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The Death Of Free Speech In Britain
Robert Spencer has an excellent piece at Human Events about the dire situation in London as it relates to radical Islam.
Local British citizens are afraid to even appear on camera discussing radical Islam, because they fear…government reprisals.
For when we finally tried to assemble in another place a roundtable of concerned British citizens to discuss the problem of the Islamization of Britain, one by one the British participants dropped out. If they appeared on camera, we were told, the government could and probably would threaten their livelihood.
Any suggestion real or implied that somehow it’s a problem that radical Islam is taking over London — well that’s just hate speech.
I really hope leaders in Britain and Europe get a clue about what is happening to their countries before it’s too late.
World’s Most Expensive Coffee Is Made From Cat Droppings
A new coffee has hit the stores of London and it cost $100 per cup making it the most expensive coffee in the world. Aside from the price, what really makes this coffee unique is the fact that it’s made from cat droppings.
It might not be to everyone’s taste – and that’s not just because at £50 a cup it’s the most expensive coffee in the world.
The secret behind the special blend about to go on sale at an upmarket department store is that it is made from cats’ droppings.
While such an ingredient might leave many spluttering into their cups, Peter Jones thinks it is on to a winner.
For the rest of April, it is serving espressos, Americanos and lattes made from the droppings in its in-store coffee shop in Sloane Square, central London.
And for those who want the ultimate talking point over the after-dinner mints, the coffee beans are also on sale at £50 for 100 grams.
The store, part of the John Lewis partnership, has bought 60 packets of the exclusive blend of Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kupi Luwak bean.
The bean is rare, with less than 450lb harvested each year.
The beans are extracted from the droppings of the palm civet, a cross between a cat and a monkey which lives in Indonesia.
The civets eat the soft coffee cherries, digest the fruit pulp and excrete the beans on the forest floor, because they cannot digest the beans.
Plantation workers then collect the beans, which are sold as Luwak coffee.
The civets are said to pick the best and ripest coffee berries.
It is also thought that their gastric juices may add to the flavour.
Gastric juices adding to the flavor? That’s exactly what my coffee has been missing all these years, gastric juices! I guess I would try a cup if it were given to me, but paying $100 for a cup of sh*t is just not something I’m prepared to do at this point.
-Chris Jones
Diana Verdict: Driver And Photographers to Blame
A London jury concluded today that the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed were caused by the “grossly negligent driving” of her chauffeur, Henri Paul, and the paparazzi pursuing them.
The conclusion today comes after a six month inquest which heard testimony from over 250 witnesses. The jury, returning a majority verdict with nine in favor and two against, also concluded that by not wearing seat belts the couple contributed to their deaths.
The couple died on August 31, 1997, when their speeding car slammed into a concrete tunnel pillar while being chased through Paris by photographers in cars and on motorbikes.
Dodi’s father, the Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed still contends the couple were killed in a plot hatched by the British government to prevent Diana from giving birth to a child conceived with Dodi. However, to this day there has been no evidence that Princess Diana was even pregnant.
I don’t believe it was a conspiracy that killed Diana, but I definitely believe the paparazzi contributed significantly to her death. It’s only a matter of time until a celebrity in America is killed being chased by photographers who have absolutely no concern for anyone’s safety.
The insane tactics of the paparazzi combined with a slightly intoxicated driver and created the perfect conditions for a tragedy.
Diana’s death is a tragedy that unfortunately is destined to happen again unless new laws are drafted to put some kind of check on the lunatic paparazzi both in the U.S. and Britain.
-Chris Jones
Terrorists Take to the streets of London
Take a look at this video that was posted on Little Green Footballs. It shows Hezbollah terrorists and others marching through the streets of London. The only reason those people get away with that crap is because the Brits don’t own guns. I’d like to see Hezbollah try and march through Houston, TX.
-Chris Jones
5 Convicted in London Bomb Plot
LONDON — A judge sentenced five men to life in prison Monday for plotting to attack targets in London, including a popular nightclub, power plants and shopping mall, with bombs made from a half-ton stockpile of fertilizer.
The trial for the first time exposed connections between the defendants and the deadly 2005 al-Qaida-linked attack on the city’s transit system.
Details kept secret to ensure a fair trial showed that counterterrorism agents tracking the five men had also stumbled onto the transit plotters. And despite disturbing signs that the transit plot was in the works, the agents failed to piece them together in time to prevent the July 7, 2005 bombings that killed 52 people, testimony and official briefings during the trial showed.
The revelations are at odds with statements by Tony Blair’s government after the 2005 attack. Senior ministers, who a month earlier had lowered the country’s alert status, said the 2005 attack was unexpected and the perpetrators unknown.
Omar Khyam was found guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions made from a chemical fertilizer that could endanger life. Also found guilty were Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar, Waheed Mahmood and Alahuddin Amin.
“All of you may never be released. It’s not a foregone conclusion,” Judge Michael Astill told them.
Two others, Nabeel Hussain and Shujah Mahmood, were cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions. All were arrested on March 30, 2004.
The jury that convicted the five men deliberated for nearly a month after nearly a year of testimony in Britain’s longest terror trial. The men, all British citizens, were accused of plotting a series of attacks using more than 1,300 pounds of fertilizer they had placed in a storage unit.
Court-imposed restrictions prohibited reporters from revealing links between the men and the four 2005 suicide transit bombers until the case ended.
Counterterrorism officials acknowledged that intelligence that could have raised alarms before the July 7 transit attacks was never thoroughly investigated, explaining they were overwhelmed by seemingly more urgent threats.
A government security official gave one-on-one briefings with reporters toward the end of the trial, detailing the path that security agents had followed.
As agents monitoring the fertilizer plot listened in on a bug, they heard one of the July 7 bombers, Mohammed Siddique Khan, warn that he planned to kill non-Muslims, the security official said during the briefing, demanding anonymity to discuss sensitive details of the cases.
A tracking device was placed in Khan’s car a year before the 2005 suicide bombings and details of his phone calls and meetings with radicals were reported to Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, on at least four occasions, he said.
Khan also took militia training in Pakistan with at least some of the fertilizer plotters, a witness in the case and officials said.
But, lacking resources, MI5 never pieced together the shreds of intelligence, the official acknowledged.
“There needs to be that killer fact and it just wasn’t there,” he said, noting that Khan had used several aliases.
Mohammed Junaid Babar, an American FBI al-Qaida informant, had reported that a Briton using an alias _ later identified as Khan _ attended a Pakistan militia camp with al-Qaida linked radicals from Britain and the United States in 2003.
With accomplice Shehzad Tanweer, Khan visited Pakistan again in 2004.
A surveillance team recorded Khan and Tanweer during a 2004 operation to monitor the fertilizer plot _ bugging 100 phone lines, a vehicle and two houses. Agents also took pictures of Khan in the company of suspected terrorists.
As agents eavesdropped, Khan _ who called himself Milly _ warned he would join the “Arab mujahedeen to fight abroad.” But his threat was not uncommon or enough to prompt his arrest, the security official said.
In 2004, Babar told U.S. officials that Khan _ whom he recognized from a blurred surveillance photograph _ had sought meetings with al-Qaida leaders. But a tip to London authorities was too vague to prompt action, the official said.
Fellow transit bomber Germaine Lindsay’s phone number was later discovered among records in a separate plot officials still won’t discuss, he said. Only bomber Hasib Hussain was totally unknown.
“The government said there was no way of preventing what happened,” said Graham Foulkes, whose son David, 22, was killed by Khan’s bomb. “That was a lie.”
When the fertilizer gang were arrested in March 2004, police and MI5 uncovered 15 “essential” targets amid their associates _ those thought to be preparing imminent attacks on Britain.
Another 40 _ including Khan and Tanweer _ were ranked “desirable,” to be trailed when resources allowed.
Intelligence on Khan and his cell was pieced together only months after the attack, the official said _ when their identities and aliases were established. Charges against three alleged accomplices were leveled last month.
Links between plots appear to strengthen claims the July 7 attacks were directed by al-Qaida, a senior police official conceded, demanding anonymity to discuss the case.
Officials say since July 2005, six other planned terrorist strikes have been halted _ but that brings no comfort for Foulkes.
“The fact is,” he said. “A known terrorist was allowed to kill my son and 51 others.”
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