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| The London Olympics: unparalleled showcase for more than one cause [Image Source] |
About the London Olympic Games and
their usefulness to terrorists, there's no need for any of us to overexert our
imaginations. The massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games in
1972 happened not because the Palestinian Arab jihadists hate athletes or
athletics but because the once-in-four-year event is an unparalleled
opportunity to get attention. The price hardly matters.
As of this morning, the London games
are nineteen days away. They will run between July 27 and August 12, and will
be protected by "the largest
peacetime security operation ever seen in Britain" [source]. Those security measures are not
being taken in a vacuum. No fewer than 14 terror-related arrests
occurred across Britain in the past week, including one the British press calls
"a white Muslim convert detained over an alleged plan to carry out a major
terrorist attack".
Nine individuals
have been issued with orders under Britain's Terrorism Prevention and
Investigation Measures (TPIM), meaning their movements and computer use are
restricted, and the police need to know and approve the people whom they meet.
One of the nine is described in a major report in yesterday's (Saturday),
UK Telegraph newspaper. It is quite a story, revealing much about
Britain’s passive/aggressive approach to Islamist terrorism.
CF’s background is terrorism-rich. Now
24, and a member of "a large
family of Somali origin from north London", he was intercepted by British
authorities in 2008 and prevented from traveling to Afghanistan to become a
jihadist and "to take part in suicide operations" according to a
published Home Office report. He jumped bail in June 2009 and fled to Somalia
before his trial started. Despite his absence, British justice managed to
acquit him of any crime. He used his ill-gotten freedom well, taking part
in terrorist training, recruiting other Brits, and becoming a fighter with
the al-Shabaab group, generally regarded as affiliated with al-Qaeda.
Five other Brits underwent the same training program which ended when their
instructor, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, was permanently eliminated by a US
Navy SEAL force in 2009.
CF is said to have married a Somali
woman in Mogadishu in 2010. He was then arrested in Burao, Somaliland, in
January 2011 and extradicted back to Britain. Two months later, despite the history
of terrorist charges against him, he was released and placed under the
control order we mentioned above. Court papers [source]
filed by the UK government state the obvious: that, but for the restrictions
imposed on his freedom of movement and assembly, CF would be actively engaged
in terrorism today.
“As CF has previously re-engaged in Islamist extremist activity, despite being on bail, previous disruptive action has not been enough to dissuade him from his involvement in Islamist extremism… His previous conduct has demonstrated a level of commitment to Islamist extremism, and CF is therefore determined to continue to adhere to his Islamist extremist agenda.”
Last month, CF was
arrested again and remains held now by the police. (Evidently well aware of the
opportunities, he is bringing an administrative appeal against the banning
before the UK's High Court tomorrow, Monday). This is because he wears an
electronic GPS tag that alerts police when he comes too close to sensitive
places. And yet despite the tag, and jumped bail, this man on five separate
occasions in April and May 2012 traveled (with the tag affixed to his body)
by train through Olympic Park, and to the Stratford station
beside the Westfield shopping centre that is a major gateway for visitors
to Olympic Park. Britain's security services and police treat these
as "among the most significant targets for terrorists". They are
heavily patrolled and surveyed. The Telegraph's report leads
with this line: "A suspected terrorist who MI5 believe is a would-be
suicide bomber was found repeatedly near the Olympic Games venue."
The lethal brazenness of CF and the
other still-unconvicted Brits arrested in the past few days ought to remind us
of the challenge open/democratic societies face when confronted with
malevolents who play by very different rules - but who nevertheless continue to
have substantial backing in the community. London's most painful experience
till now of what the Islamist terrorists wish it came seven years ago in the
co-ordinated killing attacks on its buses and underground trains. Those 2005
terrorist outrages, known today as 7/7,
caused the deaths of 52 innocent people plus the murderers. They occurred one day after London was awarded the 2012 Games,
but according to one thoughtful observer, those
attacks are "almost forgotten 7 years on".
UK police have said
this weekend that no similar terrorist attack is "imminent". In
fact, that's what MI5 officials have been saying throughout the past months in
the wake of a series of terrorism-related arrests (23 suspects, most of them
British citizens). We assume they understand fully the price of being
wrong on something as serious as this. We don't envy the British the challenges
they face in these coming weeks.
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