There are benefits that come with middle age. The fact that you’ve
been an adult for 30 years does equip you with perspective you
didn’t have when you were twenty.
Last week the world’s busiest airport was paralysed in a way that
the IRA with its mortars could only dream about. It also made me
think about the security people in charge and what they did to my
community in Britain in the 1970s.
In news management, as in life, timing is everything. The week
before a pack of backbench labour MPs are about to go for Blair on
his Lebanon “policy” suddenly the conspiracy to end all
conspiracies is uncovered.
One thing was clear in the coverage from London of the “plot”. If
truth is the first casualty in any war then the presumption of
innocence comes a close second. What has actually happened that
can be verified is that twenty-three young Moslems are being
questioned about an alleged plot to blow up passenger airliners
flying between Britain and the United States. They are aged between
17 and 35 and come from east London, Birmingham and High Wycombe.
Most were named by the Treasury when it froze their assets. None
has been charged.
We have been here before, of course, recently excellent
intelligence was gleaned on a dastardly plot by, yeah, and you
guessed it, two young Moslem men to do something, well, dastardly.
One June 2nd this year two young men were arrested after the police
“foiled” a chemical bomb plot. They were arrested in a
paramilitary operation. One of them was shot.
Middle England breathed a sigh of relief that the ruffians had been
nabbed. It turned out to be nonsense. There was no chemical bomb,
no plot. The young men brothers, Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and Abul
Koyair, 20, were released without charge. Mr Kahar, were released
without charge after a week of questioning. The news management of
their release was audibly different to the frenzy that had welcomed
their arrest.
The police claimed they were acting on a “credible sensitive source”.
This is policing a socially excluded community by tout. Sound familiar?
Sir Ian Blair, Britain’s most senior police chief, said sorry, but
the raid had still been justified he affirmed. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said that while he
believed the operation was justified, "we were wrong" because
police had not found the suspected chemical bomb they were looking
for. The commissioner later emphasised that his force had not been
"wrong" to act, but only because officers had not found what they
were looking for. “The raid itself I am perfectly content was
justified and the raid was carried out extremely well by the
Metropolitan Police, " he added.
Spooks who faced redundancy after the IRA decided to take Tony
Blair at his word about wanting to peacefully resolve the conflict
on this island are now rubbing their hands in anticipation at the
overtime as they eavesdrop on Mosques in Bradford. The rules of
evidence are as they were for the Birmingham Six or the Guildford
Four. It is ethnic guilt. “Innocent until proven Islamic” is
totally understood with the Moslem communities in Britain. In the
Irish communities there in the 70s it was also understood that we
were all guilty. For sure you could put yourself in the frame by
becoming “involved”. You could raise your profile, you could wear
an Easter lily, and you could discuss the north in your local.
These things were best avoided. However, the Birmingham Six and
Annie Maguire let every Irish person living in Britain know that
being Irish was all that was needed to get you the best seat in the
Old Bailey. The PTA terrorised the Irish community in England
into silence.
Now MI5 and the Branch have new victims to use General Kitson’s
method’s on. That this state repression will radicalise a whole
swathe of Moslem youth in England’s cities is beyond doubt.
What is also not in doubt that the military industrial complex
needs action like this.
It thrives on a “threat” If the threat isn’t up to scratch then it
has to be embellished. After the attacks on 7/7 the threat is
clearly real and the anger felt by those young men was clearly
connected to the British role in the middle east. What Tony Blair
would genuinely fear isn’t suicide bombers on London buses, but the
mobilisation of the Moslem vote in British cities in the way that
the Irish vote played a role in the Home Rule crisis over a century
ago. George Galloway’s legacy maybe to have instructed Moslem
Britain of their real power, the power of their votes. A Moslem
civil rights movement would create far more difficulties for Blair
and his Scottish heir than the killing of commuters. Blair’s own
travel plans does not seem to have been disrupted by the dastardly
plot. The statement from Downing Street about Blair’s itinerary and
his fore knowledge doesn’t appear to add up. Downing Street had
said Blair did not know the raids would be launched on Wednesday
night, so felt safe to fly to Barbados the day before. Why then did
he believe the surveillance operation was sufficiently significant
to brief George Bush about it the previous Sunday? Timing is everything.
If this latest, much larger, batch of young Moslems are also
released without charge do not think that the operation was a failure.
The operation terrified England.
In that Al Qaida and the Blair government are on the same side. A
scary thought.
Phil Mac Giolla Bhain
