Be Afraid

Just over a month ago, I smelled something fishy about a supposed terrorist plot to take over the synagogue in Prague.

Nothing really added up about the story. This is from the original post above.

Here is what we actually do know. Princ Dobrosi, an Albanian ex-drug kingpin from Kosovo met this summer with Arfan Qaeder Bhatti. As reported in the Prague Monitor, Bhatti is a Pakistani with a Norwegian passport who was arrested last week engaging in an act of terrorism.... in Oslo. So at the exact same time, Prague goes on alert and Dobrosi is brought in for questioning.

Dobrosi and Bhatti did time together up in Norway. Dobrosi escaped, got caught in Prauge, and was eventually released from Norwegian prison. He admits to meeting Bhatti. He even admitts that he thought Bhatti wanted to get in on his cigarette scheme. He says he was surprised at the visit because there was no criminal behavior on the mind. He said he just wanted to see how he lived.

Now I was still trying to give the authorities the benefit of the doubt that maybe Bhatti tried to talk Dobrosi into doing something. But, even if he had, the reaction from the city authorities was way overblown. Once they had talked to Dobrosi and released him, we should be taken off high-alert.

Now we get this (sorry, the link is gone)

Prague, Nov 3 (CTK) - Some Jewish organisations have asked Interior Minister Ivan Langer (Civic Democrats, ODS) to submit reliable evidence to support the claim that the Jewish community in Prague was threatened with a terrorist attack on September 23.

They say they believe that it was nothing but a "media bubble," scare mongering news and a "political media game" designed to divert attention from the scandals of Czech political tops.

They cite that the main dinner that involved most of the Jewish community had already occured on the 22nd of September, and yet the emergency meeting was held on the 23rd.


These groups however were not joined by the Prague Jewish community in their call for an investigation. A very PC Frantisek Banyai told reporters that he trusts the police saying, "We suppose that the interior ministry knows what it does."

That is right, don't make waves in your own bathtub. Let the other organizations apply pressure and stay neutral. Smart move.

What we see here is a clumsy example of the government using fear to acheive political goals. This is of course partially driven by police bureaucrats who want to provide themselves with job security. This then is just a mediocre attempt at this old game, spotted and tagged by the people it affected.

There is a certain peace of mind in knowing how unsophisticated the local authorities are. If they were better at what they do (like in some other countries I can think of) they could have us all scared out of our pants. But here we all pretty much know it is crap and that the politicians are corrupt and people just shake their heads and accept it.

Why make a fuss?