Comment on Major incident declared near RAF Fairford as men held on suspicion of explosives offences
tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 4 days ago
And the way to deal with “terrorists” is, of course, to release them on bail. Perhaps the Keystone Kops got a bit over-excited?
thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 3 days ago
Yeah the news they were released this morning was surprising.
Only two options I can come up with are a) your suggestion that the UK counter terrorism police are comically inept or b) they were just protesters with more balls than brains
My opinion is that the UK police generally are heavily leaning to the right and hence will only arrest protesters and investigate perceived terrorism if it’s coming from the left. They’re not institutionally incompetent although they are institutionally racist. Point being I don’t think comically inept is a good explanation.
I’m thinking it’s a group who were planning some sort of stupid protest (that was likely to get them shot) like hanging an anti-Iran bombing sign on the airbase wall. Particularly given the supposed explosives in the back turned out to not be
theguardian.com/…/men-arrested-raf-fairford-count…
theguardian.com/…/raf-fairford-uk-bomb-plot-marco…
“An initial examination of the vans led police to suspect they carried explosive materials, with assessments made as to whether they were viable improvised explosive devices. After the suspects’ release it emerged that no explosive material had been found.”
tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 3 days ago
Lots of chatter online that they were petrol/diesel thieves robbing local farms. The logo on their vans was “Fuel2You” and there appear to be barrels inside the vans.
thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 3 days ago
Well that’s a third option I wouldn’t have thought of, but that it is very plausible. Would also make sense of how they could be initially suspected of having explosive materials before it getting discarded.
If so they were rather stupid in choosing where to try and rob - right next to a RAF base on high alert wasn’t exactly the lowest profile location in the country