Crippled by accusations of giving offense, the West is “cracking down” on jihadists after they murder, covering their eyes and plugging their ears to all the telegraphed warning signs that led up the attack.
In what appears to be a fatal national security failure, one of the attackers from the Saturday night London massacre which left seven dead and nearly 50 others injured was an open jihadist. The 27-year-old murderer, who is known only by his nickname “Abz” at the moment, was reportedly featured on a Channel 4 documentary in the UK about British jihadists called The Jihadis Next Door. Abz is seen praying “to a black flag associated with Islamist groups,” presumably the flag of the Islamic State.
But there were even more signs of Abz’s blatant extremism: A former friend of the would-be attacker reportedly contacted authorities about Abz’s radicalization. The Telegraph reports:
A former friend of one of the attackers told the BBC’s Asian Network he had contacted the authorities after he became concerned about his friend’s extremist views.
The terrorist had been radicalised watching extremist videos online, he said, adding: “We spoke about a particular attack that happened and like most radicals he had a justification for anything and everything and that day I realised I needed to contact the authorities.”
However, the attacker was not arrested and no further action taken, he says. “I did my bit, I know a lot of other people did their bit, but the authorities did not do their bit,” he said.
After the Saturday night attack, neighbors came forward to recall Abz inquiring about renting a van, though this was only reported after the attack.
“He was just asking me all the details — how much was it, and just like asking where he could get a van, basically,” said neighbor Ikenna Chigbo.
Despite the warning signs, officials did nothing to stop Abz from murdering innocents. In fact, officials only “cracked down” on jihadists after the murder of seven innocents on Saturday night.
“Police are searching four houses in Barking and have made 12 arrests as part of their investigation into the atrocity,” reports The Telegraph.
Is our only trigger to actually do something about radical Islamists a fatal attack? It’s lovely to have the “see something, say something” mantra branded into our brains, but it’s entirely worthless if the next step is not taken: authorities actually doing something about the report before the terrorists spill the blood of “infidels.”
While the problem of tying authorities hands and crippling their ability to do their jobs properly is much more dominant overseas than in the United States, Americans also saw a lapse in national security when a terrorist went on a rampage at a gay night club in Orlando; the radical Islamist was on a terror watchlist from 2013-2014 yet nothing was done to prevent the attack.
