Tough on Terrorist Crime, Tough on the causes of Terrorism Crimes

Police in the UK have arrested 21 people today. The police, acting with the Security Service MI5, are investigating an alleged plot to bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions causing a considerable loss of life.

It is thought the terror plot was to detonate explosive devices, thought to be in liquid form, smuggled in hand luggage (undetectable to x-ray) on to as many as 10 aircraft. It is alleged that the plot involved three waves of explosions, with three or four simultaneous attacks on planes on three consecutive days. Three US airlines are believed to have been targeted.

It will be interesting to see what was actually planned. Time will tell.

It brings to me the question of Airport Security.
Yesterday a man boarded a flight from London to the America who was on the wanted list of the CIA. The flight was 2 hours in its journey when he was identified and the plane had to return back to the UK for the man to be detained. What were the staffs at Heathrow doing? Airport security has been very lax since the September 11 attacks in America. Security staff and people in general have been very complacent of treats posed to today’s society. Better checking of people in airports and a restriction for passengers to have minimal hand luggage is a step foreword to stopping any would be threats.

Going back to the main story, it is nice that our security services are capturing any “would be” terrorists but how long will it take for the British and American society to go back to normal, free from the stress of stringent security checking etc. The answer I’m sad to say is never. Until we deal with the root causes of the terrorist crimes we will never be free.

A couple of days ago Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur (The UK's highest-ranking Asian police officer) said Islamophobia made some Muslims vulnerable to extremism. The cumulative effect of Islamophobia...has created a generation of angry young people who are vulnerable to exploitation.

He is correct. You can have the best security services but there will always be a threat. It just takes one lax concentration and the result could be catastrophic. I hope we don’t see anything like the September 11th or July 7th attacks ever again.

If we concentrated on the causes of Terrorist crime we will find that most of it lies in our doorsteps - I’m not talking about angry young Muslim men brainwashed by extremist preachers; I’m talking about our foreign policies. Maybe if the US and UK had “fair & ethical” foreign policies then we would all have a chance for world peace, and live in peace.

As written in www.representativepress.org (very good website) President Bush said a few years ago “Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber—a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms—our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other... These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life.”

President Bush is not the first to ask: "Why do they hate us?" In a staff discussion 45 years ago, President Eisenhower asked his National Security Council about "the campaign of hatred against us [in the Arab world], not by the governments but by the people". His National Security Council outlined the basic reasons: the US supports corrupt and oppressive governments and is "opposing political or economic progress" because of its interest in controlling the oil resources of the region.

"Democratisation is not on the American agenda in the Middle East. The reason? Because Washington finds it more efficient to support a range of dictators across the Arab world as long as they conform to U.S. foreign policy needs."- Graham E. Fuller former CIA 8/24/98.

The people in the Middle East hate the fact that the United States is supporting oppressive harsh governments which block democracy and development and that the U.S. is doing it because we want control of their oil resources.