Terrorists Targeted U.S. Embassy in London

At Telegraph UK, "Christmas bomb plot: nine men remanded over plan to ‘blow up Big Ben and Westminster Abbey’." And LAT, "Nine terrorism suspects appear in London court":

Reporting from London — Nine men accused of terrorism and conspiracy to blow up high-profile targets that reportedly included the U.S. Embassy and the London Stock Exchange in a Christmas bombing campaign made their first appearance in a central London court Monday.

Most of the nine, ages 17 to 28, are of Bangladeshi origin. They were among 12 men arrested a week ago in three cities across Britain. Three were released without charge.

They were charged late Sunday after a weeklong interrogation by counter-terrorism police at a London police station. They appeared at the city's Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday in three groups.

Anti-terrorism prosecutor Sue Hemming said the nine men were charged with preparing to commit terrorist acts or assisting in them.

The men were also accused of igniting and testing incendiary materials and downloading material for the preparation of acts of terrorism, Reuters news agency reported, and five of them were charged with possession of documents and records of potential use to terrorists. They will reappear in London's central criminal court, the Old Bailey, on Jan. 14.

The Guardian newspaper identified the nine as Nazam Hussain, 25, Usman Khan, 19, Mohibur Rahman, 26, and Abul Bosher Mohammed Shahjahan, 26, from Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands area of England; Gurukanth Desai, 28, Omar Sharif Latif, 26, and Abdul Malik Miah, 24, who were detained in Cardiff, South Wales; and Mohammed Moksudur Rahman Chowdhury, 20, and Shah Mohammed Lutfar Rahman, 28, from London.

Though few details were revealed about the targets, the BBC reported that the men were accused of carrying out reconnaissance of high-profile targets, including the American Embassy and the London Stock Exchange.

Their arrest and charges come amid concerns about terrorism activity in Europe. On Dec. 11 a suicide bomber killed himself in an attack in Stockholm.

Moe Tkacik Responds

After a brief exchange, Moe Tkacik sent me a burst of tweets which combined to form something of a paragraph:

@AmPowerBlog omg how did I back off? There were a few tiny factual pts abt which I didn't feel like arguing in part due to solstice spirit ... always thought he was creepy but condom sabotage in consen sex not equiv of rape unless disease/impregnation is intent/result ... but! I'm not swedish law, and to me I realize this is largely abt language, and how precise and evocative you want words to be ... Guess I just dont want rape bcoming another "freedom",tho unsure what best evokes pantsless julian rubbing up agnst you/yr will ... I know and I commented bc i was surprised that was her reaction. By the end we kind of figured out where we differed...but ... also, no disrespect to naomi wolf, although "earth tones" etc etc. I found facts of case intriguing. Esp as someone who always ... wonders if it would have been a good idea to report my date rape? 90% of the time I think "no" but marcotte did make me think ... that since all that is likely to happen is he'll get a stern and semi-traumatic interrogation by police, everyone should do it ... pinning her down hpnd to Miss A right? Thought it was interesting that it didn't seem like she ever wld have gone to cops until ... younger miss W was so traumatized by the thing. Then ms A reexamined her own "worst sex ever" and (in my comic book imagination ... became filled with righteous rage on behalf of the sisterhood which is often not first thought when "worst sex ever" happens ... because young sluts are often too busy thinking "oh no am I a slut?" or "what slut disease do I have now?" Whereas old sluts ... are irritated but hardly traumatized, since let's be honest after a certain age no man can ever violate you like yr sexist boss ... anyway, I hadn't seen one dude committing two date rapes close enough for victims to confer. It was cool. There are worse probs ... and I can't tell you why the "CIA conspiracy" crap so angered the Lady Doyle set, bc obv the timing screamed "bitch(es)setmeup" ... but since Assange cant claim credit for stylish prose of cables or mindless violence of iraq footage,it doesn't really matter?

RELATED: "Rehabilitated Moe Tkacik Dishes on Robert Stacy McCain!"

Rehabilitated Moe Tkacik Dishes on Robert Stacy McCain!

Here's the dirt on Robert Stacy McCain's creds in the feminist blogosphere. We've got Amanda Marcotte dishing on the infamous "You buy the ticket, you take the ride" argument, and then we have Moe Tkacik's admission that McCain is the one Washington Times journalist that she "sometimes pays attention to because he's so radical."

What's amazing is that the #MooreandMe protest doesn't come up --- or at least not in the 25 minutes I watched. I stopped watching after that. The discussion devolved into gratuitous and surprisingly prurient sex talk, with an extremely selective commentary on the Julian Assange allegations. Note especially Moe's aggressive progressive feminist walk-back, since the discussion of her Washington City Paper piece is badly at odds with the reaction from Sady Doyle and her Twitter totalitarians. And Amanda Marcotte acknowledges so much at Pandagon:

I was ready for a fight, but Moe’s stance on both Wikileaks and the rape case changed considerably after that post, which also strangely includes ruminations on “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”, as if you can really extrapolate much about Swedish culture from a single exploitation series that has a sort of feminist message buried in a bunch of unsettling rape imagery. But the chat was amicable, and we agreed on most things, and I think it was really interesting.

We'll have to take Amanda's word for it, that she was "ready for a fight." She doesn't look flush with adrenaline at the start of the clip, but then, with all due respect, I think she's a more reasonable woman than Sady Doyle --- and that's saying a lot.

RELATED: "Unwatchable BloggingHeadsTV Episode in Which I’m Mentioned."