About Time

Why in the world didn't anyone think of this earlier?! And why does it seem like the British Intelligence is far more swift than our own? I don't recall this clean a sweep right after 9/11. Granted, our country was reeling from the horrific attack and tremendous loss, but man are the British on a roll. It seems each time the news is updated a new headline appears about more suspects being nabbed. I guess that island doesn't produce the best murder mystery writers for no reason.

I am a huge fan of intelligence and military strategy, especially anti-terror counterintelligence and strategy. One of the most effective anti-terror strategies was carried out by the Royal Dutch Marines in the Netherlands when a faction of Indonesian terrorists took an elementary school and a train hostage. (I'm trying desperately to find a detailed account of that story.) It was a brilliant and masterful operation. At the moment when the Marines wanted to hit the terrorists the hardest, they cut off  communication between those on the train and those in the school. The lack of communication made them panic and ultimately brought them to a timely defeat.

Why it hasn't occurred to any intelligence agencies to cut off the communication between terrorists cells, as the British have finally done, is a loss to me.  It would be the logical deduction to conclude that the fewer communication avenues, the harder it would become to coordinate attacks, thus leading to fewer terrorist attacks. I know that might seem elementary, but it's true. There might be sporadic pockets of terrorism, but it wouldn't be quite the systematic and coordinated effort that it is now.

While it's most likely pointless to speculate how many lives could have been saved if that had been done sooner, it's fantastic that the websites are shutting down now. Yet another victory against Islamic terror.