Author: Sanjay Suri
Publication: Outlook
Date: June 9, 2003
Introduction: Al Qaeda is back,
London shudders. But for the people, hit by 'intelligence fatigue', it's
all in a day's work.
London's prophets of doom don't
have to dig out their old files anymore. They point to the new ring of
concrete around the houses of Parliament as validation of their claims
that British policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are far more likely to encourage
terrorism than eradicate it. Quick developments led to the security scramble
here: the tape-recorded call by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda No. 2,
asking for attacks on British and US targets, the wave of suicide bombings
from Bali to Casablanca, news that a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv was a British
national from London, and another who failed was from Derby. If some can
travel from London to the Middle East for a suicide bombing, others could
do it right here. It didn't help that a MI5-CIA 'summit' warned of a "spectacular"
attack on Britain.
Intelligence reports in the media
sought to give solidity to the fears. They spoke of two men on the loose
in Britain trained as suicide bombers by Al Qaeda; one a Pakistani and
one a black person. The intelligence source was evidence from the nine
British nationals-among a total of about 680 Al Qaeda suspects-detained
at Guantanamo Bay. Military artists (there is such a thing in America)
drew sketches based on the descriptions and handed them to British intelligence.
But the panic seemed to hit the
government more than the people. Perhaps the former knew better. Or perhaps
an intelligence reports fatigue has set in. There have been just too many,
and not too convincing, of late. The definitive dossier on Iraq plagiarised
from the website of a Californian academic, photos of chemical and biological
weapons facilities turning out to be nothing like that on the ground, talk
of uranium deals between Iraq and Niger proving false, reports of torture
of Iraqi footballers proving untrue, above all no wmds. Now you hear of
intelligence reports and say, 'Oh, yeah?'.
But few doubt that the terrorist
is back, with a new face and many heads. "Thanks to technology and the
multinational allure of jehadism, the Afghanistan camps have become unnecessary,"
says a report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
here in relation to the recent attacks in Riyadh, Chechnya, Pakistan, Casablanca,
Tel Aviv and Algeria.
Not a camp by a cave, now "notebook
computers, encryption, the internet, multiple passports and the ease of
global transportation enabled Al Qaeda to function as a 'virtual' entity
that leveraged local assets-hence local knowledge-to full advantage in
coordinating attacks in many 'fields of jehad'," the IISS report says.
Al Qaeda is working in decentralised ways, the IISS suggests. You call
these groups Al Qaeda now because you have to call them something. One
operation may simply inspire another without the need for an actual link.
Al Qaeda now symbolises a particular state of mind.
Evidence the 'war on terror' isn't
under control comes from all over: an inability to control Afghanistan
outside of Kabul, a growing backlash in Iraq, an explosion of terrorist
attacks. But London doesn't feel as threatened as the government thinks
it should-and for good reason.
A leader at a Muslim institute here
says London was the least likely target. "This is the city where more than
one million came out to protest against the war. This is the parliament
that has seen the biggest rebellion against a government because never
before have so many MPs opposed war. Terrorists will not attack here."
Terrorists are not known for making such fine discriminations.But if he's
right, then as much as the government protecting the people, the people
of London could be protecting the government by doing no more than being
themselves. Not the concrete, it's the pedestrians on the outside and many
of the MPs within who are the better protection for parliament.
