Help! My neighbour's a terrorist!

After a short holiday away from Fnordianism, we're back. And this one's a real beauty. It plays on our media-fed paranoias, our dirty little hidden racisms and our petty dislikes of our neighbours. In fact, as Fnords go this one is almost up to Orwellian standards.

It's actually a radio advert for the Confidential Terrorist Hotline (0800 789 321, if you fancy giving them a bell). I can't remember the precise wording, but this is a pretty close approximation:

"This is the sound of a bomb not going off outside a busy nightclub because a neighbour noticed someone collecting the chemicals to make it in a house on their road.
This is the sound of a bomb not going off in a busy shopping centre because a shopper reported a suspicious person studying the CCTV cameras.
If you see something suspicious ring the Confidential Terrorist Hotline"

Oh my Gods! I'm terrified! The utter, chemical-collecting, camera-watching bastards. You can't trust anybody. In fact, that bugger that runs the corner shop - he might be a Muslim!!!!!!

Errm. . . just a couple of points.
Firstly: What chemicals do you actually need to make a bomb? You see, I've no idea. Can't you make one out of garden compost, or something. Why don't I know? Because I've absolutely no reason to!
The only people who know exactly what goes in a bomb are people who deal with them. That's bomb disposal experts and terrorists (and firework manufacturers, of course). Should my neighbours buy bomb-making equipment I wouldn't know because [a] it would surely be hidden in bags, [b] they would dispose of the evidence rather carefully and, [c] I've no bloody idea what it would be in the first place!
Perhaps I should be a good citizen and rummage through everyone's dustbins at night!

Secondly: Security cameras indeed! As the IRA proved an awful long time ago, security cameras are irrelevant. A bomb can be made the size of a cigarette packet and dropped into the pocket of a coat in a clothing shop. No security camera can pick that up.
A terrorist does not need to check out security cameras because security cameras don't work. We have the most ridiculous surveillance culture in the whole of Europe, but do we have the lowest crime rates, or even the best clean-up? Nope! According to a 2008 police report only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV.
I have actually been out with a group of people spotting CCTV cameras. We found loads. We stood in front of them and waved. We took photos - I actually stood directly in front of several cameras and took a photo right down the lens. I even made sure they could see my face.
What happened? Nowt, nuffin, zip, nada, bugger all! I didn't even get scowled at by a policeman or a security guard - I was almost disappointed.
How do you fool a CCTV camera? Wear a hat! Honestly, wear a hat - they nearly all have to be above 8 feet so all they can see is your hat.
Let's arrest all those suspicious bastards with hats on.

There is a terrorist threat in the UK. There always has been and always will be, so long as people treat other people as things (Thank you Granny Weatherwax). But the mass media and this Fnordian epic of an advert are inflating the problem completely out of proportion.

Since the year 2000 there have been exactly 52 people killed in terrorist attacks in the UK. They all died in the tragic events of 7/7/05.
Since the year 2000 there have been 2,752 people killed by terrorist attacks in the US. All of them died in the appalling (and bloody suspicious) attacks of 9/11 (11/9/01)
That's a total of 2,804.

Now look at these figures:
Every year there are 1,200,000 deaths from road accidents.
Every year 430,000 are killed by cigarettes (and that's just in the US)
Every year 400,000 Americans die of obesity related diseases (and the UK's working on it!)
Every year there are 130,000 deaths from cancer in the UK alone.

These are just a few figures I've pinched from The Insider (click on it to read some more).

I'll let them have the last word:
Nobody has benefited more from terrorism than the US, the UK, and Israel. They use terrorism as an excuse to change the law, giving more power to the authorities and withdrawing freedoms from the people. They use terrorism as an excuse to attack and conquer foreign lands. They exploit our fear to win support.
If terrorism and WMD are such a threat, what are the causes? Nobody provides more money to terrorist groups and rogue states than the US and the UK. Nobody has or sells more weapons than the US and UK.
Can you see what is happening here? Or are you still afraid of the boogey-man?

Love (not fear),
Seán