Where I lived previously in Africa terrorism was part of life and we fought terrorism on a daily basis for over twenty years and we still did not win.

The views of some so called terrorism experts being interviewed on the news is laughable as they do not have a clue as they probably have no experienced it first hand with some coming up with some really idiotic suggestions.

People try and blame the police or the government, but no country in the world has the manpower or resources to watch suspects 24/7 365 days. You cannot arrest someone just because you suspect them to be a criminal otherwise half our population would be behind bars. More to the point, why aren't their local communities not reporting them?

Do we perhaps need to consider reeducating these people who are extremists when we catch them and then use them against their own people? We did this where I lived at the time which was not in the UK and it was quite successful. Many of these terrorists are brainwashed and think they are doing the right thing for their cause and in their minds they are not a terrorists, but freedom fighters. Is there a difference?

IMHO every time it is brought up on the news, it feeds the terrorists who probably rejoice every time the act of terror is mentioned which is why I think there should be some sort of self imposed censorship by the news networks especially Sky. Yes the public should be made aware of the incident or tragedy on the news, but the news should not harp on about it for days on end and neither should they give any credit or mention an organisation like ISIS. What is the point of attacks if the organisation is not mentioned as they have not achieved that goal?

As difficult as it is, if we carry on with security forces etc on our streets, the terrorist have achieved their goal, therefore we should get on with whatever we were doing prior to the attacked and show that we will not be cowed by acts of terrorism! Anyway the country cannot afford to have thousands of security or police tied up guarding popular spots or events.

 

I know some will disagree with the above and even though I lived with and fought terrorism I am no expert by any means as I was just a very small cog in the wheel in those years.

People try and blame the police or the government, but no country in the world has the manpower or resources to watch suspects 24/7 365 days. You cannot arrest someone just because you suspect them to be a criminal otherwise half our population would be behind bars. More to the point, why aren't their local communities not reporting them?

As for local communities reporting where radicalisation of their youth might be apparent... this is something I have wondered often - I believe they are concerned for their own freedoms within the UK - if they were to do this, would they end up being targets themselves or would the UK start banning the imams and mosques !

It is my understanding that other groups, the Chinese for instance - don't report crimes against them for fear of being targeted by the triads.

IMHO, the main problem is where huge groups of immigrants are not properly integrated into the areas they are living because they either don't speak the language or because their own cultures don't permit them to mix !

As for the media - if they were to simply report that these are murderers with no ideology connections then that would deny the terrorists the publicity they crave. That, however is not going to happen. Media outlets must have made £millions by their 24 hour reporting of this dreadful act.

Agree CB that the media has a lot to answer for when it comes to terrorism. There are areas in our cities where the area is dominated by a particular minority ethnic group instead of them integrating with locals. This happens worldwide even by Brits i.e. ex-pats in Spain.

As for local communities reporting where radicalisation of their youth might be apparent... this is something I have wondered often - I believe they are concerned for their own freedoms within the UK - if they were to do this, would they end up being targets themselves or would the UK start banning the imams and mosques !

 

According to Andrew Marr this morning, Abedi was reported by members of his community (including his own Mosque) several times so it looks like the mainstream Muslim community did do thier bit. The question is how much in the away of rescources should we invest in acting on low level intelligence? Is it time to re-think where the threat to our nation's security comes from and reduce spending on an increasingly irrelevant conventional military defence in favour of significantly beefing up policing and the intelligence services?

According to Andrew Marr this morning, Abedi was reported by members of his community (including his own Mosque) several times so it looks like the mainstream Muslim community did do thier bit. The question is how much in the away of rescources should we invest in acting on low level intelligence? Is it time to re-think where the threat to our nation's security comes from and reduce spending on an increasingly irrelevant conventional military defence in favour of significantly beefing up policing and the intelligence services?

Without question we should be investing more on conventional policing - bobbies back on the beat again - becoming part of the community themselves - so they would be the eyes and ears. Not much they can really pick up by way of intelligence in their cars is there ?

IMHO, the main problem is where huge groups of immigrants are not properly integrated into the areas they are living because they either don't speak the language or because their own cultures don't permit them to mix !

I think that is one of the real core issues.

If people don't come to Britain to be British - whatever their religious beliefs, then they should only be here to do a job then leave - if that.

I think that is one of the real core issues.

 

If people don't come to Britain to be British - whatever their religious beliefs, then they should only be here to do a job then leave - if that.

Very true. I was born in South Africa and now regard myself as a true British patriot as I now have my British citizenship and not not live where a load of other South Africans live although it is nice to meet up now and then for a chin wag.

Police believe Manchester bomber Salman Abedi largely acted alone

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/31/police-believe-manchester-bomber-salman-abedi-acted-largely-alone?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=228452&subid=19389892&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

Manchester attacker bought most bomb parts himself - police

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-security-manchester-component-idUKKBN18R15R