LONDON (AP) — U.K. police said that five men arrested in the early hours of Sunday near an air base used by the United States during its war against Iran are being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act that appeared to involve three trucks.
London’s Metropolitan Police, which takes the lead on potential terrorist activities, said police received a call at 12:45 a.m. related to the three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be traveling toward RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base that is operated by the U.S. under an agreement dating back to the Cold War.
They called them terrorists so they could deny them the rights normally afforded to people accused of a crime (for instance, they can be held 14 days without charge instead of only 24 hours).
That’s always been the end game for the term. At first this legal grey zone was mostly applied to people outside the imperial core so fewer Westerners gave a shit. Now it’s coming home baby.