Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:


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324 Responses to Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

  1. Biodegradable says:

    Maybe I’m just an idiot, but I wouldn’t have recognised “Cohen” as a Jewish name

    I’m sure you’re not an idiot FTP, but Cohen, or Kohen, is one of the 12 Tribes of Israel.

    Funnily enough Nick Cohen is included on this page:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen
    Cohen (Hebrew: ??????? k?h?n’, means: “A Priest”) is a Jewish surname of biblical origins (see: Kohen). There is a DNA signature associated with the name known as the Cohen Modal Haplotype.

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  2. pounce says:

    The BBC and double standards;

    Remember this;
    TV’s Snow rejects ‘poppy fascism’
    Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow has sparked controversy by refusing to wear a Remembrance Day poppy on air in protest at “poppy fascism”.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6134906.stm

    This;
    Red poppy ‘less Christian’ claim
    A Christian lobby group has claimed the wearing of red poppies is “politically correct” and stifles debate
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6131464.stm

    This;
    When’s the right time to start wearing a poppy?
    The annual poppy appeal has just been launched, but the first flowers were sighted on lapels weeks ago. When is the right time to pin one on
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6085132.stm

    and this:
    What will you wear on Remembrance Day?,/b>
    Would you wear a white poppy?
    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=4662&&&edition=1&ttl=20070207181654

    In the name of modern debate the BBC questioned the relevance of the poppy even going as far to say that some people equate the wearing of the plastic flower as a form of fascism.
    So with that open minded stance from the BBC I wonder how this little advert happened to appear on the BBC news web without numerous contrasting viewpoints.
    http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/8936/image2wx5.jpg
    I suppose the BBC could always claim that nobody is forced to wear a red nose (W C Fields excepted ) and that the monies raised go to a very good cause.

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  3. will says:

    An amusing story

    A diplomatic gaffe marred Saturday’s inauguration of a Chinese-financed stadium in Grenada when a band performed the national anthem of Chinese rival Taiwan.

    Chinese Ambassador Qian Hongshan and scores of blue-uniformed Chinese labourers who built Queen’s Park stadium as a gift were visibly uncomfortable as Taiwan’s anthem echoed inside the 20,000-seat venue.

    http://www.canada.com/topics/news/oddities/story.html?id=0624c340-a4cb-4eed-a8c6-6f3e24281f81&k=22377

    But slightly sinister is the fact that Grenada (& no doubt other developing nations) had to sever diplomatic links with Taiwan in order to receive Chinese largesse.

    The BBC is fond of tales of US “imperialism”, but we don’t hear much about the spread of Chinese influence.

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  4. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    Biodegradable: Cohen is not a tribe of Israel. The twelve tribes were Judah, Benjamin, Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulon, Dan, Gad, Reuben, Asher, Naphthali (thirteen, actually, but Levi had no territory of its own). However, cf. also Judges 5, where the very ancient Song of Deborah mentions two Tribes – Machir and Gilead – not known elsewhere. Cohen means “priest”. The tribe of Levi was consecrated to the service of God, but not all its members were Kohens or proper priests; the Cohens were an aristocracy among the Levites, which is why priestly families hugged the title jealously for two thousand years.

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  5. FTP says:

    Biodegradable:

    I’m sure you’re not an idiot FTP, but Cohen, or Kohen, is one of the 12 Tribes of Israel.

    Funnily enough Nick Cohen is included on this page:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen

    That’s kind of what I mean though. Did the people emailing Nick Cohen go to wikipedia, look up Cohen, realise it’s a Jewish name and then start firing off anti-semitic insults at him?

    Or did somebody at some point in their life say to them – “That guy Cohen is really irritating me. Damn those Jews!” – and then they noted down Cohen as a name worthy of anti-semitic insults?

    Of course some people would already know that it’s a Jewish name, but if it’s meant to be general knowledge then I am an idiot.

    Names beginning with Mac or Mc are much more immediately recognisable, but nobody would even assume that the person bearing the name is even Scottish, never mind start throwing anti-Scottish insults at them. Yet vague Jewish names are recognised and do receive insults without any pre-planning?

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  6. FTP says:

    Biodegradable:

    I’m sure you’re not an idiot FTP, but Cohen, or Kohen, is one of the 12 Tribes of Israel.

    Funnily enough Nick Cohen is included on this page:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen

    That’s kind of what I mean though. Did the people emailing Nick Cohen go to wikipedia, look up Cohen, realise it’s a Jewish name and then start firing off anti-semitic insults at him?

    Or did somebody at some point in their life say to them – “That guy Cohen is really irritating me. Damn those Jews!” – and then they noted down Cohen as a name worthy of anti-semitic insults?

    Of course some people would already know that it’s a Jewish name, but if it’s meant to be general knowledge then I am an idiot.

    I bet if you went down the street and asked the average person to label the origins of a name the best they could do would be things like “Western European”, “Latin”, “Russian”, “Asian”. Yet the wonderfully non-racist/religionist media knows all the Jewish ones and are ready to place them in the same bracket as “evil” Israel at the drop of a hat. How come they know all the Jewish names when (I think) the general public doesn’t? Have they learnt or had them drilled into them on purpose? I think they’re anti-semitic even if they don’t know it.

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  7. FTP says:

    Damn, it posted twice. I kept getting an error while trying to post it and decided to wait a bit and try later. When I came back I edited it a bit too and I didn’t mean for the first one to go through.

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  8. ThePainter says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6337299.stm

    Is describing followers of a religion as apes or pigs any worse than describing other followers as cockroaches? The BBC only seems to find it ‘controversial’ when islam is doing the name calling.

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  9. Biodegradable says:

    Fabio P.Barbieri:
    Biodegradable: Cohen is not a tribe of Israel.

    You are right, I stand corrected. I should know better, one of my aunts married a Cohen so my three cousins are Cohen.

    FTP, I really can’t, and don’t want to answer for those antisemites that emailed Nick Cohen other than to say that I believe most people would recognise Cohen as a Jewish name, and that still doesn’t make you an idiot in my books 😉

    ThePainter:

    Do the Old or New Testaments refer to Muslims as cockroaches? Do the Bhuddist or Hindu scriptures?

    Which religion are you saying does so?

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  10. Annie Mouse says:

    Can I interest you all in next week’s “Book of the Week” on Radio4? I’m really looking forward to this – not.

    “The Lemon Tree
    15 February 2007
    By Sandy Tolan, abridged by Libby Spurrier.

    An unusual dialogue between a Palestinian man and the Israeli woman who now lives in his old home.

    Bashir is on trial for bombing a supermarket. Dalia inherits the house but questions her future in it. The lemon tree in the garden dies.”

    Another example of BBC fixation on everything east of Cyprus.

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  11. Jon says:

    “Car firms attack pollution plans”

    “The new rules will undoubtedly put up the cost of buying cars, but probably less than the manufacturers suggest, the BBC’s environment correspondent Roger Harrabin said.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6339915.stm

    How does Roger Harrabin know this – is he an economic correspondent as well as an environmentalist.? So the car manufacturers don’t know as much him. What conceit.

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  12. Jon says:

    “The snow, which is expected to fall for several hours, could be 15cm deep in hilly areas of Wales and the Midlands, and 2cm to 5cm deep in the south-east.

    The Met Office has issued an early warning of severe weather. ”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6338151.stm

    Note 2-5cm of snow in the South is “severe weather” No doubt people who hear this “severe weather warning” will take a day off work, thousands of school children will miss a day at school as the schools will close, and the country south of the Humber will come to a standstill. Have the scaremongers at the Met Office got better things to do then issue these warnings whenever we get a bit of snow.

    Just for the record here in the North east we had about 5cm of snow last night and everyone where I work turned up. Probably because we weren’t informed that it was severe by the Met Office.

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  13. Jon says:

    I was right –

    “Schools in Dudley in the West Midlands will be closed on Thursday because of the heavy snow predicted for the morning rush hour, with a council spokesman saying the decision had been made after advice from the Met Office and the council’s emergency planning team.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6338423.stm

    And it hasn’t even started to snow there yet.

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  14. FTP says:

    Are they having a joke about 2-5cm being “severe weather”?

    Where I live (the Hebrides), it’s considered severe when the road falls into the sea. I remember one time (only 10 years ago) the bus had a police escort in case the road was too slippery. I imagine they’d still do that here, but down south they seem to be a bunch of wimps now.

    I believe last year the school bus turned around because it was about to get blown off the road. But I’ve been blown off my feet here, so this is not normal wind.

    One time a public bus crashed into a field to the left of the road, if it went right it would have fallen off a cliff into the sea.

    We don’t know the meaning of “health and safety”.

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  15. FTP says:

    This just came to mind. Often when people talk about global warming they mention how the rivers used to freeze and it snowed more often. Since it doesn’t do that any more it’s obviously because of global warming right?

    So here we are with some normal wintery weather and they can’t cope with 2cm of snow? Over the last 50 years I bet it wouldn’t classify as “severe” for any part of the country, but once it’s got that word tagged to it it’s not much further before it’s blamed on global warming.

    If some idiot tries to do that, I hope someone calls them on their bull. It’d take some very selective memories not to.

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  16. Biodegradable says:

    An unusual dialogue between a Palestinian man and the Israeli woman who now lives in his old home.

    […]

    Annie Mouse | 07.02.07 – 7:23 pm

    A rather nice story here:
    http://imshin.blogspot.com/2004_04_25_imshin_archive.html#108308732084908803
    Last summer, my mother-in-law traveled to France for a wedding. She stayed at a remote farm in Brittany. Staying with her there, among others, was a close friend of the bride and groom, a young Palestinian man. He had been born in Lebanon and had spent most of his life in France. He knew my mother-in-law was Israeli and he avoided her.

    Read on…

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  17. Jack Hughes says:

    Radio4 news is going ape about the Iraq friendly-fire inquest. Non-stop coverage.

    This is such a super story for those beebers, combining mention of Iraq, anti-Americanism, conspiracy, mawkishness, and faux concern for the widow.

    There was a shocking interview with the widow on PM tonight – the journo spent 5 whole minutes trying to put words in her mouth. She was very good – she resisted the easy temtations and kept re-iterating “lets wait for the coroner to decide”.

    A BBC classic.

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  18. GCooper says:

    Jack Huhges writes

    “There was a shocking interview with the widow on PM tonight – the journo spent 5 whole minutes trying to put words in her mouth. She was very good – she resisted the easy temtations and kept re-iterating “lets wait for the coroner to decide”.

    Exactly! I heard the same interview and reacted in preciely the same way.

    It was a disgraceful episode and a classic of BBC bias.

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  19. archonix says:

    Do the Old or New Testaments refer to Muslims as cockroaches?

    If they do I’d be very surprised, considering Islam didn’t even exist until a few centuries after they were penned. Heh. 🙂

    Do the Bhuddist or Hindu scriptures?

    I did some checking. The closest a hindu would come to calling someone a cockroach is if that person happened to be re-incarnated as one.

    I suspect that this “ThePainter” is echoing a new meme designed to justify Islamic teachings on the matter by pointing to supposed similarities in other religions. In fact the “cockroach” insult is quite common in islamic banter. See here for an example.

    I have heard examples of nominal christians calling jihadis cockroaches, because lets face it, they do act a lot like insects, but there’s no scriptural precedent, unlike Islam, where the same specific insults are hurled several times.

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  20. archonix says:

    Oh, also, a cursory search at biblegateway.com turned up no references to roaches in any english version of the bible. Foreign langauge ones? Who knows, but I doubt it.

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  21. ThePainter says:

    Biodegradable

    Do the Old or New Testaments refer to Muslims as cockroaches? Do the Bhuddist or Hindu scriptures?

    Which religion are you saying does so?

    Not a religion but the guy from the BNP. From what I remember the cockroach remark was the core of the case against them and the remark that was quoted incessantly by the BBC to show just how wicked they are.

    I’m just wondering why in this case the remarks are only controversial.
    The word ‘controversial’ to me implies that there is disagreement about a subject and there could be some truth in the remarks. For the BBC to think there could be truth in these remarks is somewhat disturbing and disgusting.

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  22. Edna says:

    BBc News website
    Middle East page

    Have your say- highlighted’Palestinians are the first occupied people to be placed under economic sanctions’
    Laila, Gaza

    Voices-Palestinian factions by reporter Laila Haddad

    Why has the BBC highlighted the only comment by ‘Laila’ which mentions the ‘occupation’ by the Israelis? There is paragraph after paragraph mentioning the inter-faction fighting and its effects on the Palestinian comunity, but someone decided that the only comment worth extracting was the one that blames the Israelis.

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  23. Oscar says:

    Is anyone watching Party Animals? In the second episode the gloves are off on the Tory party who are portrayed as downright racists (first taunting their Asian researcher with racist ‘banter’ – and then, when forced to go through a cyncial exercise in ‘apologising’ violently threatening her.) This was all topped off by a thinly veiled portrayal of David Davis saying he didn’t want to be interviewed by Gavin Essler – “Gavin Essler – that name sounds rather German”. Something has to be done about the way the BBC are using their drama output as propaganda – more dangerous than their news output in many ways, because they’re free of any inconvenient constraints about ‘facts’. At this rate Gordon’s Labour Party won’t need any funds to compaign – the BBC is doing it all for them on licence fee payers money.

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  24. GCooper says:

    Oscar writes:

    “Something has to be done about the way the BBC are using their drama output as propaganda – more dangerous than their news output in many ways, because they’re free of any inconvenient constraints about ‘facts’.”

    I couldn’t agree more. However it has been that way for decades. The only difference is that it has become more blatant in the past few years.

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  25. archduke says:

    gcooper -> remember “boys from the blackstuff”? its been going on for years.

    also, remember that “Lefties” documentary a while back, where the assorted beeboid producers admitted their bias?

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  26. deegee says:

    For the record Cohen (various spelling variations) is the most common European Jewish name. About 3% of British Jews have this surname.

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  27. archduke says:

    ” Fabio P.Barbieri | Homepage | 07.02.07 – 7:07 am | ”

    i defer to your good self since you know more about that than me.

    all i have is memories of fire-and-brimestone Catholic priests in Ireland condemning the northern protestants to hellfire and damnation.

    but , theologically, i would say you are right and they are wrong. but still – the main point is that pretty much every Abrahamic religion has a “condemn to hell” element in it – and this is what Newsnight got all caught up in – when there are bigger fish to fry in those “death to the kuffar” sermons in the big mosques.

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  28. archduke says:

    deegree -> Cohen himself has said that the last Jewish relative in his family tree was over 100 years ago.

    with his parents being Marxists, i really dont think they were regular visitors to the local synagogue.

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  29. archduke says:

    ” zboy | 07.02.07 – 8:46 am |”

    please do write more about your experience in the philipines. very very interesting.
    and , in case you arent aware of it, you might want to visit , and comment on Mr Chalk’s blog as well (he’s an English schoolteacher…)

    http://frankchalk.blogspot.com/

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  30. Neomancunion says:

    Quote from ThePainter:

    “Not a religion but the guy from the BNP. From what I remember the cockroach remark was the core of the case against them and the remark that was quoted incessantly by the BBC to show just how wicked they are. ”

    The guy was Mark Collett and the cockroaches he referred to were the BBC and not muslims (one reason, perhaps, why the phrase “was quoted incessantly by the BBC”).

    n.b. (for JR and his ilk)
    I am not and have never been a member of the BNP.

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  31. Bryan says:

    Rob whatshisname, BBC security correspondent, found the missing T-word while talking about the letter bombs today on the World Service:

    The aim is to terrorise people. People feel they are targets. They are upset.

    Hmmmmmmmm, so the BBC does know what terror is. Now maybe we can coax them into applying the term to suicide bombers.

    Well, it’s just a thought.

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  32. 1327 says:

    Has anyone else just seen the Newsnight piece about “reforming” the House of Lords ? The first section of the report was about corruption in politics in the past then Paxman says words to the effect that British politics is clean now !! No mention of cash for honours or the postal voting scams. Next a Labour peer was interviewed who made a lot of sense but he was followed by the impossibly smug Baroness Kennedy and I had to switch off.

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  33. Alan says:

    AL Beeb’s NEWSNIGHT hits rock-bottom tonight, with its dhimmi, sycophantic ‘interview’, with one of the released Birmingham 9 suspects.

    From a ‘black-out’ face we got 5 minutes of Islamic propaganda and victimhood, with no critical voice, in fact, no voice at all from Al Beeb in the interview!

    The Muslim in question, because Muslim he undoubtedly he is, and it’s very relevant to say so in this context, works in a bookshop. (We’re not talking Waterstones here. I think we know the type of bookshop.)

    It wasn’t even an Al Beeb interview; it was an Islamic monologue, at our expense. He was given time to make general denunciations of the British legal system and how : ‘we’ (Muslims) ‘are feeling the brunt of it all’.

    There was nobody from the AL Beeb saying it, so I’ll say it: NO,YOU’RE NOT! IT’S THE MASS OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE WHO ARE BEARING THE BRUNT OF ISLAMIC JIHADI VIOLENCE.

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  34. Oscar says:

    Archduke
    and may i add to that – “Undercover Mosque”… no comment whatsoever, and its what, three weeks now?

    Yeah – it’s a disgrace – and now C4 have gone a long way to undoing their good work with yesterday’s Dispatches on the Muslim “victims” being held under control orders. A stage-managed piece of bullshit suggesting they were all innocent victims of a police state. (not BBC I know, but just as bad).

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  35. momotaro says:

    Edna,

    Interestingly, Gaza is not ‘occupied’, certainly not by Israel, so which occupation is she talking about? forever victims

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  36. archduke says:

    alan ->i find it really weird how the BBC seems to side with the people that want to blow you up or cut your head off. most odd.

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  37. archduke says:

    oscar -> yeah – i caught that. had to switch over after 5 minutes… pure islamopropaganda.

    i half wonder – what IS it that the islamonutters have to do. weren’t tube bombings enough?

    no doubt, if a nuke goes off, the C4 and Beeboid types will be still blaming us. i really am getting sick and tired of it. so much so, that i’ve started listening to american talk radio over the internet.

    podcast/rss feed (townhall.com) :
    http://www.townhall.com/talkradio/podcasts/4e30b10c-64d4-4d39-b459-81a5039c6c55.aspx

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  38. Biodegradable says:

    Not a religion but the guy from the BNP. From what I remember the cockroach remark was the core of the case against them and the remark that was quoted incessantly by the BBC to show just how wicked they are.

    ThePainter | 07.02.07 – 9:38 pm

    Ah, right, the BNP. Please note that neither I nor most other commentors here knew that. Thanks for pointing it out.

    Please note also the difference between a member of the BNP calling the BBC cockroaches for having spied on a private meeting, and children in a Saudi sponsored school being taught that Jews and Christians are respectively apes and dogs.

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  39. Biodegradable says:

    The guy was Mark Collett and the cockroaches he referred to were the BBC and not muslims (one reason, perhaps, why the phrase “was quoted incessantly by the BBC”).

    Neomancunion | 07.02.07 – 10:50 pm

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/6135060.stm
    He branded the BBC “cockroaches” and added: “The BBC have abused their position.

    He did also call asylum seekers cockroaches:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/6121548.stm
    “I honestly don’t hate asylum seekers – these people are cockroaches and they’re doing what cockroaches do”
    Mark Collett

    I don’t believe that asylum seekers are either a race or a religion…

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  40. Jon says:

    Its getting harder and harder to actually listen to the BBC news – every morning I chance it and listen to today on my car radio – but it gets to a point where I have to incessantly change channels through frustration. I have never known a day when the news was not about “victimized” minorities. Do the BBC really think that they are providing a service. If they think they are actually helping race relations I think they are misguided – as it is probably making it worse. Over 90% of the population are treated like “racists” every day of the week – How can the BBC have the nerve to broadcast this stuff.

    I have also noticed that whenever someone is charged with “aledged” terrorist acts – this stupid women with a mans name keeps popping up (Gareth Pierce) – how does she get all these cases – is she in sympathy with them or is she just making a packet. She also represented the Brazilian family in the accidental shooting on the tube. Does she volunteer or is she appointed?

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  41. pounce says:

    The BBC and its love of the ‘H’ word. (hyperbole)

    Ex-terror plot suspect speaks out

    A man freed after he was arrested over an alleged plot to kidnap a UK Muslim soldier has criticised the police investigation. Abu Bakr, who works in the Maktabah bookshop, targeted in anti-terror raids in Birmingham, also told BBC News the UK was “a police state for Muslims”
    ……………………….
    He said he would be affected for the rest of his life by the arrest.
    ………………………..
    Mr Bakr, who is studying for a PhD in Political Islam at the city’s university, said he became aware of the police forcing their way into his house early last Wednesday morning by his wife screaming. “Then I see that the light has been put on and I hear lots of officers come up, shouting my name,” he said. The officers asked him to get on the floor before telling him he was being arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences, he said. “At this moment, all I was thinking about was my family.” He referred to a raid in Forest Gate in east London, where two Muslim men were arrested and later released without charge. One was shot during the raid. “In my mind, the case of Forest Gate was going though my mind. “I was looking for weapons, I didn’t see any and that cooled me down a bit.”
    ……………………………
    Asked how he felt about being singled out he said: “It’s a police state for Muslims.
    “It’s not a police state for everybody else because these terror laws are designed specifically for Muslims and that’s quite an open fact,” he added.
    ……………………………..
    “But they don’t realise that, after seven days of virtual torture for my family, it’s going to be hard to readjust,” he added. “This is going to affect me for the rest of my life.”
    ……………………..
    He also criticised “amateur-type interrogation” by the police who, he said, had subjected him to “random questioning” about notes written on pieces of paper by his young children.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6340935.stm

    1) The BBC just loves to promote the “Police state “ angle. Err BBC I’m an Ex Muslim and I have no problem walking through the middle of town. Be it 6am.12 noon or 9 pm. The people never mind the Police bother me.
    2) “Affected for the rest of his life.” So the jihad videos he sells in the shop haven’t affected him? Go on BBC spend some of my BBC tax money and purchase a few. Then return to the traumatised victim in search of a pay off.
    3) The case of forest gate went through his mind at 4 am. Yeah right. Now I’ve been woken up numerous times in the middle of the night (perks of the job) by loud noise, flashing lights and shouting people and let me tell you it takes approx 5 mins to realise just where you are and another to gather your senses. Talk about scripted for the media.
    4) “Asked how he felt.” Talk about a loaded question complete with loaded answer.
    5) Affect him for the rest of his life. Oh dear. Poor little child got nicked. I’m sure the 270 odd innocent people whom his religious cohorts blew up (not including 53 murdered victims) are affected. That is trauma BBC. Not spending a few nights in a cell.
    6) “amateur-type interrogation” and how would he know BBC has he been on a how to resist interrogation course. (Like we know the religious bigots do) The coppers have to attend interrogation courses (just like they have to in the armed forces) Nobody but nobody is allowed to go near a suspect unless he has that course on his docs.

    The BBC playing the victim card yet again.

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  42. pounce (correction) says:

    Delete;
    1) The BBC just loves to promote the “Police state “ angle. Err BBC I’m an Ex Muslim and I have no problem walking through the middle of town. Be it 6am.12 noon or 9 pm. The people never mind the Police bother me.

    Insert;
    1) The BBC just loves to promote the “Police state “ angle. Err BBC I’m an Ex Muslim and I have no problem walking through the middle of town. Be it 6am.12 noon or 9 pm. The people never mind the Police don’tbother me.

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  43. Jon says:

    “There were 266 gun crimes and five homicides in Southwark, which includes Peckham, in the 12 months up to December 2006, according to the Met Police.

    In neighbouring Lambeth, there were 239 gun crimes and 15 killings over the same period while Lewisham recorded 185 firearm incidents and five killings.”

    “Ch Supt Malcolm Tillyer, Southwark Borough Commander, said the killings have had a “significant impact on the local community” but he said Peckham’s image as a crime hotspot was undeserved.

    “The reality is that levels of crime have reduced year on year,” he said. “The individuals who are involved in these type of crimes are a very small minority.

    “Peckham is a proud and strong community and I don’t believe that there’s anywhere in the country where there are so many people doing so many good things to improve the lives of others.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6338755.stm

    All these murders and gun crimes in a single year yet the Police say that crime is falling year on year – If there falling they must be coming down from a very high figure. 30 years ago it would have been rare to hear of any murders – they were very rare.

    This highlights how misleading police statistics are.

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  44. GCooper says:

    Jon writes;

    “All these murders and gun crimes in a single year yet the Police say that crime is falling year on year – If there falling they must be coming down from a very high figure.”

    They have probably decided to stop booking people for parking offences or wearing loud trousers.

    There is no statistic that the PC PCs cannot massage when suitably motivated by their chums in ZaNuLabour.

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  45. Socialism is Necrotizing says:

    Is Radio 4 alienating its core audience?

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=F11&blog=yourview&xml=/news/2007/02/06/ublview06.xml

    some of the comments are priceless!

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  46. FTP says:


    Jon:
    This highlights how misleading police statistics are.

    Well if they don’t meet what Blair expects they won’t get paid.

    There isn’t really any motive (except morals, if they have any left) to report real crime levels any more, especially if you don’t live in the area you’re protecting. Do you think most police chiefs live in the areas they’re protecting?

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  47. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    Have you noticed how NOBODY EVER even tries to discuss why the British jail population is the highest in Europe by far? Italy, a country with serious public order problems and a population similar to Britain’s, has some forty thousand convicts and think they are already too many; Britain has eighty thousand and rising, and keeps building new prisons – last I heard, some eight thousand more were being prepared, yet the inexorable rise in numbers outpaced the building program. The only media source that even tried to give a reason why so many of Her Majesty’s subjects are Her Majesty’s guests was the Indie-pindie, and you can imagine what it came up with – terrible police state, people being jailed for spitting in the streets, etc. I, on the other hand, would connect this astounding statistic with my post on the state of English education earlier on – remember? – and would say that nobody wants to deal with facts in this area because both Tories and Labour are directly responsible for the disaster, and the Lib Dems would probably only make it worse.

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  48. Anonymous says:

    .
    “The BBC pratices a kind of descrimination again the “Normal” people which I believe we are the majority by sticking down our throat things we are not allow to make comments or complaint about. Things like Muslims, Homosexuals, Smoking in public, fox hunting and the list goes one.
    And when I look at the BBC it looks like you have to belong to a minority to work there. But I sure I am wrong.
    And finally when you look at the BBC Have Your Say website their descrimination become overwhelming.
    As they decides what get published they control exactly what end up on their website and ensure the result agrees with they view of the world. Of course they will publish a few negative one to give the illusion of fairplay but it is only a smokescreen”.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=F11&blog=yourview&xml=/news/2007/02/06/ublview06.xm

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  49. Andrew W says:

    Ex-terror plot suspect speaks out(headline)

    “Asked how he felt about being singled out he said:……”

    BBC journalist introduces incorrect information that he was supposedly “singled out”.

    Nine people were arrested. Were each of them “singled out”? Shouldn’t that read nine-gled out?

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  50. FTP says:

    On the freed terrorist suspect, is anybody really surprised? Is everyone arrested after a murder guilty? No, they just bust everyone who they think may help the investigation. The whole media seems to be towing the line of “one of them isn’t guilty so the whole operation must be a failure!” Personally, I’ll wait and see what happens to the other 8 suspects.

    On the snow situation, this is blatantly highlighting the London centric view of the BBC (and GMTV from what I’ve seen).

    OK, so it probably is snowing where 75% of the population lives. But they keep saying it’s the whole country and displaying maps of all of the UK coloured in white.

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