The British government has been warning about a mass casualty chemical attack by Muslim terrorists since at least 2001. Back then it was Al-Qaeda, now it is Da’esh.
I remember watching a dramatization on TV when I was living in London that was virtually a “how-to” visual instruction manual for any potential terrorists who might be watching. It was practically incitement. And of course, then, as now, it was an obvious attempt to terrify the British public into accepting curtailment of civil liberties and increased security measures.
Is there a chance that Da’esh might actually try it? Sure, there’s a chance. But read the article a bit further.
They report that “about 800 Britons went to fight in Syria and just under half have returned”. Never mind the strange fact that nearly 400 British Jihadis have been allowed to come back into the UK without restriction (something rather unusual); clearly the government and security services are aware of who these people are, and they are all, no doubt, being monitored closely.
Detecting any “mass casualty” attack that would require considerable planning, funding, procurement, and logistics, should not be terribly difficult when you already have the most likely suspects, and their social networks, under surveillance.
The truth is that infiltrating the Jihadis is not tremendously difficult, and monitoring them is even less so. “Lone wolf” attacks are almost impossible to anticipate or prevent, but large scale, coordinated attacks simply require too much communication, movement, and financing to be done completely under the radar of intelligence agencies today. What I am saying is that 1) an attack like this is unlikely, and 2) if such an attack is attempted, it is just completely implausible that it was not manufactured and facilitated by the intelligence services themselves through agents within the Jihadi networks for the purpose of making high profile arrests.
Any Brothers who have been allowed to return to the UK from Syria should know that this is the only reason they were allowed to return.
External Context سياق خارجي
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/isis-ben-wallace-national-security-minister-a7504251.html