Post by Harry on Jul 5, 2007 9:14:50 GMT
Belfast Telegraph
The Ulster irony of the UK terror alert
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
By Lindy McDowell
It is beyond irony that just as local politicians fall upon each other like the Spice Girls to clasp former enemies in a sudden and frankly unfathomable outbreak of peace, love and harmony - that just as local paramilitaries lay down arms or hint that they may be about to lay down arms (Government payouts being deemed adequate) - Northern Ireland gets a 'critical' terror warning.
We haven't had one of those for a long time.
In fact, I can't actually ever remember us getting a 'critical' terror warning at any time before. Maybe it was assumed we didn't need one, since the situation was deemed permanently 'critical'.
Now, though, we're on a par with the rest of the UK following the weekend attacks which were thankfully averted in London and Glasgow.
It would be lunacy of course to dismiss the possibility of a similar sort of attack happening here.
But it has to be said that for once we're looking in on terrorism elsewhere in the UK from a strange, slightly detached standpoint.
That doesn't mean we feel any less for those caught up in the attacks - and those who could so very easily have been caught up in massacre.
And it is not just the methods of the terrorist that strike a chord about the latest campaign. So much of what we hear on the news is familiar in every respect.
Courage for a start. The sheer selfless heroism of police officers in London and their colleagues and a number of members of the public in Glasgow.
So many times we saw that sort of phenomenal courage in Northern Ireland. How often is it remembered now?
There is a recognition, too, of the sense of threat the car-bomb attacks will have brought and the disruption the ensuing security measures will mean for millions of ordinary people from all walks of life and of all religions. But also a recognition that these 'ordinary' people will not be broken by this latest terror war. Not any more than ordinary people here were.
In terms of stated objectives, terrorism in Northern Ireland achieved precisely nothing apart from the murder of almost 4,000 people and the maiming of tens of thousands of others. It was homes wrecked and families torn apart.
True, the paramilitary bosses on all sides have generally done quite nicely out of the Troubles. They engineered it so that the peace process became their pension plan.
But the impressionable youngsters who did their bidding and their dirty work face a bleaker, poorer future.
"We will not give in to terror," the Government has announced (predictably) in the wake of the weekend attacks.
But the terrorists in Britain know that the Government gave in to terror here.
Every terrorist operating in the country today knows that the precedent of an early release scheme has been set. They know, too, that they can at a later point use the threat of continuing violence as a negotiating tool with the Government. And that they can expect that threat to wring from the Government shabby concession after shabby concession.
Police officers are being hailed as heroic by the Government today. A few years down the line can they depend even on that Government to stand up for them?
The Government didn't in Northern Ireland.
We're told that the security response to the weekend attacks has been intelligence led. What precisely does this mean? The use of informers and agents?
Is this collusion?
There is a distinct possibility that the same security forces currently being lauded for their role at the forefront of the latest war in terror could, like their counterparts in Northern Ireland, one day find themselves under investigation.
Where will their Government defenders be then? If Northern Ireland is indeed a template, bending over backwards to buy off the terror chiefs.
The Ulster irony of the UK terror alert
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
By Lindy McDowell
It is beyond irony that just as local politicians fall upon each other like the Spice Girls to clasp former enemies in a sudden and frankly unfathomable outbreak of peace, love and harmony - that just as local paramilitaries lay down arms or hint that they may be about to lay down arms (Government payouts being deemed adequate) - Northern Ireland gets a 'critical' terror warning.
We haven't had one of those for a long time.
In fact, I can't actually ever remember us getting a 'critical' terror warning at any time before. Maybe it was assumed we didn't need one, since the situation was deemed permanently 'critical'.
Now, though, we're on a par with the rest of the UK following the weekend attacks which were thankfully averted in London and Glasgow.
It would be lunacy of course to dismiss the possibility of a similar sort of attack happening here.
But it has to be said that for once we're looking in on terrorism elsewhere in the UK from a strange, slightly detached standpoint.
That doesn't mean we feel any less for those caught up in the attacks - and those who could so very easily have been caught up in massacre.
And it is not just the methods of the terrorist that strike a chord about the latest campaign. So much of what we hear on the news is familiar in every respect.
Courage for a start. The sheer selfless heroism of police officers in London and their colleagues and a number of members of the public in Glasgow.
So many times we saw that sort of phenomenal courage in Northern Ireland. How often is it remembered now?
There is a recognition, too, of the sense of threat the car-bomb attacks will have brought and the disruption the ensuing security measures will mean for millions of ordinary people from all walks of life and of all religions. But also a recognition that these 'ordinary' people will not be broken by this latest terror war. Not any more than ordinary people here were.
In terms of stated objectives, terrorism in Northern Ireland achieved precisely nothing apart from the murder of almost 4,000 people and the maiming of tens of thousands of others. It was homes wrecked and families torn apart.
True, the paramilitary bosses on all sides have generally done quite nicely out of the Troubles. They engineered it so that the peace process became their pension plan.
But the impressionable youngsters who did their bidding and their dirty work face a bleaker, poorer future.
"We will not give in to terror," the Government has announced (predictably) in the wake of the weekend attacks.
But the terrorists in Britain know that the Government gave in to terror here.
Every terrorist operating in the country today knows that the precedent of an early release scheme has been set. They know, too, that they can at a later point use the threat of continuing violence as a negotiating tool with the Government. And that they can expect that threat to wring from the Government shabby concession after shabby concession.
Police officers are being hailed as heroic by the Government today. A few years down the line can they depend even on that Government to stand up for them?
The Government didn't in Northern Ireland.
We're told that the security response to the weekend attacks has been intelligence led. What precisely does this mean? The use of informers and agents?
Is this collusion?
There is a distinct possibility that the same security forces currently being lauded for their role at the forefront of the latest war in terror could, like their counterparts in Northern Ireland, one day find themselves under investigation.
Where will their Government defenders be then? If Northern Ireland is indeed a template, bending over backwards to buy off the terror chiefs.
