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INDIA is well used to terrorist outrages but in their scale and in the international attention they have garnered, the Mumbai attacks represent a dramatic escalation. The implications are global, not least considering the mounting evidence that at least two of the attackers are British-born Pakistanis. If true, this will put pressure on ministers to take a harder line on Islamic extremism in the UK.
The immediate threat, beyond further attacks, is the risk that the slaughter will inflame communal tensions as India approaches a general election. While India's democracy is impressive, the country has an ugly history of Hindu-Muslim violence.
Inevitably, eyes are turning to Pakistan: India's prime minister Manmohan Singh echoed many Indians' suspicions when he blamed forces “outside the country”. Pakistan's intelligence services have a long record of sponsoring Islamic terrorism in India and especially Kashmir. If Pakistan turns out to have been involved, it could risk a dangerous escalation of tensions between the two countries.
But the other factor is al Qaeda, which was almost certainly involved at least in inspiring the attacks, if not in their organisation. In this respect, Mumbai should act as a wake-up call to a Western world now more focused on economic woes than on terror. Al Qaeda has found it much harder to bring plots to fruition in places such as Britain since the West hardened its defences but it is still very much a threat: its local franchises will attack wherever they can. The Mumbai attacks were aimed at us all — and should remind us of the ever-present threat of extremism at home.
A police blunder
THE arrest yesterday of the Conservative immigration spokesman, Damian Green MP, is an extraordinary episode, as is clear from the frantic denials of responsibility now coming from ministers. They deny that they or the Prime Minister had any prior knowledge of the police operation against Mr Green following a series of leaks from an alleged Home Office “mole”.
If so, this would appear to be a spectacularly ill-judged operation on the part of the Metropolitan Police. The Home Office official is presumably under investigation for breaches of the Official Secrets Act. Yet there was clearly never any threat to national security in the leaks of immigration documents and indeed the material was in the public interest. So why did police use anti-terror powers to arrest Mr Green and search four locations?
Ministers have been infuriated by apparent leaks from both the Treasury and the Home Office in recent years. For police to overreact in this way suggests that, while ministers may not have ordered this arrest, they encouraged the Met to tackle the leaks with maximum force. It is a measure of the Met's political rudderlessness at the end of Sir Ian Blair's time in office that it did not resist such pressure.
Nor does the affair inspire any confidence in the Government's regular appetite for new, draconian anti-terror powers. This arrest suggests that the police either lack the wit to understand such powers, or else cannot resist the temptation to use them indiscriminately. They owe Mr Green an apology. And ministers, so fond of selective spinning of their policies, should learn to accept the obverse situation — occasional inconvenient leaks.
And celebrating...
MAMMA Mia! The DVD of the film is storming out of the shops - a cheap and cheerful pick-me-up for a more-than-usually trying December. Singalong sessions of the movie still attract full audiences months after the summer launch of the film. It might not be as uplifting as the prospect of a holiday on a Greek island, but Abba has returned to centre stage with their eternal Euro-optimism intact; Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan provide adult pantomime with (sometimes) tuneful gusto. The perfect cheap weekend night in: retsina optional. My, my, we never could resist it.
Reader views (14)
ministers have been infuriated by leaks - but how short are their memories? when they were in oposition they depended on leak after leak to go after John Major! I do not approve of leaks in any form - but politicians of all allegiances who live by the sword must be prepared to die by it.
- John, Bournemouth
it seems the Met is becoming bolder and wiser, arresting and taking Tory politicians into custody, its a shame they weren't bold enough to arrest the Thatcher and Major governments for their crimes against British humanity; perhaps the Met have learned their lesson, after all you have to start somewher.
- Tony, Lancs UK
There's no smoke without fire..??
At least it will show the politicians just what its like to be on the receiving end of Britains famously impartialPolice force when they are given a WMD such as the Terrorist Catch-all legislation.
Didn't they use that Law to arrest a Pensioner in Harrogate for dropping litter in a Police Station Yard??
Why do the sad and witless always get the top jobs?
- Ken Streete, Dubai, UAE
If in fact some of the Mumbai terrorists were British, their families should be deported regardless of their knowledge of their children's actions and so should the clerics who radicalised them. There needs to be some deterrent and the best deterrent would be serious consequences for their relations. These people have nothing in common with the British people and if they put religion first, they should go to a country where that means something. I just wish our authorities would get tough over issues such as this.
- John, Chichester UK
This is a cheap parting shot from Ian Blair who has abused his powers yet again.
To say that Jackie Smith and or Gordon Brown were not informed is unbelievable.
There appears to me a marked increase in state involvement and it looks to me as though the Labour Party are making Putin like moves now that they seeing power ebb away. Control of banks, businesses and a dependancy on the state for pensions, health, work. It has aun unhealthy aroma of communism.
- Peter Leighs, FRADSWELL ENGLAND
what about all the other innocent people that have been "detained " over the years, perhaps now one of their own has been bought into the real world that we live in,MPs will realise that they nare not above the law, and will now put their own corrupt conniving grasping house in order
- Derek, camborne Cornwall
This is only one of many misuses of Police Powers and legislation in general, which the present Government appears to condone. Perhaps the worst case being the arrest under anti-terrorist legislation of an elderly Labour Party supporter whose only crime was to heckle a dishonest Government Minister.
- Neil, Gloucestershire, England.
I have never voted tory and am unlikely to ever do so. However, I was shocked and disturbed to read of the arrest and detention of the conservative shadow minister yesterday. This is a blatant misuse of antiterrorist legislation and a disturbingly undemocratic course of events. Damian Green clearly poses no threat to national security and his only crime seems to have been embarrassing the government that I support. Leaks can be a national security issue but in this case they were clearly not. This event serves to highlight the dangers of having broad ranging and sweeping "anti terrorist" powers passed into law and demonstrates the ease with which such powers can be turned against anyone for any spurious reason in the name of so called national security. If this can happen to a shadow cabinet minister it can happen to anyone.
- Jason Pickering, Seaview, IOW
The Met strikes back after Sir Ian was forced out by Boris?
- Phil Payne, Sheffield
Nice to see that equality is live and well in the UK and no matter what your background, upbringing and station in life: the police will ensure we are all suppressed equally...
- Craig, Edinburgh
This is so snide, it has all the hallmarks of the Arch Prince of sleaze, Peter Mandelson. The fact that Ministers say they didn't know about it proves they are either liars (again) or incompetent (again) and in no way fit to serve the needs of the country. Go now,in a leaky boat, and take Mandelson with you.
- Bilbo, Kent
What utter bull.
If he is suspected of breaching the law he should be investigated like any other member of our society. If he has done nothing wrong then he has nothing to fear, or if he does then that is an issue that should be addressed for all members of our society and not the political elite, many of whom try to hide as much about themselves as they can. Government is supposed to be transparent, the occasional arrest of a politician reinforces faith in the establishment at a time when public confidence of both the police and integrity of our MP's is low.
If this is so much of an issue, perhaps the law should be better worded so as not to allow interpratations that can punish any person in society for an act most do not see as unethical. At least this shows the police are applying the ambiguity with a mild sense of fairness (given that a junior cabinet minister was also arrested but not charged - something conveniently missing from the above)
- Gray, Leic
Damian Green's arrest was blatant Stalinism and a total disgrace.
- Gerryinengland, exeter england
This has Jackie Smith's grubby fingerprints all over it.
- Tom In London, London UK
