From Blair, A Brief Lesson In Political Rhetoric

Scary headline: "At least two attacks thwarted since July - Blair"

LONDON (Reuters) - Security forces may have thwarted two further attacks since suicide bombers hit London's transport system in July and killed 52 people, Prime Minister Tony Blair said... "The police told me, and the security services back them up, that they may have stopped two further attempts since July 7," Blair said.

Note that 'may'. Well, they may have done anything, or nothing.

They may have gone to the moon if only they had discovered a Star Trek transporter technology. They may have gone back in time and thwarted 9/11, if only they had a time machine. They may have told the truth, if they were decent human beings.

I suppose it actually means: they may have thwarted two further attacks, if several unlikely pieces of information (probably extracted under torture) and the unlikely construction they've put on them, actually, against all the odds, turned out to be true. But they didn't.

The presence of that weasel word (twice), from a politician never reluctant to assert untruth as truth, is deeply significant. It means he and his handlers know the statement is completely unsupportable.

Also note that the headline had no problem turning this weasly uncertainty into an absolute assertion "At least two attacks thwarted since July".

Given that many people only read headlines, and these days just see them in feeds, many will believe this as an absolute fact. So, just another minor note on the propaganda onslaught, another little crime against peace as defined at Nuremburg.
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Article Author: Chromatius

Disaffected. Dissident. Student of history, literature, religion and the black arts of political rhetoric and persuasion.

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