The war against terror loses touch with reality (again)...

[mrph]

We've got this really good plan, see. To catch the terrorists before they strike.

We're going to offer to sell people Kryptonite - and we're sure the terrorists will try to buy it, 'cos they know that they can do bad things with it. Kill people. Explode stuff. That sort of thing.

It'll just be a hoax, of course. A sting. As soon as they offer to buy the Kryptonite, we'll arrest them. Charge them with conspiracy to obtain dangerous substances for terrorist purposes. Lock 'em away for years. No problem.

What's that? Kryptonite doesn't exist you say? Who cares. Whether or not Kryptonite does or does not exist is irrelevant - so don't get so hung up on that bit. Doesn't matter. You try to buy Kryptonite, we send you to jail for many, many years. Simple as that.

That sounds more than a little bit stupid, doesn't it? But the UK police just tried to convict people for buying another (allegedly) fictional substance, red mercury. Strangely, it didn't work. Not just because the stuff doesn't exist, but still...

Oh, and the prosecution lawyer 'admitted the police had no idea if there even was such a thing as red mercury' and did indeed say "The Crown's position is that whether red mercury does or does not exist is irrelevant", as well as warning the jury not to get "hung up" on this fact...

Comments

[the-g-man.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that the T.W.A.T.tists lost touch with reality when they declared war against an abstract noun.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

You couldn't make this shit up.

Because if you did, they'd probably arrest you for it.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

If anyone did offer to sell me red mercury, I'd play along, just to see what they pulled out of the bag.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Dodgy. Obviously you're some sort of terrorist... :)

[lastaii.livejournal.com]

Brilliant, another feather in the Metropolitan police's anti-terrorism cap...

[zotz]

It's fair enough. It's illegal to conspire to cause explosions regardless of whether your plan would work, as long as you're sincerely conspiring. The case collapsed, AFAICT, because there was doubt over whether the accused were genuinely after the stuff for making bombs.

Yes, but...

[mrph.livejournal.com]

It's still a daft plan, IMO, if it relies on the would-be terrorists not realising that nobody's ever proved this stuff exists. Hence the kryptonite comparison.

Surely it'd be smarter to talk about something that definitely does exist and use that as a sting instead? Which also avoids the need for the prosecution speeches quoted above.

Re: Yes, but...

[zotz]

Yes, but it was a tabloid journalist doing the leading. He doesn't look so shiny now, does he?

[davefish.livejournal.com]

All the bad effects of normal mercury, and its a communist! Of course we must out it from out society!

Probably causes paedophilia too.

[zotz]

If you just buy somnething thinking wrongly it's drugs, yes. If it's crimes like conspiracy, then it's different because it's the conspiring that you've been charged with, not the possession.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Surely then you'd only catch the terrorists who were so inept at making bombs that they didn't know whether the ingredients even existed, leaving the ones who knew what they were doing to blow things up while you weren't looking. It's MRSA all over again.