Unraveling?

From an AP report on the investigation into the alleged UK liquid-bomb plot. (More and more, it appears necessary to be sure to include the word "alleged" when referring to this caper.)

"Home Secretary John Reid, Britain's chief law-and-order official, acknowledged that some of the suspects would likely not be charged with major criminal offenses, but said there was mounting evidence of a substantial nature to back the allegations."

There wasn't "evidence of a substantial nature" before they arrested these people?

The article also reports:

"Two top Pakistani intelligence agents said Wednesday that the would-be bombers wanted to carry out an al-Qaida-style attack to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 strikes, but were too 'inexperienced' to carry out the plot.

"The two senior agents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if the terror cell members arrested in Pakistan and Britain had appropriate weapons and explosives training, they could have emulated massive attacks like those five years ago in New York and Washington as well as the July 7, 2005, London bombings."

And if my bubbe* had roller skates, she'd be a trolley car.

And then there's this note:

"The detainees in Britain and Pakistan had not attended terror-training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan and had relied on information gleaned from text books on how to make bombs, the officials said."

Books? No experiments? No drills? Were these people plotters or just talkers?

Remember that Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said last week that, "Certainly in terms of the complexity, the sophistication, the international dimension and the number of people involved, this plot has the hallmarks of an al-Qaida-type plot." whether or not the plot was serious--or existed at all--Chertoff's conclusion appears more and more dubious.

It's still too early to tell, but this thing is beginning to look like yet another instance of crying wolf.

* "Bubbe:" Yiddish for grandmother. The expression used is the bowdlerized version of a common, if slightly coarse, saying, but in this case I like the sanitized one better. Both say essentially what FDR meant when he said "'If' is the biggest word in the English language."