We have yet to see whether the plot to blow up 9 or 10 airplanes over the Arlantic is genuine or not. Not so long ago, the police raided a house in east London, shot one of the Pakistani or Kashmiri occupants, arrested him and his brother, and held them under the Prevention of Terrorism Act while the press went ape about smashed terrorist plots, houses full of explosives, the Muslim Menace living among us, brilliant intelligence led operation etc etc etc. Then some days later, the arrested blokes were released, they gave press conferences, the police admitted to faulty (non existent in fact) intelligence, compensation was made and the whole thing fizzled out. Earlier, last year, after the July 7 bombings, a dark hued person left his house, was walking to the Underground (ie Subway/Metro)when some plain clothes police gave him chase, assuming him to be a suicide bomber. He ran, got onto a train, and the police shot him. Dead. He turned out to be an innocent Brazilian immigrant electrician. It is a long way from Sao Paolo to Peshawar. He got shot because he was dark skinned (not very dark skinned in fact) which was the sum total of police "intelligence". Earlier still there was the ricin plot to release poison gas on the Underground - that fizzled out to nothing. It may be that the current airplane plot is a genuine terrorist plot foiled, but past performance suggests that pwerhaps we should wait and see and not be too surprised if all the Paki-Brits are released and our intelligence services have more egg on their faces. British intelligence, after all, told us Saddam had WMDs and that Iraqwas purchasing Uranium ore from Niger remember.