Posted on 07/07/2005 2:20:43 PM PDT by smoothsailing
July 07, 2005, 3:20 p.m.
Londonistan No More
A new Finest Hour?
By John F. Cullinan
As London copes with the aftermath of Thursday morning's terrorist bombings — and braces for the possibility of fresh attacks — some sobering thoughts on causes and effects come immediately to mind.
After the Madrid bombings in March 2004, London's senior police official revealed that British security services had thwarted several major terrorist attacks targeted against London. But he grimly acknowledged that "there is an inevitability that some sort of attack will get through." "This is not just about the railways, the underground," he added with eerie prescience. "It's about buses, roads, pubs, nightclubs and the like."
TARGET CHOICE
Britain's special relationship with the United States — broadened and deepened since the 9/11 attacks and its shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — certainly makes the British capital a prime target for jihadists. But there are deeper causes at work, beginning with the long-time status of "Londonistan" (see here and here) as the principal mecca for various Middle East exile groups that were allowed to set up shop on condition that their activities remain focused elsewhere. Among their ranks is the extremist Egyptian cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, whose trial for incitement to murder and other terrorist offenses began this week.
A less openly acknowledged cause for concern is deep disaffection among portions of Britain's Muslim population (about 2 million of 60 million Britons). A 2002 Daily Telegraph poll found that "one in five British Muslims feels little loyalty towards Britain." As for Osama bin Laden, the same poll found that 13 percent regarded his attacks against Western targets as justified, 11 percent had no opinion one way or the other, and 26 percent denied bin Laden's responsibility. It is from this particular subgroup that nearly all of Britain's homegrown terrorist suspects have emerged, including the group arrested last August and charged with plotting attacks in London as well as in New York, Newark, and Washington.
Also relevant is the Labor government's equivocal and inadequate responses to the patent threat of Islamist terror. To take just one example, the British governing class has tied itself in knots over the fate of eleven foreign nationals detained without charges as "terrorists" engaged in "international terrorism" under the Anti-Terrorist, Crime and Security Act of 2000. It was a classic Catch-22 without any possibility of (a) prosecution under British law (without exposing intelligence sources and methods in open court); (b) deportation to the suspects' home countries under applicable European and international law (given "substantial grounds" for believing torture might ensue); or (c) deportation to third countries, with none willing to accommodate these individuals.
Britain rightly sought to justify the unsatisfactory expedient of detention without charges for this handful of manifestly dangerous men by opting out of the relevant provisions of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, which the Blair administration unwisely incorporated into domestic law in 1998. That convention expressly permits suspension of certain rights "in time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation."
Last December Britain's highest court ruled these detentions — which the liberal chattering classes had likened to Guantanamo — incompatible with the ECHR and therefore invalid. According to one of the judges, "Whether we would survive Hitler hung in the balance, but there is no doubt that we shall survive al Qaeda.... The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these."
So far Lord Hoffman, author of these irresponsible and insouciant remarks, has not been heard from in the wake of this morning's murderous attacks.
HOW WILL BRITAIN RESPOND?
Initial commentary has focused on Britain's Finest Hour, the stalwart response to the Luftwaffe Blitz. But a more relevant precedent may be the reaction to the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings (21 killed, 182 wounded), when the Irish Troubles first spilled over onto the British mainland. Parliament responded almost instantly with the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, which set a modern record for enactment within 48 hours of its initial introduction.
Look for Tony Blair to sever the Gordian knot manufactured by Britain's Law Lords and to take the fight to the enemy. Britain is not Spain, which responded to the Madrid attacks with surrender and appeasement. Last week Britain celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, which turned the tide against Napoleon's totalitarian project. It is to be hoped that Blair will rise to level of Nelson's exhortation that "England expects that every man will do his duty."
— John F. Cullinan formerly served as a senior foreign policy advisor to the U.S. Catholic bishops, focusing on international law, human rights, and the use of force.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/cullinan200507071520.asp
I recommend the complete collection of Kipling's verse. it contains many gems like Dane-Geld
Sadly, you are clearly the example that proves your own words false, Asshat.
It seems that both testicular and gray matter are lacking in your neck of the woods. Did your Mom have any intelligent children who lived, Newbie?
close the tent.
open the camps.
"Spain abandoned the actual fight against terrorism and is now treating terrorism as a criminal act, not as an act of war. I see a difference there."
They are still fighting a war in Afghanistan. Not in massive numbers maybe, but with the support of the Spanish people.
;)
Time for Britain to boot every last Muslim who was not born there out of the country. Fight the legal battles later...save your citizens now.
Q3. In the dispute in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians, from what you have seen and heard about the conflict which of the two do you sympathise with more, Israel or the Palestinians?
Israel 14%
Palestine 28%
Both 14%
Neither 23%
Don't know 20%
Determination instead of Retribution. That is the GOP mantra being sent out here in Michigan anyway.
Shoot. Blair should have announced that he had given orders to the HMS Vengeance to destroy the Capital of Iran,TEHf**kingRAN within the next 48 hours. PERIOD!
"That's a really weak argument. Just because the Spanish haven't entirely abandoned their own domestic security means the terrorists didn't win?
When you allow your attacker to choose your government, you have surrendered. Period."
The Spanish chose their own government. If you are claiming that the Spanish should have voted for B just because Al Qaeda asked them to vote for A then you are the one saying the Spanish should have based their vote on what Al-Qaeda said.
I think the Spanish should have just voted regardless of what Al-Qaeda said, and I think that is what they did.
Don't be to sure about that. The Brits don't really go for the major missile strike on an empty tent in the Bassie Bazoo with real time CNN coverage what they tend to do is send special operators to quietly bushwhack the offending b@st@rds more than one IRA type has gotten whacked outside of Britian.
The British security people will be on the warpath this time, but its not them that the local muslim community needs to fear. Its the locals who lost loved ones they need to fear (not to mention 50,000 pissed off mates in pubs all across town). I wouldn't want to be a muslim in an islamic area of London tonight.
And you can be sure... If there is ever another large attack on US soil it won't be the cops that muslims will need to fear. Americans have had it and they won't be so nice next time.
Lets wait and see how our friends across the pond handle this.
Polls & Facts. The two are not the same.If you find facts in polls,then perhaps you are in need of a diet change.
Kerry was strongly preferred among all of America's traditional allies, including Norway (74 percent compared with Bush's seven percent), Germany (74 percent to 10 percent), France (64 percent to five percent), the Netherlands (63 percent to six percent), Italy (58 percent to 14 percent) and Spain (45 percent to seven percent) . . . Strongest negative views on US foreign policy were held in Germany, with 83 percent of those polled saying "worse" followed by France (81 percent), Mexico (78 percent), China (72 percent), Canada (71 percent), Netherlands ( 71 percent), Spain (67 percent), Brazil (66 percent), Italy (66 percent), Argentina (65 percent) and Britain (64 percent).
The Eurobarometer poll of 7,500 EU residents found that 59 per cent deemed Israel "a threat to peace in the world", with the figures rising to 60 per cent in Britain, 65 in Germany, 69 in Austria and 74 in Holland.
...better objective evidence than loose rhetoric based on adherence to some or other European identity. See my next comment.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1438583/posts?page=54#54
The Brits are being colonized by the wogs they once colonized. Sorry about the word wog (those born east of the Suez) but it's applicable. Hindu Indians are excluded since they are honorable immigrants to the UK and the USA.
If this sounds "racist", then so be it.
When I attended elementary school (when dinosaurs walked the earth), if the teacher discovered something had happened in class ,while she was absent and not to her liking, the class had 3 minutes to "confess".
Well, no one wants to rat on a friend. But...
She (I never had a male teacher until high school) would then punish the entire class.
So the rest of the class started to "enforce" the rules when the teacher was absent!!!
Its time for a "time out" in immigration of ALL foreigners. If the muslims cant behave, then give the muslim community 3 months to hand over the terrorists. Most probably already know who they are.
If they dont, then ALL the muslims (citizens or not) will be deported back to their Mid Eastern muslim "nation" or that "tropical paradise" of Malaysia.
Yeah, its not fair, but until muslims start to act civilized, then keep them the heck out of Western Nations! </RANT OFF>
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