Volgograd Bus Bombing

The recent terrorist bombing of a bus in Volgograd,Russia, should send alarm bells to all
cities in Europe and the United States. First I would like to express my sincere condolences to the victims and all of their families.  I do not know (nor probably will ever know nor meet)  the families of the victims, but I do feel their pain and suffering and my sincerest of condolences go out to them. At an earlier phase of my life, whilst in Sri Lanka, during a very bloody war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Army (SLA), I continually traveled on civilian buses which Sri Lanka military personnel were visibly using to get to and forth their destinations.  On many occasions there were more soldiers on the bus between Colombo and Kandy-Trincomalee/Batticaloa than there were civilian passengers-myself being the exception.  The Tamil Tigers were probably the most ruthless terrorist organization I had ever encountered.    The Irish Republican Army (IRA) were wrongly accused of setting off bombs on buses.  To the best of my knowledge the IRA never deliberately targeted civilians on buses.  They were 'unlucky' (their assessment) in that bombs in transit and destined for elsewhere prematurely exploded. and killed civilians.  The resulting carnage from such incidents caused this insurgency group to revise their strategies to attempt to target, what they regarded as 'military' targets.  From my recollection, the Army Council of the IRA always denied deliberately targeting civilians.  The CIA had penetrated the Republican Movement in Northern Ireland during the years of 'the troubles' to an extent little known as yet by the British public.   Rather bizarrely, the IRA were fully aware of this-and did little to deter it during the entire period of  the Northern Ireland conflict.  For these reasons, and also for reasons of historical background, it was never IRA policy to deliberately target non-political and non-security personnel, notwithstanding collateral damage.  With Islamic Jihadis,Al Qaeda and other Islamist groups, whether in Russia or elsewhere,we are talking about a religion which basically has been hijacked by fanatics who place little or no value on civilian life. They argue that all civilians are targets because they are brothers, sisters,uncles,aunts sons, children of the infidel or oppressor are unclean and therefore legitimate targets for murder-which of course Allah has told them he will reward them for the performance of this task as they are bringing nearer his Islamic Kingdom on Earth.  But the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka,as with Islamic Jihadi fanatics, deliberately targeted civilians as a matter of policy-on  buses and  at rail stations-at the height of the school, lunch and evening  rush hours-when children and parents with children were waiting for their buses-resulting in absolute carnage on a horrific scale I do not wish to remember nor relate.  What I will say is that the body parts of children and babies-heads and torsos-is not a sight to be easily erased from memory.  They did this for 'shock and awe' effects.  So I took the same risks as SLA troops on public transport throughout Eastern and Western and South Sri Lanka.  I was just lucky.  As in the UK, the effects of such bombings in Sri Lanka only increased the resilience of the local people to reject extremist violence and the resolve of the Government to reject acts of extreme terror and increased support for the government in it's fight against the terrorists. The reason such a terrorist attack in Volgograd  should trigger alarm in Western capital cities is because young Muslims are being encouraged to join Jihadi Salafist brigades in Syria, Somalia and Yemen. These are young, impressionable teenagers who are brainwashed into thinking that Islam is under attack or that what they will be doing is in the cause of a 'Holy War'. For some of those who survive and return, psychologically scarred, from Syria and elsewhere to Europe, their experiences of Jihad will be transferred into training and motivating others.  This in itself will pose a problem for authorities.  My concern however is for those who will advocate direct action in Europe as a means to influence Western European (EU) policy in the Middle East.   It is well known that Western Europeans have a high value for individual liberty,individual life and personal freedom of the individual.  This is perceived as a weakness ripe for exploitation by Jihadi fanatics.   One bomb in St. Petersburg or Moscow is worth 100 in Omsk or Talnakh.  The same can be said of one bomb in Oslo,Stockholm,Copenhagen,Amsterdam Brussels,Rome,Madrid,London and Paris.  It's increasingly becoming more difficult to identify volunteers who are traveling to war zones- as such are likely to change their passports when, say, in Sudan, Egypt,Saudi Arabia,and Turkey for other passports-more easily to obtain from 'sympathetic' elements within foreign ministries. I came across such facilitating the transit of Taliban fighters after 9/11 in late 2001 early 2002  from Afghanistan through Pakistan to other destinations-such as Indonesia.  Not long after the Nairobi (Kenya) terrorist attack on a Shopping Mall which also resulted in the tragic loss of innocent Kenyan and expatriate lives in a public environment, I met with individuals with close links to Israel.   As a recipient of such terrorism over many years, Israelis have developed elaborate security preventative measures to protect it's citizens.  We discussed how could the Kenyan authorities have been so lax in security to have allowed such an event to occur.  My response was that 100% security for everywhere all of the time is a physical impossibility and in a developing country like Kenya, even more difficult to achieve.   There are close links between Israel and Kenya on security transit and terror issues but even so, the nature of modern urban insurgency can never guarantee total success all of the time.   So how do intelligence services identify such individuals?   To answer this question would give potential terrorists a head start so I will just say is that by  increased vigilance and security it is becoming increasingly easier to identify such persons by profile characteristics-which even they are unaware of.   In addition to this a complete halt must be made to all Imams and preachers who have been trained in Saudi Arabia-and those already 'in situ' should be deported on grounds of national security-if they are non-nationals.   If they are nationals and have received training in Saudi Arabia,Somalia, or Iran or Yemen or Sudan or Algeria or Pakistan, their sermons must be carefully screened for public incitement content and if found to be inciting hatred, they should be immediately removed from all public and private sermon provisions with the sanction of hefty financial penalties and imprisonment for incitement to hatred or on 'hate crime'  charges,also carrying mandatory 15-20 year mandatory bans on further preaching, on the grounds of public safety.  So there are practical measures which Western countries can proactively take to prevent repeats of Volgograd and Nairobi.  It is not feasible nor practical to work on security anti-terrorist cooperation agreements with The Russian Federation as there are many parts of the Russian Federation where there are disputes with Europe and America about the validity of territorial claims-South Ossetia being just one example- may well result in a deluge of unjustified demands for the deportation from Western countries and the United States of political activists involved in legitimate democratic protest and activism of a non-violent nature and within the laws of their host countries.   The emergency services in Western Europe are well-prepared for emergency responses-given their previous experiences of terrorism.   What one can never predict is the asymmetric nature of the attack-often confounding preplanned anti-terrorist response models. Perhaps the one factor which is common to all preventative agencies is vigilance. Lets hope that the politicians will manage to resolve world conflicts in such a way so that such vigilance becomes a  relics of a bygone age and we can all again move about in a safer world.

Patrick Emek