I absoluely agree. It is entirely possible that the British authorities are just as clueless about what happened as the rest of us. Thing is. just as there is a reflexive 'Ali Qaeda and the Forty Thieves did it' school of thought, there is also a reflexive, "we cannot believe them anymore given all the lies, and, given that they have done such things before, who is to say they did not do it themselves" school of thought. I think that both approaches are problematic. However, given that the discourse on 'terrorism' in the 21st Century has become so polarized, the moment you step in either direction, whichever school of thought you do not subscribe you dismisses you as a 'an apologist for empire' on the one hand, or 'a conspiracy theorist' on the other.
Again, all I am saying is let us remain open minded about what has happened, while acknowledging whatever biases we might have.
Joe W.
>From: Daniel Davies <d_squared_2002 at yahoo.co.uk>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: [lbo-talk] Liston vs Ali and other conspiracies
>Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:28:23 +0100 (BST)
>
>
>On the specifics of the Liston/Ali fight, if Liston did throw the fight
>then he
>had excellent timing because he went down immediately after having taken an
>absolute pearl of a shot. In general, I don't put much store in "power" in
>the
>heavyweight division. At middleweight or lower, there are big differences
>in
>punching power; some boxers have the strength to knock an opponent spark
>out
>and some don't. But any professional heavyweight boxer, more or less by
>the
>physics of things, will knock you out if he lands a punch cleanly, at
>that's
>what happened in the Liston fight.
>
>On the London bombing conspiracy theories, it is true that there are a
>number
>of things that don't add up. In particular, I don't believe that the TATP
>factory in Leeds was the source of the Tube bombs, because a) TATP is an
>unstable explosive uniquely unsuited to being carried all the way from
>Leeds to
>London and b) it's very powerful compared to the physical damage done by
>the
>Tube bombs. I think that the original information (that the bombers were
>using
>military TNT) was correct. But what has most likely happened here is that
>the
>police have taken the opportunity of the bombings to round up a load of
>other
>bad lads that they'd had their eye on and bundle them up into the bombings
>investigation. As conspiracies go, this isn't much of one; nor is it all
>that
>surprising to me that the boys in blue also decided to cover up their
>actual
>sources of information about the identity of the bombers by relying on that
>old
>chestnut, the (presumably fireproof) "driving licence found in the
>wreckage".
>
>It is not all that much of a coincidence that there was a disaster planning
>simulation exercise going on on that day. There are always disaster
>planning
>exercises of one kind or another going on in London; that's why there are
>firms
>whose business is to do them, and it is not particularly suprising that one
>of
>those firms was going about its business on the 7th of July.
>
>The Mossad bloke in the Jerusalem Post did not "know more than anyone
>else".
>His article is in fact very short on actual facts and much longer on
>pompous
>speculation. The sentence "The multiple, simultaneous explosions that took
>place today on the London transportation system were the work of
>perpetrators
>who had an operational capacity of considerable scope" is actually wrong.
>He
>also gets one important operational detail wrong; he talks about Russell
>Square
>as being a "target area" but it wasn't. Passengers came out of Russell
>Square
>Tube station but the bomb actually exploded in King's Cross and the bus
>bomb
>exploded in Tavistock Place. The media reports all referred to Russell
>Square
>and this bloke read them.
>
>The rewriting of the timeline puzzles me a hell of a lot and something does
>seem very phony indeed about the police claim that they didn't hear
>anything
>about the Edgeware Road bomb until someone dialled 999 half an hour after
>it
>actually happened. But in order to get from this curious anomaly, to the
>conclusion that it was all put together by British security forces, you
>would
>need a *lot* of intermediate premises, none of which seem to me to be
>well-supported.
>
>Now, given that the Aussies have skittled us 92 for 7, where's all that
>bloody
>sympathy when we need it?
>
>best
>dd
>
>
>
>
>
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