|
Frank
|
Terrorism no longer shocks Britain
British Jews are under threat. That was the blunt warning from Sir Stephen Watson after a jury at Preston Crown Court convicted Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein of preparing acts of terrorism. The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police said that had their plan succeeded it would have been ‘one of the worst atrocities’ the world had seen. He was right.
A civilisation cannot limit its terror response to surveillance, infiltration and the disruption of plots moments before execution. That is containment, not resolution
Saadaoui, 38, of Wigan, and Hussein, 52, of Bolton, had set out to replicate the 2015 Paris attacks. Their chosen targets were synagogues, Jewish schools and a kosher supermarket in the north west of England. They purchased assault rifles, handguns and around 1,000 rounds of ammunition. The intention, in the words heard in court, was to ‘kill as many members of the Jewish community as they could’ and to become ‘martyrs’ in revenge for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
According to the prosecution, they intended to escape the first attack scene, steal or use an ambulance as a getaway vehicle, continue attacks at additional locations and potentially fire on responding police officers. The judge later described the plot as ‘very close’ to execution when officers moved in. Saadaoui was arrested ‘red-handed’ in a hotel car park while taking delivery of weapons from the boot of a rented Lexus in an undercover operation.
The sentences reflected the gravity of their crimes. Saadaoui received life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years. Hussein was handed life with a minimum of 26 years. Saadaoui’s brother, Bilel, was jailed for six years for failing to disclose information about the plan.
Thank God the authorities intervened. The surveillance, the infiltration by the undercover operative known in court as ‘Farouk’, the patience required to allow evidence to accumulate without allowing bloodshed to occur, all of it deserves public gratitude. Sir Stephen said the force had avoided something that would have ranked among the worst atrocities seen globally. The fact that it was prevented shows the counter-terrorism network is, for the most part, managing an immense and permanent burden.
For the most part. The Manchester synagogue attack in October at Heaton Park is a reminder that prevention is never total. There are gaps, moments, failures. The threat environment is saturated.
Sir Stephen chose his words carefully. ‘We are seeing the manifestation of hatred moving beyond our shores globally and this is a threat to all of us. It is a threat to our Jewish communities and, if our Jewish communities are under threat, we are all under threat.’ He added that Jewish children are ‘the only children in our country who day to day go to school behind large fences guarded by people with vizzy jackets and where there are routine police patrols in and around those areas.’ That observation lands heavily. It describes a parallel civic reality.
Islamic State-inspired terrorism no longer shocks in Britain. It horrifies, it angers, but it does not surprise. The ideological script is familiar. In this case the jury heard evidence of social-media posts allegedly praising Islamic State, statements praising the 2015 Paris attacks, references to martyrdom, expressions of hatred toward Jews and Christians, and extremist propaganda found on devices. When Hussein was asked directly whether he supported Islamic State, he replied: ‘Do you want a true answer? Yes.’ He explained why: ‘They are Muslims. They make Sharia.’
Saadaoui told the undercover officer that attackers should ‘carry out operations against the Jews and the Crusaders there, and hitting them there affects them badly.’ In a Christmas Day voice note he dismissed knives and vehicles as ‘ineffective’ and concluded: ‘what is needed is an automatic gun.’ This was ideological conviction articulated without disguise.
Some still reach for alternative explanations for Islamic terrorism. Poverty. Marginalisation. Social exclusion. The problem is that Saadaoui does not fit the model. He arrived in Britain legally in 2012 after marrying an English woman he met while working as a hotel entertainer in Tunisia. He worked at a Haven Holiday Village, saved, trained as a chef, bought the Albatross Italian restaurant in Great Yarmouth for £25,000, ran weddings and birthday parties, owned a house on Ipswich Road, sold it for £169,000, remarried, had children. He appeared to be a conventional immigrant success story. Integrated. Industrious. Embedded.
Before his arrest, he allegedly transferred assets to family members, withdrew large amounts of cash, wrote a will and discussed leaving messages for his family after ‘martyrdom’. That preparation for death did not grow out of economic despair but out of belief. Indeed, if poverty caused terrorism, we would see waves of attacks by the poor and disadvantaged from other backgrounds, but we do not.
|
Forum
Pages: 
