al Qaeda attack as an AQ wannabe attack.  There are a few reasons I say this.

 

1) AQ is very cautious about their attacks.  The won't try unless they have a good chance of success.  Assuming the Glasgow attack is linked to the London attempts, that's three failed attacks.  The reason they don't like failure is rather obvious--captured terrorists can lead to the rest of of cell being captured.  Even if they don't talk, you can interview neighbors, search homes, computers, telephone records, etc...

2) AQ likes multiple simultaneous attacks, usually four or more.  This group managed 2 (maybe three).  If the third is linked, it was not simultaneous.  This suggests they didn't have the capability to do more.  It's possible only two people were involved vs the 19 who were involved on 9/11.

3) AQ likes big bombs that are used to maximize casualties.  Contrary to the media hype, 15 gallons of gasoline is not a "massive" bomb.  It's about as much gas as most cars carry in their tanks.  It will cause a fireball and fire, but there are not the kind of effective casualty-producing weapons AQ has used in the past. 

 

If the attackers are AQ, this might indicate a serious decline in their ability to make/acquire bombs. It also shows seriously diminished capability along with a change in doctrine that would permit smaller/fewer attacks with greater risk of failure.

I'd suggest a different analysis.

 

AQ had nothing to do with the recent events in London and Glasgow.  If they had then the bombs would have worked. 

 

The implication is that the counter-terrorist effort is on top of the threat.  The failed bombs, appear to have been assembled from very easily obtained materials, the sort of things that would not be considered suspicious.  They clearly lacked effective initiation.  This suggests that the users were self-taught from poor information. If reports that the group were unknown are true then this reinforces this view.  They are obviously highly motivated but were seriously afraid of being caught, therefore they are 'cleanskins' who have not brought attention to themselves by going for training, have avoided known extremists, etc, etc.

I Concur;

Not Alquada, just a group of Muslim fanatics with poor organisation. It dosnt take much to climb into a car and set it on fire then drive it into Glasgow airport terminal.

 

It's not looking like Al Quada....we will know that attack when it comes sure enough.

I figured the Brits would have suspects in custody within a few days.  As of today the Brits had five suspects in custody (including the two dumba***s from the Glasgow airport attack).  You have to be very impressed with the speed of the investigation.  The fact that they found another rigged car suggests they're on the right track.  According to reports I've read, one more suspect is at large (although police have not released any info, suggesting they already know who it is).  If this is an AQ cell, with only six people,  it's a pretty small group.  Furthermore, the fact that the only serious casualty was one of the terrorists is bad news for the bad guys.

 

If the bad guys are smart (and this particular group hasn't shown any evidence of it), they will to to ground.  But then, they probably should have done so after the first two attacks failed.

 

To the leftist papers that say Spain has not been touched after the bombings or italy and them quitting Iraq...sorry England is not created of the same mold.

Those papers don't know what they are talking about:

 

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6235224.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6262302.stm

 

Tercio

 

PS: Furthermore, right afterwards Spain's Iraq withdrawal a plot intended to crash a bomb van into the Audiencia Nacional (National Court) was foiled by the Spanish security forces. 

 

If you  people won't say it, I will.

 

MUSLIM MUSLIM MUSLIM!

 

ISLAM ISLAM ISLAM!

 

Have we not tired of losing this war?

 

Its a given data point that these maniacs are moslem. What we are missing here is that in this latest British attack we have a high proportion of medical professionals, at least one who was a trained neurologist, and who presumably has the chemistry and basic engineering skills to set up a car bomb factory.

 

Hello? We've been looking for the street sweepings and the plug uglies who would be the suicide soldiers of the Al Qaeda movement. So we became alarmed at the proslytizing in our prisons and in the Wahabbi mosques of the ostracized moslem communites in our midst.  

 

History lesson!

 

Who made the most militarily effective Japanese soldiers in 1944-1945?

 

 

If you forget the obvious, it will bite you in the bum. Mohammad Atta was not street sweepings. The maniacs in the latest British attacks are not street sweepings. This particular scum of the Earth proves to be intelligent, motivated, dangerous, and it seems to me entirely consistent within their psychotic world view WESTERN TRAINED and SKILLED in our own methods of scientific reason and rationality.

 

I already knew that they wouldn't be your average punk from the news descriptions of the car bombs. I'd expected some kind of civil engineers, or skilled trades workers, though.

 

Medical doctors? How CRAZY are these people? 

 

Herald     

I am willing to bet a substantial amount of money that the bombs were planted by a group of independent and disgruntled British citizens of Pakistani origin. How do i know ? I just do.

I'll accept a cheque, nice round sum with lots of zeros will do nicely.

                                                                                                  Ta

If we want to find their soldiers, we'll target the mosques. We target UK mosques for intel and we cruise-missle 20 mosques that lent to the idea of a war with Great Britian. If we want to find their command and control, then we'll stop pretending to NOT know know where they're comming from, and we'll target Mecca, Medina, Tehran, Damascus and Riyadh...How much money and power must we afford in order to come up with a govt that can control it's borders and not spend the summer in fear of a spectacular attack? Why are the muslim terrorists not fearing a spectacular attack this summer?...they know exacly how we play.

Let's find out if somebody can actually reign them in or not.