speculation on a public nuisance

Possible pointers towards terrorist evolution: the jury in the airline liquid bomb plot rejects the idea of multiple simultaneous attacks on airlines in flight and either acquits, fails to find a verdict, or convicts on minor charges (“conspiring to cause a public nuisance”) on most of those so charged, which happens to be most of the accused. It finds three guilty of conspiracy for murder for:

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, was the leader of an east London al-Qaida inspired terror cell, a jury at Woolwich crown court found.

He planned to detonate home-made liquid bombs in attacks on British targets including Heathrow's terminal three. Ali and and his co-defendants, Assad Sarwar 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27, admitted plotting a series of small-scale headline-grabbing bomb attacks.

But the jury rejected Ali's claims he did not plan to kill or hurt anyone in the blasts. The jury found Ali intended to murder people using an ingenious form of hydrogen peroxide liquid bomb disguised as a soft drink.

Prosecutors said his gang considered national infrastructure targets including gas terminals and oil refineries. Evidence revealed Canary Wharf, the Bacton gas terminal pipeline, various airports, the electricity grid and internet providers were studied.

It was always John Robb’s contention that AQI franchise holders would eventually have to choose between systems attacks and apocalyptic/symbolic terrorism. Robb wrote back in 2004:

Outside of the psychological impact (which declines due to overuse) of terrorist attacks, there is little lasting damage to the target. Occasionally, there is collateral damage to economic infrastructure or systems. However, this type of damage takes the backseat in planning to a "high body count."…

…Another, more viable terrorist innovation will be to adapt tactics to provide evergreen returns on effort. This next generation terrorism will consist of sustained attacks on systems. The evergreen return: dislocation and economic damage.

I’d always thought that the systems element played a role in terrorist planning: the fact that the number of attacks on communications hubs and systems indicated more than just the fact that they attracted large numbers of potential victims. The two objectives, in fact, were integrated.

Maybe this time also: the apocalyptic paraphernalia – suicide videos, etc – were present and correct, but they don’t really gibe with bombing a gas holder, though they do with the airport departure lounge – which also recapitulates the Glasgow attempted bombing in 2007. At any rate, we seem to have reached the point where attacks on strategic infrastructure are at least as high a priority as mass murder. The Bojinka element? Maybe a kind of weird terrorist marketing: they can’t get the bodies without the promise of spectacular atrocities. Maybe security theatre from government and media. The jury were obviously sceptical.