Some Things Just CANNOT Be Said

British authorities have apparently thwarted a major terrorist attack on a number of passenger planes making transatlantic runs between London and the US. Both UK and US authorities say that the plan involved the use of liquid weapons - presumably poisons or explosives - smuggled onto the planes disguised as ordinary substances (soda, toothpaste, hair gel, etc.) and assembled into weapons once onboard. In the UK, 21 individuals have been arrested in early morning raids and air traffic has been placed under additional emergency security restrictions, tying up departures and making life miserable for thousands of travelers (though not nearly as miserable as if the plot had succeeded).

The details of the story will dribble out over the next few days, but what is interesting to note is the willingness of major British news outlets, in particular the always politically correct BBC, to avoid reporting a crucial element of the story: the identity of the suspected terrorists.

Sources told the BBC the "principal characters" suspected of being involved in the plot were British-born, and some have links to Pakistan.

The suspects were rounded up in raids in London, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and Birmingham. All are being held in London.

Had links to Pakistan? Hmmm. Were they perhaps Presbyterians some of whom planned to vacation in Pakistan? Or maybe British-Chinese business men some of which had done business with Pakistani companies? Or were they - dare we say it! - British born Muslims, some of Pakistani descent? From the BBC article, one can only guess (though it's not hard to figure it out).

As if to make its disdain for the facts even clearer, another article on the BBC discusses the raids in which the 21 suspects were arrested, making great pains to avoid stating anything about their religious or ethnic backgrounds.

In High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, an address in Walton Drive was among those raided and at least one person was arrested.

Police were evacuating homes in the area.

Paul Goodman, the Conservative MP for High Wycombe, told the BBC's World at One programme that he hoped the raid would not lead to reprisals.

Reprisals? By whom, against whom? There is no suggestion in the article that the arrested persons were anything but ordinary Britons, indistinguishable from the majority populace. Does Mr. Goodman mean reprisals against the family of the man arrested, or does he mean reprisals against Britons by the arrested man's family and community? This isn't clear from the article, because important information has been carefully omitted.

Of course, the UK government and security agencies, also mired in politcal correctness, have been reluctant to discuss the backgrounds of the suspected terrorists, fearing cries of racism and persecution if they reveal what everyone already knows - without having to hear it confirmed by the BBC - that the terrorists are British-born Muslims.

Aside from not wishing to offend Muslims sensitivities (by stating the facts), the elites who run the BBC don't want to mention the suspected terrorists backgrounds for another reason. If they must admit that homegrown Muslims, raised on British soil, educated in British schools, surrounded by British culture, were willing and ready to commit mass murder of Britons and their allies in the name of Islam, then they will have to admit that multiculturalism has failed. Worse, that multiculturalism has not only failed to deliver the paradise of diversity its proponents have proclaimed (much like the workers' paradise that the same crowd crowed so much about a few decades back), but that mulitculturalism has encouraged and abetted the worst, most backward and most violent cultures to set up shop and grow within Britain. Today's thwarted terror plan, like the July 7th train attacks before it, are the neon-lit billboard heralding the failure of cultural assimilation and multiculturalism in Britain. No wonder why the BBC would rather ignore the facts.

Update: Twenty-four hours after the arrests, the BBC still does not identify the alleged terrorists as Muslims. It does, however, report in breathless tones that the police fear "threats to Muslims" in the wake of the arrests. Of course, because Muslims are always the victims at the BBC. Never the purveyors of violence.