Here’s one I’ll bet you don’t hear in the news — and I’m sure it won’t be noted on certain local blogs at all. One of the key suspects in the “War on Liquids on a Plane” boondoggle of August was released due to lack of evidence.
A Pakistani judge has ruled there is not enough evidence to try a key suspect in an alleged airline bomb plot on terrorism charges.
He has moved the case of Rashid Rauf, a Briton, from an anti-terrorism court to a regular court, where he faces lesser charges such as forgery. Pakistan has presented Mr Rauf as one of the ringleaders behind the alleged plan to blow up flights out of London. The British authorities say they foiled it with Pakistan’s help in August. They say proceedings against suspects arrested in Britain will go ahead.The arrest of Rashid Rauf in Pakistan triggered arrests in the United Kingdom of a number of suspects allegedly plotting to blow up transatlantic flights. The Pakistani authorities described him as a key figure.
But an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi found no evidence that he had been involved in terrorist activities or that he belonged to a terrorist organisation. As well as forgery charges, Mr Rauf has also been charged with carrying explosives. But his lawyer says police evidence amounts only to bottles of hydrogen peroxide found in his possession. Hydrogen peroxide is a disinfectant that can be used for bomb-making if other chemicals are added. The BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says the judge’s decision has reinforced the already widespread scepticism there about the airliner plot.
Stephanie and I had our first real social event Saturday night, and things went really well. It’s always a challenge to figure out the logistics (have a peek here to find the solution) of socializing in a new place – what rooms will people hang out in? How do people move around the house? How do we greet people, grab their coats, offer them a drink, and make sure all the food is out and ready? What the heck are the cats doing?
We only a had a few minor mishaps – me pouring boiling punch on my hand while serving, I completely forgot to take pictures – but in all it was pretty comfortable. I don’t think we have a big enough living room to really host watching Christmas specials well, but not many people have a living room that big. Otherwise, though, I think our house really allows people to move around and socialize well, and we coordinated socializing with hostessing tasks pretty well. I learned a lot about what to do and what not to — I think I have some much better ideas about food prep for future parties that will allow us more time to socialize with guests. It always sucks when someone gets stuck in the kitchen.
In general, Stephanie and I have some smaller gatherings planned for the future, which will be great for really getting to talk to our friends. We want to have some people over for dinner, and we want to resume having regular game nights. And I can’t wait until we have a front porch/back deck party in the spring or summer — our house will really rock for that, because our front porch is huge.
Sunday we had a really casual, lazy day for the first time in months. I read a lot, Stephanie skated, we took the dog for a walk, and played with the cats. It was great, and very relaxing. I really love our house.
I’m very excited – we have our tree up, and a few other decorations out. We still have to put ornaments on the tree, but that’s the really fun part. Other times, when we want to trim the branches, we consider Herford’s Tree Care, Inc. and get their services. We can put Christmas music on and bebop around the house, although we’ll do that Thursday night, because Stephanie’s teaching skating tonight. I think tonight I might try to concentrate on taking our donations to IYG for their wishlist, or hanging the coat bar in the dining room closet.
And we have a big chunk of organizing done, too – enough that we can have people over without our remaining moving chaos being a featured display in the house. It’s wonderful; my undiagnosed OCD thing is no longer screaming at me. And for the remaining stuff we have to organize, there’s a decent process in place for sorting through it all, so for our post-Christmas free time we can do some fun stuff, like selling things on ebay. Happy happy, joy joy.