another insight is provided by craig murray on his blog.

"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.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.

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.

We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why? I think the answer to that is plain. Both in desperate domestic political trouble, they longed for "Another 9/11". The intelligence from Pakistan, however dodgy, gave them a new 9/11 they could sell to the media. The media has bought, wholesale, all the rubbish they have been shovelled."

http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/weblog.html

A moment of reality desperately needs to be introduced here. Of course the Israelis have collaborated with the Pentagon in developing strategies to address projected threats from Hezbollah, and a number of other forces. This is what governments do as a matter of course.

Do MPACUK readers believe that the UK does not regularly explore various crisis scenarios to develop appropriate responses. It is only a couple of months since London went though an exercise to test its capacity to respond to a dirty bomb, and to refine its planned responses. It is a well known fact that the IDF, Sherut Bitachon and Mossad regularly have contacts with UK and other EU security forces. Israeli defense personnel give lectures at defence colleges and instutions in UK.

UK arms manufacturers maintain contacts with the IDF as a matter of course to follow-up sales and find out how well their weapons worked in battle. UK is the worlds second largest arms exporter.

We all know that for years that Israeli security forces have covertly cooperated with "moderate" Arab and Muslim states where their interests converged.

Let's get real for once- Seymour Hersch is a journalist who makes lots of money out of lurid stories that are not really very credible.

Please read this and reflect:America's pretext to invading Cuba."In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities. The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.... The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years."
DONT BELEIVE ME LOOK FOR YOURSELF
View pdf file name northwood-cuba pretext http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf

This may have nothing to do with the topic right now, but why isn't anyone noticing the awful sate of plea of the Christians in the middle east?

The current conflict in Lebanon has caused almost a quarter of the Lebanese population to relocate, some within their own country, others to Syria and Jordan. The Lebanese refugees are in addition to hundreds of thousands of other displaced people, who have already fled other arenas of conflict in the Middle East. This communiqué focuses on Christians displaced in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and the West Bank, estimated to number between 550,000 and 750,000.

Estimated statistics
Approximate figures for the number of Christian refugees are as follows, beginning with those displaced by the conflict in Lebanon which began on 12th July.

Lebanese Christians who have fled to other parts of Lebanon - 50,000
Lebanese Christians who have fled to Syria - 33,000
Lebanese Christians who have fled to Jordan - 30,000
Total Lebanese Christian refugees - 113,000

In addition there were an estimated 80,000 - 100,000 Filipino, Sri Lankan and other "third country nationals" working in south Lebanon, many of whom were Christians. It is believed that most have left. Some Filipinos are known to have reached Syria, but the whereabouts of the majority is unknown.

In the last few weeks many Arab Israelis, including Christians, have fled northern Israel to seek safety elsewhere. Hundreds have gone to the West Bank e.g. Bethlehem and Jericho. Others have moved via Jordan to Syria. According to an agreement made between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Syrian government, up to 100,000 Palestinians will be allowed to move to Syria. (According to some estimates, 10% of the 1.4 million Arabs who live in Israel are Christians, but it is expected that those who move to Syria will include a higher percentage of Christians.)

Large numbers of Iraqi Christians have fled their country since the Gulf War (1990-91). The war which deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003 led to another surge in Christians leaving, and the increasingly ferocious anti-Christian rhetoric and violence since then have ensured that the flow of Christians out of Iraq continues.

Total of Iraqi Christians who have moved to Syria since 2003 - 190,000
The vast majority of these have arrived in the last year and settled as follows:
Aleppo area (mainly from Mosul) - 60,000
Damascus area (mainly from Baghdad) - 120,000

Iraqi Christians who have moved to Jordan since 1991 - 195,000.
Of these 45,000 have arrived in 2006.

The number of Iraqi Christians still in Iraq may now be little more than 200,000. This compares with an estimated 1,500,000 before 1990. Many of these 200,000 are themselves internally displaced, having fled to northern Iraq from Baghdad and other parts of the country.

Thus there must be between 550,000 and 750,000 displaced Christians in the Middle East at present.

R Davies: - seymour hersh is more than just another journo as you would like us to believe.

if you tie his reporting with that of craig murray and others one becomes aware that the israeli response was part of a greater strategic plan that ultimately wants to target iran and syria.

one only needs to refer to scott ritters articles and the pages of PNAC for further evidence.

I think that we have to recognise that blair is a neo conservative and if one listens to his words, the world view and intent is quite clear.

thus far there are no bombs and there are no airline tickets, so how do we get to an imminent threat?

how do we get to profiling and the want of even more police powers (government) from out of nowhere?

how do we manage to send bunker busters with a man who apparently has highest of morality as prime minister?

Sonia; You mention the Chrsitians in Lebannon. Well if you are so concerned about them why don't you and others form a group and stand up and speak against The Government and let the Government know that their Foreign Policy is CRAP (Prescott saying) and accept that this is the work of the Zionist and Neo - Cons and that it should be stopped.

I am sure there are Christians who are suffering in this act of terror as well as Muslims. But hey sorry but the USA bombs were not build with the Precision mechanism - Don't detonate if Christians in vicinity.

Precision bombs are bombs that don't fail - they Explode and have total destruction written all over them.