United Liberty

The Times of London reports that then Vice-President Cheney’s insistence on arresting a member of al Qaeda nearly jeopardized the investigation that led to the recent conviction of three men for plotting what some have called a second 9/11:

Dick Cheney, the former US Vice President, nearly destroyed Britain’s efforts to bring the airline bomb plotters to justice, police and intelligence experts said today.

By ordering the early arrest of Rashid Rauf, the bombers’ link man in Pakistan, Washington forced British police to detain the suspects in the UK before all the evidence had been gathered, it was claimed.

Yesterday three British Muslims - Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain and Assad Sarwar - were finally convicted of plotting to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-air in a co-ordinated attack intended to surpass the horror of 9/11. But the plotters were arrested before they had bought the airline tickets that would have been the ultimate proof of their intentions. Police fear that several key figures of the plot have remained free.

Andy Hayman, who was the Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations at the time of the plot, said he believed that the White House had grown jittery as the British updated them of the mounting evidence of a plot targeted at American cities.

Over the weekend the United Kingdom’s internet regulatory agency, The Internet Watch Foundation, blacklisted Wikipedia over concerns of “indecent images” of minors under the age of 18. The image is of the album art for a 1976 Scorpions album titled “Virgin Killer”. Beyond the problem of a centralized authority having the fiat power to blacklist sites without court order, this particular case is quite intriguing because while the image itself is quite disgusting, according to Wikimedia Foundation-

“We have no reason to believe the article, or the image contained in the article, has been held to be illegal in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world,”

No need to vote in November- the die has already been cast and you can soon buy the commemorative gold coin to prove it.  A UK company has started producing gold, silver and platinum coins featuring the profile of Senator Obama and the words, “President of the United States”.  The Democrat Party must feel pretty sure about the election’s outcome as they’ve already ordered several to hand out to the party faithful in a few weeks.  The coins wil also be produced for public consumption should there prove to be substantial demand.

Ed Morrisey had this to say-

Waking from sleep, the Conservative Party dominated municipal elections in England and Wales in the elections held Thursday, May 1. Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown is forced to retreat with some British pundits expecting Brown to step down as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party. The Labour Party has held dominance in the United Kingdom since Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997.