July 7th?? What About It, Mate?

Under usual circumstances, I have trouble remembering dates. However, terrorist attacks in the West have left certain anniversaries branded on my memory. Thus, when I glanced at the date this morning — July 7th — a small warning bell sounded.

7/7 had come ‘round again, this time in a kind of symmetry: 7/7/7 — i.e., this year is the seventh anniversary of the London Bombings. I remember thinking back then that for those who survived the blasts and for those who had to carry on without the family members they lost in that horrific massacre, time itself would never be the same.

What I didn’t know and couldn’t have guessed was the general inattention to this date that would metastasize in the British press, covering over the memory. Ho hum — terrorists caught, but that was all about security for the Olympics; for the police and media there seems to be no connection to the 7/7 anniversary. If there was widespread notice of 7/7 or a moment of silence, I couldn't find it, though this was prominent:

Seven men have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences after firearms and other weapons were found ‘hidden’ in a car.

One man from West Yorkshire and six from the West Midlands are being questioned on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism following a series of arrests this week, police said today.

News of the arrests comes a day after six people, including a white Muslim convert, were detained over an alleged plan to carry out a major terrorist attack, possibly during the Olympics.

Police insist the 13 arrests in the last two days do not involve threats to the Games, set to begin in three weeks, and that there is nothing to suggest that two sets of arrests are linked to each other.

But the counter-terror sweeps — and a false alarm yesterday that involved a bus filled with passengers — have raised anxiety in the run-up to the games.

The arrests come a day after a white Muslim convert who once worked as a BBC security guard was among six people arrested over an alleged plan to cause an atrocity in the UK.

Also among those detained was a former police community support officer, who was arrested at a home just half a mile from the Olympic Stadium.

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It seems an almost deliberate mindlessness, at least by the MSM. Nor will they ever face the fact that Islam treasures bloodied anniversaries — or stews for centuries over the dates of their significant losses. The Salafists obliterate history and architecture, even their own, but they never, ever forget the dates of their victories and defeats.

There seem to be few reminders of the date. The Digital Journal had this brief entry on the EDL’s recent demonstration, with implicit notice taken of the significance of 7/7:

The English Defence League protest in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, a town that is becoming increasingly Islamified and which was home to the ringleader of the 7/7 London bombers.

An article on the EDL website states that they were protesting “about the problems that Dewsbury has with both militant Islam and with Muslim integration in general, as well as the continued failure of both local and national politicians to even acknowledge that there are these problems.”

The EDL Dewsbury Division Facebook page promotes the demo with the words “Defending our culture” and “If we fail to show courage now, we will leave revolution, civil war or subjugation to our children and our children’s children!”

The marchers sang, “Keep Saint George in my heart, keep me English”, “No surrender to the Taliban” and “We’re coming down the road.”

The EDL post they mention is here. It is a rousing call to mobilize against the separatism that Islam imposes wherever it manages to gain a foothold. In part it says:

…In this kind of environment, where ‘Western’ cultural norms are suppressed and radical views are not exposed to the necessary level of criticism, Islamic extremists find it much easier to gain a stranglehold over mosques and Muslim organisations.

[…]

The growing climate of fear and extremism eventually led local journalist Danny Lockwood to a write a book entitled ‘The Islamic Republic of Dewsbury, in which he documents what can only be described as the ‘Islamisation’ of the area. [see the review of his book here, or buy it here -D]

The EDL knows only too well:

Islamisation is not just a matter of numbers — it means open hostility to anything considered ‘too Western’ or which offends conservative Muslim sensibilities. It means the preservation of the religious and cultural traditions of Muslim countries, in direct opposition to attempts to encourage integration. It means Muslim enclaves and a growing lack of respect (or understanding) for British values.

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I had to come back to the U.S. to find someone willing to discuss this anniversary. Even then, it was from the point of view of “could it happen here?” but at least this officer gets the significance of the dates:

Some in the media have made the assumption that yesterday’s arrests were made as part of the run-up to the upcoming Olympic Games, but to me, the timing so close to 7/7 is just too coincidental to ignore.

In fact, I flat out don’t believe in coincidences.

According to analysis of information gathered at bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound, some believe that the 7/7 attacks were the bin Laden’s “last successful operation.” While there reportedly exists no “ironclad proof” to that effect, the attacks themselves bear all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda operation.

• Timed for multiple, near-simultaneous, suicide/homicide bomb detonations: check
  
• Timed to coincide with the beginning of the business day (local time): check
  
• Timed to coincide with a high-profile event (in the case of 7/7, the G8 summit): check

Almost exactly a year ago, one US intelligence official told Reuters, “We have every reason to believe that [bin Laden] was aware of al Qaida’s major plots during the planning phase, including the airline plot in 2006 and the London 7/7 attacks.” That being the case — and I personally tend to believe it more than I disbelieve it — we must heed the other notable hallmark of an al Qaeda operation:

• Timed to coincide with the anniversary of an important event, like a previous attack…

Um, ah, hum, hah …what!?

“What!?” indeed…and the author asks what is for him, the all-important question [my emphasis — D]:

What does this all mean for American law enforcement?

I’d been planning on writing this column on what I’ve been privately calling “7Y7/7” long before yesterday’s counterterrorism efforts. In fact, as I so often do when working on the counterterrorism topic, I connected a few weeks ago with my good friend Fred Burton. Frequent readers of this space will recall that Burton, who now serves as Vice President for Intelligence at STRATFOR, is widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorists and terrorist organizations. “The London 7/7 and Madrid 3/11 attacks laser-focused the threat and highlights the vulnerability. Could we see a similar attack here? Frankly, I’m surprised we haven’t,” Burton told me. I wholeheartedly agree — it’s really quite remarkable such an attack has not occurred here in the United States. The targets are just too tempting to be left alone. In places like Israel and Indonesia, busses are a common target, and in places like Tokyo, Madrid, Mumbai, and of course London, terrorists have successfully hit numerous passenger trains.

The rest of his analysis is equally trenchant. But let’s go back to a crucial sentence: The targets are just too tempting to be left alone. Is he right? Further on he says:

Anniversaries matter, and to some terrorists — lone wolves as well as far-flung organizations — anniversaries matter A LOT. Hell, even Timothy McVeigh’s attack in Oklahoma City was timed for the anniversary of the raid on the Waco (Texas) ranch of the Branch Davidians. And remember, terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology.

It could be that the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. is far more clever than he credits their operation. If terrorism is a tactic, so is subversion a tactic. And if the Muslim Brotherhood can more effectively tunnel from within at the highest levels of government, why would they use the cruder tactic of bloody opportunity? The murder and mayhem may have to come later, in aid of subduing some of the holdouts. Right now, though, terrorism as a tactic isn’t necessary when there are so many more effective arrows in their quiver.

When the time comes, exactly which “police officers” will be in charge at the local levels? Remember, the Brotherhood sees this as a generational war. Just look at the years they spent tunneling through Egypt. Now they own the military — an amazing feat indeed...until you consider how far they’ve gone in emasculating our own military and our police officers.

In the meantime, it is 7/7. And this is the time to remember those innocents who died in the London bombings in 2005. That link takes you to the pictures of those who never came home that day. Should you have the heart to do so, you can click on individual photos to read a short biography of each murdered innocent. For many of their families, I doubt the hole they left has been covered over. Unfortunately, that is not the case for MSM. For the media they stopped being important years ago.

Oh, wait…as I was finishing up my reflections on the London Bombings, this thought came to the surface: did the horror of July 7th 2005 play any role in the genesis of the English Defence League? I hope it had at least some bearing on the EDL’s formation. That would permit a sense of redemption for the families of the dead.

We survivors are often left to sift through the rubble of our memories; it would be meet and just to think of the EDL as a phoenix flying from those ruins of 7/7…