Here in the UK we suffered acts of terrorism by the IRA for decades. And we shrugged it off. Just like they do on the subcontinent.

I’m sorry to tell you that the reason people can’t hack it is because the majority of my generation brought their children up to be soft.

Sorry, it’s our fault.

Toughen up.

the reasons why the consequences of terrorist acts are seen as more grave in Western soceities than others socieities is because you people are worthless and they are not. They have far more too lose in terms of value of life than you guys from the subcontinent.

Bikini Mosque Siege Protest – Stranger than Fiction
Date: 02 December 2006 21:30

Mosque to get police guard for bikini rally
Taghred Chandab and Matthew Benns
December 3, 2006

POLICE have been asked to protect Australia’s largest mosque next weekend
because of concerns that a bikini march staged to coincide with the
anniversary of the Cronulla riots may get out of control.

The caretaker of Lakemba Mosque, the Lebanese Muslim Association, says it is
taking no risks, requesting at least 32 police officers to protect the place
of worship on Saturday and Sunday.

Association president Tom Zreik said he met police on several occasions to
ensure there would be adequate numbers of officers present to defuse
problems and arrest troublemakers.

“We are treating this as something that is funny and hilarious but also
taking precautions,” Mr Zreika said of the bikini march. “Some people may
see this as provocation and the last thing that we want is to see anyone
being attacked.”

The organiser, Melbourne grandmother Christine Hawkins, has asked women
nationally to dress in bikinis and colourful beachwear and rally outside
large mosques to show their disgust at comments by leading Muslim cleric,
Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly, who likened women to “uncovered meat”.

A white supremacist website has promoted the march. Members of Sydney’s
Muslim community began raising their concerns last week, with hundreds
joining an internet discussion to find a “peaceful avenue” to protect their
mosque.

Many Muslim women suggested joining the march in their hijabs and burqas to
voice their outrage at comments made by Senator Bronwyn Bishop and Prime
Minister John Howard about the way they dress. “We’re really asking people
not to bother coming to the mosque,” Mr Zreika said.

“All this is doing is degrading women and giving men a great excuse to have
a perv. There are better ways women can express their concerns.”

In Cronulla yesterday members of the Lakembaroos sports club attended a
barbecue at North Cronulla Surf Club to mark the progress of more than 20
Muslim lifesavers, who are training for their bronze medallions.

“If we didn’t have the events of Cronulla last December in the back of our
minds, we wouldn’t even be conscious that the people here were of Lebanese
background,” Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian
said.

“They look Australian, they are taking part in an Australian activity and
you have to ask ‘what’s the problem?”‘

The training is an initiative of Surf Life Saving Australia.

Source: The Sun-Herald

Polonium 210 is highly radioactive. You might like to read up on it here:

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2006/11/polonium210_part_i.php

and, here:

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2006/11/polonium210_part_ii_1.php?utm_source=sbhomepage&utm_medium=link&utm_content=sublink

You are right in saying it has to enter the body through inhilation, ingestion or possibly through a cut. The consequences however are much worse wieght for weight than from Gamma radiation. And it does killed you through radioactivity. This is a major security risk, given the miniscule dosages that can kill (12 millionths of a gram!), and the potential for aerosol dispersal. This is a lot more serious than the so-called dirty bomb.

It has to be injested in order to be harmful.

And, no, “Polonium” is NOT the ancient Roman name for Warsaw

Uh…Sunny… you can buy polonium on the open market. It is widely available, but in order for it to harm an individual it has to be injested.

In other words the substance isn’t “highly” radioactive at all.

Get you facts straight! You’re a journalist for heaven’s sakes.

So you reduce the 60-odd deaths of last summer to just a prank of a few terorist “wannades”?

The evil of those wannabes was limited only by their incapacity to acquire more explsive materials.

And you’re inhabiting la-la land if you think a dirty “wannabe” bomb (or worse) isn’t a major possibility.

Why are you constantly trying to lull people into a flase sense of security while at the same time deflecting from the very real dangers we’re all facing?

Polonium’s a mere detail, and yet you’re not even right about that.

I was going to say something on this. In the last few weeks we’ve had one Russian defector dead through the usage of some highly radioactive material, which may have also affected thousands of other people.

If you want to worry about dirty bombs, I think the Russians are much more of a problem than some frustrated wannabe terrorist kids.

Zinzin – I’m not talking about a dirty bomb which I know is rather overstated. A pukkah nuke isn’t however out of the question and where there’s a will there’s a way. It’d be the biggest disaster in UK history, and the security services have to take it seriously.

Bert do you really believe that middle class tossers such as the 7/7 suicide murderers could get access to a nuclear bomb nevermind detonate one? If you mean a dirty bomb then you are worrying about a threat that has been overstated.

Raz we have dealt with IRA terrorism for many years yet we understood their position and could deal with them as they were rational. Middle class jihadi’s with an ill-defined grudge and willing to kill themselves and others is an alien concept to the British public which explains the paranoia.

Unless of course you’re not the optimistic type, in which case you may consider the heavy handedness is down to the security services concern that we have people here willing to detonate a full on nuclear bomb in a city. Talk about the blitz all you like, but the fact is the next AQ attack might cause more casualties than the UK suffered in both world wars. Who’s up for taking the risk?

We, as a society, can handle terrorist threats. Specifically the mainland bombing campaign that the IRA instigated. We did not retreat then into the la-la land of killing electricians or shooting up suspects because the policeman was wearing the wrong gloves, or claiming conspiracies when there wasn’t one. Neither did we assume our Police were actually ‘The Law’. Which is a ridiculous surrender to the Dirty Harry school of jurisprudence.

The media and political response has frankly been pathetic. The attempt to drum up hysteria matches the worst of McCarthyism. (Read Muslims for Communists, if you will). I blame 24/7 news, personally.

I do not believe for one minute that the British public has been intimidated, or considers itself racist or bigoted. None of that would in any event destroy the rule of law, as you put it. What destroys the rule of law is giving powers to the Police that most of us would have marched against only a few short years ago. What strengthens the rule of law is due process. It is boring, it is slow, but it works. Let it be.

Meeting brute force with misdirected brute force is not a way forward. You, my friend, are looking into the abyss, and the abyss is looking back. You are, in my opinion, in danger of becoming what you fear.