Who Planted the Car Bombs?

Generally, I am not a Tin Foil hat kind of guy. I laugh at most conspiracy theories. While I'm certain the Bush administration hasn't told us everything they know about 9/11, I am convinced based on all I'm read that the Towers were brought down by aircraft, the PA plane was driven into the ground by the terrorists, and I'm fairly certain the AA plane did hit the Pentagon (seriously, though, Mr. President, you really should release all that confiscated security footage).

But I have to question the news coming out of Britain. I already ranted about the Fake Liquid Bomb scare from last summer. This week I am also dubious.

Right now, I have 80% confidence that those two car bombs in London were part of a terrorist plot. But I think there's a 20% chance they were staged by some political, governmental, or other intelligence agency.

Bush's poll numbers are at an all time low. The US population is increasingly opposed to the war in Iraq. It looks like the Congress might try to restore some of our constitutional rights.

At the same time, the Congress is pushing ahead with measures to reign in an Executive Branch that has a Vice President who seems convinced he is part of some mythical fourth branch of US Government.

Britain just brought in a new Prime Minister who needs to demonstrate how tough he will be on terrorists.

And there is nothing like an imminent threat to make general populace give the executive whatever he wants to keep them safe.

So now we have two car bombs show up in London. The heroic British police deactivate them and save hundreds of lives.

No one got hurt. The police are heroes. The executives reinforce the need for strong security measures. And hopefully, the populace goes along with it all.

You wouldn't need many people involved in the plot to fake it, so it's possible.

Odds are, it was a real plot by terrorists. But I am not convinced.