We all know that this lousy Government pays lip-service to our national security and nowhere is this more evident than in the news that thousands of foreigners are being allowed to work in high security parts of Britain's airports without passing proper criminal record checks. Despite warnings that terrorists would try to recruit people working "airside" in terminals – with direct access to aircraft and baggage – no attempt has been made to check whether foreign workers have committed any offences abroad. The vetting process checks only for crimes committed in Britain. Foreign workers – arriving from inside or outside the European Union – are not checked in their country of origin. What this means is that a foreign person with a firearms or explosives conviction can work in the most sensitive parts of British airports. So, no reason for a fear of flying...the government is control.

OK - we all know that we need to circumspect about what the CIA tells us but we cannot just dismiss the news that US intelligence agencies have produced evidence which the White House says proves that North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor before it was bombed by Israeli warplanes last year"!  After seven months of secrecy, the Bush administration has gone public with what it claims is video evidence of North Koreans at the suspected nuclear reactor in Syria, just before it was destroyed on 6 September last. What were the doing - on holiday?  

I tend to believe that North Korea and Syria would co-operate on this since both are vipers, nations with corrupt leadership interested in the retention of absolute power at all costs. I can understand why the US State has immediately gone on the attack here challenging what has been released and implying Dick Cheney is behind it all - Condi and her pals are big on appeasement of both these terror regimes these days and it is obviously a bit awkward  for them if the true degree of this nuclear co-operation is exposed. The biggest laugh I got however was the news that the UN is "concerned" about the fact the US did not come running to them with all the evidence it has now produced. I can give them the  answer - it's because Israel and the US actually wanted a RESULT here -  not years of pathetic un-equivocation. Well done to Israel for taking out Boy Bashar's nuke facility - next stop Iran! 

I know that most sane people would have figured that after 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali --- these atrocities would have enraged western liberal opinion AGAINST Al Queda. Not a bit of it - we all have seen how any anger and outrage is instead directed against President Bush and those who believe in taking the fight to the Islamic terrorists. But could it be that, unwittingly, Bin Laden's Number Two (In every sense of the expression)  Ayman Al Zawahri has provided the straw that will break the camels back for liberals?

Yes, in a new speech he has sternly warned that the terror group still has plans to target Western countries which have been involved in the Iraq war. When asked by one follower if the terror group still has plans to attack Western countries which participated in the Iraq war, al-Zawahri said: “My answer is: Yes!” Asked if there are any women in al-Qaida, the terror leader answered simply: “No.”

Hang on one second, buster. No women in Al Queda? What about Equal Opportunities legislation? What about Equality Commissions put in place to ensure the removal of glass ceilings? What about the war on gender? I reckon that Zawahri may have finally said the one thing that might motivate the lazy left to understand that ..we are at war with savages. In your dreams.

The United Nations typifies the leftist view that jaw-jaw is always better than war-war. The UN believes that dialogue represents the best way forward and is part of the siren chorus to want to talk to terrorists such as the Taliban and Al Queda. So, guess what Al Queda  thinks..

"The United Nations is an enemy of Islam and Muslims," says Al Queda Deouty Leader Ayman Zawahiri in the 90-minute message. He also called for attacks on Jews both inside and outside Israel. "We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do our utmost to strike Jewish people in Israel and abroad with help and guidance from God," he said.

You can really tell he is a guy that you could negotiate with, that you could engage with. My idea of engaging with him is via a daisy-cutter dropped on his head.

Look folks, these people are beyond all reason and we need to put them beyond this mortal coil. They want to KILL us, and YES that includes even the UN. What we need to do is unite in our determination to wipe them off the map, to coin a phrase. Being a dhimmi gets you nowhere and all the platitudes in the world from the UN will not assuage the feverish killing fantasies of the Religion of Peace and Love.

One of the major themes in my forthcoming book "Unionism Decayed" on the Northern Ireland "peace process" is that its depraved model of accommodating terrorists is a toxic template that must not be applied in dealing with other terror groups - if we want to see the values of our democracies preserved. So, no big surprise to hear one of those most intimately in the Northern Ireland process, Jonathan Powell, witter that  Western governments must talk to terror groups including Hamas, al-Qaida and the Taliban to persuade them to stop their campaigns of violence!

Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff from 1995 to 2007, said the Northern Ireland peace settlement was made possible through a secret channel the government established with the Irish Republican Army - and that similar lines should now be created with other terror groups. So, secret talks with Al Queda, Hamas, and the Taliban. Concessions to be made, deals to be cut. 

Powell's advice represents EVERYTHING that I oppose. I sincerely believe that the best way to deal with terrorists is to terrorise them, kill them where you find them, show them no mercy and relentlessly track them down. If they have the support of local populations, as Hamas has in Gaza for example, then economic sanctions should be applied to punish such depravity. The political apologists for terrorism should be treated with the utmost disrespect, and the entire left-wing notion that appeasement works dismissed for the utter cant it is. Talking of cant, Jonathan Powell is an absolute moral bankrupt whose cheer-leading for talks with the terror group that has murdered thousands of innocents is an affront to all civilised people. He also fails to understand that militant Islam is not interested in having a chat with us, it is much more keen on killing us in sufficient numbers that our leaders submit. Powell's advice is music to their ears.

I've covered this over at Biased BBC but there is another angle I want to talk about. I refer to the decision taken by the US to bring the six suspected Jihadi, currently interned at Guantanamo Bay, to trial for their role in the horrific events that culminated on 9/11. If these six are found guilty, the death penalty may await them (I hope it does)

Anyway, the left-wing MSM has gone into overdrive at the idea that Islamic terrorists may end up being found guilty and then - horror of horrors - paying for their evil with their lives. For YEARS all we have heard from the left is how UNFAIR it is that those in Gitmo are denied a trial. Now they are being given a trial, it's not the right sort of trial. And even if was the OJ  jury itself that was drafted in to hear the evidence, since there might even still be an outside chance that they might find them guilty, the death penalty is judged by the left as too harsh.

Listen, we've watched what happened to all those thousands of innocents on 9/11, and the death penalty was unilaterally imposed on them that day, they had no say, no recourse to any court. Justice must be  done but when we read hysterical headlines like this, it's clear to me that the left no longer understand what justice means. In the war on terror, the MSM should be on OUR SIDE, but in fact they are at best neutral, and seem much more concerned about the Jihadi than the families of those who perished on that dreadful day. 

Kids, don'tcha just love 'em? Not really, especially if you are part of the Islamist Al Queda movement. Did you read that Al Queda in Iraq have produced videos showing children as young a nine being trained to kill and kidnap? Still photos showed some wearing suicide vests. At one point the boys hold a pistol to the head of a mock kidnap victim.

Childhood is a time of (relative) innocence and to think that these Jihadi vermin would so pervert those childhood years, turning kids into killers, is horrible but not surprising. That's why I feel there can be no reasoning with Al Queda, no dialogue. They are monsters. We also need to understand that Al Queda have stated clearly that they see IRAQ as the main front in their war with us. Should Obama or Hillary win the White House,  both are committed to withdrawing US forces from Iraq. This hands the PR victory to Al Queda and will encourage more Jihad, not less. Barbarism without end is what we face, it should be met with an implacable resolve. Oddly enough, outside our brave military, I see little evidence of this, particularly amongst our dhimmified political class.

Ever been pissed off by the lengthy queue in which you stand whilst waiting to have your bloody shoes x-rayed at the airport? Ever wondered at the sheer lunacy of posting a semi-veiled Muslim woman in charge of a Security desk at an airport? Ever recoiled at the news of yet another huge computerised boondoggle where our political masters are planning to hold ever more bits of data on the entire population, all in the sacred name of Security? Join the club!

The three items which have come out of the tragedies of 9/11 and the uncovering of other terrorist plots are the re-inforcing of cockpit doors, passengers realising they can and should fight back, and one item of hand luggage per passenger. As one commentator said, "Everything else is theatre!"

The latest excuse to deprive us of our liberty is the idea that Governments should be able to access Search engines to find or trawl for terror messages. We should be very careful of messages which purport or promise us better Security by a deprivation of Privacy. We in the West have given away, or rather have seen it taken away, an enoromous amount of our Liberty, and we haven't gained much Security in it's place.

And just to add even more gloom to the proceedings, just guess who want to be the first President of the European Commission? 

I was entertained to read that a would-be be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan! What an own goal - back of the net!

It was the second such incident in two days, with another man killing himself and three others on Tuesday when his bomb-filled waistcoat exploded as he was putting it on in the southern town of Lashkar Gah. 

Yesterday's blast was in a busy market area of the eastern town of Khost, a deputy provincial police chief said. The would-be attacker tripped as he was leaving a building apparently to target an opening ceremony for a mosque that was expected to be attended by Afghan and international military officials, said Sakhi Mir. "Coming down the stairs, he fell down and exploded. Two civilian women and a man were wounded,'' Mir said. KA-BOOM!

It's always good when terrorist scum get their just rewards before they can harm the innocent. It was the same here in Northern Ireland when IRA, UVF and UDA terrorists killed themselves before they could accomplish their evil deeds. Must be one big shock for them - out to kill, then killed, then judged by their Maker.  Great. 

Hat-tip to Atlas Shrugs.

I listend to a government minister, Bill Rammell, drone on this morning about how universities could help deal with "Al Queda" inspired terrorism. This new formulation of words is designed to ensure that British Muslims don't feel victimised by the use of the words Islamic terrorism, apparently.

Mr Rammell further added that the extremist Hitz ur Tahrir group, which clearly supports Jihad, shouLDl not be banned. He sees it as no different to the BNP.

For good measure he refused to designate palestinian suicide bombers as terrorists.

OK - check out the attached rally by the Islamofacists in Hitz ur Tahrir and tell me if you think they are harmless. Our government lives in denial of the menace that unnitegrated Islam represents to our freedoms, and aided and abetted by the MSM, it seeks to sanitise the actions of suicide bombers and those who think them to be martyrs as they blow innocent men women and children to pieces.  

I was very interested to read Jenny McCartney's take on the issue of the British Government formally declaring it will not use the term "war on terror" anymore. Here's what she has to say...

Our Government announced the end of the "war on terror" last week. It is not that terrorism has disappeared, simply that British officials have been warned to desist from declaring openly that we are at "war" with its exponents.

 

This is a sensible move: there is nothing that terrorists crave so deeply as the moral status of soldiers, even while they reserve for themselves the terrorist's freedom to do horrific harm to the softest possible civilian targets. We should not afford them even the name of combatants, since terrorism works specifically by attacking ordinary, helpless people in their everyday lives.

In Northern Ireland, the IRA and the loyalist paramilitaries often spoke high-mindedly of themselves as being at "war", just as they were devoting their greatest energies to murdering blameless churchgoers, children and cab-drivers. There, the surreally named Consultative Body on the Past - set up to look at ways of healing the rifts caused by 30 years of violence - last month foolishly suggested that the IRA and loyalist campaigns could perhaps be officially reclassified as part of a "war".

 

The truth is, of course, that had the Troubles really been fought as a war, most IRA and loyalist gunmen would be dead and their leaders tried for war crimes, since they routinely flouted the Geneva Conventions. I'm sure that it has not escaped even al-Qaeda's attention, however, that - in Northern Ireland at least - terrorism has paid off rather better.

I can fully understand that one of the biggest threats to US security may now come from within Europe, as US Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff has told the BBC. He said militant attacks and plots in Europe over recent years had made the US aware of the "real risk that Europe will become a platform for terrorists".

However he is wrong! "Will" is the wrong tense. Europe HAS already become a vast floating platform for Islamic terrorism. How could it be otherwise with the tsunami of Muslim immigrants that has flooded Europe - most of which (in UK terms anyway) seem to have been uncontrolled. I know that European security agencies are doing their best to save our necks and I think we have to commend them insofar as that goes. It's the POLITICIANS that are the problem, the pathetic Euro-dhimmis who wish to pretend that Islam is our friend and that Jihadism is not something to worry about. Europe has a real problem centred on the refusal of the political elite to want to confront and defeat militant Islam.

That means that significant cells of Islamic terrorism can grow and plans can be hatched. Naturally the US must see itself as a target, as Chertoff claims, however I happen to think that Islamic killers will be just as happy to slaughter us on the streets of Paris, or Rome, or London. (As already proven) The European political elite are the real obstackle here and I'm not sure that they are capable of rising to the challenge to stop Europe being one vast inculcator for Jihadism. At least until the body count gets higher.

A new security guard at Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennysylvania was said to be astonished to find his fellow guards asleep or dozing on the job! (That statement needs expanding, but I shall return to it later!). He originally informed his line management, but he was told just to be a 'team player'. So he told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the people who are supposed to set the standards for all areas of this volatile and supremely-dangerous industry, and after checking with plant owners Exelon, told the guard, one Kerry Beal, that there was no evidence of slumbering security guards, or any other snoozing workers. So Beal decided to video-tape the sleep-in parties, and eventually the tape found it's way to a CBS affiliate in New York, at which point the roof blew off the plant.

Click to read more ...

I was sorry to read about the brutal assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan today. I see that my fellow writers here already have covered it but there were a few points that I wanted to make;

Firstly, her death is shocking but not entirely unexpected. Pakistan is a seething volatile state and  Musharraf has held back from firmly prosecuting the war on terror on the Al Queda terrorists that reside within his own borders. This carries severe consequences since Al Queda has been allowed to regroup and its murderous intent remains the same - with the extra caveat that Pakistans' nuclear resources must present the Jihadi with even more motivation to destabilise that country. The lesson here is that the Pakistan MUST now move to eradicate Al Queda. Wazirstan has been handed over to the uber fanatics and this must now be firmly reversed. Elsewhere. in those border towns with Afghanistan where Jihadi plan their suicide missions on US forces, action must also be taken. Pakistan CANNOT be with us and against us. Period. Tokenism will not suffice in any meaningful way. 

Second, I think we must salute the courage of Ms Bhutto. I remember thinking that her return to her homeland some months ago was incredibly brave, or tremendously foolhardy. Maybe both. But for her to be lose her life as she tried to bring about a more democratic society was a high price to pay for a noble ideal.

Third, the actual nature of the act of murder that has taken place reminds us all just how craven, how EVIL, the Islamic Jihadi are. It strikes me that when one contemplates their profound wickedness, then surely we must all unite in seeking to defeat them. From where I stand, the best way to defeat them is to wipe them out, without mercy. They must be given no sanctuary, no hope, no nothing. Al Queda love death as we love life. Let them be given their wish.

Cowardly UK PM Gordon Brown has told British troops in Iraq: “Happy Christmas – war is over.”

The PM's non-spin related visit - ahem -to Iraq revealed combat operations in Basra will end “within two weeks”. Iraqi forces will take over as the 4,500-strong British force switches from front-line duties to a training role. By early next year, our contingent in Southern Iraq will be cut to 2,500 – and may be withdrawn completely in March.

Problem sorted, war on terror over, right?

I don't think so. Brown may scarper out of Iraq, leaving the US to lift the heavy weights. I expect little else from this putrid little Dhimmi PM and one can be sure that our brave men and women who serve this country will continue to be treated appallingly by Brown and his anti-British government.

Wonder what you make of the bizarre news that the Member of  Parliament who heads the parliamentary body scrutinising Britain’s counter-terrorism laws has addressed a rally at which a plea for support for suicide bombers was broadcast?

The truly wretched Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, addressed the annual Tamil rally in the ExCel centre in East London.  He spoke after participants watched a televised address by Velupillai Prabhakaran, the commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist organisation banned by the Home Office. Mr Vaz, the MP for Leicester East, was joined by a fellow Labour MP, Joan Ryan.

Their presence drew an angry response from the Sri Lankan High Commission, which released a statement claiming that the event was a “clear violation of the UK terrorism laws”. 

The likes of Vaz will see nothing wrong in this. It is all part of the Orwellian reality which now confronts us. This explains why goons like Vaz - tasked with ensuring the effectiveness of British anti-terrorism laws - participates in a rally which both supports and glorifies terrorism. It is the natural thing for them to do. They are the enemy within.

Let's keep our boys in our prayers and thoughts. As of yesterday:

British and Afghan forces have begun a potentially bloody battle to take Musa Qala as Taliban commanders promise to fight to defend the town in North Helmand to the last man. Local people told The Telegraph that thousands of British and Afghan troops began advancing on the town at around 4pm local time today in three separate columns ..... "The British are three kilometres away, they have reached the outskirts of the town," said Haji Abdul Majid Khan, a tribal elder in the town. "There was fighting earlier but it is calm for now. The Taliban are telling the people they will wait until the foreign forces enter the city and then fight them street by street."

No doubt a battalion of activist lawyers will be moving in for mopping up operations, as usual:

Criminal proceedings could be launched over allegations that British soldiers committed acts of abuse after a gun battle with insurgents in south-east Iraq, the High Court was told. Because of the potential for prosecutions, two senior judges imposed "no names" reporting restrictions in a civil legal action already being brought over the incident by Iraqi families.