Islamic Terrorism has plumbed new depths as children and families were targeted by a suicide bomber at the Manchester Arena last night.
The targeting of such victims highlights that ISIS and its followers are devoid of a political stance. If they were they would avoid soft targets such as children of all backgrounds enjoying a concert.
They would instead choose targets with at least some political significance
What next for the heroes of Jihad? A children’s play centre?
The problem for modern societies is that security around hard targets has become so sophisticated that it has forced terrorists into choosing ever more softer targets and so we have attacks like last night.
In the meantime as a nation we need to get harder, why are we allowing the return of people who have travelled abroad for terrorism purposes to re-enter society.
Why do we allow groups who raise money and support for Islamic terrorism to operate as thinly disguised charities.
We have allowed and are continuing to allow terrorists and their support groups far too much breathing space.
Long ago we have shied away from tough but practical choices, we allowed too many people with terrorist backgrounds to come from North Africa and Saudi, in the name of human rights .
These people went to work in the Mosques such as the infamous Finsbury Park Mosque.
We also inanely patted ourselves on the back with high profile publicity programmes (Contest) that purported to engage the wider public in the fight against terrorism.
The government of the day spent hundreds of millions educating shop workers in how to identify potential terrorists and spot them purchasing seemingly innocent ingredients, with which to make a home made bomb.
I did a little investigating at the time and it seemed few people had any idea what ‘Contest 2’ was about.
I went out and purchased large amounts of products, that could potentially be used without so much as a second glance . I wrote up the article for a Sunday tabloid.
That was in 2009 four years after the London Tube and bus bombings.
God forbid that the Arena bomber was able to produce his device from high street sources,
God forgive the authorities if the bomber is someone from a high risk state whose safety and human rights we elevated above our own security priorities.
We now have to get rough with these people as they seek to use our liberalism against us, to attack us,
Below is the Manchester Police Chief’s words from this morning with an appeal for footage from the public to be sent in to them.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins speaking at 7 25 am this morning said: “This has been the most horrific incident we have had to face in Greater Manchester and one that we all hoped we would never see.
“Families and many young people were out to enjoy a concert at the Manchester Arena and have lost their lives. Our thoughts are with those 22 victims that we now know have died, the 59 people who have been injured and their loved ones. We continue to do all we can to support them. They are being treated at eight hospitals across Greater Manchester.
“This is a fast-moving investigation and we have significant resources deployed to both the investigation and the visible patrols that people will see across Greater Manchester as they wake up to news of the events last night. This will include armed officers as people would expect. More than 400 officers have been involved in this operation during the night.
“To remind you, we were called at 10.33pm to reports of an explosion at the Manchester Arena at the conclusion of an Ariana Grande concert. More than 240 calls came in and emergency services were very quickly on scene. Emergency numbers have been established for anyone who is concerned for loved ones who may not have returned home 0161 856 9400 or 0161 856 9900.
“We have been treating this as a terrorist incident and we believe, at this stage, the attack last night was conducted by one man. The priority is to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network.
“The attacker, I can confirm, died at the arena. We believe the attacker was carrying an improvised explosive device which he detonated causing this atrocity.
“We would ask people not to speculate on his details or to share names. There is a complex and wide ranging investigation underway.
“Our priority is to work with the National Counter Terrorist Policing Network and UK intelligence services to establish more details about the individual who carried out this attack.
“We have received tremendous support from across the police services and partner agencies throughout the night.
“We regularly carry out exercises to test our ability to respond to such incidents and this has ensured a very swift response from local and national agencies. I want to thank all those members of the emergency services and other agencies who have worked tirelessly through the night in very difficult circumstances. Their response has been outstanding.
“Terrorists attempt to disrupt our lives and create distrust and fear in communities. We have a long history in Greater Manchester of communities standing together during difficult times. In the coming days we will be working closely with community leaders to address any issues.
“It is important that we all continue to remain vigilant, but also to go about our daily lives. We would ask people to be alert and report any suspicious activity to police on the Anti-Terrorist Hotline 0800 789321 or dialling 999.
“As people are waking up to this tragic news on what is a sad day for Greater Manchester, the officers and staff from Greater Manchester Police and the other emergency services will continue to do all they can to help get us through the difficult days ahead.”
If you have any images or footage from last night that you believe can assist us then upload them to Ukpoliceimageappeal.co.uk or Ukpoliceimageappeal.com
By Nigel Pivaro
Has the Spanish Government let the separatist cat out of the bag in Barcelona ?
Is the Spanish central government right to use para militaries to disrupt the Catalonian independence referendum
“We will vote” ‘We will vote” is the cry from the thousands of demonstrators in cities and towns across Catalonia.
The Spanish Government reaction? to send its para military Gaurdia Civil to implement the letter of the constitutional law.
The Spanish constitutional law which the outcome of the putative Catalonian referendum would bring into doubt.
Putting aside the case for Catalonian independence for a moment, one has to say that process of separation between region and state is now already underway.
Not least because of the tactics and strategy of Rajoy’s central government which has played directly into the hands of the separatists, who will exploit the voting prohibition enforced by a civil guard who will be characterised as an outside occupying force.
The image of Robo Cop style police man handling middle class, middle aged citizens of Barcelona and Gerona will not play well to TV audiences whether in Catalonia itself or across the rest Europe.
Worse the situation disseminated on TV has now alerted avery carpet bagging anarchist and political agitator across the Western world.
Barcelona is a cool and romantic place for a revolution civil war or even war of independence.
Now the gauntlet has been laid down the agitati will now flock to Catalonia in the hundreds if not thousands.
They will ally with the activists who will accept them with the naivety of enthusiastic flattered by the support of perceived fellow travellers and these elements will professionalise the unrest and turn it into a revolt.
The turning point will be the first death of a demonstrator or demonstrators of course and one wonders f it could not have been avoided by the central government by simply refusing to rise to the bait.
Hardline Basques from both sides of the Spanish border will provide the shock troops who can form guerrilla units to harass the Gaurdia Civil.
Desertions from an already flaky Mossos Esquadras will swell the military element to the conflict.
The Catalonian politicians who instigated the whole movement for independence will be superseded by the elements with military clout as they lose credibility to deal with the task in hand.
The Spanish military will never allow Catalonia to leave Spain after six hundred years in the Kingdom without a fight.
Even as the politicians in Madrid order proportionality in any military response to secessionist operations, the colonels within the military will not be expected to hold back.
The apparatchics and technocrats of the EU will watch in horror as the whole tragedy unravels in slow motion with no meaningful analysis or policy response to a situation that has been festering under everybody’s noses for years.
Bringing further into question the purpose and utility of the Supra state construct when confronted by an existentialist challenge to its structure.
The desire for independence has its roots in a weak central government, economic disparity with the rest of Spain and a long standing awareness of a linguistic and cultural identity that has never been rewarded with nation status.
Though the Central government actions to disrupt the referendum process may have had legal legitimacy, they will have only served to inflame passions of those attempting to vote. More so with the first reported injuries to protestors
The actions will serve to provide a further grievance culture for the separatists who feel they also have legitimacy in exercising their rights within a liberal democracy and their perceived rights to self determination.
The whole irony is that if the referendum was allowed to take place, the separatists would not necessarily have won the vote or at least not by a big enough margin to legitimise independence.
One hopes that the excesses described above do not take shape and become reality, but recent events in Spain have followed a classic template of unbridled separatist ambition and a clumsy repressive response.
Shades here of the Dublin Post Office siege and repression of Syrian protests against Assad.
We can only be thankful there is no religious dimension to any putative conflict between Nationalists and Separatists.
By Nigel Pivaro