> > It does seem that congratulations on excellent Police work > were a bit > > ahead of time. I was rather suspicious that such strong leads were > > being so obviously invesigated - the word "scapegoat" leapt > unbidden > > into my head. With the forensic equivalent of day-glo > signage it is > > less suprising. The hard part is now to find the real > perpetrators of > > this crime, rather than the poor, deluded teenagers that > are criminals > > and victims at the same time. > > > > mike > > Your entire statement is without meaning, mike. > > Where, other than your head, does "scapegoat" come from? >
You ought to bear in mind that the police here have been dealing with terrorism for over 35 years. In the 70s and 80s they didn't have a particularly good record of arresting the right people. Bombings were often followed by swift arrests and imprisonments, and 20+ years later the people jailed were released because they were innocent, while the guilty went on to bigger things. It was all too easy and convenient for the police to arrest anyone with an Irish accent and fit them up. Mike wasn't the only person who was immediately suspicious of a quick result in this case. Nowadays, however, people are well aware of what used to happen, and we don't want to see it happen again. So when they put someone away for it, we want to be damn sure that it's the right person. Anybody interested in how not to deal with terrorists would be well advised to look at the history of how we dealt with Irish terrorism here, and learn from our mistakes, as we have done. Believe me, we tried it all and it didn't work: imprisonment without trial, secret hit squads, torture, secret deals, secret trials with no juries, kidnapping, framing, faked confessions, you name it. Bob
