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13-07-2005 The Scotsman Uneasy reality of passer-by who could be concealing a suicide bomb By Gethin Chamberlain Chief News Correspondent BRITAIN is a different country this morning. Yesterday, the possibility that suicide bombing may have come to these shores was still mere speculation. Today, if the police are correct, it is a fact. It was a small detail, in the description of what may turn out to be the bomber who blew up the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square, that gave the clearest indication of what has changed. The detail that Richard Jones thought important to record, aside from the agitated behaviour of the man fiddling with his bag, was that he had "olive skin". He considered it to be significant, and others will too. No longer will people be looking out for an abandoned bag, or a suspicious car. This morning, passengers riding on London's underground trains and buses will be glancing at those standing or sitting near them who they believe fit the profile of a Muslim. Darker skin, beards, possession of a Koran - like it or not, these previously innocuous details will now inspire fear and suspicion. And it will not just be in London. In towns and cities around the country, on public transport, in shopping centres, walking down the street, a significant number of innocent Britons will be viewed with suspicion by those around them. Suicide bombing is a peculiarly difficult method of attack to counter, as has been demonstrated so effectively in Iraq and Israel. The Israelis have some of the world's most elaborate and restrictive security measures in place, yet the bombers still get through; the suicide bomber defies all the normal precepts. An article in the US Journal of Homeland Security published in July 2003 offers an insight into the mindset of the suicide bomber. It quotes a series of interviews with Arab terrorists by a psychologist, Jerrold Post, who concluded that they did not think of themselves as committing suicide: "They believe that they are holy fighters sacrificing themselves in the name of Allah. One terrorist stated: 'I am not a murderer, a murderer has a psychological problem'." The same article, written by experts who had advised the US and Israeli governments on dealing with suicide attacks, highlights the difficulties faced in combating anyone prepared to give up their own life. "Western society does not depend on preventing actions or crimes, but instead focuses its efforts on attribution and punishment, which are aimed at acting as a deterrent to members of society who wish to avoid punishment," they wrote. They cited, as an example, the crime of speeding, pointing out it "is not actually prevented, but only deterred by the speeder's fear that he will be caught and fined for his misdeed". And they went on: "Western society is now dealing with a new problem: the fundamental breakdown of what has always been thought an almost inviolable concept, the instinct for self-preservation." For the government and the police, it is a devilishly difficult problem to address without lurching into areas which curtail civil liberties. On the one hand, they have the advantage that every suicide bomber can only mount one successful mission. On the other hand, there is the problem that in Britain there are now clearly a group of people so disaffected, confused or misguided that they have convinced themselves that the random killing of civilians is acceptable. It was known before that there were Britons prepared to mount such attacks: Britain's first suicide bomber was 21-year-old Londoner Asif Hanif, a former public schoolboy who blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv bar in April 2003, killing three and injuring 60. His accomplice, Omar Khan Sharif, 27, from Derby, failed to detonate a bomb. His body was later found in the sea. In another case, Saajid Badat told the Old Bailey he thought he would find "paradise". He was jailed for 13 years after he admitted plotting with Richard Reid to explode a shoe bomb on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Some traditional methods are as effective against suicide bombers as any other criminal. Good intelligence work can crack their cells. Effective border controls can pick up the bomb-making materials being smuggled into the country. But there will be those who call for more, and the government will be watching carefully to gauge the public appetite for more draconian measures. But where it gets difficult is the knowledge that the suicide bombers come from an identifiable ethnic group. Despite the assertion of the Metropolitan police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick that "Islam and terrorism don't go together", it must be clear to him that there is little point targeting Scots republicans or Irish Protestant groups in the hunt for suicide bombing cells. The police know the groups from which the terrorists will be drawn; the question now is whether it will be politically acceptable to target them. The best hope now is that the country's Muslim clerics take action to tackle the problem at its roots. The vast majority preach the true Islam of peace.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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