Friday, 6 July 2012
Seven arrested on suspicon of terror offences after arms found in car

This is bizarre. Either this is a red herring designed to tie up police time, or the terrorists really are as thick as those lampooned in Four Lions, or I am missing something, possibly a career as a master criminal myself.

From The Telegraph and the BBC

West Midlands Police said one man from West Yorkshire and six from the West Midlands are being questioned on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism following a series of arrests this week.

A spokesman said: "The arrests followed a routine stop of a vehicle by police on the M1 motorway in South Yorkshire on Saturday, June 30. The car was impounded on suspicion of having no insurance. Firearms, offensive weapons and other material were later found hidden inside, prompting police to take action to trace and arrest the driver, passenger and others suspected of being involved."

Police said three men aged 23, 26 and 27 from Sparkhill, Birmingham, were arrested on Tuesday morning.  Three more suspects, a 22-year-old from Alum Rock, Birmingham, a 24-year-old from the Moseley area of the city, and a 22-year-old from Smethwick, West Midlands, were arrested on Wednesday evening. A 43-year old man from Kirklees, West Yorkshire, was detained yesterday.

The BBC understands the arrests are not linked to the Olympics or the arrests of six terror suspects in London on Thursday. Det Ch Supt Kenny Bell, head of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, said: "As soon as the items were discovered in the impounded vehicle, our priority was to protect the public by pursuing and arresting those we believed to be involved."

The items recovered from the vehicle are undergoing forensic analysis and searches are being carried out at the addresses of those in custody. Detectives were given extra time to question the three men arrested on Tuesday after the initial 48-hour detention period expired. They now have until next Tuesday morning to charge or release the men, or apply for further time.

If I were transporting weapons and contraband in my car I would make damn sure the car was taxed, insured, MOTed, 100% legal and that I drove in such a way as to minimise attracting police attention as far as possible. If my car was impounded with the what with inside pertinent to a plot I would 1) alert my co-conspirators that the plot was compromised 3) take whatever evasive action seemed necessary 3) vanish.  

Posted on 07/06/2012 5:49 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Comments
6 Jul 2012
Send an emailsuzy

Could just be a 'normal' Muslim crime story - in Birmingham Pakistani crime is rife, drug dealing gangs are unbiquitous, guns are widespread. Could just be Pakistani gangs gun running between Yorkshire and Birmingham.



6 Jul 2012
Sue R

I understand that insuring something is forbidden in Islam, so so of the more devout ones may refuse to take out insurance on religious grounds.  One day someone  might bring a cse under discrimination law.  That would interesting.



7 Jul 2012
Send an emailChristina McIntosh

 Esmerelda - I read your final comment and I must admit I laughed.

You really shouldn't give them good advice...

However.  Remember Our Lord's line, 'Faithful in little, faithful also in much"?  The principle also applies, I think, in the negative: "Unfaithful in little, unfaithful also in much".

It just may be that the kind of person who has that level of contempt for the non-Muslim society within which he lives, that leads him to plot to blow up large portions of it, will also manifest that contempt in lesser ways: in refusing to insure his car and/ or by small or great traffic infractions.

I know I've heard, somewhere, the apocryphal story of the policeman who pulls over the erratic driver and finds a murder victim in the boot.  And I do know that the Muslim guy who attacked a Jewish centre in Seattle was actually pulled over by a cop on his way there, for a traffic offence of some kind, though it wasn't something that warranted an arrest or being taken off the road; if only the cop had had a stronger Cop Sense, he might have insisted on searching the car, and found the weapon, and murder might have been averted.  And I know that in the USA two Muslim males who were pulled over by highway cops for speeding were discovered to have improvised explosives in the boot.

When the New York police arrested fare jumpers on the subway, and ran full background checks on them, and did body searches, lots of times they found concealed weapons, illegal weapons, and people who had warrants out for their arrest.

The moral of this story, for every Sergeant Plod, every humble highway cop, all over the Lands of the Infidels, is this: if you pull up a Muslim driver who has been speeding/ running lights/ driving erratically and/ or breaching traffic regs, or whose car looks a bit sus, trust your gut.  check that registration and insurance. Check that licence.  Check that identity. Check that laptop you saw someone trying to put out of sight; check the boot to see what's in it...If there's a creature swathed in a burqa, make sure you find out who's under it...it may not even be a woman, it might be a hairy male with size nine shoes.  (The rule of 'someone breaking little rules might well be breaking bigger ones' also applies, of course, to common non-Muslim criminals; however, in the case of Muslims, if they identify as Muslims that simple fact tells one that they are identifying with an Organisation that inculcates contempt for and aggression toward everything other than itself; so that there is always a real possibility they may be translating that aggression into action).