By politicizing the British terror case, the Bush Administration may have sabotaged it

EVERYTHING with this bunch is about politics -- including your life. Nothing is so important, so critical, so in need of special handling that it can't be sacrificed on the altar of politics designed to benefit the Bush Administration:

NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.

A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.

[snip]

At the White House, a top aide to President Bush denied the account.

[snip]

Another U.S. official, however, acknowledges there was disagreement over timing. Analysts say that in recent years, American security officials have become edgier than the British in such cases because of missed opportunities leading up to 9/11.

Aside from the timing issue, there was excellent cooperation between the British and the Americans, officials told NBC.

The British official said the Americans also argued over the timing of the arrest of suspected ringleader Rashid Rauf in Pakistan, warning that if he was not taken into custody immediately, the U.S. would "render" him or pressure the Pakistani government to arrest him.

British security was concerned that Rauf be taken into custody "in circumstances where there was due process," according to the official, so that he could be tried in British courts. Ultimately, this official says, Rauf was arrested over the objections of the British.

The official shed light on other aspects of the case, saying that while the investigation into the bombing plot began "months ago," some suspects were known to the security services even before the London subway bombings last year.

He acknowledged that authorities had conducted electronic and e-mail surveillance as well as physical surveillance of the suspects.

Monitoring of Rauf, in particular, apparently played a critical role, revealing that the plotters had tested the explosive liquid mixture they planned to use at a location outside Britain. NBC News has previously reported that the explosive mixture was tested in Pakistan. The source said the suspects in Britain had obtained at least some of the materials for the explosive but had not yet actually prepared or mixed it.

So it's entirely possible that the case against these guys may be jeopardized because this bunch of crooks running our government wanted to get Ned Lamont off the front page.

Of course the wingnuts will say that this is an argument in favor of the Bush Administration's plan to allow the Defense Department to name anyone a terrorist, at any time, and place him/her outside the judicial system and into a "system" of military so-called justice -- essentially a Soviet-style gulag, with no due process, no trial, and no rights. However, if the Administration had been willing to let the British do it their own way (which resulted in these arrests without having to resort to such tactics), perhaps there would be a better case. But with this bunch, it's more important to keep the public's eye focused on terror, because it's always worked to keep them controlled. The question is whether the American public is going to continue to allow this bunch to jerk their chain or if they're finally waking up and realizing that after billions of dollars squandered in Iraq, we're still not one iota safer.

In fact, the exposure of this plot demonstrates a new emerging threat -- home-grown terrorists. The U.K. in particular has a problem:

Furious young Muslim men crowded around the local mosque on his street, surrounded by television cameras. They complained that their friends, other young Muslim men from Walthamstow, in East London, had been unfairly accused of plotting to blow up airliners. Police guarded the home of one suspect in what authorities call a plot to kill people on an "unimaginable" scale, allegedly planned right here in Hussain's working-class neighborhood.

"Why is it not happening in some other country?" wondered Hussain, 53, a soft-spoken man in a tie and black-rimmed glasses who has lived here since he migrated from Pakistan 40 years ago. "Why is it happening here?"

The answer is that Britain has become an incubator for violent Islamic extremism, fueled by disenchantment at home and growing rage about events abroad, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In one of Europe's largest Muslim communities, young men face a lack of jobs, poor educational achievement and discrimination in a highly class-oriented culture. Prime Minister Tony Blair is the most outspoken ally of President Bush, and their policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are seen by many Muslims as aimed at Islam.

Heckuva job, Tony.