There is a cost borne of division in politics. Brit PM Brown promises changes to current policy. Some advocates want Brown to pull Brits out of Iraq. How does Al Quaeda respond?
Would Al Quaeda be trying to bomb London if it were apparent that the subsequent resolve would strengthen?
The dithering of Brit Labor Party in the face of the war on terror has an effect. US Democrats have a similar effect in their opposition to conservative policy. Decent people get killed when Al Quaeda feel they can make a political point. So would a car bomb have been put in London's theater district if Blair was still pm?
Update here
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_London_car_bombs
Apparently experts agree with me about this being a message to Brown from Al Quaeda
'Terror' doctors quizzed in WA and NSW
ReplyDeletefrom news.com.au
TWO West Australian hospitals have been raided and a further five foreign doctors questioned as Australian inquiries connected to the foiled United Kingdom terrorist attacks spread to two more states.
WA police yesterday interviewed and released four Indian doctors working on 457 skilled migrant visas after raiding the Kalgoorlie and Royal Perth hospitals, along with two more undisclosed premises.
Another overseas doctor in New South Wales was interviewed by counter-terrorism police yesterday.
Thousands of documents
Federal police also are combing through 31,000 documents – some of them in foreign languages – seized in the raids, including on laptop computers.
The raids follow this week's arrest of Gold Coast Hospital registrar Mohammed Haneef, an Indian national who was recruited by Queensland Health from Liverpool, England.
Haneef was detained at the request of British police in connection with the foiled bombings at Glasgow airport and outside a London nightclub five days ago.
Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said several items had been taken by police for further examination, including mobile phones and laptop computers.
Those questioned were all linked to each other, he said.
"Not about doctors"
"The linkages are with people who are known to each other and that's prompting the further inquiries," he said.
"This is not about doctors. These are people who are of similar nationalities, and the warrants that were executed in WA were in Kalgoorlie and Royal Perth Hospital."
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty said the doctors interviewed by police were foreign-trained and had worked in Britain.
He urged Australians not to be concerned about the medical profession.
"What we want to do is just reassure people this is not an investigation into the medical practitioners per se. It's an investigation in support of the investigation by the London Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command," Mr Keelty said.
Close liasion
Seven people have been arrested in Britain over the attacks, all of them doctors or with medical links.
Mr Ruddock said the AFP and WA police had been working in close cooperation and were liaising closely with other Australian authorities and the UK.
"It should be emphasised that a presumption of innocence exists in every police inquiry. No one has been arrested, charged or detained in relation to these inquiries," he said.
"There is no suggestion of any threat to the people of WA and the Australian Government has received no information which would result in an increased threat.
"As this is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
Terrorism alert remains medium
He said the national terrorism alert remained at medium, as it had been since 2001.
The AFP has been given until Monday night to hold Dr Haneef in Queensland during which time it will peruse a huge number of documents seized during the Australian raids.
"Obviously (the documents) take some time to work through, particularly if they're in a foreign language," Mr Keelty said.
"No backlash"
WA Premier Alan Carpenter said he did not want to see a backlash against overseas-trained doctors.
"There is nothing that has been presented to us by the police that would lead us to believe that we have got issues with our overseas trained doctors, Indian-trained or otherwise," he said.
"I would not like to see a common slur against our Indian or other overseas-trained doctors because of what's happening in Britain or what's going on with the investigation in Brisbane.
"That would be very, very regrettable."
Mr Carpenter said he expected the Federal Government to review the screening