Clown Car Terrorism?

Noah Shachtman in the Danger Room points out growing opinion that the latest British almost-car bombings are the equivalent of the Terrorist Special Olympics.

We here at the DANGER ROOM have been taking the London-Glasgow bomb plot pretty seriously. But to security guru Bruce Schneier, the scheme is straight out of the "Terrorist Special Olympics." "Beavis and Butthead in London jihad," proclaims El Reg in one story. "'al-Qaeda' puts on big shoes, red nose, takes custard pie," in another.

The argument -- echoed by lots of folks in the comments here -- is that "the device could not have detonated. Not under any circumstances. You see, the terrorist wannabe clown who built it left out a crucial element: an oxidizer. The device was pure pre-teen boy fantasy."

This very well may be turn out to be the case, but both Noah and I still consider this to be a real threat, despite the incompetence.

I mean if a few amateurs driven by some religiously inspired greivance can get as far as they did without being on the scope of British security, it makes you wonder what a real and serious Jihadi might accomplish with a legitimate car bomb?

Additionally the fact that Britain has professional class Muslims (i.e. not poor oppressed Muslims from some backwater. Anyone seeing a trend here?) cannot be a good sign for the future of that country's multi-cultural, free-for-all immigration experiment. And perhaps would have some lessons for us.

Food for thought...