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THERE IS ONLY ONE REASON

The Sydney Morning Herald last year added its own root-causes theory (shown below in expensive bold) to a piece sourced from London’s Sunday Times:

Osama bin Laden ordered the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks to organise a massive strike on Heathrow Airport to punish Tony Blair for his support of the US, it has been revealed.

The planned attack was to take place only days after 9/11; before Afghanistan, and before Iraq. Reader complaints to the SMH generated this response:

Your comments have been noted by the Foreign Editor, who has investigated the matter. The Sunday Times story says bin Laden wanted the Heathrow attack because Blair was considered al-Qaeda’s principle enemy. There is only one reason Prime Minister Blair/the UK is so high on the hit list, and that is their support for the US.

Your ongoing feedback and opinions will help us publish a better newspaper.

Obviously not. Maybe a few dozen sackings will change things. In any case, it’s interesting to consider the above in light of recent reports:

Mohammad Sadique Khan, the oldest of the four London suicide bombers, trained in a Jemaah Islamiah camp in the Southern Philippines during 2001 and was hosted on a visit to South-East Asia by the mastermind of the October 2002 Bali attack, Hambali ...

A BBC report on the Bali-London links yesterday suggested that the British-born Khan, who worked as a primary school teacher’s aide with the children of immigrant families, was in contact with al-Qaeda figures for five years before the London bombings.

What say you now, SMH? Does it remain so damn obvious that Islamist antipathy towards the UK is primarily driven by “support for the US”? From James Paterson, who was on to this earlier:

It makes an absolute mockery of those on the left who continue to assert Iraq was to blame for the Underground bombings. Newsflash - the guy who planned and led the attacks was training to be a terrorist 5 years before it occurred, before even the Afghanistan invasion - let alone the Iraq one.

Either this bloke has a bloody good clairvoyant, or he imports his hatred from elsewhere.

Meanwhile, at the sackings link above:

In Melbourne, journalists appeared less hostile to the redundancies, with one predicting there would be a “stampede out of here” due to flagging morale under The Age’s editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan.

Let’s hope nobody is being insensitive towards lovable Andrew.

Posted by Tim B. on 10/27/2005 at 11:15 AM
  1. The Sunday Times story says bin Laden wanted the Heathrow attack because Blair was considered al-Qaeda’s principle enemy.

    Blair is paid by al Qaeda to oppose principles.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2005 10 27 at 12:44 PM • permalink

  2. The problem of ‘root causes’ is simple.  Whatever angers the left must also anger al-Qaeda.

    A kind of ventriloquism - and not hard to figure out who the dummies are.

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2005 10 27 at 12:48 PM • permalink

  3. Osama bin Laden ordered the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks to organise a massive strike on Heathrow Airport to punish Tony Blair for his support of the US, it has been revealed.

    Don’t tell me, let me guess. Had Osama’s boys successfully carried out the Heathrow attack, the “alleged” part would have been added by the SMH to that, too.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 10 27 at 01:33 PM • permalink

  4. One more reason to despise the moonbat left.  Not that they keep hammering on root causes, or “phantom” WMD, or Western foreign policy.  But that they keep hammering on these things, even though they themselves don’t believe it.  Dishonesty personified.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2005 10 27 at 01:58 PM • permalink

  5. I truly wish we’d all stop using the designation “Mastermind” to refer to these thugs whose mission, strategy and tactical plans are one in the same - kill as many infidels as possible until only “true believers” are left.  “Ringleader” might be a better label.

    Posted by debo.v2 on 2005 10 27 at 03:57 PM • permalink

  6. #5 Agreed Debo.

    How about - “mass murdering, pig defiling bastard”? It could be abbreviated to MMPDB (great for headlines… and accurate too).

    —Nora

    Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 27 at 05:01 PM • permalink

  7. “Principal enemy”, not “principle enemy”.
    Principal is the adjective, principle is the noun.

    Posted by Honkie Hammer on 2005 10 27 at 06:46 PM • permalink

  8. Waaaaaait a minit, there Hammer.  You think ‘freedom fighters’ gots time to consider grammar and word usage and spelling and stuff like that?  They’re busy building bombs.

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2005 10 27 at 06:49 PM • permalink

  9. Woah! The SMH went nuts on the bolding and italics.

    No wonder they cant afford to pay their editorial staff…

    Posted by CraigS on 2005 10 27 at 08:26 PM • permalink

  10. I agree debo.  The west develops jets and has schools teaching you how to fly them a little.  The jihadist masterminds counter with that technological super-weapon, boxcutters.

    Their whole strategy is dependent on the everyday trust and open societies we take for granted.

    Posted by Assistant Village Idiot on 2005 10 27 at 08:27 PM • permalink

  11. EXCELLENT stuff Tim!
    Thank you!
    Common sense will win out in the end.
    Maybe it won’t take an attack on Paris or Berlin for reasonable people to finally work out “WHY?”

    Posted by Brian on 2005 10 27 at 08:44 PM • permalink

  12. debo, yes

    We are constantly told about how these operations are minutely planned, cleverly executed etc.

    Suicide bombings are the most effective way for stupid people to murder others but how ‘brilliant’ is any attack that also kills the murderer?

    Faisal Devji talks about these ‘masterminds’:

    al-Qaeda is mostly made up of pissed-off posh kids who spend their days fantasising about jihad in chatrooms on the world wide web and occasionally muster up enough nerve to strap a homemade bomb to themselves and murder some civilians.
    http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CADD4.htm

    What matters most is media coverage and here terrorists do know what they’re doing.  What’s the value of a bombing if no one hears about it?

    This is a dilemma for the MSM - or should be - but there is no excuse for the enthusiastic way they pimp themselves to these bastards.

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2005 10 27 at 10:15 PM • permalink

  13. The Sydney Morning Herald last year added its own root-causes theory (shown below in expensive bold) ...

    Tim!  Uh no!  You used Karl’s Chateau Rothschild 1918 Bold Tags.  The really good ones.  You know he was planning on using those for his response to Fitzgerald’s decision.  Either:  “INDICT THIS BIATCH!”

    Or, “Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s decision not to issue an indictment once again confirms our special place in history.  And to all our fellow brethen on the left, KISS THIS BIATCH!”

    Ok, I’ll throw in the hopper the Kystalhamburgeristan bold tags that The Real JeffS bought.  But if they break when Karl delivers his statement, it’s all on your head Aussie.

    Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 27 at 11:09 PM • permalink

  14. #11 Hopefully not, but I’ve got my money on the fact that they will keep asking the question for a while yet.

    Posted by JamesP on 2005 10 28 at 12:37 AM • permalink

  15. #12 - Inurbanus - refer old post - Terrorism’s Noisy Partner, for the $ value of MSM PR given, liberally, to terrorists.

    Posted by Ck on 2005 10 28 at 03:03 AM • permalink

  16. Ck
    Wow.  11 billion US in media PR time in Israel just for 2002.

    BBC World’s coverage of Iraq is almost exclusively devoted to bombings.  They spread the good word of terror with lip-smacking relish.

    Small things like elections are wedged in reluctantly and with so many caveats and dire warnings that giant turnouts and strong majorities are turned into prophecies of doom.

    And ________________ [fill in the blank] for anyone or anything that will help them score points against Bush.

    Zarqawi couldn’t have a better or cheaper press agency.

    How many billion I wonder?  As much as was taken from the mouths of Iraqi children by those who wanted to give peace a chance?

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2005 10 28 at 03:50 AM • permalink

  17. “Blair was considered al-Qaeda’s principle enemy”
    Just him? So when O-B-L AKA A-QA realise that their goals are totally incompatible with the aspirations of the Western Democracies PLUS China and India they are going to do what?
    Bluff it out? Infiltrate the Forbidden City and convince the Chinese that it is only glorious to get rich if you are also Islamic?
    Appeal to India to change? Ever had your face slapped by a 12-handed Hindu Deity? 
    Nuke Israel and chance it that either they or the USA will not neutron a few Arab cities while leaving the oil terminals standing?

    Posted by blogstrop on 2005 10 28 at 09:01 AM • permalink

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