By all accounts, Friday's two attempted car bombings in London and the aborted attack at Glasgow's airport were designed to cause massive casualties and loss of life. The failure of the London bombs to explode (one man left a Mercedes "stumbling," possibly overcome by petrol fumes) and the Glasgow car to do more than catch fire suggests participants whose madness is superceded only by their incompetence. Repeated calls to trigger the bombs in both London cars failed.

Unlike many Al Qaeda-inspired attacks around the world, the London bombs were set up to go off by remote control, though the Glasgow attack did involve the suicidal attempt of at least one individual who set himself alight and apparently shouted "Allah" at the crowds and police who restrained him (he is now in critical condition at a nearby hospital under armed guard). Through increased surveillance - both by police and by Muslims still jittery after 7/7 - the franchise has downgraded to a relatively large number of amateurs who are resorting to softer targets, smaller networks, and cruder, less effective weapons.

Until the Glasgow attack, it may have been easy to characterise the dumb luck of intelligence services in gathering the London forensic evidence (initially without suspects) as near conspiratorial. Arresting the two involved in Glasgow's attack (one well charred) and parsing CCTV and other information to make subsequent arrests has changed all that. Only a few of the suspects may have been among the 1000 or so being watched (but not arrested) for potential terrorist activity, illustrating the difficulty of catching "clean skins" until a terrorism attempt was made. But it's the "homegrown" vs. "foreign" aspect of these events that may be the focus of further attention.

Despite early reports that nearly all of those detained by Monday were recent arrivals of Middle Eastern - not British - descent, newspapers referred often to the reported "Asian" appearances of the suspects and raids in "Asian" areas of the UK, references not lost to communities implicated in the 7/7 bombings nearly 2 years ago (3 of the 4 in that attack were Britons of South Asian descent). For many of them, the rush to judgement is no surprise.

What is a surprise is that at least five of those arrested came to the UK to work as doctors in Scottish and other NHS hospitals - a far cry from the socio-economic conditions that are often cited as a key factor for alienation among Muslim youth. One of the suspects was arrested far away in Brisbane, Australia.

Although there is still a chance of domestic involvement, police did seek to calm tensions within Muslim communities. "The people we have in custody came to Scotland a short while ago to seek work," remarked Chief Constable John Neilson at a public meeting in a Glasgow mosque. "Other than that, I can't tell you - but I'm sure the community in Glasgow in particular will be reassured. These are not your young people."

As a result, the focus of the response - outside of a thorough vetting of the network and infrastructure behind the London and Glasgow attacks - may eventually shift to immigration rather than homegrown radicalism. In the wake of the attempted bombings, Muslim organisations were left to issue (rather obvious) exhortations for Muslims to provide information to police where possible. The real pain, however, will be adding to the tensions about homegrown radicalisation increased pressure to curtail immigration from Muslim countries, affecting everyone from students to professionals to imported spouses (maybe not such a bad thing, that).

While this would undoubtedly be unfortunate for the thousands who want to come to the UK and other Western countries legally to contribute positively to society as countless others have, the willingness of so many immigrant doctors to be involved in these attempts will require more than simple platitudes to address. For the already troubled immigration debate, deep soul searching on all sides may be necessary.

Terror Strategy implies a calculated and strategic objective. The only apparent objective in these attackes is an emotional victory which would've undermined the new Prime Ministers ability to inturn undermine the initial decision by Tony Blair to take part in the Iraq war. I'm not even implying a conspiracy theory, but only the pointlessness of the attacks in the broader aims of terror. No real moral calls on the Ummah, no objectively meaningful target (besides a targetting an airport used by many muslims), no political aims for any group. Its just stupid and unconstructive ... even for a purely vindictive act.

I completely disagree with Zahed when he says it was more than blind luck that enabled the police to catch the Glasgow bombers. Actually, if the two bombs in London had blown up, there would be no cell-phone calls to trace to 'Glasgow and without that no arrests. This was hundred percent luck. Had the police caught any of these people BEFORE they attempted the acts, it would have been good police work or inmformants or whatever. But catching them after the act? Too late!

In the same vein, had this plot succeeded and hundreds died, people would not have seen the act as an isolated act. Had this succeeded there would have been a massive man-hunt and nobody would have objected. Now that the bombers have been shown to be 'incompetent', people are relaxing. Military planning and execution is extremely difficult - imagine the US Army with all its resources goofing up the rescue attempt in the deserts of Iran! Why call these guys incompetent when they were working with bare minimum resources and under the scrutiny of all the world's law enforcement agencies!

Make no mistake - these were deadly dangerous and highly competent people who ran out of luck.

To think this is isolated because no life was lost, is to jump the gun.

Go ahead and accuse me of Islamophobia, but think before you do that.

Weiss, we would not accuse you of being an Islamaphobe, nor should you accuse anyone of being a Christo-zion-phobe when we criticize those Christianists who helped and succeeded to push for the Iraq war based on lies and Armageddon complexes, which has led to hundreds of thousands of lost civilian lives, far greater--far far greater--than any of the potential loss in the UK, which would also be a great tragedy. Whether organized from a cave, a ghetto, church pew, zionist lobby meeting, or behind cherry-wood desks at a nation's capital, --it's all evil, all wrong, and confront the message that both Jesus and Muhammad tried to convey (peace be upon them both). ALL extremism is implicated and should be denounced.

Zahed, we still don't know if these doctors were affiliated with Al Qaeda. However, it is absolutely certain that all of them are affiliated with NHS.

Perhaps people should stop chasing around blaming Islam and take a hard look at Britain's National Health Service. Is this phenomenon something endemic to its culture? Too insular and not multicultural enough? Perhaps increased moral and sensitivity training is required? Would increased financial aid help?

That's right, Sol. And I think the Israeli school system, not zionism or judaism, should be implicated as little Israeli school girls left cute notes and drawings with hearts on bombs later dropped on school children in Lebanon, who were, of course, unhuman, according to the milignancy spreading through your ilk. Love that puny little mind of yours.

Nice comment, migocup. Its always telling how quickly the zealots for zion seize upon negative media sensationalism about Islam and Muslims, even though no one has been charged.
It seems that every few months, the US and UK uncover "plots" to keep their respective populations in fear and supportive of policies which reap terrorism.

When people commit terrorist acts in Britain and America, authorities are lucky that they are able to arrest the people they think are responsible for those acts. But as this article discusses http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051015&articleId=1089 ,
when British or American soldiers are caught in the act or with evidence that they would be commititing a terrorist attack in Iraq, the British and American government force the Iraqi police to give up the suspected British and American terrorists, without any trial.

Weiss is right. We shouldn't treat this as an isolated incident. Those Moslems are out to kill us all. Their religion teaches them to kill. They are all involved in a giant conspiracy to destroy the West. And the Sun is made from a mixture of rotting apples and celuloid.

Here is an interesting article that should be included when talking about terrorism in Britain

UK agents 'did have role in IRA bomb atrocities' at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1869019,00.html

Or, on the other hand, irfy, the moon is made of cheese and there will be no other islamic terror plot ever in the world! woo hoo!

Sadly, there are plenty of Islamist (as opposed to Islamic) terror plots. I hope anti-terror agencies, with the help of local Muslim community members and the general public, are able to thwart as many of these as possible.

On the other hand, I know Islamists like bin-Ladin will be most pleased by attempts of people like yourself to marginalise innocent Muslims by spreading this false gospel that there is something inherently violent about Muslims and their cultures.

After all, there really is no difference between your goals and those of bin-Ladin. Your marginalising propaganda serves his purposes.

Weisskoph is a fine example of a typical jewish extremist troll. The moon is not made out of cheese, but zionists are certainly full of shit. War is God's way of teaching Americans about geography.

Irfy,

Islamist and Islamic are different words that describe the same problem. The problem they both symbolize to us non-muslims is the dogma of Islam.

Whether you justify that dogma as a non-violent and 'Islamic' - such as proselytizing that Islam is the only true religion OR vioelnt and 'Islamist' such as the suicide-bombers, it makes little difference. It does not matter, because one can morph into another depending on the power that the practitioner commands.

If you are a hard-working, productive member of society with a lot to lose, but still want some dogma to follow, you may choose the Islamic way; if you have nothing to lose you may choose the Islamist dogma.

But the bottom line is, many an 'Islamist' started as an 'Islamic'. Such as these doctors and the 9-11 jihadis, who were sons of the well off Saudis. These doctors probably started as Islamic dogmatists with a lot to lose but somewhere along the way they transformed into Islamist dogmatists who ended up seeking martyrdom.

Like that old IBM poster said 'THINK!' It meant 'think for your self'.

I think, therefore I am Muslim.

Your problem, Weiss, is that you think every Muslim is a potential terrorist. At least that's what you want. In this respect, there is no difference between you and al-Qaeda.

By seeking to paint all Muslims as terrorists, by trying to marginalise Muslims, people like you are doing al-Qaeda's work. You don't need a secret cell to operate within. Your rhetoric is enough for bin-Ladin.

>> "It seems that every few months, the US and UK uncover "plots" to keep their respective populations in fear and supportive of policies which reap terrorism."

btwfm Please tell me you dont think this is part of a conspiracy! I am going to have a bout of depression if you think it is

Weiss, Islam is not a problem, the only problem is prejudice in people of all religions, much like you displayed in your jilted "Islamists started as Islamic" explanation of terrorism. Maybe if you 'think for yourself', you can see that dogma in any religion or worldview is causing harm to the world

They all start small. Terrorism is an acquired trait; no one is genetically pre-disposed to becoming a terrorist.

If you calmly listen to me (or read me) you will see that I am saying that all Islamists started as Islamic. I never said all Islamic people will end up as Islamists. As to whether I am doing Bin laden's work for him, I say that by sticking to 7th century ideas of law and order of a medieval society, you guys are doing a better job of gathering recruits for him; I doubt if any fool would be influenced by my ideas to go attack muslims!

What I am pointing out to you from the outside is that the difference is not easy to make out; because both the practicing Islamic and the terrorist Islamist people display an overzealous attitude about Islam that is uncomfortable to watch. As uncomfortable as it is to watch the orthodox jews, so also is it to watch bearded guys and burka clad women; what makes beards and burkas far worse than jewish riglets, is we have seen too many beards and burkas being used as covers for bombs.

If there was a militant terrorist movement in Christianity, there would really be not any disagreement between them and the right-wing Christians who just want to convert everyone else, when it comes to ideas about the supremacy of Christianity.

Andraa, I don't believe in conspiracy theories, especially not the type that jewish fanatics like weisskoph are promoting.
That being said, I do believe in conspiracy FACTS. I do not believe the governments of the US and UK are truthful, in fact I think they are terrorists who pose a far greater threat to life and liberty then the Islamist menace around every corner we're told about. I've lived long enough and studied enough history to know that fear is a time tested way of manipulating a population.
The track record of the US and UK is testament to that.

Really? If US and UK are places where there is so much fear, how come you can say anything you want in the US and UK but not in Saudi Arabia?
You should try saying things like 'FahdBeheadingAdultererWomaninPublicBarabaricallyTomakeBenefitGloryofWahabiIslam' in Saudi Arabia.

You might get a surprise ride in King Fahd's private limo and an exclusive chat with the executioner too!

Weisskopf,

Why do you leave out the fact that the United States recruited and trained Osama Ben Laden and his fellow Muslims to fight its proxy war in Afghanistan against the Russians? The defeat of the Russians facilitated the collapse of the Soviet Union; this made the United States the number one super power in the world. In the meanwhile, Afghanistan was left in ruins and millions had died.

Why do you leave out the fact that Israel financially supported Hamas and allowed it to flourish, as a rival to the secular Yasser Arafet.

So called "democracies" collaborate with Muslim extremists, and then when things backfire they ask the average Muslim why aren’t they doing anything about it?

Regarding Saudi Arabia, everyone is always complaining about the human rights violations in that country. Why isn’t anyone asking the United States to stop accepting hundreds of billions (or is it trillions) of investment dollars from Saudi Arabia? Why doesn’t the United States “place sanctions” against Saudi Arabia and stop accepting all that money from them.

Randall,

I am neither speaking for the US nor for Israel. All I am doing pointing out the stupidity of people who actually sit in the cozy comfort of a free democracy and say they are living in fear. They have no idea what fear is!

As to your litany of wrongs committed by the US, that is what global politics is all about; compromising with the strong, using the fools, waiting for the opportune time to gain advantage. Always has been this way and will always be. You can wish for a Utopian world where all is fair, and I hope your wish comes true, but don't hold your breath!