Lessons from the London attacks

I noted four elements in the torrent of news reports following the terror attacks in London last Saturday night.

First, Frank Gaffney warns that this is an escalation in more than just extremism.

“My view is that we are no longer facing random acts of terrorism,” says Frank Gaffney, a terror expert who is president of the Washington-based Center for Security Policy. “We have reached a tipping point. This is now an insurgency.”

Gaffney, who has warned of the dangers of Islamic extremism for years, thinks this latest spate of attacks is the natural evolution of years of recruitment among British Muslims by terror cells like ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda.

“The Muslim terrorist population in Britain and Europe no longer feels constrained to live by stealth,” Gaffney says. “They have built an infrastructure, they have put it in place, and now they are moving up to the next level.”

Gaffney calls the new phenomenon “Sharia Supremacism.” And he warns that the United States is on the same trajectory.

There's more at the link.  For all that the left wing likes to describe him as a conspiracy theorist (and some of his earlier pronouncements have been too much for me to swallow), this time, I think he's right.

Next, the Metropolitan Police had some advice for Britons under attack - and, in an unarmed society, I guess it's all they could do.

The Met have tweeted a warning to Londoners to get to a place of safety.
The graphic read: 'You must:

• Run - to a place of safety. This is a better option that to surrender or negotiate. If there's nowhere to go, then ...

• Hide - Turn your phone to silent and turn off vibrate. Barricade yourself in if you can.

• Tell - the police by calling 999 when it is safe to do so

Again, more at the link.

For the life of me, I can't imagine how cowering in fear will ever solve the problem.  Very fortunately, I live in a country, and a part of that country, where I don't have to cower.  In this part of the world, terrorists would live a short and 'interesting' life the moment they tried everything, because a lot of people (including yours truly) are usually armed.  There's only one way to stop a terrorist, and I'm grateful that I'm in a position to do so if I have to.  Sure, I may not succeed - but at least I won't have to die cowering in terror, because I don't have the means to defend myself, my loved ones, and my fellow citizens!  What's more, some of those same fellow citizens will avenge me within seconds.

Not content with disarming her people, the British Prime Minister is doubling down on the 'nanny state' by seeking new restrictions on their freedom of speech.

“We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed,” May said.

“Yet that is precisely what the Internet and the big companies that provide Internet-based services provide,” May continued. “We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.”

More at the link.

If you could limit such restrictions to those who are terrorists or criminals, fine:  but you can't.  Inevitably, they'll affect all of us - and they'll be administered at the whim of bureaucrats and technocrats, who'll exercise unelected, unfettered control.  Free speech is dangerous - but it's also necessary.  Any restriction on it can be - and, historically, usually has been - used to silence opposition or independence as well.  Just watch what happens when the powers that be decide to redefine the meaning of 'terrorism' or 'pornography' or 'incitement' to cover whatever it is that they're trying to shut down.  Once the gateposts have been erected, Big Brother will expand and/or move them at will, and our freedom of speech will be permanently impaired.  Sorry, Mrs. May.  Freedom of speech is more important than the threat du jour.

Finally, it appears that the mainstream media are at it again.

Below is a video of the behind-the-scenes work CNN did to stage the photo-op with Muslims holding up signs that read, ‘ISIS WILL LOSE’.

. . .

The original post came from Mark Antro, a Londoner who captured the video:

. . .

Antro also notes that white police officers walked out of the scene and were replaced with Asian officers.

More at the link, including links to the videos concerned.

Fake news, indeed!  It's yet another pointed reminder to trust nothing that comes through the mainstream media, even if it's on multiple outlets, unless and until you've been able to confirm it through more trustworthy sources.  Many, perhaps most, mainstream journalists and news editors are part of the problem, and have lost most, if not all, of their credibility.

Peter