The EU Terrorism Situation and trend Report’   is published by Europol (European police) in The Hague. It starts off by giving us a helpful definition of ‘terrorism:’

 

 ‘Terrorists aim at intimidating the people, compelling states to comply with their demands, or destabilising or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an organisation. Terrorism is the attempt to achieve political goals with the use or the threat of violence.’

For example, ‘In 2008, four people, including a law enforcement officer, died in the EU as a result of terrorist attacks that were carried out by ETA in Spain.’  Thus, the ETA comes under this definition of being an active ‘terrorist’ group. Obviously, such people would call themselves ‘freedom fighters’ – as Noam Chomsky famously observed, Freedom fighters can become terrorists then switch back again to freedom fighters, depending on who is in charge of the local radio station.

Quiz Question: How did Britain benefit from 9/11? Answer, the IRA were gaining massive funds from America as ‘freedom fighters’ then as the deal for Britain joining the ‘war on terror’ they had to be redefined as terrorists and so finally they could not fundraise any more. That’s how we got the Good Friday agreement!

  

Does such ‘terrorism’ exist in the UK? We can presumably agree that there is anger and rage bubbling up in the Brititsh Muslim community because we keep bombing their nations. But, does that lead to action that can be described as ‘terrorist’? The Europol report gives this answer: 

Islamist terrorism is still perceived as being the biggest threat worldwide, despite the fact that the EU only faced one Islamist terrorist attack in 2008.This bomb attack took place in the UK.

It happened in a restaurant in the South-West of England. A ‘bomb’ made of drain cleaner and kerosene went off prematurely and only harmed its inventor. He presumably experienced terror, but did anyone else? The drift of this report was summarised in The Guardian as: 

 

Europol figures show that more than 99% of terrorist attacks in Europe over the past three years were carried out by non-Muslims.

Right. Glad we’ve established that. The Guardian article was commendably entitled ‘This tide of anti-Muslim hatred is a threat to us all.’

But, we may doubt whether this act of a self-harming nutter in a restaurant does properly fall under the Euro-definition of ‘terror’ – let’s read carefully from this Europol Report:

 Article 1 of the Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism (2002/475/JHA),  which all member states have implemented in their national legislation.This Framework Decision specifies that terrorist offences are intentional acts which, given their nature or context,may seriously damage a country or an international organisation when committed with the aim of:  seriously intimidating a population, or • unduly compelling a government or international organisation to perform or abstain from performing an act, or • seriously destabilising or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organisation.

 

From the data of this Europol report one thing is plain: In 2005 Britain’s highly distinguished, famous ‘Special Branch’ changed into the absurdly-entitled ‘Anti-Terror Command’ and it now needs to switch back again. 

 

 

 

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