>>21 terrorists they caught<<

21 people were arrested.

Sheila, so will your husband be wearing that kilt on the plane? Have a safe trip.

Or perhaps we only put such measures into action when we have hard, solid evidence that a group are planning an attack, in order to cause minimal inconvenience to people the rest of the time?

My response to that is, the US has at least 50 times the number of flights going in and out of its airports than the UK on a daily basis, and the US manages both increased aviation security AND flight departures with a minimal amount of discomfort on both counts.

We are fully aware that we DO have something to worry about, it's just that we don't deal with it in such an hysterical and knee-jerk fashion. It' not our way.

Fully aware? If that were the case, you would have been doing a whole lot MORE long before this time, since the threat facing the UK is greater than almost any western country in the world-had the UK been doing what it was supposed to do, you wouldn't have this mess now at the airports. It's called strategic, long-term defense planning, Tallulah-NOT a strong suit of the British, I might add.

It is only very very recently that the UK has gotten its act together on homeland security matters-AFTER the London bombings, which were a wake-up call that the rest of the world had already paid great heed to-let me just say this: The office of Usama Bin Laden was not closed in London until after the Kenya Embassy bombings in 1998-EVERY other western intelligence service had urged Britain to close this office LONG before these bombings occurred, but the UK, oh no, wouldn't do it, -you see, the UK is always a day late, and a dollar short, when it comes to taking proactive measures to repel terrorist attacks-it has not been said by a former US counter-terrorism official that London is a "Star Wars bar scene of Islamic radicals" for nothing. This has been written about by law enforcement and security officials several times.

The UK was very very lucky here-and they know it. Luck, in such matters of terrorist attacks, is a huge factor. And if anyone thinks that Scotland Yard has foiled this plot unilaterally, then they are extremely naive. It is ALWAYS a worldwide cooperative intelligence effort-and it is good intelligence that defeats the war on terror-intelligence on what's going on in your own country, and stringent security measures -particularly in the aviation arena, where the greatest threat lies-that thwarts those attacks.

"I'm busy looking for a small, fashionable transparent purse"

There's no such thing. The handbag du jour will be a Zip-lock baggie.

"I think some of the messages are a bit mixed. The official BAA (British Airports Authority) website says:-

"In brief: Hand baggage restrictions are in place; Passengers will be handsearched; Footwear and all items (including pushchairs and walking aids) must be x-ray screened; Liquids will be removed from the passenger."

Liquids will be removed from the passenger? That sound painful.

My goodness, I'd probably just go with NO luggage, go shopping when I get where I'm going, and ship everything home.

Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is on the air right now announcing that he has called the National Gaurd to Logan Airport to add a final layer of security to the boarding area. Additional searches will be conducted immediately before boarding.

Good for him. Considering the fact that the Islamic psychopaths who carried out the 9/11 attacks boarded at Logan I think this was a wise move.

Somebody posted this link:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/muslimprotest.asp

Ok, I admit: I am not very bright. Please clue me in--so these people are upset because we're not Islam? Is that what they mean by "slandering" Islam? Because I haven't seen Islam being bashed anywhere, what are they talking about? One of the signs even said "Freedom Go To Hell". I can't wrap my brain around that..how could you not want freedom? They said "The Real Holocaust Is On It's Way"..do they mean for all the non-muslims? Because, my God, I will convert! Just make it stop.

The demonstrations were triggered by the publication in a Danish newspaper of caricatures demeaning Islamic beliefs.

I thought the cartoons were sophomoric and in poor taste, and the denigrating of an important religion inexcusable.

girlspytravel

The British have been handling terrorism for a very long time. In fact pretty well in my opinion and as a voter my opinion counts, I don't think yours does.

In your previous rantings you said the British posters <<were moaning and groaning about on the other threads-about how silly and burdensome and onerous the TSA security checkpoints>>

To my knowledge there has never been one single posting about not wanting to cooperate with airport security by a British person. I think your confusing your rantings with the immigration checks of finger printing etc. A fingerprint would not have helped in this situation once again.

I suggest you get back to your solitaire and leave it to the professionals.

Geordie

The pictures from demonstration were from the time of the publication of cartoons considered blasphemous to Islam. They were extremists. This doesn't excuse it, but it should not be taken as typical of all Islam. I try not to take ? Pat Buchanan or Ian Paisley as typical of all Christians.

...or George W Bush.

So, where was the outrage when there was a "cartoon" of Secretary Rice giving birth to a monkey? So far I've seen nothing peaceful about Islam and if Islam is peace, where's the outrage about the extremists? What if the Klu Klux Clan starting kidnapping blacks and beheading them etc. Would you be outraged? All I see from Islam is demonstrations, kidnapping, beheading, suicide bombong, death to this, death to that. Perhaps it's the fault of the press, perhaps they show nothing else, but at this point, that's all I see, and the goal is the total distruction of the western world.

girlspytravel

Yep,we Brits are a pretty stupid lot. You´re right .. always a day late, half a sandwich short of a picnic, absolutely no long term defense planning at all..... if we had, we probably wouldn´t have supported the US as we did and brought all this calamity upon our own heads.

Luisah - LOL on your last line!

Gypsygirl - I was just wondering if that if the intelligence in the US was so good, then maybe you would still have two very large buildings standing in NY. Every day I go past a horse-shoe shaped memorial in Hyde Park to the soldiers and horses blown up one summer's day by the IRA. London is the most heavily surveillanced city in the world thanks to those fun people. This next problem is a step up for the security forces here. One of the things that I have always admired about the way things are done here is it is done with subtlety. Sure, there could be attacks on our civil liberties but I think they key thing is to keep panic levels down. I don't think for one minute if the US authorities were faced with a similar situation that they would behave any differently, ie cancelling flights, inconveniencing travellers, etc.

I thought of this old song this morning.
Still true today.

Murray Anne
A Little Good News

I rolled out this morning
Kids had the mornin' news show on
Bryant Gumbel was talkin' 'bout the fighting in Lebanon
Some senator was squawkin' 'bout the bad economy
It's gonna get worse you see, we need a change in policy

There's a local paper rolled up in a rubber band
One more sad story's one more than I can stand
Just once how I'd like to see the headline say
"Not much to print today, can't find nothin' bad to say", because

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down
Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

I'll come home this evenin'
I'll bet that the news will be the same
Somebody takes a hostage, somebody steals a plane
How I wanna hear the anchor man talk about a county fair
And how we cleaned up the air, how everybody learned to care
Whoa, tell me

Nobody was assassinated in the whole Third World today
And in the streets of Ireland, all the children had to do was play
And everybody loves everybody in the good old USA
We sure could use a little good news today

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down

Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

JandaO - thanks for that. You meant Anne Murray, right?

Perhaps Crefloors, you may like to do some further research before making such sweeping statements about an entire religion, most of whom do not subscribe to violence.

I would advise you to avoid using the tabloid press as your source of (dis)information. They feed on the ignorance and paranoia of many people which unfortunately plays right into the hands of the extremists.

One should look at the the atrocities over time that have been committed in the name of christianity, fascism & communism; as well as supposed civil rights (Oklahoma bombing).

AllyPally
Yes anne murray of course. :0)

Thanks for your interest, Nikki. We'll check luggage (oh, shit! the HAT!!!!). (Do you think I can wear it?)

KMR wouldn't been seen dead with pantyhose, noe.The principle of this tube affair is exactly the same. We sent the sgian dubh and kilt pin by recorded delivery post to my cousin a couple of days ago.

There's actually a serious point on this "Freedom" thing. The cartoons were seen by pretty mainstream Muslims to be blasphemous. They were published, where they were published under principles of freedom of speech.

The argument was that "our" freedom encroached on their beliefs.

Personally I wouldn not legislate against the right to publish, but i do believe that freedoms come with responsibilities, and it was NOT responsible to publish them. Similarly, Muslims were free to protest the publication, but had the responsibility to do so legitimately (as most who protested, did).

Girlspytravel, what a pile of nonsense. Have a nice day.

Geordie,

What about that British reporter who, upon arrival in the US, was cuffed, jailed and mailed back to the UK on the basis of "expired credentials"?