Category: Terrorism and Counter Terrorism

Hot New Release!

On September 28, 2022

In Military Matters, Terrorism and Counter Terrorism

A Day Ahead of the Devil now available in Ebook, Paperback and Audiobook

Afghanistan 2021. The Taliban takeover.

Surrounded and outnumbered by their Taliban attackers, a small group of Afghan special forces fights their way out of their base and races towards Kabul and the last of the flights leaving the country.

A team of seasoned SAS soldiers is deployed to Kabul to assist in extracting intelligence Assets for the MI6 Station there. But as the Taliban tighten their deadly noose around the city, the simple locate and recovery task soon becomes a lot more complicated.

And when a legendary Taliban commander arrives in Kabul and learns that there are special forces operating in his city, he knows there is only one thing to do: Hunt them down and kill them.

With hundreds of Taliban searching the city for them, the SAS team’s mission becomes one of survival and staying a step ahead of their hunters. And with the planned evacuation of Kabul descending into chaos, the team knows that if they don’t make it back to the airport fast, they won’t make it out at all.

Based around true events, A Day Ahead of the Devil is the latest action-packed thriller from the bestselling author of Asset Seven.

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Betrayal of the Bannermen

By James

On June 28, 2019

In Military Matters, Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, Topical, Uncategorized

With the latest ill-thought utterance from Jeremy Hunt, the time has surely come to recognise that at all levels of our government, Veterans’ concerns over historical allegations of criminal acts are nothing more than an irritation to our elected representatives. I’m not an idiot; I recognise that the context of Hunt’s statement could be explained as him meaning that terrorists and Veterans alike should be treated equally in the eyes of the law where criminality is concerned. But the truth of the matter is…we’re not.

The photo above is of my first operational tour in Northern Ireland. A border tour. Bandit country. The South Armagh gun team the bogeyman hiding in the hedges with the big DshK heavy machine-gun. The knowledge, as we patrolled, that one round from the Barret .50 cal sniper rifle the IRA had in the area would extinguish our life instantly.

Like most operational tours of that era, we had our share of contacts with the enemy. Shootings, IEDs, IDF. But we fought back. And each time we fought back, the incident was investigated. Weapons taken away for forensic examination. Those involved interviewed under legal protocols and compliance. Statements taken and questioned. SOCOs on the ground conducting thorough investigations of the scene of the incident. A report of the findings issued by the Police. Those involved either cleared of any wrongdoing or subjected to further investigation until the Police were content they had all the true facts.

And that’s how it worked. You were investigated by the Police in the same way that any other individual would be. Your statement was compared to the forensic evidence provided by the SOCOs and a judgement made accordingly. Not a pleasant experience for a soldier to endure when he or she was simply carrying out their duties in accordance with the roles and responsibilities afforded them by the MoD and UK government policy. But it was fair. It showed that no bias was given to serving members of the crown despite all the assertions to the contrary by the republican pressure groups.

And yet, all these years down the line, we are now seeing aged veterans being hauled into the courts for alleged transgressions that took place, in some cases, over 40 years before. More importantly, for alleged crimes that they had originally been cleared of any wrongdoing for. But why? New evidence? No. Has the law changed somehow in the years gone by? No again. So what has brought this about?

Throughout my military career and particularly when I worked in Northern Ireland, I could see the skill with which the republican movement conducted its information and public relations operations. They’d secured groundswell support and millions in funding from the USA and successfully portrayed themselves as the downtrodden victims of the British state. They were also hugely successful at portraying the Police and the Military as nothing more than weapon-wielding tools of the state that enforced the subjugation of catholics in Northern Ireland. And that narrative continues to this day, where the murderers and killers of the republican terrorist groups occupy a role within their communities as defenders of the streets. Heroes who threw off the yoke of the oppressive British state. Even Gerry Adams has reinvented himself as an avuncular, cuddly, grandfather figure, completely at odds with the calculating IRA commander that he was.

This book by the journalist Ed Moloney is essentially the testament of 2 former terrorists, one republican and one loyalist. The republican is Brendan ‘Darkie’ Hughes, a name well-known to most soldiers who served in Northern Ireland throughout Op Banner. Hughes was instrumental in the formation of the Provisional IRA; PIRA. One of the most active terrorists within the entire organisation, Hughes was also very close to Gerry Adams, sharing a cell together in Long Kesh and working together to shape PIRA into the machine it would eventually become. As time went on however, Hughes became hugely disenchanted with Adams’ continued denial that he had ever been a member of PIRA, to the point where Hughes had nothing but contempt for the man he’d previously described as his brother. None of this might have amounted to anything more than gossip, had Hughes not accepted an offer from Boston College to take part in an initiative that would come to be known as the Boston Tapes. In a nutshell, paramilitaries were encouraged to recount their experiences on record and agree that when they died, the recordings would be made public. Hughes’ recordings struck a giant blow to the republican movement but, specifically, to Gerry Adams himself. Hughes’ testimony names Adams as an IRA volunteer who climbed the ranks to become not only a unit commander but also to brigade and army council level. He further named Adams as being in charge of a clandestine group of PIRA volunteers called ‘the unknowns’. The role of this group was to carry out sensitive tasks and internal security that PIRA could not be seen to be involved in.

The photograph on this book cover is that of Dolours Price, a convicted PIRA bomber but, more importantly, a key member of ‘the unknowns’. Price, like Hughes, felt betrayed by Adams and the route that he took the republican movement, and questioned strongly why so many had died or been imprisoned for such little gain. But another important question that Price asked was why, as members of PIRA, they had killed so many people to achieve so little. The book above centres on the disappearance of Jean McConville, a catholic mother of 14 from Belfast in the early seventies. Price is unequivocal: Adams, in his role as commander of the unknowns, ordered and directed the PIRA operation to abduct Jean from her home, take her over the border and kill her as a suspected informer. Price took part in the murder of this poor woman, leaving 14 children to fend for themselves as their father was also deceased. Her rage at Adams’ hypocrisy on this matter is a matter of public record and she is very clear about who was and wasn’t involved. When she heard that Adams had actually sat down with McConville’s now adult family and told them that PIRA had a hand in the disappearance of their mother but that he personally had known nothing about it, Price was furious. She was happy to go on record and name Adams as the head of a secret team that ‘disappeared’ people. It’s worth remembering that the process of ‘disappearing’ people was associated with vile, oppressive regimes who conducted these activities against an innocent population. For PIRA to be seen or linked to such activities within their own communities would deal their image credibility a huge blow.

Adams was interviewed over these assertions but because of the elapsed timeframe, his status as a politician and the lack of physical evidence, no charges were brought against him and he walked free. Free to continue updating his Twitter feed with comments about teddy-bears and recipes that sustained him while a struggling Sinn Fein candidate.

So what’s the difference between the standard of evidence that Adams walked away from and that which is being levelled at Veterans today? Both are very historical, there is no physical evidence and the testimonies amount to hearsay more than anything else. So why can Gerry Adams sleep easy at nights knowing he has nothing to fear but a former paratrooper who was only doing his job has been thrown to the wolves? I think the answer lies in the point I made at the beginning of this post. The success of the republican narrative in portraying themselves as the victims of an institutionalised campaign of violent oppression, and the Police and Military as the perpetrators of these acts.

Jeremy Hunt may not have meant to equate Veterans with terrorists but the fact remains that he did. The first thing a politician learns is the impact of statements and speeches. The fact that he didn’t even bother to assess the potential impact of his statement highlights what little importance he ascribes to the matter.

To continue to subject Veterans to these witch-hunts and trials is nothing short of a betrayal of the oaths and commitments that they honoured during their service. If Jeremy Hunt truly wants to equate Veterans with terrorists then why not go the whole hog and issue Veterans with the comfort letters and guarantees of freedom from prosecution that was afforded to the true criminals?

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From Bethnal Green to Baghuz

By James

On February 15, 2019

In Military Matters, Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, Topical

Shamima Begum posing for a journalist from The Times

They were notorious at the time; the three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green who ran away to join Islamic State, or ISIS, in Syria. The national media leapt upon the story of three 15 year-olds turning their back on their own country to join with the most vile terrorist organisation with a fundamental hatred of all things western.

In the last couple of days, one of the schoolgirls, Shamima Begum, now a woman of 19, was discovered by Times’ journalist Anthony Loyd in a refugee camp in Syria. In an interview with Loyd, Begum talks about her journey to Syria and her experiences as a Mojaheran, a wife of a jihadi. What is interesting when reading the transcript of the interview, is Begum’s utter lack of remorse or sense of wrongdoing. She actually openly states that she has no regrets about joining and becoming part of the failed caliphate.

Indeed, her only motivation in speaking to Loyd was to request assistance in securing safe passage back to the UK for herself and her unborn child.

This request, as one would expect, has polarised viewpoints in the UK. On one hand, it is treated as laughable that someone who has effectively committed high treason should just waltz back home as though she has been on an extended gap year. On the other hand, some sectors, predominately leftist-leaning or within the brackets of the legal profession, point out Begum’s youthful age when she left to join ISIS.

For me, it is simple; she is a 19 year-old woman who has spent the last 4 years of her life supporting and assisting the biggest physical threat to western democracy and values. 4 Years. That’s 4 years during which she could have tried to escape, defected to coalition forces, got messages to her family that she wanted out. But in 4 years, Begum did nothing of the sort.

And I don’t buy into the reduced culpability argument due to her age when she and her companions departed for Syria. Let’s not forget that even before she left the UK, the terrorist attacks on London streets and further afield were front page and lead item news.

One of the most shocking terror-franchise attacks witnessed in the UK, the barbarous murder of drummer Lee Rigby, took place a mere 10 miles from Bethnal Green. This was a horrific incident that dominated the news feeds for weeks. And this was something that Begum and her friends would have been exposed to at home, at school, on mainstream media and on social media. And at some point stopped just talking about it, and went on to support such acts.

And it is that key word support that I believe those who should know better, are missing the point of. ISIS is not just a bunch of bearded men with AK 47s and RPGs. It wouldn’t have survived as long as it has if this was the case. It was/is an organisation. And an organisation can only function with support. And let’s make no bones about it, Begum and the rest of the Mohajeran are support.

They marry ISIS fighters, providing these terrorists with comfort, respite from fighting, stability, family. In essence, Begum et al are contributing to normalising the ISIS fighters’ experience, making it easier for them to continue plying their vile trade in torture and murder. And, despite not commenting on any further activities, Begum would have been carrying out active support roles on behalf of her husband, his unit and the leadership of whichever area they were living.

Often, foreign brides are encouraged to recruit other women from their home countries to travel to Syria and join the fight by marrying and supporting an ISIS fighter. They were also used to create content for, and disseminate, propaganda. Identify means of fund-raising. Tasked to identify suspected spies and informers, or join the Al Khansaa unit; a brutal, all-female, religious police identifying and punishing those women they deemed as not quite islamic enough….

So my point really is this; ISIS could not function without support. An analogy to highlight this would be walking into a large, UK Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan and there only being infantry soldiers with guns. No intelligence support, no galley or cookhouse for food, no Engineers to assist in construction of accommodation or ablutions, no IT or welfare communications to speak to loved ones at home, no REME or the like to repair vehicles or essential equipment, no Signallers to maintain vital operational comms…the list is endless really. But, suffice to say, our infantry soldiers would have a very finite effectiveness and life-span without the supporting elements that are as essential to their existence as their organic, front-line soldiering skills.

And, in this regard at least, ISIS is no different. Remove all the support elements, and life for their fighters would be unsustainable for any protracted period of time. The support that Begum and the other Mojaheran provided has directly aided ISIS in remaining a threat to life, values, and democracy for far longer than it should have.

And in that regard, my viewpoint is simple: Begum championed ISIS. Celebrated ISIS atrocities and attacks. Supported ISIS through sharing of propaganda on social media. Attached herself to the ISIS cause against her own country. Helped ISIS by supporting its fighters and looking after them. And is only running now because the caliphate has failed. The black flags lying, tattered and torn in the smoking ruins of the towns and villages of their former territories in Syria.

She had 4 years where she made no effort to escape or leave the caliphate. 4 years where she aided and abetted those guilty of torture, murder, rape, and genocide. 4 years where she actively assisted in the effectiveness of ISIS as it carried out its horrific activities.

Shamima Begum didn’t just support ISIS.

She is ISIS.

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Victimising our Veterans…

By James

On May 22, 2018

In Military Matters, Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, Topical

The conflict in Northern Ireland was referred to as ‘the Dirty War’ by many of us who served there, both because of the way it was fought and the appalling impact it had upon the victims.

The Good Friday Agreement was presented to the public as the panacea that would bring the violence to an end once and for all. It was an extremely bitter pill to swallow for the relatives of those who had died at the hands of the paramilitaries over the years and had then had to watch these murderers return to their communities feted as heroes.

It was also a bitter pill for the Security Forces and the Intelligence Services to digest, reflecting on the risks and toil over the years it had taken to put these killers where they belonged in the first place.

Too much was asked of our soldiers when operating in Northern Ireland:

They were expected to prevent physical violence between communities of opposite sides of the sectarian divide, hell bent on killing each other.
They were expected to fill the void left vacant by a Police Force that could not carry out the most basic of functions due to the physical threat to their lives.
They were expected to endure verbal and physical abuse as they went about their tasks without responding or reacting in order not to risk escalating the situation.
They were expected to return to the streets and countryside days after witnessing their friends and colleagues killed or injured, again, without reacting or responding in any manner that could be deemed aggressive by the local populace.
They were expected to completely switch from core infantry fighters to peacekeepers after conducting 8 weeks or so ‘theatre specific training’.

The republican PR machine, with its backers and sympathisers from the UK and the USA, was very effective in portraying British soldiers as murderers carrying out a state-sponsored ‘shoot to kill’ policy. The real truth is that soldiers in Northern Ireland actually dreaded the day when they would have to use their firearm because they knew too well the legal consequences of the action and the pressure that the republican movement would heap upon the Government for punitive measures to be taken against the individual.

An example which I believe typifies this is the horrific killing of Army Corporals Derek Wood and David Howes. These two soldiers were murdered in the most brutal manner by a mob of republicans, all recorded by a helicopter’s camera from above. The point here is that both men were armed but the only shot that was fired was fired into the air to attempt to get the mob to retreat. The majority of soldiers who watched the incident unfold or saw it on later coverage were puzzled as to why the men never fired at their attackers. It is my firm belief that, like most soldiers of that era, they had been so used to following the wisdom of never firing your weapon that when the time came when it was absolutely necessary, the mindset just wasn’t there.

We have entered an era where we seem very keen to illuminate the actions of our past with the enlightenment of today’s knowledge, statutes and protocols which have no comparison to the muddled mission statements and directives that soldiers followed through the years of the the Troubles.

Under the GFA, the paramilitary murderers and criminals returned to their families and friends. Those who were On The Run from the law were issued official letters confirming that they could also return with no threat of incarceration hanging over them. Yet we now find we have a government in power who want to pursue former soldiers, some of them well into their 60’s and beyond, for mistakes made while carrying out the country’s domestic security policy? I thought I’d seen it all with the Phil Shiner affair but clearly not.

Don’t hound these veterans for the actions carried out decades before under the most difficult of circumstances. Don’t judge their historic actions using today’s comparisons. Don’t pretend there is anything to be gained other than to pander to the republican victimhood agenda.

But if the government is determined to follow this course of action, then every minister, policy writer and senior MoD official linked to the formulation of policy for military operations during this period should also be held under the same scrutiny. Deployed Service personnel are merely a physical representation of a government’s domestic or foreign policies; nothing more.

Here’s an idea: Level the playing field. Give our NI veterans a ‘Good Saturday Agreement’. Acknowledge that mistakes were made while operating under stressful conditions with muddled directives and policies. Acknowledge that no party with any involvement in the Northern Ireland conflict will ever be satisfied and therefore also acknowledge the futility in highlighting one party, the veterans, for investigation.

Give the veterans their own official letters, letting them know they have nothing to fear from legal reprisals. Allow them to remain at ease in their homes with their families. In short, allow them nothing more than that which was afforded to the terrorists and criminals who dragged Northern Ireland through a senseless conflict for over three decades.

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Sleeping with the enemy…

By James

On March 18, 2018

In Military Matters, Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, Topical

It may seem an odd title for a post regarding the Russian poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury but bear with me, as I’m hoping it will make sense.

I, like many of my generation, have struggled to understand the rising popularity of Jeremy Corbyn as a future leader of the United Kingdom. However, I have no axe to grind with those who support him as I believe that the individual votes for the candidate that they believe represents their views and positions the best. And it would be nothing short of arrogant of me to shout them down by implying that I am fully cognisant of their entire personal circumstances.

As I say though, I am pretty sure that it is a generational issue. I am of an age when I remember Corbyn’s unflinching support for the IRA, attending terrorist’s funerals and standing shoulder to shoulder with the very people who were bombing London, Manchester, Warrington and other UK cities and killing innocents as they went about their daily lives. I remember well his support for communist and left-wing regimes that sanctioned and conducted state-sponsored murder and executions of any opposition, real or imagined. Jeremy Corbyn seemed, to me at least, to hate the UK so much that he would leap at the first opportunity to embrace any cause that ran contrary to our national interests.

But that was all happening as I was growing up. Corbyn’s bedrock of support is sustained in no small part by the younger demographic. And the younger demographic will always seek to go against the trends and values of their previous generation as they always have. This is human nature and something we do almost without thinking. More significantly though is the fact that the younger generation who are championing Corbyn et al, grew to maturity in a very different time than people of my age.

Consider it for a moment: They grew up when the IRA were on a ceasefire and had signed up to the Good Friday Agreement. Not for them the daily grind of grim news reports of sectarian murders and bombs on British streets. They grew up after the Berlin Wall had been torn down. No sitting open-mouthed in front of the television watching as a couple were mown down by machine gun fire as they ran the gauntlet of razor-wire entanglements to reach the West. Yes, we have the dread of Islamic fundamentalist attacks as a feature in today’s society but these are franchised actions with amorphous links and relations to an ideology rather than an actual physical entity.

In short, they grew up without their country experiencing a definitive threat. They grew up without any exposure to an actual enemy. Because that is what both Russia and the IRA were to the UK; our enemies. That word sounds almost anachronistic even as I write it. A term discarded long ago as we seek to convince ourselves that in our new enlightened age there can be no such thing as enemies, that somehow any conflict or aggression can be solved with dialogue and political detente.

Which is great if the whole world follows this ethos. But of course, they don’t. But what they do, is exploit the good intentions and soft-skills approach to their own advantage. Russia has used our 16-year distraction in Afghanistan to develop and hone their asymmetric conflict tactics to great effect. Their mastery of information operations to subvert and sabotage smaller states and countries is actually well-ahead of most nations. We just need to look at Georgia and the Ukraine as past examples and the Baltic states as current ones where the Bear’s malign influence is being wielded.

And now we have the Labour leader in the UK categorically refusing to support the call for punitive measures against the country that has, to all intents and purposes, committed an act in contravention to NATO Article 5; a state-sanctioned, armed attack on a member country. By Friday, he softened his tone somewhat by declaring that he was willing to accept the possibility that ‘McMafia’ type criminals may have been responsible. What is encouraging is the way his own backbenchers have distanced themselves from him and are openly giving their support to the PM in defiance of their leader’s directive.

Yet still, we have a significant amount of people who, like Jeremy Corbyn, are pushing out the narrative that this was nothing to do with the Russians and even worse, that our own intelligence agencies carried out the attack in order to whip up national fervour and support for…well, your guess is as good as mine.

But here’s the point; Russian info-ops count heavily on the acceptance and support for their narratives and the subsequent spread on social media. And those who, like Corbyn, utterly reject the facts in favour of half-baked conspiracy theories, are assisting the Russians. Jeremy Corbyn’s pantomime performances in Parliament over this issue are edited and re-broadcast in Russia where the population there is led to believe that he is the last bastion of truth in a corrupt and feeble UK government. And the message to the people is clear; the Russian government had nothing to do with this attack and even the UK’s most popular politician is saying this.

Vladimir Putin just won another election term based on no small part on his strong stance on the international stage. The Kremlin’s aggressive foreign policies distract from the everyday suffering of ordinary Russians under Putin’s leadership and the narrative very cleverly controlled by the state media outlets. There is no independent outlet to counter these messages or broadcast the truth. Instead they take well-edited snippets from people like Jeremy Corbyn and mesh these with their domestic reports to create the illusion of international suspicion that the UK carried out these attacks.

Even now, the UK has deployed thousands of Service personnel to the Baltic states to provide a show of force and a deterrent to Russia’s recent aggression. And the reports are already coming back of Russian info ops setting up off-duty soldiers in PR coups and stings that are then reported as criminal acts against the Russian populations within Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Russia had almost succeeded in portraying Latvia as a failed state, just as they had achieved with the Crimea. Their next phase was obviously a physical invasion of the small country disguised as a ‘defence intervention’ on behalf of persecuted Russian communities in Latvia. Our deployment alongside that of our allies has, if nothing else, put the brakes on the momentum for this invasion if nothing else. But for how long is really anybody’s guess at this stage.

So when I read of people, especially those who should know better, repeating the Russian narrative, I get pretty annoyed. They are falling for the political equivalent of the ‘Nigerian Millionaire-Prince Scam’. But the impact here is far greater than that of an idiot being relieved of some cash. It is assisting a hostile foreign power who are murdering people in our own country to get away with it.

I’m not advocating that we should never challenge our government or our Security and Intelligence Services. I actually believe that questioning and challenging are healthy accountability processes that encourages these agencies to be as transparent and compliant as possible. But there is a giant difference between questioning and challenging and championing the Russian narrative. And those who do this are sleeping; keeping their eyes and minds closed to facts and reality. Sleeping through scientific reports that name and date the source of the poison. Sleeping through the very strange deaths of other individuals who have escaped their Russian masters. Sleeping through the ill-concealed pride and glee that the Kremlin is reacting to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter with.

But they are not just sleeping, as their actions have impact beyond themselves. Their sleeping through fact and reason gives strength to the Russian cause. To the enemy cause.

Sleeping with the enemy.

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A real problem to come…

By James

On October 24, 2017

In Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, Topical

In a very rare example of a politician raising their head above the parapet of conformity and non-confrontational policy statements, Rory Stewart, an MP, has called for returning ISIS members and supporters to be killed as traitors as a result of the threat that they pose to the United Kingdom’s national security. Mr Stewart, as well as being an MP for a seat in Cumbria, is also an International Development Minister for the FCO and DfID, and a former diplomat.

Such a bold, hard-line statement from any individual holding office is rare, particularly in the era of the career politician, whose mantra seems to be ‘if we do nothing, then we can do nothing wrong.’ But Mr Stewart is not a conventional politician by any measure. No stranger to the Middle East or the conflicts there, he also walked across Afghanistan in 2002, a remarkable feat captured in his book The Places in Between. What I enjoyed about the book was the fact that Mr Stewart did not fall for or espouse the usual guff about welcoming villagers giving him their last slivers of bread as befitted their customary obligations. Because he could speak the language (and because the majority assumption was that he couldn’t) Mr Stewart could hear first-hand the real conversations behind the duplicitous welcoming grins and invites. He did encounter some genuine hosts along the way, but I really respected his decision to balance his account with the reality on the ground so to speak.

Rory was also the youngest ever Chair of the Defence Select Committee and a Senior Coalition Official in Iraq in 2003 – 2004. It would be very easy for the liberal media to stamp on Mr Stewart’s comments as right-wing, hard-line and anti-islamic, as they tend to do. But it is a little difficult to do that with Mr Stewart as he is also the executive chairman of The Turquoise Mountain Foundation; a NGO charity aimed at reviving traditional arts and crafts and urban regeneration in Afghanistan. So; no muslim hater.

His comments regarding killing returning ISIS members and supporters stand out because of their complete transparency. There is no hidden message here. No softening up pre-statement for advisers to analyse the public response before moving forward. No. This was a clear statement with the justification included just in case there was any confusion.

Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy to Counter ISIS has made no bones about his aspiration and intention to kill all foreign ISIS fighters on the battlefield. This negates the requirement for messy legal quagmires and political hand-wringing over what stance to take on returning ISIS members. This solution would be the optimum one for all governments facing this quandary; ending the problem on the battlefield in the theatre of conflict. But not all will die there. In the UK, many have returned already, causing a nightmare scenario for our security and intelligence services.

With over 850 British citizens having fled to ISIS-controlled territories, around 150 having been killed and approximately 400 returning to the UK in the past 18 months (as of July 2017), it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to see that we have a significant problem. The Director General of MI5, Andrew Parker stated recently that MI5 is now foiling one major terrorist plot a month. The key word in this phrase is major; likely to result in significant loss of lives. This does not even take into account the hundreds of other plots in their infancy or struggling to get off the ground.

Add to this mix those returning ISIS personnel, dejected and defeated, the dream of the caliphate a hazy memory. Do we really believe that these individuals are going to reintegrate into normal society? Sit back on their sofas in Luton with a digestive and a cup of tea to watch Eastenders? Slot back into the Friday night treat of a KFC while watching TV in Kenilworth? Look back on their days in black as nothing more than a misguided gap year never to be repeated?

Max Hill QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism, would appear to be of the opinion that yes, many of those returning from Iraq and Syria should be allowed to settle back into normal life. Should be given ‘space’ to readjust rather than being prosecuted. That they were ‘naive teenagers’ embarking upon a great adventure. Mr Hill’s comments are directly opposed to Rory Stewart’s and highlight the growing gulf in how our political masters will address the situation.

So, should we treat returning ISIS members and supporters as traitors, affording them the full measure of the state’s wrath? Or should we view them more in line with Mr Hill’s assessment?

I for one wholeheartedly subscribe to treating these returning dregs of humanity as traitors and I have several reasons for this:

We are at war with ISIS. Officially. They represent a real threat to the safety of the United Kingdom and its people either through direct action or their support and sponsorship of terrorist attacks here. Any support, involvement, or assistance to ISIS aids them in their effort to kill UK citizens.
This is not Germany during World War 2 where many citizens were co-opted to join and support the Nazi party because to do otherwise risked alienation, arrest and incarceration. Just getting to ISIS-controlled territories took real effort; months of preparation and planning, of covering one’s activities from friends and family, financing the journey. Then travelling through different countries and networks of people smugglers and facilitators just to get there. At any stage during this strained process, the individual could have stopped and returned home before crossing the rubicon. Indeed, this would have been easier to do. The fact that they chose not to demonstrated their commitment to the ISIS cause.
ISIS relies completely on recruitment to swell its ranks and boost its physical presence. While our news footage is filled with scenes of the black-clad, AK47-toting fighters, like any other war machine these fighters are supported by a cast of thousands of less glamorous but essential roles. Medical and First Aid helpers, IT experts, Cooks, Mechanics, Propaganda Writers, Shopkeepers, Communications, Tradesmen to look after and repair housing, Accountants, Couriers, Factory Workers etc, etc, etc. The list is almost endless but the point is that the murdering and killing could not have taken place without the infrastructure around it that kept ISIS functioning. So, no matter that those returning from Syria or Iraq claim that they were never fighters, to me their role was just as significant. An analogy would be sending British soldiers into Afghanistan with only their rifles and bullets and no other support whatsoever. Their war would be a very short one.

And lastly, because this is what they chose to support. This is just one example of the mindset and psychology of the people who flock to join ISIS regardless of how big or small their perceived role is. The burning alive of a Jordanian pilot, filmed and disseminated across the internet for the world to see. And it’s worth remembering that many of those who did see it nodded with satisfaction and agreed with the vile action. ISIS exploit the value of social media much better than many of its predecessors, provoking terror and outrage while aiding recruitment. And it is the fact that actions such as this encouraged British citizens to flock to the caliphate that should warn us against treating them as anything less than the fighters themselves. If you support the burning alive of a man in a cage or the throwing of suspected homosexuals from the roofs of buildings, your values are not those of the United Kingdom.

And this is why I believe that these returning creatures have to be labelled, processed and tried as traitors. They are not returning because they realised the error of their ways, came to their senses and said ‘ ..mmm…these guys are mental, this is not for me.’ Maybe for the odd individual that could be the case but not for the majority. They are returning because the dream is over. The caliphate is gone and the black flack burned with its ashes scattered in the wind. These people are not returning to the UK to assimilate back into society and in any case, should not be allowed to do so. No matter how hard they try to assure the authorities otherwise, in some part of their psyche there lingers the motivation that prompted them to make the considerable effort to follow the black flag and cheer as men burned in cages.

And it is nearly impossible to redirect this motivation. But it is very easy to reignite it, blow on the hot embers until the flames are seen once again, rousing dormancy to a state of action. This cannot be allowed to happen. Rory Stewart completely understands this, probably as a result of his significant exposure to conflict zones and their associated issues. Max Hill does not.

Our government is charged with the duty of care of our nation and its citizens. When the head of MI5 is telling us that we have a real problem keeping a lid on terrorist attacks, what we cannot have is a returning population of individuals who hate our country, our people and our way of life. And who can slip back unnoticed into our general population where they can be the most effective to ISIS-sponsored plots and attacks.

Yes, it is a very hard decision for a government to publicly pronounce, particularly in this risk-averse climate the majority of our politicians seem to thrive upon. But it is a decision that cannot be shirked or prevaricated over. Send the clear message; a traitor to our country will be treated in accordance with the full wrath of the state. To do otherwise is a betrayal of the trust of the people who voted you into office and charged you with the duty of keeping us safe. More importantly, it is a betrayal to the families who have lost loved ones to the vile actions of these reprehensible criminals and their supporters.

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Top 10 Dumbest Terror Plots

By James

On August 20, 2017

In Terrorism and Counter Terrorism

After yet another terrorist atrocity, it’s quite easy to start thinking that these morons are getting the upper hand. I think it’s worth remembering that they are not the masterminds that they would have us believe and that luck, good and bad, plays a large part in the success or failure of their attacks. To lend a bit of perspective, I’ve put together a small list of some of the dumbest terror plots we’ve seen in recent years.

1. THE KANGAROO BOMB PLOT – Sevdet Ramadan Besim was an Islamic fundamentalist struggling for inspiration for an attack on his home soil of Australia. Besim was determined to kill Police officers and came up with an array of different methods with which he discussed carrying out his attacks. While looking at co-opting some locals into his plot, Besim discussed the use of kangaroos as delivery vehicles for his bombs. Besim planned to catch a roo, paint it with the Islamic State flag and stuff its pouch with C4 explosives then set it loose among Police officers. Admittedly there were some small flaws with this plan however hats off to Besim and his gang for taking terrorism to a whole new level; the radicalisation of native animals!

2. THE WANTED MAN WHO WANTED HIS REWARD – One of my favourites as I was in the region at the time and this was the talk of the FOBs for many weeks. In 2012 a man approached a military checkpoint in Afghanistan clutching a piece of paper in his hand. The Afghan security forces stopped the man and spoke to him, asking him what his business was. The man brandished the paper and began explaining his demand. The Afghans were confused and asked him to explain himself once again. The request still made no sense so he was asked again. And gave the same answer. The Afghan commander approached his American counterpart and explained the situation:

Afghan Commander (AC): Erm…this guy has arrived with one of the ‘wanted’ posters for a local Taliban IED maker.

US Commander (USC): Cool. He’s got information he wants to offer up for the reward?

AC: …not exactly. He is the IED maker.

USC: Wait; he’s the IED maker? So he’s surrendering?

AC: No. He wants the $100 reward that’s promised on the poster.

USC: Let me get this straight; he’s the IED maker on the poster and he’s turned up here demanding the $100 bounty that’s on his head?

AC: Yes. We’ve asked him many times and he is here to collect the $100 that it says we give for information leading to his capture.

USC: Yeah…but…it’s him? He wants the reward for his own capture?

AC: Apparently so.

USC: (scratches his head in puzzlement) I shouldn’t be surprised by anything in this country by now but what the actual f***?

Mohammad Ashan was duly arrested and his biometrics taken and matched to those found on IEDs used against American and Afghan forces. He was processed into American custody but even as he was made comfortable in his new quarters he was still pleading for the money owed to him for capturing himself.

3. DUMB AND DUMBERER… – Meet David Robert McMenemy, anti-abortionist and all-round eejit. McMenemy felt so strongly about abortion he decided that he was going to attack an abortion clinic, blow it up, and die as a martyr in the process. Not really knowing any abortion clinics, he drove around his local area for a month trying to identify targets. Eventually he settled on the Edgerton Women’s Health Centre in Davenport. He would teach those pesky abortionists a lesson that they’d never forget.

Only problem was the Women’s Centre he’d chosen didn’t actually carry out abortions. Blissfully unaware of this and taking his training from Wily Coyote cartoons, McMenemy drove his car as fast as he could into the building and waited for the inevitable explosion. All he got was an airbag in the face and a serious case of whiplash. Undeterred, the valiant martyr got out of his vehicle and poured petrol over it to get the party started. Unfortunately, the building’s very efficient sprinkler system kicked in and doused all the flames. When McMenemy was arrested he’d only managed to inflict some structural damage to the reception area and a slightly scorched suburban car. Goes to show the the Islamists don’t hold the monopoly on morons…

4. CHUBBS AND CO – A cunning plan that Baldrick would be proud of: Buy up hundreds of packs of sports ice-packs, extract the ammonium nitrate from them and use the substance to construct a devastating explosive device. Led by the 322 lb master-terrorist named ‘Chubbs’, the gang set about their plan. Needing money to buy the packs they set up charity collections and kept the funds for their nefarious intents.

When the charity money wasn’t enough, Chubbs came up with another cunning plan with which to increase their finances; online gambling. Unfortunately for him, his subordinates were no Vegas bank-breakers. Rashid Ahmed lost £3k when he left a bet running as he made a pot of tea and another member lost £6k on a bad day on the net.

Oh, and as angry as Chubbs might have been with their financial disasters, it probably paled into insignificance when he learned of one important flaw in their dastardly plan; sports ice packs had not contained ammonium nitrate in them for the past ten years. MENSA have stated that they will not be sending application forms out to the three this year…

5. IF IT WASN’T FOR THEM PESKY SWEATY-FEET… – No list could be complete without the addition of the legend-in-his-own-lunchtime, failed shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Reid is one of the main reasons that we suffer the indignity of removing our footwear at airport security, exposing odd socks and naked toes protruding from well-worn holes.

Prior to boarding a flight from Paris to Miami, Reid stuffed his shoes with explosives, intent on achieving martyrdom a few thousand feet above Fort Lauderdale. Alas, Reid was so nervous that he was sweating heavier than a sumo wrestler in a sauna and his socks became soaked. Which in turn dampened his improvised detonator rendering it absolutely useless. A small puff of smoke emitted from his shoes and he was soon subdued by passengers and crew, missing martyrdom through personal hygiene issues.

6. MUST PAY MORE ATTENTION IN SCIENCE CLASS… – Salman Al-Taezi and his good chum Walid Ashibi were not the sort to let a shortage of munitions halt their killing of people in Yemen. The pair decided to build an improvised missile and deploy it later that day. They sourced the components and had a chat about where to put their weapon together. The decision was made to build it in Salman’s house as it was comfortable with a particularly lovely deep-pile shag carpet.

The men assembled their missile quickly, having done this many times before. Very pleased with their progress they studied the fruits of their labour with the pride of new parents. Walid then began fetching the ignition components from another room, wearing his plastic sandals as he trotted to and fro. Unfortunately for Walid however, his journeys across the sumptuous carpet had built up a major charge of static electricity which leapt from his body and connected with the missile, detonating the weapon and pretty much vaporising the Laurel and Hardy of IED makers.

7. GO COMPARE… – When they heard of an English Defence League (EDL) rally in their local area, 6 Islamic extremists decided that no bunch of crazy extremists was going to get away with such a brazen display of crazy extremism. Not on their watch. The 6 men schemed, plotted, sourced and planned an attack on the rally involving guns and explosives. Weapons bought, bombs constructed and every eventuality planned for, the men jumped in their van, pumped up some Justin Bieber and drove to the rally where they arrived…3 hours too late.

They had cocked up the time completely and were at a loss with what to do next. As no one was hungry, they decided against a KFC and opted to drive home and carry out another attack at a different date. On the way up the M1 motorway, a traffic policeman thought their van looked a bit shady so pulled it over. On checking, he found that the vehicle had no insurance and so the van was eventually impounded. It was 2 days later that staff at the impound lot discovered the lethal contents of the van and an operation was mounted and the men arrested. All because of skimping on their insurance. Should have gone to Go Compare…

8. YOU’VE BEEN FRAMED… – A group of budding jihadists decided that the US military base of Fort Dix provided a perfect target for their attempt at martyrdom. Taking their lead from online forums, the men started with training and rehearsals for their imminent operation. A video camera was bought from the local Best Buy outlet and their sessions filmed for feedback and posterity. Not being particularly technically proficient however, the group could not transfer their footage from the camera to DVD.

Annoyed by this setback to their training routine, one of the group took the camera to another electrical retail outlet and outlined their problem to the retail assistant. The retail assistant assured our jihadi in-waiting that conversion to DVD was very basic and, in fact, if he was willing to wait, the assistant would do it then and there in the store. Yep, you know what’s coming. Our retail assistant obviously saw something unusual in men of middle-eastern appearance carrying out reconnaissance of Fort Dix while discussing what type of bomb would be most effective. Jeremy Beadle would have loved it…

9. TO OPT OUT OF ANY FURTHER MESSAGES… – Moscow, New Year’s Eve 2010/11. Crowds pack the area despite the freezing temperature. Thousands of litres of vodka being passed between well-wishers, red-cheeked in the frigid air.

In a small apartment nearby, a woman slips on a suicide vest rammed with explosives and a mixture of nails, nuts and bolts. Her two accomplices help make the vest comfortable, there being nothing worse than a poorly-fitting vest chafing at your boobs as you approach your moment of glory. The mobile-phone was connected to the device and the Black Widow nodded at her colleagues. She was ready to start the small meander across to Red Square where she would detonate the device in the midst of the crowds.

Just as she said her goodbyes, in giant, anonymous tech-suites across the world, mobile phone providers pushed the ‘send’ button on the traditional New Year spam message to all their customers. Which included our Black Widow. Her device detonated, killing her instantly and severely injuring her companions who were soon arrested limping and staggering from the burning apartment. Spam; no wonder everybody hates it!

10. MATE, YOU ARE JUST PANTS… – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab or UFA to his mates. In the usual tradition of jihadists trying to outdo each other in explosive delivery methods, UFA stepped up to the plate. He boarded a plane for Detroit with his underpants stuffed with explosives…which he had apparently been wearing for almost three weeks! I mean, wear any pair of pants for three weeks and there’s all kinds of hygiene issues apparent but a plastic-explosive nappy? What the hell…

Anyway, as the plane descended for landing, Johnny Fartpants detonated the device…and was in immediate agony as the device only partly detonated, setting his entire nether regions on fire. Easily subdued by passengers and crew he was arrested on arrival and interrogated by the authorities.

In one of the interviews he admitted trying to join Al Qaeda but had been turned down. Like any aspiring job hunter, UFA requested feedback on his rejection and was told unequivocally that it was due to the fact that he was obviously…a moron. Pretty sad state of affairs when the world’s number one employer of suicide bombers doesn’t even want you!

So there you have it: Proof if any was needed that martyrdom isn’t for morons!!

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