# England designates Iceland as a terrorist country **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635 "2008-11-01T21:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/21 "2008-11-02T01:47:54Z")
One would think there should be some other way to sieze the assets fo failing businesses without virtually declaring them enemies of the state. But maybe there isn’t. Perhaps we’ll see a whole spate of such actions – and perhaps we’ll see the parties involved become ACTUAL enemies, hopefully not the shooting kind. Maybe various governments ought to get cracking on creating laws to sieze assets without such, er, politically charged, terminology. I doubt this will be the last failure of one government-backed bank in another country’s territory. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/22 "2008-11-02T02:09:13Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > Icelandic and UK ships collided due to the storm, but the actual shots missed. Best guess then it was some “shot across the bows” warning. If the ships were so close they hit each other, it’s hard to imagine how gunfire would have missed unless it was an intentional miss. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/23 "2008-11-02T02:22:51Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Best guess then it was some “shot across the bows” warning. If the ships were so close they hit each other, it’s hard to imagine how gunfire would have missed unless it was an intentional miss. Without knowing the exact details I couldn’t say, but, it’s not good form to fire on ships in distress, even warning shots. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/24 "2008-11-02T02:25:23Z")
Question about the Cod War. Why would Iceland fire on British ships. I mean, let’s say they did kill someone, would they really be able to stand up to the might of the British navy? Also a question about Iceland financial trouble. Could the United States pulling out of the island have effected it? Less military means less money being pumped into the economy. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/25 "2008-11-02T03:37:40Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > Without knowing the exact details I couldn’t say, but, it’s not good form to fire on ships in distress, even warning shots. Actually, I was rethinking my own post about this. I agree with you about the bad form, but it is also possible that the shooting and the collision in a storm might have been entirely separate incidents. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/26 "2008-11-02T05:42:20Z")
wow. Vikings are the new Axis of Evil? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/27 "2008-11-02T05:50:10Z")
> [@RoOsh](#): > > Vikings are the new Axis of Evil? More like the Axis of Broke, really. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/28 "2008-11-02T06:19:00Z")
My PoliSci-student side wants just wants to say, who says neorealism is false? ETA: It’s time for an add-on to [[http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/axis.shtml](http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/axis.shtml)] this article.]([http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/axis.shtml](http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/axis.shtml)) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/29 "2008-11-02T06:26:55Z")
> [@RoOsh](#): > > wow. > > Vikings are the new Axis of Evil? I don’t know about that, but this may be yet another incidence of English-Icelandic rivalry, which has been going in spurts, off and on, for about a thousand years. In the Viking era, there were no doubt many Icelanders among the raiding parties besetting the English coast. At the turn of the modern era, it was the turn of English seafarers to terrorize the Icelanders and kidnapping coastal dwellers (which in Iceland must be just about everyone) back home to work as servants in their houses. A lot of the bad blood during this era was the result of squabbles over that most delicious finny denizen, the cod. Why am I suddenly talking like Dr. Smith from Lost In Space? I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/30 "2008-11-02T06:33:23Z")
Vikings are the **Axes** of Evil. Or maybe Hammers and Flails of Evil. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/31 "2008-11-02T09:25:42Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > A balls up, sure, but a balls up on a web page isn’t exactly the same thing as declaring Iceland a terrorist state. It kind of amuses me that the current web page at first glance appears to be designating the International Criminal Tribunal for The Former Yugoslavia as a terrorist organization. Now I’ve got this picture of a gang of distinguished international jurists brandishing AK-47s on a hijacked airliner, announcing they will execute one hostage every hour until Ratko Mladić is delivered into their custody. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/32 "2008-11-02T09:49:35Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > What were the false pretenses? The seizure may have been made under the Terrorism act, but everybody is aware of the real reasons for the seizure, and the UK governments has never implied otherwise. If billions of pounds of your nation’s money is going to disappear up the swanny, _why_ shouldn’t the government step in and start seizing assets? Isn’t this precisely why we elect governments? I elect governments to protect my rights. Governments can do that by not seizing your assets based on charges they know to be false. It might help the government to seize my assets, but for them to pretend I am a drug smuggler (knowing full well I am not) so that they can seize my assets under forfeiture laws would be an outrageous criminal act on their part. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/33 "2008-11-02T10:30:56Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Anyway, it seems that declaring a country is supporting terrorism is a shortcut to seizing whatever assets it has in reach. Didn’t we _lose_ the War on Terror? (And by “We” I included all nations from USA, Spain, & the UK to Australia & Palau…) All I know of Iceland comes from The Amazing Race, the Sugarcubes “Motorcrash” video, and various documentaries about volcanoes & glaciers & stuff. What a gorgeous country, its “moonscape” geography looks like no other place on Earth. I hope Icelanders are surviving their current Great Depression – frankly, all Americans & Europeans should breathe a sigh of relief that we did not suffer the same fate in mid-October. We came VERY close to joining Iceland; so close, you probably don’t even want to know about it. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/34 "2008-11-02T10:39:13Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > One would think there should be some other way to sieze the assets fo failing businesses without virtually declaring them enemies of the state. Never in this process, it seems, has the UK declared Iceland an enemy of the state. They were officially ambiguous enough about it to allow the Icelandic government to spin it that way, but hey, that’s the fault of Iceland for spinning it that way. No one held a gun to their cod boat, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/35 "2008-11-02T10:51:09Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Didn’t we _lose_ the War on Terror? (And by “We” I included all nations from USA, Spain, & the UK to Australia & Palau…) And the War on Drugs. Now it’s just up to the terrorists and the drug lords to fight each other to decide who gets to be our new Overlords. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/36 "2008-11-02T10:57:17Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > More like the Axis of Broke, really. What’s the capital of Iceland? About $3.50. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/37 "2008-11-02T11:09:50Z")
> [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](#): > > And the War on Drugs. Now it’s just up to the terrorists and the drug lords to fight each other to decide who gets to be our new Overlords. Actually, the new secret war is the War On Religious Fundamentalism. (This includes both Islam AND Christianity, BTW.) It’s so secret, I’m not even sure if it’s started yet or if it will ever be officially announced, or even if I’m just making shit up in my head for the new novel I’m writing… ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/38 "2008-11-02T11:17:30Z")
So Icelandic citizens get fingerprinted and photographed at airports and get stopped for “friendly chats” for seven hours? ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/39 "2008-11-02T11:22:10Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Actually, the new secret war is the War On Religious Fundamentalism. (This includes both Islam AND Christianity, BTW.) It’s so secret, I’m not even sure if it’s started yet or if it will ever be officially announced, or even if I’m just making shit up in my head for the new novel I’m writing… Well, if I have to choose between being governed by terrorists, drug lords, or a coalition of atheists, agnostics, and religious moderates, I think the choice is pretty clear. [sings]Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow![/sings] ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635/40 "2008-11-02T11:50:12Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > As usual, the Government has taken over 1000 years to come to this conclusion. 😃 Oh come now man, the last raids were just around 1000 years ago. Several white papers were needed you know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/england-designates-iceland-as-a-terrorist-country/470635.md?page=3)