How Did Pantsman Conquer the World?

[tekisui]

Source: Spiked

Overnight, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has turned from a complete loser – a friendless student who blogged about masturbation and supported Liverpool – into a threat to civilisation. How? It was not by dint of his own powers; rather he was handed his new position as mortal enemy of the West on a silver platter by panicky and visionless leaders in London and Washington. The transformation of Abdulmutallab from a loner who posed a threat mainly to his own eyesight into a warrior who poses a threat to life as we know it confirms that the impact of terrorism on society is determined not by the terrorist himself, but by the way we choose to react to his threat.

Prior to his alleged failed attempt to set off a bomb hidden in his pants on a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day – when he allegedly used chemicals in a syringe to try to ignite 80 grams of PETN explosives – Abdulmutallab was what we Brits call a ‘saddo’. Described as ‘lonely and conflicted’, he’s the son of a rich Nigerian banker who was studying at University College London (UCL). He couldn’t get a girlfriend so he befriended Onan instead, writing online about committing ‘minor sinful activities’ on himself. He sought Islamic advice on whether it is acceptable to attend a prom (I hope some imam responded: ‘You need to get a date first’). Photographs show him looking like an utter misery guts outside the Houses of Parliament and other London landmarks (1).

Desperate to escape the reality of his pampered-and-pointless life, Abdulmutallab became a fantasist. Literally. He wrote about his ‘jihad fantasies’, saying ‘my fantasy the great jihad will take place and the Muslims will win (Allah willing)’. He attended lectures by radical Islamic preachers at UCL and started to write on the web both about Liverpool’s fortunes (‘Gerrard might regret leaving Liverpool, but somehow I want him to leave’) and setting up a global Islamic caliphate. He went to Yemen where he was allegedly trained and armed by a group linked with al-Qaeda, and then he boarded that fateful – but thankfully not fatal – flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

As far as threats to Western civilisation go, he is hardly an Adolf Hitler, or even much of a Mohammad Atta. The evidence so far suggests that while Abdulmutallab might have hooked up with some Yemeni grouping as part of his search for overnight terror celebrity, he was to all intents and purposes a loner, a slightly warped young man who was not the sharpest nail in the nail-bomb. And yet both London and Washington have responded to his actions rashly and ridiculously, by further securitising society, eroding liberty, clamping down in airports, overhauling international relations, and upping the ante with Yemen.

more: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7886/

[Javaman]

1. He had the awesome power of the pantaloon! nt

[tom_paine]

2. LOL. UnderPantsman is just a part of the Holidays advertising

in this case, for FEEEEEEEEAR.

As the market for FEEEEEEEEAR does not end at the same time Christmas does, and considering the relative importance of marketing FEEEEEEEEAR versus the Christmas Consumption Dumbshow, we can expect the Corporate M$M to keep running with it awhile longer.

[spanone]

3. because we cower to terrorists