Here’s your daily dose of propaganda, kids: Dangerous and depraved: paedophiles unite with terrorists online. This is one of the worst examples of Rupert Murdoch’s ‘journalism’ I’ve seen - I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Yes, two of the best excuses for the erosion of civil liberties are now apparently colluding online to ‘exchange operational secrets’. It’s now even been discovered (by an unnamed and unbiased ‘anti-terror source’) that terrorists and paedophiles are psychologically similar. They’re both ‘obsessive’, ‘paranoid’ (surely they should be paranoid?) and - this is the best one - they spend a lot of time ‘going to the mosque or going off to internet cafés’. That’s an actual quote, I’m afraid.

Never trust an ‘anti-terror source’ with your psychological well-being.

Not only are the terrorists and paedophiles in league with one another, apparently they’re often one and the same. The article proudly declares that ‘The link might have remained unknown but for the case of a Muslim preacher from the East End of London [Abdul Makim Khalisadar]’. Right. Except that they then admit that Khalisadar was never convicted of anything relating to terrorism or paedophilia. (He was a convicted rapist though, so hey, they’re all the same right?) All through the article ‘terror suspects’ are treated as if equatable with convicted terrorists.

We then get the incredible claim that terrorists actually communicate through child porn. Yes, Al-Qaeda have decided to encode pornographic images of children, possibly the most illegal, graphic and conspicuous medium thinkable, with secret messages as a mode of ‘clandestine communication’. I’m not making this up (although I suspect the Times is).

It’s so reminiscent of the Brass Eye special on paedophilia, which is always good for a laugh. In this clip it must be remembered that the celebrities/talking heads were unaware the program was a spoof. (Note the similarities to this article? A secret network of paedophiles communicating through coded text messages and strange hand claps, etc). This clip is similar, at least from 3:15 onwards - we hear of paedophiles who molest children with penis-shaped soundwaves, keyboards that give off toxic fumes and make your children more suggestible, etc. As in the Times article, the internet is portrayed as a dangerous medium that needs to be controlled. And this Brass Eye clip of a paedophile disguised as a school is rather amusing.

Possibly my favourite quote from the Times article: ‘Not every terrorist downloading child pornography is a Muslim, though’. (Silly reader, thinking all the terrorist-paedophiles are Muslims, that’s just intolerant. Whatever gave you that impression?).

Apparently, machete-wielding ‘Hitler-enthusiasts’ can be terrorist-paedophiles too, and other ‘white men’. Yes, even white people. So there. Who said The Times was racist?

Incidentally, the article was written by a certain Richard Kerbaj. Here you can read about how Kerbaj misrepresented the facts for another fear-mongering, pro-War-on-Terror piece in another Murdoch newspaper.

So yes, good eh?

I’m not sure if this trumps The Times’ diagram of Osama Bin Laden’s secret mountain fortress though.