Andrew Sullivan Questions The Timing

I just asked, in the post below, if Andrew Sullivan would call the UK a rogue nation because they're holding the SkyBomb terorists in custody without charges.

Turns out, he already pretty much did.

Delicious. Such sweet, sweet crazy I can already feel it going straight to my thighs.

The Alleged UK Terror Plot
16 Aug 2006 09:58 am

So far, no one has been charged in the alleged terror plot to blow up several airplanes across the Atlantic. No evidence has been produced supporting the contention that such a plot was indeed in the works. Forgive me if my skepticism just ratcheted up a little notch. Under a law that the Tories helped weaken, the suspects can be held without charges for up to 28 days. Those days are ticking by. Remember: the British authorities had all these people under surveillance; they did not want to act last week; there was no imminent threat of anything but a possible "dummy-run," whatever deranged guest-bloggers at Malkin say. (Correction, please.) Bush and Blair discussed whether to throw Britain's airports into chaos over the weekend before the crackdown occurred. [!!?!!]
...

I'd be interested in the number of plotters who had passports. How could they even stage a dummy-run with no passports? And what bomb-making materials did they actually have? These seem like legitimate questions to me; the British authorities have produced no evidence so far. If the only evidence they have was from torturing someone in Pakistan, then they have nothing that can stand up in anything like a court. I wonder if this story is going to get more interesting. I wonder if Lieberman's defeat, the resilience of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the emergence of a Hezbollah-style government in Iraq had any bearing on the decision by Bush and Blair to pre-empt the British police and order this alleged plot disabled. I wish I didn't find these questions popping into my head. But the alternative is to trust the Bush administration.

Been there. Done that. Learned my lesson.

Hell hath no fury like a man-bitch spurned.

PS, Andrew: Coming by passports is no difficult trick for a terrorist. A lot of them will have ten passports. See, they're forged.

I continue to be both intrigued and delighted by this notion the hard left has that the British are verrrrry concerned about Joe Fucking Lieberman's electoral fate.

Bonus: I was just writing the left needs there to never be a coercive interrogation that results in useful intelligence if they are to maintain their absurd stance that avoiding coercion costs us nothing, as it's not useful anyway.

If coercion or outright torture are sometimes useful, they have to retreat from that childish position and answer the more adult question, "How many innocent lives will you sacrifice to spare a terrorist pain and discomfort?"

They don't want to answer that, of course. They'd prefer to insist that such a trade-off is purely hypothetical.

Thus, Andrew Sullivan needs the SkyBomb plot to be essentially a hoax if he is to avoid recanting his last two years' worth of screeching about coercion and "rogue nations."

There are two things Andrew Sullivan wants:

1) Gay marriage; and

2) To always be able to claim he's right and to never confess major error.

Note those two goals of Sullivan's are definitely not ranked in order of importance.

Sweetie adds...

Why are the UK and US authorities taking so long to brief Andrew on the investigation details? It's almost as if he's not part of either country's law enforcement groups.

She suggests appeasing him by giving him a big shiny Anti-Torture Police badge purchased from a Spencer's gifts.

Hello, Michelle Readers: If you're reading this because you don't much like Andrew Sullivan, you'll probably enjoy this.

Evidence For St. Andrew of the Sacred Heart-Ache's Readers: Try here.

Nope, no evidence there. All just a confabulation of Bush and Blair to, ummmmm, help Joe Lieberman. Yeah. The Brits are all queer for Joe Lieberman. He's like the fucking BEATLES, man, only without the baggage of Ringo.

Sullivan, you crazy fuck, you've really gone off the rails this time. You've been getting closer and closer to the Townhouse/Kos crowd, and your reputation -- such that it is -- will be forever marred by this.

You've stepped over the edge and become a virtual 9/11 "Truth"er, seeing dark conspiracies everywhere.

You friggin' narcissistic tool. Postulating a cooked-up conspiracy just so you wouldn't be forced to admit you might have been wrong about torture never being useful or warranted?

What were you thinking?

Well, I hope you had a nice career. You had a nice run. I almost didn't mind your turning TNR into The Advocate for a year or a year and a half, whatever your tenure was.

Say goodbye to respectability.

Don't worry, though. Bill Maher will still have you on.

And that's what counts.

posted by Ace at 09:37 AM

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