British intelligence had warned Tony Blair in July that al-Qaida — operating from bases in Afghanistan — was in the "final stages" of preparing a terrorist attack on the west, probably targeting Israelis or Americans, though the details timings and methods of attack were not known.
The nature of the threat was not "understood" at the time, parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee later noted, "due to a failure of imagination".
Similar warnings had been circulated in America. All eyes turned outwards. The threat was "out there". Two years later, this analysis had begun to be nuanced, at least in Europe. Eliza Manningham-Buller , then director-general of MI5, spoke in of "networks of [Britons] … that blend into society … who live normal, routine lives". This was an acknowledgement of a "domestic threat", though Manningham-Buller also said these individuals would lie dormant "until called upon for specific tasks by another part of the network" which was overseas.
Then came the attacks in Madrid in March , by a group of young immigrants who appeared to have no connection to any international networks at all, and the London bombings of By now, there was a genuine recognition that there were serious problems within Europe and that, as it did elsewhere, the globalised free-floating ideology of al-Qaida-ism, could appeal to individuals in the UK and elsewhere who had not been "recruited" or "brainwashed" and were not "sleeper cells".
Al-Qaida had not sought out them. Throughout most of this time, as violence exploded across the Middle East and Europe, there was relative calm in the US. This was attributed to many factors. Some saw it as a consequence of repressive legislation.
Others argued that US Muslims were better integrated or came from better-educated, more successful communities than European Muslims. There was no European dream to match the American one, it was said. European-style multiculturalism did not work. The more excitable rightwing commentators, particularly during the French riots of , predicted pockets of Islamic resistance within Europe that would require a division of marines to overcome.
Any American complacency soon appeared misplaced however. Rapidly, the same problems as seen in Europe emerged.
Young men, first- or second-generation immigrants, with a significant number of converts, became involved in violent Islamic extremism. Some were victim of FBI stings, almost certainly innocent. Some did indeed come from overseas — such as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , a Nigerian student who flew from the Yemen to the Netherlands to the US to attempt to down a plane over Detroit with a bomb in his underpants.
But, as elsewhere, most were locals, so-called "home growns". Indeed, that may always have been the case. Published: 27 Dec Stronger review — Jake Gyllenhaal plays the big-eyed hero 2 out of 5 stars. Published: 10 Dec Published: 8 Dec First look review Stronger review — Jake Gyllenhaal is Oscar-worthy in moving Boston marathon drama 4 out of 5 stars. The true story of Jeff Bauman, who lost both of his legs in the bombing, is told with detail and care in a film that works hard at avoiding cliche.
Published: 9 Sep In recent years, references to such attacks have become inescapable. But this lazy term obscures the real nature of the threat against us. Published: 24 Apr The long read: In recent years, references to such attacks have become inescapable. Published: 30 Mar Patriots Day review — taut dramatisation of the Boston marathon bombing 4 out of 5 stars. Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg team up again after Deepwater Horizon for this briskly paced procedural.
Published: 26 Feb Peter Bradshaw's film of the week Patriots Day review — gripping account of the Boston marathon bombings 3 out of 5 stars. It's a huge dataset: over , attacks, including around 2, in the US - and its collection is funded by an agency of the US government: the Science and Technology Directorate of the US Department of Homeland Security through a Center of Excellence program based at the University of Maryland. There's a lot of methodology detailed on the site and several definitions of what is terrorism.
At its root, the GTD says that terrorism is:. The threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation. The data - which excludes - shows how there are actually fewer attacks now than in the s. There were a total of terrorist attacks in the US between and They went down from a high of 40 in to nine in The smallest number of attacks occurred in when the database recorded six.
Between and , it shows a total of 21 fatal terror attacks. This great post from the Washington Post points this - and more - out. The biggest caveat about these figures is that these are all attacks, not necessarily those that cause more loss of life. Those other peaks? The Oklahoma bombing and the wounding peak was the Rajneeshee bioterror attack where restaurants were deliberately contaminated with salmonella.
As they say:.
0コメント