Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Rather an odd way of putting it...

When I heard that there had been terror arrests in Blackburn, I obviously assumed that these were connected to Islamist groups plotting another spectacular. I mean, you would, wouldn't you? The conjunction of terrorism and Lancashire leads one to one obvious conclusion. So I was surprised when I read the front page of the Telegraph to see this:
Fourth man held over Brown death threat
Police investigating an alleged threat to kill the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, have arrested a 25-year-old white man.
An unusual identifier you'd have thought, but perhaps he, like those nutjobs in Denver, was a supremacist or an extreme nationalist or something. In fact it's only when you click through to the story (where the 25 year old white man has become a 25 year old man) that you see what the story is about:
Anti-terrorism sources have indicated that the arrests related to a statement on an Arabic language website, al-ekhlaas.net, which often carries messages from senior members of al-Qaeda.

The message, in English, appeared briefly in January and demanded the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, along with the release of radical clerics from Belmarsh prison in south-east London.
It said if there was no co-operation "al-Qaeda in Britain will target all the political leaders especially Tony Blair and Gordan [sic] Brown".

Do you think there might be a slightly more relevant identifier that could be applied to this 25 year old?

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