Walking away

Remember that big, scary binary liquid bomb plot that so threw British authorities and the media into a tizzy? After an initial, hyperinflationary period, the situation began to immediately deflate as more information came out that there was, in fact, very little information about the plot other than some internet blathering. Now Cernig at Newshog points out that two of the "liquid bomb" plotters have been released by court because of "insufficient evidence."

"Two brothers charged in connection with the alleged airliner bomb plot have walked free from court after a judge found there was "insufficient" evidence to put them on trial.
...
Addressing the men, District Judge Purdy said: "On the evidence before me there is insufficient material to put you on trial."

It certainly seemed that there was some kind of nascent plot that demanded further surveillance, but it should be noted that it had been the Bush administration that insisted on the arrests despite British authorities balking at the time and wishing to study its development.

British officials knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner.

The early seizure of the suspects has now rendered a British court to discharge the suspects and has probably driven associates out of sight for sometime. We now have yet another repeat of the oft-repeated Bush administration policy of using terrorist investigations and ill-advised early arrests in aid of either their political agenda or as a distraction from other urgent and pressing concerns, concerns that usually have arisen from some other failing White House policy. The result in Britain, which apparently still lives by such legal niceties as indictment, evidence, evidentiary hearing and trial, is that potential terrorists are now released. No one knows what the result of that may be.

I can easily imagine the White House admonishing the British for still abiding their quaint old system of jurisprudence, what with that antiquated habeas corpus nonsense and all.