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Could this story get any more bizarre? One of the suspects rang the Police and apparently grassed his mates up!! Everyone seemed to have a theory on the arrests but this latest development was not on any one’s bingo card.
I'm more intrigued with the Israeli plane story. That must have been terrifying. I wonder how the pilot explained it because they always do their best as possible to sound as relaxed as possible in the event of any mishaps.
The story gets curiouser and curiouser. I somehow doubt we'll ever get a credible explanation. For reasons of national security.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
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I would guess from what we know so far, which is not much, that it was a bunch of criminals looking to steal fuel from a weakly guarded airbase which has lots and lots of expensive fuel.
Before that happened, our security forces must have ID'd them, thought they looked dodgy (as in somewhat organised, but clearly not tradecraft levels), infiltrated them, and then the inside man realised this was a waste of time and handed them to the coppers (when they had a chance to call out).
Maybe Iran did try and tap up some crims with the line of "steal some expensive fuel", and the crims did not realise it or did not care, and that's Iran's involvement of "go steal some stuff", which would look embarrassing for the yanks as their security is exposed.
Also, Iran gets to expose that this RAF base, despite its name, is really a Yank base launching operations in the Middle East from the UK. That could be the real reason for Iran's involvement, not to blow up stuff but to embarrass the UK govt and the Yanks.
But as the crims were so bad (parking up 3 massive white vans outside someone's house where nobody usually parks anything) and the op failed, now Iran probably does not want to admit to a failed attempt to embarrass the West, as actually the embarrassment is on them for such a bad handling of it all.
This is all a guess, and I am not making excuses for Iran, as I believe they are a dictatorship, and I am against dictatorships, but I have seen little evidence so far that this is really terrorism.
This would explain why they are out on bail, as it looks like an attempt at petty theft. If it does turn out to be this, then we need to look at the media and journos, who blew up this nothing story as the only thing that did get blown up.
Duel UK/Iranian National arrested in connection with Fairford.
You wouldn’t have had Burnham and Trump saying Iran was involved if that wasn’t actually the case.
The original five arrested were described as UK Nationals. I know not what this nomenclature means. I was in hospital a few years back and when asked I said I'm English. They all stared at me, one looked up from her phone. I'm guessing UK National is someone with a UK passport but originally from elsewhere ?
The original five arrested were described as UK Nationals. I know not what this nomenclature means. I was in hospital a few years back and when asked I said I'm English. They all stared at me, one looked up from her phone. I'm guessing UK National is someone with a UK passport but originally from elsewhere ?
No, a UK national is simply someone whose nationality is British (England isn't a state, obviously).
The original five arrested were described as UK Nationals. I know not what this nomenclature means. I was in hospital a few years back and when asked I said I'm English. They all stared at me, one looked up from her phone. I'm guessing UK National is someone with a UK passport but originally from elsewhere ?
It turns out one of the arrested is a UK/Iranian duel national. Will be interesting to find out what motivated him, money, ideology?I’d be very surprised if the Islamic regime could find much support from ex-pat Iranian communities. Stranger things have happened!
No one was talking about Russia in relation to this, but yes, of course, it's all part of a grand conspiracy to victimise Russia. Obviously there's no other explanation for this odd story than that the evil Anglo-Saxons are once again trying to besmirch the reputation of the Russian state and stir up conflict with the peace-loving Russian government who would never ever carry out acts of murder and sabotage on our territory!
That's fine, but why do they no longer say British ? They don't say “ and now a piece by UK National composer Sir Edward Elgar “
Papers tend to use UK national or British national interchangeably, but the point in both cases is to emphasise that they have citizenship here (as opposed to e.g. someone with permanent leave to remain, who might be resident here but not yet a citizen).
That's fine, but why do they no longer say British ? They don't say “ and now a piece by UK National composer Sir Edward Elgar “
British tends to exclude Northern Ireland. UK national includes Northern Ireland. Elgar is nearly always described as English. Andy Stewart is always described as Scottish, but both are British and UK nationals. Does your head in doesnt it?
Everything about this story screams Slow Horses plot line up to and including face saving arrest. No charges will ever be brought and we will get the full story in the Sunday Times in 10 years time
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