But Wait! There's More!

A huge terrorist plot, one of the biggest in Australian history, has been foiled:

Militants connected with radical group Islamic State were planning to behead a member of the public in Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Thursday, after hundreds of police raided homes in a sweeping counter-terrorism operation.

Abbott said there was a "serious risk from a terrorist attack" days after Australia raised its national terror threat level to "high" for the first time, citing the likelihood of attacks by Australians radicalized in Iraq or Syria.

Australia is concerned over the number of its citizens believed to be fighting overseas with militant groups, including a suicide bomber who killed three people in Baghdad in July and two men shown in images on social media holding the severed heads of Syrian soldiers.

More than 800 police were involved in the pre-dawn security operation in Sydney and Brisbane, which was described as the largest in Australian history and resulted in the detention of 15 people, police said.

Abbott told a news conference that members of the radical group had planned to conduct a public beheading.

"That's the intelligence we received," he said.

Media reported that the plans included snatching a person at random in Sydney, Australia's largest city, and executing them on camera draped in the group's black flag.

"The exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country," Abbott said, referring to the group otherwise known as Islamic State that has seized large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.

But the real news is this:

AN URGENT meeting was called last night by members of the Muslim community who were outraged about yesterday’s anti-terror raids in Sydney. 
 
A speaker at the protest, said they were not there to interfere with security, despite what many believed.

Of the arrested people he said: “We are not here to determine guilt or innocence ... but we are greatly concerned.”

Women and children had been terrified during the raids and homes “smashed” as they were carried out, he said, adding they took place only days after the Government claimed there was no direct terror threat.

He spoke from the steps of the Lakemba War Memorial, which drew criticism from many on social media.

The Muslim community they were “not fools” and could see through the “spin” and “propaganda” of the Abbott Government who he insisted were seeking to politicise the security situation. ...

The crowd chanted “we reject the terror laws, they only serve American wars”.

“Terror raids can’t break the spirit of Muslims” and “stop terrorising Muslims” were some of the anti-government placards held by protesters listening to the speakers at Lakemba station.

“These are the same people who brought us children overboard and Iraq.

“So what do we expect from this [new] tale from ASIO and the police commissioner?”

There were about 200 people at Lakemba station for the protest in response to what organisers say is the Federal Government’s heavy-handed approach to the raids, which resulted in 15 arrests.

“My house was raided by these police pigs,” a teen from within the crowd screamed.

  
It's the sort of mental dissonance one expects from a perpetually aggrieved mass, a mass that just doesn't get that repeated threats and attacks don't convince thinking individuals that this is all isolated. The arrests weren't a misunderstanding nor were they acts of an overreaching government. For once, the police were doing their jobs, arresting people who plotted the murders of innocent people done in the name of the Islamic state.

I might just be "emotional" about this, emotional enough to call an emergency session of Parliament to talk about it and then not turn up, but the plan to deliberately murder random citizens in a show of terror and power is no small matter.

And, yes, it is all related.


Jerk:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau refused to answer when asked if convicted terrorist Hiva Alizadeh - a Canadian-Iranian dual citizen sentenced to 24 years in prison this week - is the type of Canadian whose citizenship his party wouldn't revoke.

When asked, Trudeau simply said "next question" and turned away.

 
How about this, Trudeau, you jack-hole, answer the damn question? Did your handlers not prepare you enough? Was the question worded too poorly? Was it beneath you?

People want to vote for him.


Votes are still being tallied in the Scottish independence referendum.


And now, an illustrated guide to dogs.  Enjoy.