Reginald
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2002
- Messages
- 1,621
Following my comments in this thread about the way that (IMO) we are losing the war against terror. I am dismayed to find that any sense of proportion in the reporting, both by the various governments involved and the media (in this case the BBC) is getting completely twisted out of shape.
A group of terrorists have apparently been discovered creating a chemical laden bomb. Yet what was the chemical that the terrorists were going to load this bomb with? Osmium Tetroxide. Not only are the various news agencies desperate to make this reasonably innocuous chemical seem like more of a threat than it could expected to be, but the terrorist didn’t have any of the stuff in the first place!.
So what would be the next report? Terrorists have no nuclear material and they are going to make a bomb out of it?.
There are a couple of articles about this incident (or lack of incident) on the BBC website. The first and almost amusing thing to notice here is the link to the radio interview with Prof.Alistair Hay. He can’t, (all due respect to his intellectual honesty) make this stuff be the highly dangerous compound that the interviewer seems to be hunting for him to make it. In the article itself there are references to osmium tetroxide, penned by the BBC journo for example...
Well yes, indeed. But not half as deadly as the distributing explosion is in a confined space!
Since I started writing this (the Forum is down here at the moment and I am doing this on a WP) a new article has appeared….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3604857.stm
Interestingly enough, apart from the basics of osmium tetroxide we have now introduced a further nail biting dimension namely….
Yep…we got “Radioactive” in there too (without any suggestion that the terrorists were going to use radioactives or ever intended to use radioactives). This vile, despicable substance…is there no end to the evil of it!
Unfortunately, to me this is just more of the same scare mongering, fed out by the respective governments and “bummed up” by a sensation seeking press, spreading the very fear that the terrorists require. The plot was “foiled”. So far no arrests have been reported, the people who don’t yet seem to have been arrested had none of the chemical they were going to put in a bomb, I presume they didn’t yet have a bomb.
This morning on Radio 4, UK home Secretary David Blunkett claims that the foiling of this plot vindicates the government's continued warnings about the terror threat and the continued implementation of the UK’s anti-terror tactics. Sorry to appear cynical Mr B, but with all due respect I no longer think it is my best interest that is being served. As it was put in yet another article....
...I do appreciate the work they do, I would appreciate it a whole lot more if it was done silently and efficiently in the background, without people such as yourself assisting the terrorists in their work of spreading terror.
So in the final analysis, what actual weapon have they wielded against us? Yep, the Government and the press, as lethal and as terrifying a combination as any bomb maker could ever hope to mix!
A group of terrorists have apparently been discovered creating a chemical laden bomb. Yet what was the chemical that the terrorists were going to load this bomb with? Osmium Tetroxide. Not only are the various news agencies desperate to make this reasonably innocuous chemical seem like more of a threat than it could expected to be, but the terrorist didn’t have any of the stuff in the first place!.
So what would be the next report? Terrorists have no nuclear material and they are going to make a bomb out of it?.
There are a couple of articles about this incident (or lack of incident) on the BBC website. The first and almost amusing thing to notice here is the link to the radio interview with Prof.Alistair Hay. He can’t, (all due respect to his intellectual honesty) make this stuff be the highly dangerous compound that the interviewer seems to be hunting for him to make it. In the article itself there are references to osmium tetroxide, penned by the BBC journo for example...
So are literally thousands of other chemicals many hundreds of which I can buy over the counter……...
Well yes, indeed. But not half as deadly as the distributing explosion is in a confined space!
Since I started writing this (the Forum is down here at the moment and I am doing this on a WP) a new article has appeared….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3604857.stm
Interestingly enough, apart from the basics of osmium tetroxide we have now introduced a further nail biting dimension namely….
Yep…we got “Radioactive” in there too (without any suggestion that the terrorists were going to use radioactives or ever intended to use radioactives). This vile, despicable substance…is there no end to the evil of it!
Unfortunately, to me this is just more of the same scare mongering, fed out by the respective governments and “bummed up” by a sensation seeking press, spreading the very fear that the terrorists require. The plot was “foiled”. So far no arrests have been reported, the people who don’t yet seem to have been arrested had none of the chemical they were going to put in a bomb, I presume they didn’t yet have a bomb.
This morning on Radio 4, UK home Secretary David Blunkett claims that the foiling of this plot vindicates the government's continued warnings about the terror threat and the continued implementation of the UK’s anti-terror tactics. Sorry to appear cynical Mr B, but with all due respect I no longer think it is my best interest that is being served. As it was put in yet another article....
...I do appreciate the work they do, I would appreciate it a whole lot more if it was done silently and efficiently in the background, without people such as yourself assisting the terrorists in their work of spreading terror.
So in the final analysis, what actual weapon have they wielded against us? Yep, the Government and the press, as lethal and as terrifying a combination as any bomb maker could ever hope to mix!