Safe and Secure

There was an incident today at Stansted airport, where climate change protesters from a group called Plane Stupid broke through the perimeter fence and started a protest.

I also saw at first hand the security at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai and the levels were very much the same, where the first level is unarmed security guards who were checking bags for bombs.  At Stansted they were just patrolling the fence.

But as we all know after what happened at Mumbai, men with AK47s just burst through and caused their horrible mayhem.

What if the protesters at Stansted had been armed terrorists and had shot the unarmed security guards and police, who contained them and then stopped the second wave of protesters coming through the airport fence?

And what if armed police, had opened fire, as they felt the protestors were terrorists?

Neither scenario is acceptable.

It seems to me that physical security at the airport perimeter must be stepped up.  Not perhaps by the use of armed guards, but perhaps by a double fence, with an electrified one inside the current one that appears to be totally ineffective.

But what worries me more, is have the Mumbai terrorists suggested a new and horrific method of attack.  After all they killed four times more than the July 7th, 2005 bombings in London.  All you need is travel to some of the more sleazy parts of Europe and the weapons are readily available.

Is there any sensible defence?

I was talking to a defence lawyer yesterday and I asked if MPs should be bugged.

They said that everybody is.  If they see a terrorist client then you always assume that you are bugged.  In fact even local authorities can get the power to tap the phones of benefit claimants.

I also asked why intercept evidence is not allowed in Court, whereas in most civilised countries it is.

Their view was that then the security services would have to disclose everything they knew, and much of this would not be conducive to their case.  And a lot would have been illegally gathered.

Now in my view, the security services need to be reined in, as their actions are way over the top, fairly ineffective and are very counter-productive.  But then I’m old enough to remember Greville Wynn, who was a businessman spy, who obtained an awful lot of secret and important information from the Russians.

We should perhaps spend the money on productive programs that stop the disillusioned going into crime and terrorism in the first place.  Note that I said crime and terrorism!  There is no difference and we glorify suicide bombers by giving them that title.  They are murderers, who have been conned or duped to take their own lives.

Up till now, I haven’t said anything about the mentally disabled bombers in Iraq, as that is too disgusting for words.  But it does show that those that perpetrate such acts, have no moral standards and no right to be a member of the human race, let alone any religion or ethical code.

But it’s so much easier for those in the Security Services to do their job from a castle on the South Bank of the Thames at Millbank, than by getting out and trying to relate to the general population.  And especially the general Muslim population.  But perhaps more importantly the male chauvinist, uneducated part of that population, which still believes in honour killings, no rights for women, forced marriages and no marrying to non-Muslims.

But if their current methods don’t work, then of course it’s not their fault, as they didn’t have enough resources or co-operation from the general public.

History will judge Boris Yeltsin, as a drunken idiot or a hero who got the Soviet Union one step on the way to being a modern state.

I tend to think he was a hero one day and an idiot the next.

To me though, he did start Russia’s Iraq; the war in Chechnya. You have to remember that a lot of Russians do not like the Chechens and show an almost racist attitude towards them. So he may well have been pandering to the masses. Remember too, that Muslims have never got on well with Orthodox Christians.  Look at Serbia and Kosova.

On the other hand he was seventy six when he died. I seem to remember that he had a lot of heart surgery too.

So there’s hope for us all, if we stick to our abstemious and blameless lifestyle.

To try to get a handle on the real Boris Yeltsin, I looked him up on BrainyQuote.

Here are some positive and profound ones :-

A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But this is far better than a mean little flame.A sense of proportion and humanitarian action are not issues for terrorists. Their aim is that of killing and destroying.

I understand that it’s hard for everyone, but one cannot give in to emotions… we’ll have to draw lessons from the current crisis and now we’ll have to work on overcoming it.

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

Let’s not talk about Communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky.

The most important thing is that Milosevic agreed to sit at the negotiating table with the Kosovo Albanians.

There are numerous bugbears in the profession of a politician. First, ordinary life suffers. Second, there are many temptations to ruin you and those around you. And I suppose third, and this is rarely discussed, people at the top generally have no friends.

We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. Freedom is like that. It’s like air. When you have it, you don’t notice it.

You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can’t sit on it for long.

 

On the other hand he also said :-

Russian soldiers are fulfilling their duty there in extremely difficult conditions, and people still die and suffer.

You have no right to criticise Russia over Chechnya.

 

So perhaps, if he hadn’t invaded Chechnya he would be looked at in a different light.

I think that it might be in my interests to read a good book on Boris to get nearer the truth.