Why we must pray this man is telling us the truth
by STEPHEN GLOVER
16th August 2006
Ambitious: could Home Secretary John Reid have exaggerated the seriousness of the airport plot?
3 reasons not to trust Home Secretary John Reid
1) He's a Scotsman
2) He's a member of the New Labour Party
3) He's an ex-Communist
Only a fool would deny that this country is threatened by extreme Islamic terrorists. We can argue about the degree to which Britain's role in the invasion of Iraq has exacerbated this threat, but that it exists is surely beyond dispute.
The bombings in London on July 7 last year, and the failed attempt to repeat the carnage two weeks later, provide all the proof we need that a tiny minority of largely home-grown Muslim extremists, sometimes encouraged by wild imams operating in this country, represent a considerable danger to our well-being.
Why, then, can I not suppress misgivings about the latest foiled plot, uncovered by British police last Thursday, which supposedly would have led to the destruction of up to ten aircraft, and the loss of thousands of lives? I am afraid it has a lot to do with the character and demeanour of the Home Secretary, John Reid, who has seized control of the presentation of the Government's case.
Try as I might, I find it impossible to believe everything Dr Reid says. In one sense this is not really his fault. We have been told so many lies by this Government since the 'war on terror' was declared by President George W. Bush nearly five years ago, that it is not unreasonable to treat every new announcement with a pinch of salt.
Bogus
We were misled over Saddam Hussein's 'weapons of mass destruction', which the Government had good reason to believe did not exist. Then came the bogus scare story involving the deadly poison ricin, and the dispatch of tanks to Heathrow, both of which seemed designed to increase our sense of alarm, and thereby to offer justification for the war against Iraq. More recently, there was the raid in East London, in which two Muslim brothers were wrongly identified as terrorists by the police.
So Dr Reid comes with a great deal of history that has little or nothing to do with him personally — though we shouldn't forget he has been a minister in a Government that has earned its reputation for mendacity. One is entitled to be sceptical even before he opens his mouth. My difficulty is that once he has opened it, my scepticism, far from dwindling, begins to increase for reasons that have everything to do with Dr Reid.
There is something about Dr Reid's very appearance that induces distrust. He partly looks the Communist bruiser he once was. Age has mellowed him a little, so that now he also resembles a Soviet apparatchik presenting the latest Politburo statistics about soaring tractor production, the veracity of which no one has the remotest possibility of confirming.
More important than his rather sinister appearance are his words and actions. Last Thursday, with his almost equally bizarre (and also Scottish) sidekick, Douglas Alexander, sitting next to him, he announced that a plot to cause 'unprecedented' loss of life had been foiled, and 24 people arrested. He did not tell us how close these suspects were to committing their atrocity.
Dr Reid's statement that all the ringleaders had been arrested may have jeopardised the suspects' right to a fair trial. That is, if they come to trial. Continuing police activity may suggest that the police do not have all the evidence they need to bring a case against all the suspects. Indeed, one of them has already been released.
Were these men really on the verge of committing a greater act of terror than the attack on the World Trade Centre, as Dr Reid has said? Only time will tell. Even now there are grounds for wondering whether was really necessary to paralyse the world's aeronautical system, causing distress to tens of thousands of people.
The effect of the chaos, and of the tough new rules affecting air travellers, has inevitably been to increase public alarm.
It may turn out that the Government had no option save to take the drastic action did, but I cannot entirely rid my mind of previous scare stories, such as the bogus ricin plot, which were intended to plunge us into a state of fear.
Plotting
Amid these concerns, which cannot yet be answered one way or the other, there is evidence that Dr Reid has tried use the crisis to further his own political ambitions to succeed Tony Blair. He seized control of the situation by chairing vital security meetings, and effectively supplanting John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is supposed to be in charge during Mr Blair's absence on holiday.
Then it emerged that the Home Secretary had originally planned to deliver a speech last Wednesday about immigration. In the event, his spine-chilling address, warning that Muslim fanatics posed the biggest threat to Britain since Hitler, came after he had been alerted by the police and MI5 that a major terrorist attack was imminent. Twelve hours later, his words appeared eerily accurate after police arrested suspects accused of plotting to bring down aircraft bound for America.
This suggests to me that, even if he did not exaggerate the severity of the foiled plot, Dr Reid planned to use the crisis to advance his political career, first by representing himself as a kind of prophet with an instant success rate, and then by shoving aside Mr Prescott, who is reportedly incandescent. Apart from everything else, this is no way to run a country. One also wonders why Mr Blair's assumed heir apparent Gordon Brown (another Scotsman), who is on paternity leave, did not think it right to return to London to restore order.
Perhaps he has taken the view that, far from improving his chances of becoming the next Prime Minister, Dr Reid has, in fact, dramatically reduced them. For the spectacle of this sinister old Marxist seizing control is enough to make most of us feel like taking to the hills. It should also persuade Labour MPs that this rather scary figure is unlikely ever to work his way into the affections of traditionally right-wing Middle England (although will be popular in more left-wing Scotland).
Nor should they, or any of us, ever forget that this same man who has been masterminding the British end of the 'war on terror', and winning plaudits from President Bush, was once investigated by the then Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Elizabeth Filkin, who accused him of 'making threats of a particularly disturbing kind' to a potential witness.
Apocalyptic
In a sense, we must hope that Dr Reid has not exaggerated the seriousness of last week's plot, and that the inconvenience suffered by travellers was entirely justified. I say 'in a sense' because most of us will sleep more happily in our beds if it transpires that the plot was less advanced, and less potentially apocalyptic in its effects, than Dr Reid has suggested.
But in that case this Government's already shaky credibility would be shattered. This might give comfort to its political opponents, but the effect on public opinion of 'crying wolf' yet again would be disastrous. Many people would wrongly draw the conclusion that there really is no terrorist threat to worry about. This would be a very dangerous misconception.
For this reason, we must again hope that this nakedly ambitious ex-Marxist bruiser has been telling us nothing more or less than the complete truth.
dailymail.co.uk
by STEPHEN GLOVER
16th August 2006
Ambitious: could Home Secretary John Reid have exaggerated the seriousness of the airport plot?
3 reasons not to trust Home Secretary John Reid
1) He's a Scotsman
2) He's a member of the New Labour Party
3) He's an ex-Communist
Only a fool would deny that this country is threatened by extreme Islamic terrorists. We can argue about the degree to which Britain's role in the invasion of Iraq has exacerbated this threat, but that it exists is surely beyond dispute.
The bombings in London on July 7 last year, and the failed attempt to repeat the carnage two weeks later, provide all the proof we need that a tiny minority of largely home-grown Muslim extremists, sometimes encouraged by wild imams operating in this country, represent a considerable danger to our well-being.
Why, then, can I not suppress misgivings about the latest foiled plot, uncovered by British police last Thursday, which supposedly would have led to the destruction of up to ten aircraft, and the loss of thousands of lives? I am afraid it has a lot to do with the character and demeanour of the Home Secretary, John Reid, who has seized control of the presentation of the Government's case.
Try as I might, I find it impossible to believe everything Dr Reid says. In one sense this is not really his fault. We have been told so many lies by this Government since the 'war on terror' was declared by President George W. Bush nearly five years ago, that it is not unreasonable to treat every new announcement with a pinch of salt.
Bogus
We were misled over Saddam Hussein's 'weapons of mass destruction', which the Government had good reason to believe did not exist. Then came the bogus scare story involving the deadly poison ricin, and the dispatch of tanks to Heathrow, both of which seemed designed to increase our sense of alarm, and thereby to offer justification for the war against Iraq. More recently, there was the raid in East London, in which two Muslim brothers were wrongly identified as terrorists by the police.
So Dr Reid comes with a great deal of history that has little or nothing to do with him personally — though we shouldn't forget he has been a minister in a Government that has earned its reputation for mendacity. One is entitled to be sceptical even before he opens his mouth. My difficulty is that once he has opened it, my scepticism, far from dwindling, begins to increase for reasons that have everything to do with Dr Reid.
There is something about Dr Reid's very appearance that induces distrust. He partly looks the Communist bruiser he once was. Age has mellowed him a little, so that now he also resembles a Soviet apparatchik presenting the latest Politburo statistics about soaring tractor production, the veracity of which no one has the remotest possibility of confirming.
More important than his rather sinister appearance are his words and actions. Last Thursday, with his almost equally bizarre (and also Scottish) sidekick, Douglas Alexander, sitting next to him, he announced that a plot to cause 'unprecedented' loss of life had been foiled, and 24 people arrested. He did not tell us how close these suspects were to committing their atrocity.
Dr Reid's statement that all the ringleaders had been arrested may have jeopardised the suspects' right to a fair trial. That is, if they come to trial. Continuing police activity may suggest that the police do not have all the evidence they need to bring a case against all the suspects. Indeed, one of them has already been released.
Were these men really on the verge of committing a greater act of terror than the attack on the World Trade Centre, as Dr Reid has said? Only time will tell. Even now there are grounds for wondering whether was really necessary to paralyse the world's aeronautical system, causing distress to tens of thousands of people.
The effect of the chaos, and of the tough new rules affecting air travellers, has inevitably been to increase public alarm.
It may turn out that the Government had no option save to take the drastic action did, but I cannot entirely rid my mind of previous scare stories, such as the bogus ricin plot, which were intended to plunge us into a state of fear.
Plotting
Amid these concerns, which cannot yet be answered one way or the other, there is evidence that Dr Reid has tried use the crisis to further his own political ambitions to succeed Tony Blair. He seized control of the situation by chairing vital security meetings, and effectively supplanting John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is supposed to be in charge during Mr Blair's absence on holiday.
Then it emerged that the Home Secretary had originally planned to deliver a speech last Wednesday about immigration. In the event, his spine-chilling address, warning that Muslim fanatics posed the biggest threat to Britain since Hitler, came after he had been alerted by the police and MI5 that a major terrorist attack was imminent. Twelve hours later, his words appeared eerily accurate after police arrested suspects accused of plotting to bring down aircraft bound for America.
This suggests to me that, even if he did not exaggerate the severity of the foiled plot, Dr Reid planned to use the crisis to advance his political career, first by representing himself as a kind of prophet with an instant success rate, and then by shoving aside Mr Prescott, who is reportedly incandescent. Apart from everything else, this is no way to run a country. One also wonders why Mr Blair's assumed heir apparent Gordon Brown (another Scotsman), who is on paternity leave, did not think it right to return to London to restore order.
Perhaps he has taken the view that, far from improving his chances of becoming the next Prime Minister, Dr Reid has, in fact, dramatically reduced them. For the spectacle of this sinister old Marxist seizing control is enough to make most of us feel like taking to the hills. It should also persuade Labour MPs that this rather scary figure is unlikely ever to work his way into the affections of traditionally right-wing Middle England (although will be popular in more left-wing Scotland).
Nor should they, or any of us, ever forget that this same man who has been masterminding the British end of the 'war on terror', and winning plaudits from President Bush, was once investigated by the then Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Elizabeth Filkin, who accused him of 'making threats of a particularly disturbing kind' to a potential witness.
Apocalyptic
In a sense, we must hope that Dr Reid has not exaggerated the seriousness of last week's plot, and that the inconvenience suffered by travellers was entirely justified. I say 'in a sense' because most of us will sleep more happily in our beds if it transpires that the plot was less advanced, and less potentially apocalyptic in its effects, than Dr Reid has suggested.
But in that case this Government's already shaky credibility would be shattered. This might give comfort to its political opponents, but the effect on public opinion of 'crying wolf' yet again would be disastrous. Many people would wrongly draw the conclusion that there really is no terrorist threat to worry about. This would be a very dangerous misconception.
For this reason, we must again hope that this nakedly ambitious ex-Marxist bruiser has been telling us nothing more or less than the complete truth.
dailymail.co.uk
