New Terrorist Alert

[StephenG]

Received the following today:

UK POLICE ADVISE THAT INFORMATION HAS BEEN RECEIVED THAT AL QAEDA ARE SWITCHING THEIR FOCUS ON AIRPORTS AND AIR TRANSPORT TO WATER RESOURCES. IS THIS THE START OF RAM-A-DAM?

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Wow.  : Terrible joke.

 

[Veniamin]

Received the following today:

UK POLICE ADVISE THAT INFORMATION HAS BEEN RECEIVED THAT AL QAEDA ARE SWITCHING THEIR FOCUS ON AIRPORTS AND AIR TRANSPORT TO WATER RESOURCES. IS THIS THE START OF RAM-A-DAM?

Don't give the Religion of Peace Butchering People Infidel Swine any ideas!

 

[StephenG]

I also received the following from my brother, made even more biteing by being delivered by voicemail.

ON JULY 1ST ENGLAND JOINED THE REST OF THE UK IN OUTLAWING SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES. MUSLIM PASSENGERS MUST EXSTINGUISH THEMSELVES BEFORE ENTERING GLASGOW AIRPORT TERMINAL.

 

[Asteriktos]

Don't give the Religion of Peace Butchering People Infidel Swine any ideas!

Yeah, I'm sure doctors and engineers and such are very unimaginative! Oy. Know your enemy! 

 

[Veniamin]

Yeah, I'm sure doctors and engineers and such are very unimaginative! Oy. Know your enemy! 

Doesn't mean we need to be helping them out, you know.  

 

[greekischristian]

Yeah, I'm sure doctors and engineers and such are very unimaginative! Oy. Know your enemy! 

Well, one can't help but question their strategic reasoning, we have thousands of miles of oil pipelines, thousands of miles of railways, hundreds of vital dams, hundres of bridges and tunnels vital to various cities' commerce...all of which are either unprotected or have very poor security. So what's the best approach they can come up with? Attempting to sneak through heavily defended airports to make SUICIDE attacks : ...no wonder people question their intellectual abilities, if I had armies of people willing to carry out guerilla warfare I think I could manage more than one suicide attack in 6 years that was very localized in effect.

 

[StephenG]

I think the Western world's various security and law enforcement agencies have been quite successful but am mindful of the earlier response of an PIRA terrorist when tackled about the success of the British security forces. He said you have been lucky so far, we only have to be lucky once!

Al Qaeda has attracted a great number of the cream of Islamic professionals, medics, engineers and others. They are all too well aware of potential targets and they are exceedingly unlikely to be influenced by my postings. (And I and my family have experience of being terrorist targets).

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

(And I and my family have experience of being terrorist targets).

If you don't mind, I'd like to hear of your experience. If it's too painful still, please don't feel obligated.

I know terrorism seems rather remote for most of us, but in high school I knew a person whose father had worked in the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. He told stories of how the floor collapsed right in front of his desk and he was about six feet from falling to his death. Also, since the building was built on a hill, on one side the entrance was on the second floor. The firefighters accidentally discovered him and his coworkers trapped under debris while they were looking for the daycare on the first floor. Amazing stories.

 

[jmbejdl]

I know terrorism seems rather remote for most of us.

It doesn't seem remote to me. My father's barracks was bombed by the IRA, I was close enough to hear the explosion that destroyed the Royal Marines music school in Deal, I went to school with two cousins who had each lost their fathers in Northern Ireland (in the same bombing), not to mention with two of the Farrar-Hockleys (General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley was either their father or uncle, can't quite remember, but one of his children was killed by a car bomb), the school was a military school and we had numerous bomb scares/threats throughout my time there and to cap it all a family friend was quite seriously injured when Manchester city centre was bombed. I was also evacuated from central London train stations due to suspect devices and/or overt threats (at least one of which really was a bomb) on at least three occasions that I recall. Terrorism really seems pretty much normal to me, just a fact of life (which is incredibly sad now that writing this down has forced me to think about it). All that's changed is that instead of it being the Irish who are trying to kill us, it's the Muslims.

James

 

[ozgeorge]

James, I think your post is one of the most powerful things I've read on this forum.

All that's changed is that instead of it being the Irish who are trying to kill us, it's the Muslims.

Hatred is hatred whether it carries a shamrock or wears a hijab.

 

[StephenG]

Having spent years studying the car, and carrying an extending mirror to look under the vehicle I don't underestimate criminal terrorists of whatever persuasion. Most Irish folk, whether Orange or Green, were not terrorists, nor are most Mohammedans. Just the criminal fringe of both communities. Fuelled by grudges, real and imagined, and one sided grasps of history.

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Good point. The Irish have perpetuated many acts of terrorism on each other and on the British over the last century and a half--and they're, IMHO, more Catholic than the Pope. ;D

BTW, I usually wear white on St. Patrick's Day, as it's the only colour not claimed by a religious group. I like to think it's for St. Patrick's Orthodox.

 

[Aristocles]

The Irish are Orthodox? I thought WE were the ones "more Catholic than the Pope".

 

[Fr. George]

BTW, I usually wear white on St. Patrick's Day, as it's the only colour not claimed by a religious group. I like to think it's for St. Patrick's Orthodox. 

Nice choice.... We wear white for Pascha, Funerals.... Add St Patty's day, and you have a nice connection.

 

[Fr. George]

The Irish are Orthodox? I thought WE were the ones "more Catholic than the Pope".

Um, we are... At least in the words of a Benedictine monk I know

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

The Irish are Orthodox? I thought WE were the ones "more Catholic than the Pope".

St. Patrick is Orthodox. The Irish have tended to hold tenaciously to Tradition and to resist the changes that the Pope has made over the years, which is indeed a very Orthodox idea. I view Irish Catholicism as being closer to Orthodoxy than perhaps any other form of the Catholic faith (but I may be biased). Hence, "more Catholic than the Pope."

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Nice choice.... We wear white for Pascha, Funerals.... Add St Patty's day, and you have a nice connection.

Yep. Death and resurrection surely were close to the heart of the man who brought Christianity to us who worshipped the trees. Don't forget chrismation in your list of white-clothed days.

 

[StephenG]

Many who might claim to standing up for Ireland's Catholic population either ignore or are igorant that the Papacy has since the time of King Henry 11 acknowledged England's overlordship of Ireland. A scholarly acquaintance says that the only Irish who can be Irish nationalists without being in contradiction of their faith are those Irish who are Orthodox?

Certainly the Celtic Church was resistant to some's of Rome's mores and interference in their affairs than the infant English church.

Many presbyterians also are igorant of the discrimination against them by the establishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland, and agitated and worked for Irish autonomy alongside their Catholic neighbours. But as more than one protestant friend of mine educated in the north has said, 'we weren't taught any Irish history'. And like the observation of many a mainland Greek of Cypriots, the Unionist population are British when it suits them.

 

[ytterbiumanalyst]

A scholarly acquaintance says that the only Irish who can be Irish nationalists without being in contradiction of their faith are those Irish who are Orthodox?

Thank you for the licence to fly the Three Crowns proudly.

 

[Fr. George]

Yep. Death and resurrection surely were close to the heart of the man who brought Christianity to us who worshipped the trees. Don't forget chrismation in your list of white-clothed days.

Thanks for the addendum!