Homegrown Danger: Britain Faces a Fearsome Reality and a Complex Future
"If the critical mass of Islam in a Western country is not controlled, there is no way to block the creation of a significant and dangerous amount of jihadists." Prof. Giancarlo Elia Valori discusses the rise of Jihadist terrorism in Great Britain. Opinion
Giancarlo Elia Valori
| 07/06/2017
Brittish security forces in Westminster, London (Photo: AP)
After the London attack of March 22 last, Great Britain is still the target of the "Sword Jihad."
The "dirty" bomb made by Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old British citizen of Libyan origin and son of an opponent of Gaddafi’s regime, is such as to lead us to think of a rather complex network supporting and covering up Abedi and his family members.
A bomb packed with bolts and screws, designed to hurt and kill as many people as possible.
In fact, in the days immediately after the bomb attack in Manchester, the UK police arrested eight people, including two of Abedi’s family members (his father and his younger brother), who were pulled over in Tripoli by RADA, the police of Fajez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA).
Five "operatives" of Abedi's network, including his elderly brother, were arrested in Great Britain, in the now Islamized suburbs of Manchester such as Whalley Range, Chorlton, and Fallowfield.
If the critical mass of Islam in a Western country is not controlled, there is no way to block the creation of a significant and dangerous amount of jihadists.
The suicide terrorist's father, however, is a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an organization linked to al-Qaeda.
The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group network was created in the early 1990s by Libyan jihad volunteers in Afghanistan, when they came back home, and has always had the primary goal of toppling Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
Currently, after the crazy and ill-advised Western action against the Colonel, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group is part of the Libya Shield Force (LSF) and the old National Transitional Council.
Westerners wanted to free the people from the Maghreb and Middle East "tyrants" and the jihadists wanted the same.
It is like the pledge which is said to have been given by Francis I to the Emperor Charles V: "What my brother wants (the Duchy of Milan), that I want too."
Nor it is a mere coincidence the leak which, on May 24 last, led the New York Times to publish the photos of the explosive device used in the Manchester Arena attack – a leak that can only have been originated from the US intelligence services, which had received the documentation in double quick time from their British counterparts.
In all likelihood, the North American intelligence services still want to protect some obscure links with the Libyan insurgency, and they now aim at achieving only a medium-term goal, namely the defamation of President Trump and his overthrowing.
Intelligence services that – starting from the US scarce knowledge of the non-Anglo-Saxon world – are only operating to destabilize their country and bring back to power the "deep state" of its establishment, the "Party of the Nation" formed by Republicans such as the Bush family and Democrats such as the Clintons and the Obamas.
We can also assume that the North American agencies are continuing – on their own and without any contact with the US Presidency – their old project of destabilizing the Maghreb region and the Arab-Islamic world, which began with the "Arab Springs" and was to end with the disruption of Assad’ Syria – a move that the Russian Federation has firmly blocked.
It is by no mere coincidence that the FBI and the other US intelligence organizations are tracing improbable "contacts" between the Trump Presidency and the Russian Federation.
The future war against Russia, which some North American senior officers have already explicitly theorized, is the center of gravity for the present and future action of the US political and military establishment.
And, according to US strategists, the Russian presence in the Mediterranean and the Middle East can be countered by continuing the "Arab Spring" actions, also at the cost of creating golden opportunities for jihadist groups.
In February 1996, the British intelligence services funded the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group with 160,000 US dollars to kill Gaddafi, but the attack to this end failed.
Today, as at that time, Great Britain and, in some respects, the United States want to settle the Libyan issue once and for all by taking its oil back and exclude Italy at first, and later France, from the Libyan extraction industry.
Let us revert, however, to the bomb attack perpetrated in Manchester. The explosive used is supposed to be acetone peroxide (TATP), the same substance used by ISIS in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels in March 2016.
Hence, we can easily understand Prime Minister May's harsh reaction in relation to the fully voluntary perviousness and porosity of the US intelligence services.
Indeed, these services are in really lamentable conditions.
Too many destabilization operations, starting with the activities in Serbia during the Second Balkan War; too expensive and ineffective "Arab Springs," which were designed to make al-Qaeda be destroyed by the democratic Arab masses, and finally too much simplistic political and social engineering.
An intelligence voodoo, which has so far led to opposite results compared to those pursued.
There is no need of insisting on the embarrassment caused by US intelligence services which, in the attempt of doing harm to President Trump, favor the jihadists and undermine the relationship with the British intelligence services.
Furthermore, in Great Britain, there are at least 43 cities where the police arrested several jihadists between 1998 and 2015.
A mass of Islamic terrorists who, in the future, could become so large as to be uncontrollable.
It is worth noting that, over the last five years, the management of the Islamic intelligence networks by the British Services has allowed to discover and prevent twelve attacks, especially in London, Cardiff, Southampton, and Brighton.
The mindset of the Anglo-Saxon intelligence services is certainly the same as the one – dangerous for any kind of intelligence – of the enforcement agencies, which take action only when there is a clear infringement of laws.
However, while preparing and organizing an attack, terrorists always go underground and cannot even afford to get a parking ticket.
Moreover, there are currently at least 1,500 foreign fighters in Great Britain, who have come back from the “Sword Jihad” regions, with a cover-up network that, on the best possible assumption, includes at least additional 5,000 people.
Today, throughout England, the Islamic faithful are more than Anglicans – over a million Quran believers as against approximately 930,000 Anglican followers.
Certainly, after Brexit, there is the real danger that Great Britain can no longer do without the financial support of the Sunni petro-monarchies – the same ones which fund the 2,100 Islamic centers, madrasah schools, and mosques which are being built everywhere on the British territory.
After the Manchester attack, Prime Minister May had also designed Operation Temperer.
A scenario similar to what France has experienced during the recent presidential elections, with the probable future jihad pressure on the electoral campaign and the new version – on the English scene – of the Spanish jihadist attack in the Atocha station in 2004, which significantly changed the outcome of general elections, leading to the unexpected victory of Zapatero instead of the favorite candidate Aznar.
In fact, Operation Temperer envisages a vast deployment of Armed Forces in sensitive areas, such as obviously the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, Westminster Palace, Buckingham Palace, the venues of mass sport and cultural-musical events, as well as the areas where most Londoners and commuters transit every day.
Jihadists, however, are not fools and if they plan to attack again, for their own reasons, they will do so in unpredictable areas and sites.
Moreover, it is surprising how the level of protection – in the Manchester attack, as in the case of other recent or less recent jihadist actions in Great Britain – is still so flawed, inadequate or even non-existent.
Not even the recent London attack of March 22 last on Westminster Bridge made the police authorities think there could be another attack at a later stage – as it happened in Manchester.
Operation Temperer is supposed to involve approximately 5,000 units of Her Majesty's Armed Forces, deployed in the most sensitive areas and sites of the English urban areas. Once again, however, it is worth noting that nothing prevents the local jihad from choosing less relevant targets.
On the other hand, the impact of a terrorist attack is not based so much on the location, but rather on the number of victims, that is directly proportional to the political relevance of the jihadist action, as well as the effect of estrangement and block of reactions by the police forces and the intelligence services.
There is no need to attack Westminster or St. Paul's Cathedral, just a pop concert is enough – as happened in Manchester – or a kosher supermarket, as was the case in Paris.
If there is a logical and cultural link, it is the well-known Islamist and Salafi rejection of music – viewed as a sign and work of the Evil and, obviously, the hatred for shops, organizations or people linked to the Jewish world.
Furthermore, as far as we know, the British intelligence services have already thwarted another attack in the London outskirts, and they are already operating to check the links between the UK foreign fighters living in England and their contacts abroad.
Hence, in the future, there may be major attacks immediately before elections in Italy, Germany and possibly again in Great Britain, with a view to influencing their outcome, frightening citizens and destabilizing the European security and intelligence institutions and agencies.
A solution could be to clarify – once and for all – the jihad issue with the Sunni States funding and training the various Islamist groups. I do not think, however, that the European politicians – probably with the only exception of Theresa May – will have the courage, the clarity of mind, and the farsightedness to raise this problem and solve it directly with the Sunni world.
"If the critical mass of Islam in a Western country is not controlled, there is no way to block the creation of a significant and dangerous amount of jihadists." Prof. Giancarlo Elia Valori discusses the rise of Jihadist terrorism in Great Britain. Opinion
After the London attack of March 22 last, Great Britain is still the target of the "Sword Jihad."
The "dirty" bomb made by Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old British citizen of Libyan origin and son of an opponent of Gaddafi’s regime, is such as to lead us to think of a rather complex network supporting and covering up Abedi and his family members.
A bomb packed with bolts and screws, designed to hurt and kill as many people as possible.
In fact, in the days immediately after the bomb attack in Manchester, the UK police arrested eight people, including two of Abedi’s family members (his father and his younger brother), who were pulled over in Tripoli by RADA, the police of Fajez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA).
Five "operatives" of Abedi's network, including his elderly brother, were arrested in Great Britain, in the now Islamized suburbs of Manchester such as Whalley Range, Chorlton, and Fallowfield.
If the critical mass of Islam in a Western country is not controlled, there is no way to block the creation of a significant and dangerous amount of jihadists.
The suicide terrorist's father, however, is a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an organization linked to al-Qaeda.
The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group network was created in the early 1990s by Libyan jihad volunteers in Afghanistan, when they came back home, and has always had the primary goal of toppling Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
Currently, after the crazy and ill-advised Western action against the Colonel, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group is part of the Libya Shield Force (LSF) and the old National Transitional Council.
Westerners wanted to free the people from the Maghreb and Middle East "tyrants" and the jihadists wanted the same.
It is like the pledge which is said to have been given by Francis I to the Emperor Charles V: "What my brother wants (the Duchy of Milan), that I want too."
Nor it is a mere coincidence the leak which, on May 24 last, led the New York Times to publish the photos of the explosive device used in the Manchester Arena attack – a leak that can only have been originated from the US intelligence services, which had received the documentation in double quick time from their British counterparts.
In all likelihood, the North American intelligence services still want to protect some obscure links with the Libyan insurgency, and they now aim at achieving only a medium-term goal, namely the defamation of President Trump and his overthrowing.
Intelligence services that – starting from the US scarce knowledge of the non-Anglo-Saxon world – are only operating to destabilize their country and bring back to power the "deep state" of its establishment, the "Party of the Nation" formed by Republicans such as the Bush family and Democrats such as the Clintons and the Obamas.
We can also assume that the North American agencies are continuing – on their own and without any contact with the US Presidency – their old project of destabilizing the Maghreb region and the Arab-Islamic world, which began with the "Arab Springs" and was to end with the disruption of Assad’ Syria – a move that the Russian Federation has firmly blocked.
It is by no mere coincidence that the FBI and the other US intelligence organizations are tracing improbable "contacts" between the Trump Presidency and the Russian Federation.
The future war against Russia, which some North American senior officers have already explicitly theorized, is the center of gravity for the present and future action of the US political and military establishment.
And, according to US strategists, the Russian presence in the Mediterranean and the Middle East can be countered by continuing the "Arab Spring" actions, also at the cost of creating golden opportunities for jihadist groups.
In February 1996, the British intelligence services funded the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group with 160,000 US dollars to kill Gaddafi, but the attack to this end failed.
Today, as at that time, Great Britain and, in some respects, the United States want to settle the Libyan issue once and for all by taking its oil back and exclude Italy at first, and later France, from the Libyan extraction industry.
Let us revert, however, to the bomb attack perpetrated in Manchester. The explosive used is supposed to be acetone peroxide (TATP), the same substance used by ISIS in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels in March 2016.
Hence, we can easily understand Prime Minister May's harsh reaction in relation to the fully voluntary perviousness and porosity of the US intelligence services.
Indeed, these services are in really lamentable conditions.
Too many destabilization operations, starting with the activities in Serbia during the Second Balkan War; too expensive and ineffective "Arab Springs," which were designed to make al-Qaeda be destroyed by the democratic Arab masses, and finally too much simplistic political and social engineering.
An intelligence voodoo, which has so far led to opposite results compared to those pursued.
There is no need of insisting on the embarrassment caused by US intelligence services which, in the attempt of doing harm to President Trump, favor the jihadists and undermine the relationship with the British intelligence services.
Furthermore, in Great Britain, there are at least 43 cities where the police arrested several jihadists between 1998 and 2015.
A mass of Islamic terrorists who, in the future, could become so large as to be uncontrollable.
It is worth noting that, over the last five years, the management of the Islamic intelligence networks by the British Services has allowed to discover and prevent twelve attacks, especially in London, Cardiff, Southampton, and Brighton.
The mindset of the Anglo-Saxon intelligence services is certainly the same as the one – dangerous for any kind of intelligence – of the enforcement agencies, which take action only when there is a clear infringement of laws.
However, while preparing and organizing an attack, terrorists always go underground and cannot even afford to get a parking ticket.
Moreover, there are currently at least 1,500 foreign fighters in Great Britain, who have come back from the “Sword Jihad” regions, with a cover-up network that, on the best possible assumption, includes at least additional 5,000 people.
Today, throughout England, the Islamic faithful are more than Anglicans – over a million Quran believers as against approximately 930,000 Anglican followers.
Certainly, after Brexit, there is the real danger that Great Britain can no longer do without the financial support of the Sunni petro-monarchies – the same ones which fund the 2,100 Islamic centers, madrasah schools, and mosques which are being built everywhere on the British territory.
After the Manchester attack, Prime Minister May had also designed Operation Temperer.
A scenario similar to what France has experienced during the recent presidential elections, with the probable future jihad pressure on the electoral campaign and the new version – on the English scene – of the Spanish jihadist attack in the Atocha station in 2004, which significantly changed the outcome of general elections, leading to the unexpected victory of Zapatero instead of the favorite candidate Aznar.
In fact, Operation Temperer envisages a vast deployment of Armed Forces in sensitive areas, such as obviously the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, Westminster Palace, Buckingham Palace, the venues of mass sport and cultural-musical events, as well as the areas where most Londoners and commuters transit every day.
Jihadists, however, are not fools and if they plan to attack again, for their own reasons, they will do so in unpredictable areas and sites.
Moreover, it is surprising how the level of protection – in the Manchester attack, as in the case of other recent or less recent jihadist actions in Great Britain – is still so flawed, inadequate or even non-existent.
Not even the recent London attack of March 22 last on Westminster Bridge made the police authorities think there could be another attack at a later stage – as it happened in Manchester.
Operation Temperer is supposed to involve approximately 5,000 units of Her Majesty's Armed Forces, deployed in the most sensitive areas and sites of the English urban areas. Once again, however, it is worth noting that nothing prevents the local jihad from choosing less relevant targets.
On the other hand, the impact of a terrorist attack is not based so much on the location, but rather on the number of victims, that is directly proportional to the political relevance of the jihadist action, as well as the effect of estrangement and block of reactions by the police forces and the intelligence services.
There is no need to attack Westminster or St. Paul's Cathedral, just a pop concert is enough – as happened in Manchester – or a kosher supermarket, as was the case in Paris.
If there is a logical and cultural link, it is the well-known Islamist and Salafi rejection of music – viewed as a sign and work of the Evil and, obviously, the hatred for shops, organizations or people linked to the Jewish world.
Furthermore, as far as we know, the British intelligence services have already thwarted another attack in the London outskirts, and they are already operating to check the links between the UK foreign fighters living in England and their contacts abroad.
Hence, in the future, there may be major attacks immediately before elections in Italy, Germany and possibly again in Great Britain, with a view to influencing their outcome, frightening citizens and destabilizing the European security and intelligence institutions and agencies.
A solution could be to clarify – once and for all – the jihad issue with the Sunni States funding and training the various Islamist groups. I do not think, however, that the European politicians – probably with the only exception of Theresa May – will have the courage, the clarity of mind, and the farsightedness to raise this problem and solve it directly with the Sunni world.
