BBC Newsnight: A wave of cynicism hits the blog (terror scare) [View All]

[CJCRANE]

"It turns out yesterday was a good day to open up the Newsnight blog: 150+ people have weighed into the debate on yesterday's alleged terror plot. As you saw on Newsnight last night, and as the BBC's Asian Network found on its phone-in this morning, there is a wave of cynicism and mistrust about what the government is telling us in the wake of the attacks. It is not confined to Muslims; also it is completely absent from American viewers/'readers. But it breaks down into three positions:

1) Some people believe that yesterday's alleged plot was staged by the British state - they also believe that 9/11 and 7/7 were carried out by the security services of the west, or Israel.

2) Others, remembering Forest Gate and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, doubt the ability of the Metropolitan Police to get the right people; fear that innocent people may have been caught up in yesterday's arrests. A variant of this view is that it is "all too convenient" that John Reid makes a speech on terror one day and the next day a major terror plot is discovered, right in the middle of a politically damaging war in Lebanon....

3) A third view laments the fact that while US security sources seem to be spewing out detail (an alleged suicide tape; and alleged wire transfer of money; names of the accused; deep detail about the Pakistan connection) the UK police and broadcast media are locked in a conspiracy of silence."

More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2006/08/a_wave_of_cynicism_hits_the_blog.html