Two Were Doctors

They're not alienated youth, or poverty-stricken Arabs. They're educated, professional religious fanatics. The report is from the Daily Mail, one of the more hysterical and less reliable British papers, so treat with some caution (but the doctor factoid has been reported elsewhere as well):

Two doctors were among five people being held as terror suspects last night after the bomb plots in London and Glasgow. One was one of two men who tried to drive a blazing Jeep packed with petrol, gas canisters and nails into Glasgow Airport on Saturday...

Both doctors were working at UK hospitals and were apparently here legally... "These are highly-educated, articulate and intelligent people," one security source said. "They are men trained to heal but they were planning unbelievable atrocities." ...

One of the doctors, the man arrested on the M6, was said to be a Jordanian-born doctor at the North Staffordshire Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent. He lived with his wife and baby in a rented house in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, where forensic officers were carrying out a detailed search last night. ..

The doctor involved in the Glasgow attack is an Iraqi who is thought to have been granted asylum in the UK while a third suspect comes from Lebanon.

In Britain's socialized medical system, of course, doctors aren't as well-paid as in the US. But they're not poor either. What we're seeing here is what we've seen for years. Al Qaeda is composed mainly of prosperous middle-class types, consumed with resentment of the West's freedoms, and determined to kill as many in the name of Allah. Yes, there's no doubt that the occupation of Iraq has made us more vulnerable to these religious nutters. But they were there before Iraq, and they will be here for a long time. And they are not all illegal immigrants. Many are legal, professional and devoutly murderous.