Holding people

[robinbloke]

So some Brits were held in Iran for 13 days and the foreign office has been trying to get them released after they (probably unknowingly) wandered onto a disputed island.
They've just been released after thirteen days. Well, frankly I think they're lucky - if they'd have been arrested here they could have another fifteen days of being locked up before even being charged.
Another seventy seven if Blair had got his way.

Comments

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

I realise there are nutters out there quite prepared to blow us up; we've had it for years with the IRA - several people I know have been that close to being one of them.

What may be the problem is that the media is plastering the 90 day limit without actually explaining what that means.

[ua-meruti.livejournal.com]

I realise there are nutters out there quite prepared to blow us up; we've had it for years with the IRA - several people I know have been that close to being one of them.
Including me.
The IRA were different. They didn't actually try to kill people (at least that wasn't the goal - they went for property damage), and thus the bodycounts from their attacks were relatively small. The current crop of terrorists are not so kind, they don't leave warnings and they attack at times guaranteed to cause loss of life (i.e. during the day). The similarities between the two groups stop at "try to achieve their goals through terrorism" and any further comparison is relatively pointless.

What may be the problem is that the media is plastering the 90 day limit without actually explaining what that means.
Indeed.
The media took this and blew it out of proportion. Just as they are now with this "revolt" against Blair in the aftermath. I think that the media need to get a bit of a slap on the wrists about this. Granted, the BBC did put the full proposal on their website, but they didn't exactly make a big thing about it. They also put it in the larger news bulletins. The others didn't even manage that as I recall.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Yes they did, they telephoned bomb warnings and then blew up the place outside the shopping mall where all the people (who were there during the day) had been evacuated to.

[ua-meruti.livejournal.com]

Which attack was that on out of interest?

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/buildings/bombing.html
Manchester - admittedly this was a breakaway group after the cease fire. It's also noteworthy that in the cases where warnings were given, they were often given without enough time to properly evacuate the building - within 10 minutes of an announcement and with no obvious fire to make them hurry, a public building will not be empty of people, it will contain half as many people in a heightened state of useless panic.