Terror Suspects Protest Innocence

I only really caught wind of this story when I flew back in to the UK this morning, but it was indeed a strange coincidence that on the plane I finished reading John Le Carré's Absolute Friends which ends on a chilling note that makes you view this whole story with a great deal more suspicion than usual (or, I should say, even more than usual).

At the end of the book (yes, I know it's fiction, but it so has the ring of truth), an anti-terrorist operation in Germany purportedly blows the lid on a terrorist training school, leaving two suspects dead. The media faithfully reports that extremists have been unearthed and foiled in their plans. Except, of course (it being Le Carré), the whole operation, including the "terror school" itself is a put-up job, funded by the extravagantly funded Born Again Oil Junta that controls Homeland Security, and the two dead suspects are innocent dupes, both of whom had previously served as intelligence officers for the British.

The whole point, in the novel, being to scare the bejesus out of the reluctant Germans (and hopefully the French) and bring them into the fold. True to form, the French dismiss it all as les bollocks and will have none of it. Good for them, and good for anyone who listens to the news of this sort of thing and doesn't take it all at face value.