ICIGSITBOTH :: 12:42 PM :: easyjetsetter

My Mum sent me an email confirming all the doctor's/dentist's/optician's appointments she had set up for my week at home next week. My Mum writes emails as if they were telegrams and she were being charged by the word. The text is truncated so that the minimum of letters and words is used, rendering the text incomprehensible and vowel-free. She sometimes uses "STOP" instead of punctuation.

"Lrna snt me vg thng STOP In yr mob phn put ICE + dads mob # STOP"

I wrote her back to confirm the appointments and pointed out that ICE, standing for "in case of emergency," would have no meaning to the French emergency services, as they speak, um, French. I would therefore follow her suggestion and put ECU (en cas d'urgences) in there instead, and once I am back in the UK put ICE into that one.

Now, I've changed my mind. I am going to put ICIGSITBOTH (in case I get shot in the back of the head) instead. Obviously, only in the UK phone. Brazilian electricians are shot in the front of the head here in France (more likely to kill with a single bullet as it leave a massive exit wound removing your brain) because the CRS does not fuck about.

I know I am being flippant. Now for the serious bit.

On the one hand, yes, it was indeed an extra-judicial killing, and they're Not Good. Tim asks, would it have been better if he had been a terrorist after all? Well, I think it's understandable (not ok, just understandable) that he wasn't. I think the police, sorry, "plain-clothed armed men," did all they could under the circumstances. As my Teutonic friend mentioned, how else do you deal with suicide bombers?

The problem is, of course, that there is a poverty of information. Do would-be suicide bombers thumb their Korans, muttering to themselves? Are anthrax packages always addressed by hand? Do all plane-hijackers buy a one way ticket using cash? Or are they people wearing a bulky coat with darkish skin who run away from the police?

I sent an email to Andrew about this, following his last post at the Sharpener that suggested formalising Muslim clerical training.* I'm not sure it's the loudmouth clerics that are the problem:

"As it is, if I were recruiting for a terrorist organisation I would
not raise my profile by standing up in front of friday services. I'd
stand at the back, and watch which young men were the angriest and
which were the weakest. And then I'd take them aside for a quiet chat.
A white-water rafting trip maybe, painting myself as a lovely
benefactor. I'd be a father to them.

Extremism, real, blow-yourself-up extremism, is not visible, it's not
distinctive. Would-be suicide bombers often deliberately hide any
overt religiosity, so as not to attract suspicion. I suspect that the
loud rarely take the step to crime (or get caught first, because they
have been attracting attention). Fear the quiet.

This is why a Brazilian electrician was killed. Because there are no
definitive signs. A lack of definitive signs probably is a sign in
itself."

As soon as the authorities come up with a profile, would-be suicide bombers avoid filling it. At that point, acting normally becomes suspicious, putting all normal-acting people at risk. The problem with suspicious behavior is that it depends who’s doing the suspecting, and what they already find suspect.

*Also Sarkozy's suggestion for France. I heart Sarkozy.

UPDATE: Never thought I would say this. Hell hath frozen. Pigs CAN fly. Crime does pay. I agree with Cherie Blair. Run for your lives.