Even the police are now blaming the government for inciting a panic about “Muslim” terror plots. The Guardian reports that the police “expressed growing anger at a series of leaks and briefings” leading to the tidal wave of media Muslim-baiting over the arrests of 9 people in Birmingham.
The media leaped from the arrests to half-page photos of Nick Berg and Ken Bigley about to be beheaded, accompanied — of course — by shots of women wearing the niqab. The trial-by-media of the Muslim population is so blatant that even that hardened Islamophobe Nick Cohen, who doesn’t normally think twice about accusing Muslims of “Islamofascism”, has been moved to protest.
The Guardian report reveals that Whitehall officials briefed journalists early on Wednesday before all of the suspects had been found. The police said that “they suspected the anonymous briefings may have been intended to deflect attention from the prisons crisis and the cash for honours inquiry”. At least one tabloid newspaper had even been tipped off the night before the raids.
“Some of the more sensational media claims about the plot – such as reports that two young British Muslim soldiers had agreed to act as ‘live bait’ in an attempt to trap the suspects – were dismissed by counter-terrorism officials as being completely untrue. Claims that police uncovered a list of 25 intended victims were also dismissed.”
