It is not yet clear whether they were "mentally ill" or put up to it by Bush, Blair and The Mossad, but The Australian reports British authorities have indicated the 21 suspects arrested so far in the ambitious Britain to U.S. in-flight bomb plot are "Islamic extremists" of Pakistani descent.

The plan to commit what police called "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" sparked the tightest security clampdown on international flights since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US. Police indicated the suspects were Islamic extremists of Pakistani descent and said the plan involved smuggling explosives, believed to be "liquid chemicals", on to flights in hand luggage. It is believed the plan was to orchestrate several rounds of simultaneous attacks, with each round destroying three planes. The terrorists had targeted three US airlines - United, American and Continental - according to US counter-terrorism officials.

Police believe there are up to 50 participants in the plot. This article from the Seattle Times has more, including, at the time of this blog posting, the following:

President Bush said that the plot shows "this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation."

Meanwhile, Iranian Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel shared his perspective on current events, in a note to the Azerbaijani parliamentary speaker:

In his message, Haddad-Adel referred to the 'Zionist' regime's extensive crimes and holocaust in Palestine's occupied territory and Lebanon and said, "Under the present conditions, we along with all world freedom-seekers are obviously bound to do our best to end such killings and establish immediate cease-fire."

Haddad-Adel's daughter, by the way is married to the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the "Islamic leader superior to all national and lawful organs." We can expect that the Iranian regime and its friends will continue to try to do their "best," as Haddad-Adel puts it, for quite some time. Iran is central as a sponsor of the terrorist group Hezbollah. Hezbollah fans global flames of Islamicism, supported by the distributed infrastructure of al-Qaeda AND a growing cadre of terrorists acting individually.

Perhaps, as Daniel Jonah Goldhagen of Harvard's Center For European Studies suggests in this L.A. Times Sunday op-ed, it really is time for Israel to brave more condemnation by going further than merely defending itself in the current conflict, which was initiated by Hezbollah and at Hezbollah's behest encompasses residential communities in Israel and southern Lebanon. Specifically, Goldhagen suggests Israel should closely consider direct military counter-measures against terrorism sponsors Syria and Iran. As Goldhagen notes, Iran has forthrightly declared that it might use its nukes against Israel. Is it possible that anything less than the neutering of Iran is just so much pissing in the wind? I don't know for sure. But as Goldhagen notes elsewhere, in an essential March '06 New Republic article, political Islam is increasingly flexing its muscle. The U.S. and the world are at continued and heightened risk, as recent events indicate. At home, we need a firmer commitment from the U.S. Congress, Senate and our President to the complex global objective of de-fanging the Islamic extremists.

If there were ever a time to send Republicans and right-minded Independents to Washington, D.C., this is it.

TECHNORATI TAGS: LIQUID EXPLOSIVES, ISLAMIC TERRORISTS, PLANE BOMB PLOT, PAKISTANI, LONDON, HEATHROW, BRITAIN, UNITED STATES