Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical.

I'm off to work for a few hours, so just a quick link to the must read of the day. Craig Murray, Britain's former Ambassador to Uzbekistan calls bullshit on the "foiled terror plot" to blow up commercial airliners. A few choice quotes:

None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time. [...]

What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year - like thousands of other British Muslims. And not just Muslims. Like me. Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests. [...]

In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more propaganda than plot. Of the over one thousand British Muslims arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. That is simply harrassment of Muslims on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Most of the very few - just over two per cent of arrests - who are convicted, are not convicted of anything to do terrorism, but of some minor offence the Police happened upon while trawling through the wreck of the lives they had shattered.

Read it all. Murray validates my intial response to the arrests. It was all just so much politics and every time they make these bogus busts, it just makes the real problem worse.

[hat tip Jules Siegel]