Queen targeted in Africastan

Tuesday, 8th January 2008

It appears that there was an al Qaeda plot to kill the Queen when she addressed the Ugandan parliament last November. Stephen Brown reports on FrontPageMagazine:

In a vastly under-reported story, the Ugandan newspaper, The Monitor, claims the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Muslim terrorist organization connected with al-Qaeda, was planning to assassinate the British monarch at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting late last November in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. The paper relates the ADF planned to steal Uganda Broadcasting Corporation vans and use them as cover to gain access to one of the venues, possibly the Ugandan parliament, which the British royal addressed on November 22, for a bomb attack.
However, the two UBC vans scheduled to broadcast the Queen’s parliamentary address, the Monitor discovered, were that day under the watchful guard of an elite Ugandan military unit. As a result, Ugandans did not see the British queen make her historic speech to their national legislature. A UBC official later said there was no broadcast because there was no money and the UBC’s equipment would not work in the parliament (the British Broadcasting Corporation’s equipment, however, somehow functioned adequately at this venue).

Who knew? Not, it seems, the somnambulist British media.

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Jerry S

January 9th, 2008 1:30am

Dear Melanie
I have always read your blog with some interest, mild scepticism, but a general feeling that you are onto something at the same time. However this post, and your earlier one on the situation on Kenya have made me revise my opinion. I have spent quite some time working and travelling through Eastern Africa and feel I can speak woth some authority here.
1. The ADF have become an insignificant insurgent organisation since a Ugandan Army offensive in the Rwenzori region some years ago
2. There is/was and Islamist element to the ADF, but primarily they were sponsored by bidders/governments settling local geopolitcal disputes (Congo/Sudan) and there has never been any link with Al Quaeda
3 While I have the highest respect for journalists in Uganda, most Ugandan's would I'm sure agree that some stories in both the Monitor and Vision are pure nonsense, and in particular in the Monitor stories are manipulated for political ends.

Your readiness to invoke "islamist" conspiracy in every trouble spot in the world is beginning to suggest a morbid paranoia on your part

Deepan

January 10th, 2008 10:30pm

Melanie I do not understand why you attach -stan to everything that includes a Muslim element. Don't you realise it is a Persian suffix which outdates Islam? I actually am starting to agree with Jerry S.

Dalmar

January 11th, 2008 2:44pm

Melanie, I come from East Africa & on this story, I totally agree with the views of Jerry S. I know, we truly face some dangerous Islamic militants—but invoking Islam on every little crisis around the world is not the way to go. For what it’s worth, this is my heartfelt advice for you Ms Phillips: please choose your battles wisely! Invoking Islam on every little story, however untrue or trivial—will only serve to expose you as—a paranoid crying wolf—with an agenda!

JustAThought

January 14th, 2008 2:09am

To Jerry S and others, you may have a point, but there is a major (major!) difference between Islam and the other global faiths: They believe in an afterlife that is potentially the 'real' reality - and to get there, they need to pull off something fairly effective towards their 'cause'. In addition, Islam panders to those of limited intellectual capability and therefore far more likely to be used as tools - sometimes possibly by NONE Islamic causes, but by using Muslims to carry out the crime, they provide a scapegoat/target. Just a thought. Yes, a little strong, but we do live in dangerous times and sometimes, things must be said that in the past would simply exists as thoughts at the back of the mind. What if Melanie IS onto something? No, she's not perfect, but if she's correct 50% of the time, she may save us all - innocent Muslims included!

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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.

For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here