Australian Police thwarted a terrorist attack on a army barracks in Sydney this week with a series of raids which resulted in four arrests, the suspects are Australian citizens of Somalian and Lebanese descent.
These arrests I understand were the result of seven months undercover work the suspects were watched around the clock and had their phones bugged, the Police do not say yet how close they were to carrying out their mission.
We in England have had several cases like this in recent years, the gathering of evidence is a slow and methodical process, once the alleged terrorists are arrested and charged you must then be able to prove beyond reasonable doubt your case against them. this does not always go to plan and would be attackers have been freed on technicalities.
This puts me in my mind of a planned attack in Gibraltar by the IRA in 1988, three members of that group travelled to the Rock to target British soldiers, having already planted a fifty pound bomb the trio were on their way armed with guns to shoot British squaddies, who at that time were identifiable by the registration number on their vehicles. Unknown to them they were being tracked by a team of SAS soldiers who following a tip of had been watching their every move.
As they set of on their attack one of the SAS soldiers deliberately made himself known to the three provisional’s who went for their guns, but they were no match for the SAS and were mown down in a hail of bullets by the other two members of the elite team who were hidden from view.
Predictably there was outrage in certain sections of the press and media at the actions of the soldiers with accusations that it had been cold blooded murder, the fact that the terrorists had planted a bomb, were carrying guns and targeting British soldiers conveniently forgotten. Once the furore had died down, there were three less terrorists in the world and another atrocity had been avoided.
This method should be the blueprint for all our anti terrorist operation’s, I don’t mean open fire for the slightest reason, but when we are shadowing people who we know mean us harm we should let them take their plots as far as they can without actually carrying them out then at the last minute kill them. I for one would applaud this action and I am sure there are millions out there that agree with this idea. This would serve two purposes 1) it would eliminate those particular terrorists, 2) it would send a message to anyone else plotting against us.
I know that in a million years this kind of action would never be sanctioned, but us taking the fight to the terrorists, what a comforting thought.
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