Scotland Yard: terror attack in London inevitable

Jerusalem Post ^ | Mar. 16, 2004 | Douglas Davis

[Alouette]

Britain's top policeman, Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir John Stevens, warned on Tuesday that a terrorist attack in London is inevitable, despite the fact that anti-terror officers are working "three-times harder than ever" to prevent such an atrocity.

His remarks come amid heightened public tensions and security measures following the Madrid bombings last Thursday which left 200 dead and thousands injured.

Speaking at a press conference with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Stevens revealed that, "we have actually stopped terrorist attacks happening in London, but," he said, "there is an inevitability that some sort of attack will get through."

The sentiments expressed by Stevens have been echoed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, while Livingstone told the press conference it would be "miraculous" if London escaped an attack by al-Qaida. Earlier, Home Secretary David Blunkett warned on BBC radio: "It is quite likely they are planning one now."

The Madrid attack has had a tragic consequences for the victims and their families, but it has also had a profound political effect across Europe.

One immediate consequence was the unexpected victory of Spain's Socialist Party in last Sunday's election. Another was the immediate declaration by Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero that he would extract the Spanish component from the US-led coalition in Iraq.

In describing the Iraqi campaign as a "disaster" based on a "lie," and calling on George Bush and Tony Blair "do some reflection and self-criticism," Zapatero has re-opened the combustible debate over Iraq in Europe, with increased rancor.

It is now widely accepted that Sunday's electoral upset in Spain was a consequence of the perception that, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Jose Maria Aznar's ruling Popular Party attempted to hoodwink the public by placing the blame firmly on the domestic ETA terrorist group.

And as it became more obvious that the attack was conducted by al-Qaida, or a wholly-owned subsidiary, the charge of deception became conflated with the notion that Aznar actually invited the attacks on Madrid by leading his country into the deeply unpopular Iraq war.

The Madrid attacks are now spoken of as "Europe's 9/11," while the Zapatero's unexpected victory in Spain is being described as "Bin-Ladin's first regime change."

But beyond the tragedy and the carnage, there is little similarity between the American and Spanish experiences. Unlike the solidarity that marked the aftermath of the attacks on America, the attacks on Spain appear to have widened the intra-European rifts that had emerged in the run-up to the war, at both national and supranational levels.

The sense of outrage in Spain is directed more at its departing political leader than at the terrorists; the sense of solidarity is with other European states that are reflexively anti-American and that most vociferously oppose the Iraq war.

For them, it is American action that provoked the Madrid attacks; it is Washington rather than Islamic fascism that is the author of their misfortune. While America responded to the attacks on its homeland with defiance, the Europeans are showing a propensity for their old game of appeasement, a game they have played with great vigor in the Israeli-Arab theater.

Spain, once considered to be solidly Atlanticist, is about to make a dramatic about-face. Zapatero was quick to indicate this week that the "Three Amigos" - Bush, Blair and Aznar - are history; instead, he will pursue what he described as a "magnificent" partnership with France and Germany.

The weakening of the coalition will not help George Bush to sustain the credibility of America's bloody engagement in Iraq; nor will it help his campaign for re-election in November.

At the same time, the zeitgeist - transforming victim into perpetrator - will not help Blair, who led Britain unwillingly to war and was unkindly described by Jose Bono, a senior aide to Zapatero, as "un gilipollas integral" - a total dickhead.

If, as is being widely predicted, Islamic terrorism visits the streets of London, the British prime minister, like his outgoing Spanish counterpart, will face tough questions. "Regime change," al-Qaida-style, might not have ended in Madrid.

"We are renowned as a phlegmatic people," noted Peter Kilfoyle, a Labor legislator and former defense minister in the Blair government, "but we are not forgiving to those who let the side down, whether at home or abroad.

"If such an attack were to take place here," he wrote in the London-based Guardian this week, "the question would inevitably be whether our support for America's war against Iraq had made it more likely."

This was, he added, a subject for Blair to reflect on: "If ever there was a case of an individual driving the nation into a war then it was him. People will inevitably link his personal crusade to any failure to forestall terrorist outrages. Thus the stakes for him have increased alarmingly."

[SevenofNine]

That not good YO Brit leftists that tell you something London is that hood of 10 Downing street and Queen Elizabeth Crib HELLO

[retrokitten]

What developed nation isn't?

[Lexington Green]

MEN OF HARLECH

Hark, I hear the foe advancing
Barbed steeds are proudly prancing
Helmets in the sunbeams glancing
Glitter through the trees.

Men of Harlech, lie ye dreaming
See ye not their falchions gleaming
While their pennons gaily streaming
Flutter in the breeze.

From the rocks resounding
Let the war cry sounding
Summon all at Cambreais call
The haughty foe surrounding

Men of Harlech, on to glory
See your banner famed in story
Waves these buring words before ye,
"Britain scorns to yield!"

Mid the fray see dead and dying
Friend and foe together lying
All around the arrows flying
Scatter sudden death.

Frightened steeds are wildly neighing
Brazen trumpets loudly braying
Wounded men for mercy praying
With their parting breath.

See they're in disorder,
Comrades, keep close order
Ever they shall rue the day,
They ventured o'er the border.

Now Al Qaeda flees before us,
Victr'ry's banner floateth oe'er us,
Raise the loud exulting chorus,
"Britain wins the field!"

[B-Cause]

An Open Letter to the People of Spain

by Laura Mansfield, Analyst - NE Intelligence Network

The terrorist attack that massacred 200 of your countrymen, and injured over a thousand, was a horrific act. The world grieves with you. We all know it could have happened to our people in our countries just as easily as it happened in Madrid last Thursday.

But no matter how tragic and horrible that act was, it was not a victory for the terrorists.

The victory for the terrorists in Spain came on Sunday.

The professed goal of the attack, according to numerous Al Qaeda communiques, was to punish Spain for its support of the United States in the war against Iraq.

Sunday, in your free elections, you voted to place the communist party in power. This morning your new leadership announced that it would withdraw the Spanish troops from Iraq, and in effect abandon the coalition.

Your actions proved beyond the shadow of a doubt to Al Qaeda that if they kill enough people in a mass casualty attack that they can swing the popular vote. You've proved that they can influence elections.

You have just guaranteed that the United States will sustain a mass casualty terrorist action on our soil before our November elections. After all, maybe we too can be frightened into a policy of isolationalism. You probably also doomed Tony Blair's government in England to the same fate. How many will die in terror attacks in the United States and England in order for the terrorists to try and intimidate us?

In 1937, your countryman Pablo Picasso created a masterpiece depicting the horrors of wars in Guernica.

That same year, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made this statement: "We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will." He entered into a policy of appeasement with Germany, instead of taking a stand and drawing a line in the sands of time. The end result was that Adolf Hitler had more time to strengthen his hold on power and perpetrate a holocaust not just on the Jews of Germany, but on much of Europe.

At the same time, your countrymen were giving their lives in a struggle for freedom in Spain.

You were not afraid in 1937. Where is the courage of 1937?

The message you sent to Al Qaeda yesterday was clear. "Please don't threaten us; please don't kill our people; we'll do what you want us to do."

Why are you allowing the terrorists to intimidate you now? Why do you let them win?

What happened?

I leave you now with the words "Hasta la Vista". Call us when you need us. You will be calling; your actions in response to the Madrid terrorism attack guaranteed it. And when you call us, we will come and help. Even if Al Qaeda threatens us and attacks us. We don't let fear cower us into appeasement or surrender. That's the kind of people we are.

[Sam Cree]

Countries that allow themselves to be intimidated by terror today may temporarily find some safety. But they invite nothing but domination by terror for the future.

As for ourselves, I would say that if we elect Kerry as president, it will amount to another "regime change" victory for Al Qaeda. Speaking to people in the street, I get a feeling that an awful lot of them are starting to buy into the leftist hatred of Bush, and to blame him for the terror threat.

[quant5]

Some of the people in my office here in New Hampshire were staunch Bush supporters. Some of them are now going to vote for Kerry because they hate Bush reasoning why we went into Iraqi. I have to agree that we should have done better homework before invading but I cannot stand Kerry.

I also think Bush has done a lousy job with International relations but hey, you have to pick your battles but as president, he had more than he could chew.

[Sam Cree]

Yeah, I was talking to a guy who is a staunch Republican on Saturday, an older guy, retired exec, he was all over Bush, extremely negative.

I personally don't think there is any way to beat radical Muslim terrorism (which is THE problem for the US today) without some "nation building," or at least draconian "nation rearranging."

Imagine a Middle East with only one isolated unfriendly nation, Syria.

I think that was Bush's rationale for going into Iraq, but I suppose that if he just came out and said so, that he was going in and clean up the Middle East and end terrorism once and for all, the world would have been outraged. Too bad the excuse they thought up, WMD's, didn't pan out, because now it's biting him in the rear end.

I once read an article speculating that GW was a visionary. I agree.

If Kerry gets in, there is the possibility of us leaving high and dry the people of Iraq and Afghanistan that we have saved, along with the Iranians who may also secure freedom. I regard this as unthinkable, but now see it as a possibility, after the way I hear non freepers talking.

I worry that Americans are naively starting to think that we could avoid terror by burying our heads in the sand. Kerry may want to give them that option.

[Iberian]

Spain was not wimpy either, but 9/11's hurt and influence.

[Iberian]

Sure, slow to wake up, fast to forget. Sometimes not the quickest to make friends and most of the time quick to forget "our friends".

Allies are like a good friend, you can't replace good friends, like you would a girlfriend or a pet turtle.

But we do.

[Central_Floridian]

Rule Britannia
by Thomas Augustine Arne

When Britain first at Heav'n's command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain;

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.

The nations not so blest as thee,
Shall in their turns to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.

Still mor majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame,
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.

To thee belongs the rural reign;
They cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.

The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coast repair;
Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to juide the fair.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.

I thought this would be fitting on this thread. I hope the British defend their freedom.

[Zionist Conspirator]

"Do these fools really think that if Israel is destroyed they'll be spared?"

Yeah, they do.

`Eisav sanei' 'et Ya`aqov.

[txhurl]

That's right, we WILL be there. Does all of Europe truly regard us as the Great Satan now?

[dinok]

Not all Europe...but most

[blam]

London Attack 'Inevitable' Says Police Chief

[Dog Gone]

I don't think England will cave, either. You have your leftist wackos, and Tony Blair is committed to destroying England by becoming one with Europe without even a vote of the people, but the English spirit doesn't die so easily.

[SoCal Pubbie]

"England does not surrender."

Tell that to Lord Cornwallis! (Sorry, I couldn't resist. Really, thanks to to England and all it's soldiers in the fight!)

[Zionist Conspirator]

¿Por qué usted no fija en inglés?

Hey, this is a conservative forum! No using a leftwing, third world, indigenous, non-European language here! What are you, a Communist??? [laughter]

`Eisav sanei' 'et Ya`aqov means "Esau hates Jacob," a reference to the fact that Europe and European civilization (descended either literally or spiritually from the 'Edomite Romans) hate Jacob, the Jews. Goes back to that sibling rivalry thing.