EDITORIAL

Terrorist mind-set alive and well

As recent events have made clear, vigilance must not be allowed to wane in global battle against terrorism

The alleged plot to blow up several commercial airliners foiled by authorities in the United Kingdom was a grim reminder that terrorism continues to be the world's largest security threat despite concerted international efforts to eliminate it. As the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States approaches, international terrorists apparently wanted to remind the world that their hateful ideology is still very much alive and that they are fully capable of causing catastrophic events at the place and time of their choosing.

According to UK security agencies, 21 people, most of them British Muslims, have been arrested in and around London in connection with a plot to explode up to nine US-bound jetliners simultaneously over the Atlantic - an act that if it were to have been carried out, could have resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 passengers and crew members. The discovery that the terror plotters planned to use liquid explosives that could be concealed easily in hand luggage has already compelled airport authorities to tighten security measures for the foreseeable future, leaving thousands of passengers stranded in London and some other major airports around the world.

The fear and public anxiety caused by this foiled plot will have a lasting impact on airport security, the aviation industry and international tourism. In the short term, many people are likely to be discouraged from travelling, while over the long term the cost of doing business will increase as the result of heightened security measures that will require costly new equipment and additional manpower. Causing such ripple effects is probably what the perpetrators had in mind.

Even with the most stringent security measures in place, however, there is no guarantee that major terrorist attacks will not happen in the future. It is no coincidence that international terrorism is almost entirely dominated by perverse Islamic fanatics who want to kill and maim as many people as possible as part of their twisted political agenda. Their aim is to terrorise and intimidate, if not to destroy, Western democracies as well as Arab regimes in order to create a pan-Islamic theocracy that spans the whole world. Such an end must be vigorously opposed by all freedom-loving people, including moderate, peace-loving Muslims, who have been held hostage by Muslim fanatics.

People working to prevent terrorist attacks are required to be successful 100 per cent of the time to ensure the public's protection. But terrorists only need to be successful once to pull off a catastrophic event. The debate on whether al-Qaeda, the international terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the US, was responsible for the London plot is no longer relevant. After all, terrorist organisations do not necessarily have to rely on well-defined command-and-control structures to plot and carry out their despicable acts. To better evade detection, they can use webs of personal connections between like-minded individuals to coordinate their terror campaigns.

The recipe for radicalisation of Islam is widely known. Too many Muslims, particularly Arabs, have been languishing under repressive regimes and their aspirations for political space have, with few exceptions, been repeatedly suppressed. These helpless people can do little to improve their lots because they have been controlled and manipulated by brutal and corrupt regimes. High unemployment levels cause many young Muslims to grow frustrated because they are unable to live with dignity. Because it is dangerous to stand up to their own brutal governments, they tend to externalise the frustration against outsiders, particularly rich countries and Western democracies that they see as the puppeteers of their respective countries.

Terrorism has been effective in intimidating as well as dividing and manipulating freedom-loving people in Western democracies. Spain, the UK and the US have been targeted by terrorists. The role of these countries in the Iraq war has usually been cited as the reason for terrorist attacks, never mind the fact that Saddam Hussein killed thousands of Islamists who opposed his reign of terror. The success by UK authorities in preventing the terror attacks was made possible with help from Pakistani security agencies. Despite a difference in anti-terror approaches, the international community cannot afford to remain complacent when it comes to improving cooperation and the coordination in intelligence-gathering, as well as efforts to track down known terrorists and their supporters inside their borders and beyond.

The Nation