In todays News of the World, Lord Stevens – a former Cheif Constable of the Metropolitan Police gives his views on the latest events in the ongoing battle against Islamic Terrorism:

IF YOU’RE A MUSLIM – IT’S YOUR PROBLEM
WHEN will the Muslims of Britain stand up to be counted?
When will they declare, loud and clear, with no qualifications or quibbles about Britain’s foreign policy, that Islamic terrorism is WRONG?

Most of all, when will the Muslim community in this country accept an absolute, undeniable, total truth: that Islamic terrorism is THEIR problem? THEY own it. And it is THEIR duty to face it and eradicate it.

To stop the denial, endless fudging and constant wailing that somehow it is everyone else’s problem and, if Islamic terrorism exists at all, they are somehow the main victims.

Because until that happens the problem will never be resolved. And there will be more 7/7s and, sometime in the future, another airplane plot will succeed with horrific loss of innocent life.

Equally important, those British politicians who have seemed obsessed with pandering to, and even encouraging, this state of denial, must throw off their politically-correct blinkers and recognise the same truth—that Muslim terrorism in Britain is the direct responsibility of British Muslims.

If only they would follow the lead of Home Secretary John Reid, whose tough, pragmatic, clear-sighted approach has been a breath of fresh air. Only then can they properly work out how to tackle it.

For instance, every airport in Britain is in chaos over the plane bomb-plot alert as every passenger is subjected to rigorous security checks. Why? They take lots of time, lots of staff, and are extremely expensive.

I’m a white 62-year-old 6ft 4ins suit-wearing ex-cop—I fly often, but do I really fit the profile of suicide bomber? Does the young mum with three tots? The gay couple, the rugby team, the middle-aged businessman?

No. But they are all getting exactly the same amount and devouring huge resources for no logical reason whatsoever. Yet the truth is Islamic terrorism in the West has been universally carried out by young Muslim men, usually of ethnic appearance, almost always travelling alone or in very small groups. A tiny percentage, I bet, of those delayed today have such characteristics.

This targeting of airport resources is called passenger profiling—the Israelis invented it and they’ve got probably the safest airports and airlines in the world.

In all my years at the front line of fighting terrorism, one truth was always clear — communities beat terrorists, not governments or security forces. But communities can’t beat terrorism unless they have the will to do so. My heart sank this week as I saw and read the knee-jerk reaction of friends and neighbours of those arrested in this latest incident, insisting it was all a mistake and the anti-terrorist squad had the wrong people.

I have no idea whether those arrested are guilty or not. But neither have those friends and neighbours. They spoke as if it was inconceivable such a thing could happen in their community; that those arrested were all good Muslims; that Islam is a religion of peace so no Muslim could dream of planning such an act.

But we heard the same from the family and friends of the 7/7 bombers, didn’t we?

And the two young British Muslims who died as suicide bombers in Israel. Then there are the British Muslims known to have become suicide bombers in Iraq.

There is currently a huge, long-running and complex alleged Islamist bomb plot being tried at the Old Bailey. And a fistful of other cases of alleged Muslim terrorism plots such as the 21/7 London Underground case are also awaiting trial.

All this would suggest the blindingly obvious—that terrorism is a major problem for the Muslim community of Britain. Of course, there will be instant squealings that this is racism. It’s not. It’s exactly the same as recognising that, during the Northern Ireland troubles that left thousands dead, the IRA were totally based in the Catholic community and the UVF in the Protestant.

And that, most importantly, IRA terrorism only began to draw to a close when that Catholic community it was based in decided as a whole that it was no longer prepared to back violence as the only way forward. Interestingly, it was Catholic revulsion over republican terrorist atrocities such as Enniskillen and Omagh that fuelled that change.

Well, Muslim terrorism in Britain is based in, has its roots in, and grows in, our Muslim community. The madmen of 7/7 and other suicide bombings didn’t hide among the Hindu communities, worship in the Sikh temples, recruit at Catholic churches, did they? It may be true that events in Iraq have angered sections of the Muslim community. I have no doubts, whatever Tony Blair says, that it was a catalyst. I also think it’s entirely fair for Muslims, if they wish, to vocally oppose Britain’s continuing involvement there.

I can recognise, too, that recent events in Lebanon inflame some people, and they want their voices of protest heard. The absolutely unacceptable problem is that this opposition is used by too many to turn a blind eye to, or excuse, terrorists in their midst.

Blasting a passenger airliner out of the sky, killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children, is NEVER acceptable. Under any circumstances. There is NEVER an excuse.

A terrible tragedy costing Muslim lives in Lebanon or Iraq or Afghanistan is never ever an excuse for terrorism here.

It is totally unacceptable, totally wrong. What one party perceives as a wrong, no matter how strongly they feel, does not, in turn, justify another wrong being done to avenge it.

And until every single member of the Muslim community believes that and preaches that—from an ordinary parent to imam or madrassa teacher—terrorism can’t be beaten.

Politicians must accept this truth, and do something about it. One example would be to tackle this chaos at our airports and the passenger profiling I described earlier. Another must is to reconsider ID cards. The importance of knowing whether someone really is who they say they are has never been higher.

This must be combined with improved border controls, logging exactly who goes OUT of the country as well as who comes in should also be reconsidered, whatever the politically correct among us may say. The time terrorism suspects are kept in custody before charge has also caused dissent. Currently the maximum is 28 days—it may well be this should be reconsidered and, if necessary, raised again to, say, 42 days.

Plainly, Muslim terrorism isn’t going away. We need to consider everything in our battle to defeat it. But that’s the responsibility of all.

Not least the community where, sadly for them, it is festering.

This has to be one of the best articles that I have read so far on Britain’s problem with homegrown terrorism.  I know that it’s not in the most cultured of newspapers, but you have to have a certain amount of respect for such a well known and professionally recognised person and his opinions.

Ok, so by now most people would have heard the news that Mel Gibson was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol last week.  Now, I know that this is now last weeks news, but I haven’t been online at all, so I am now taking the chance to write a post about this event.

Once Mel was in police custody, he started into a barrage of anti-semitic abuse (not to mention his reference to a female police officer as “sugar tits”).  Among Gibson’s attacks on the Jews was “Fucking Jews. . . . The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”  Gibson then asked a deputy, “Are you a Jew?”  Great, this from a guy that tried his best to start a cultural war between American Jews and Christians over his film The Passion in an attempt to cash in on the benefits and marketing that the ensuing debating caused.

The film was a top box office seller in anti-semitic Muslim and Arab nations….and not because they care a lick about Christianity.  They simply hate the Jews, just like Mel Gibson.  They blow themselves up to become martyrs and he makes “movies” and engages on drunken tirades.

So now we hear what he really thinks about Jews, when the alcohol made his thoughts flow free, without any publicists or handlers nearby to cleanse them.  Now more than ever, in a time when anti-semitism is at it’s highest since World War II, do the Jewish people deserve an apology from him for his outbursts.  He has apologised to the police that arrested him (presumably that includes “sugar tits”), but there was no specific apology to the Jewish people that he has defamed and attacked.  I won’t hold my breath to hear one though.

Here is the text of his apology:

“After drinking alcohol on Thursday night, I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed. I drove a car when I should not have, and was stopped by the LA County Sheriffs. The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person. I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself. I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse. I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health.”

On the 14 July 2006, the UN Security Council debated “The Situation in the Middle East”.

H.E. Ambassador Dan Gillerman (Permanent Representative of Israel) made a statement before the Security Council.  He also spoke a week later during the open debate on “The Situation in the Middle East Including the Palestinian Question”.I won’t make comment on these speeches, suffice to say that I watched both speeches being given with a lump in my throat and a strong feeling of pride.  I totally agree with everything said.

I hope you read them and get a different perspective than the tripe that the BBC news is spouting.  

Whilst the events in Israel are escalating, I thought that I would share my thoughts on them.

On Sunday, July 2, Cpl. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped when Palestinian Hamas terrorists used an underground tunnel to infiltrate his outpost in Kerem Shalom near southern Gaza, killing two of his comrades before escaping back to Gaza. Since then, there has been no word of his fate.

10 days later Hizbullah fighters based in southern Lebanon launch Katyusha rockets across the border with Israel, targeting the town of Shlomi and in a cross-border raid, the terrorists seized two Israeli soldiers before retreating back into Lebanon, insisting on a prisoner exchange and warning against confrontation.

This final insult spat into the face of the Israeli people was not to be ignored!  This was an advancement across an internationally recognised border by an army from a foreign country and was clearly an act of war.  These terrorists have kidnapped soldiers and they have fired rockets on Israeli towns where both Jew and Muslim live side by side.

I am proud of the actions of Israel and I hope that every country around the world is watching with awe of the actions of a country that treats every soldier as important as the next and will do anything for their security and protection whilst they are protecting there people from the tentacles of terror.

I cannot put into words what I am feeling at the minute about the events occuring in and around Israel, but suffice to say that I am now seriously thinking about moving to Israel after graduating from University so that I can help in any way that I can in this never ending struggle against those that will see my people destroyed.

Most people have seen the pictures of the ‘vest’ that bombers wear, but how are these bombs made and why are they so devastating. The bombs that these terrorists use are one of the most evil weapons ever invented. The explosives are bad enough, but palestinians have chosen to add metal pieces to the bombs to increase their deadliness, and to deliberately wound as many Israelis as possible. These extras are manufactured in “metal shops” throughout Gaza and the West Bank, which is why you hear about the IDF firing missiles into “metal shops,” and see the owners moaning about the loss of their factories and insisting they were not involved in the manufacture of bombs.

The explosive belt usually consists of several cylinders filled with explosive (de facto pipe bombs), or in more sophisticated versions with plates of explosive. The explosive is surrounded by a fragmentation jacket that produces the shrapnel responsible for most of the bomb’s lethality, effectively making the jacket a crude body-worn claymore mine. Once the vest is detonated, the explosion resembles an omnidirectional shotgun blast. The most dangerous and the most widely used shrapnel are steel ball bearings 3-7 mm in diameter. Other shrapnel material can be anything of suitable size and hardness, most often nails, screws, nuts, and thick wire. Shrapnel is responsible for about 90% of all casualties caused by this kind of device.

The most widely used and the most dangerous shrapnel consists of ball bearings 3-7 millimeters in diameter. In the most severe terrorist acts – in the Delfinarium, Sbarro, in the banquet hall in Netania – the bombs of the suicide-bombers were filled with steel balls.

In an explosion, the balls are launched with such speed, that their power is close to a bullet’s. You could say that in an explosion the suicide-bomber shoots several hundred bullets in a single moment.

Aside from steel balls, nails, screws and so on, nuts and washers are also used. Nuts are easily glued together to form tiny plates that can be pressed in, or even tied by a tape to the plates of the explosive to hide it better. Likewise, nuts are also stringed on a thread or on a piece of wire.

An interesting (I say interesting, but I mean to get my point across) artice quotes Dr. Michael Messing. Messing said one of the victims he saw while in Jerusalem had around 300 individual metallic fragments within his body. The metal fragments, measuring from millimeters to centimeters, were imbedded in the young man literally from head to toe. “Several of the fragments penetrated into his vital organs. He sustained a punctured colon, a collapsed lung, and a lacerated liver and kidney. I could actually feel the nails under his skin where they had burrowed and lodged,” Messing recalls.

Shrapnel is what killed Phillip Balhasan, who stayed alive long enough to realise his children had survived, to hug them tightly and tell them to call their mum, before he collapsed. But even this is not enough for the terrorists. They also soak the shrapnel in rat poison, because it causes hemorrhaging — victims may bleed to death before they can get to the hospital.

Remember all of this, when you hear the world tell Israel to “use restraint” in responding to this attack. Remember all of this, when you read about the innocent metal shop owners who insist their shops were only making nails and screws for construction purposes.

Remember all of this, when Israel is the nation that is demonized by the blind, hateful people who wear checked kaffiyehs at anti-war protests, and call Israel an “apartheid state” for building a separation barrier — to keep out the monsters who would use bombs like I have just described.