So You'd Like It If You Was Blown Up, Like.........

Following the arrests in the North-West of a number of suspects (or guilty as not charged to use tabloid parlance) we've had various attempts at guessing what the alleged target was. The Star conjectured that the Liverpool v Chelsea game was the proposed venue, which beggars belief given the timings of the raids, which were BROUGHT FORWARD after Quick's cock-up. Is it conceivable that the action was to be taken as the men entered Anfield? Or were they to be followed a la de Menezes until someone decided to take them out?

There is no concrete information coming out for obvious reasons, but this is not good enough for our tabloid boys. They need something to feed to their readers. The Star's piece of crap was written by Bill Martin so he must be satisfied that he has done the job without actually providing evidence, merely weak words such as,

• Police were last night investigating claims that any planned attack might be football related.
  
  
  They will probe whether Manchester United’s stadium at Old Trafford might also have been in the terrorists’ sights.

Claims? By whom? Oh right.

Of course, in a previous raid on terrorist suspects, one unconvicted man had a Man Utd ticket stub in his flat; a crime in itself but not yet illegal or damning evidence of Al Quaida membership.

• There is no immediate suggestion the stadium was the target but one of the raids was just three miles away.

But of course the headline is 'Footie Terror Plot' and the first line is:

• Fears were growing over a bomb threat to last night’s Euro cup clash

It's a win-win situation for hacks like Bill. I don't know the details of the intelligence garnered by the security forces but neither do the journos. And if they did, another 'D' Notice (or equivalent) would be slapped faster than a Star Bird's arse.

This all comes in the run-up to the remembrance of Hillsborough so the thought of atrocities at the match in this area are bound to be an emotive issue. So, Daily Star, I hope your sales slump like The Sun did after Hillsborough for your deliberate scaremongering.

ANTI-TERROR BILLBOARD

Of course we should be alert, not as the old joke goes, because Britain needs Lerts, but because the police have asked us to do so. Apparently there is a poster asking vigilant citizens to look for suspicious rubbish so James Holden (link wasn't working) via Boingboing has a billboard generator for you to use.

Be ready for the usual 'so you think terrorists are great' argument from anyone from the 'send 'em back' brigade.

No sooner had I written that last sentence when I saw that our fiend (sic) Simon Darby of the odious BNP has put a picture of the Daily Star headline above on his blog. Go figure. He also believes thar arrests in Clithroe vindicates BNP opposition to a mosque there.