Counterterrorism Blog

In a Saturday interview on Fox News Channel's "Heartland" program with host John Kasich, Steven Emerson commented on the permissive attitude taken by British authorities towards Islamic radicals. An excerpt (emphasis mine):

"KASICH: Steve, they say in Britain that the MI-5, the intelligence service there disrupted three previous attacks. And this one got through. Now the debate in the country is, are we protecting all of our soft targets good enough. My sense is, you got to be on the offense. Playing defense never works. So is that what the best policy is? Obviously protect your soft targets but it goes beyond that. You got to disrupt.

EMERSON: Not only disrupt but here is the ultimate irony. Britain invited this. Britain created conditions in London that now host more radical Islamic groups and cells, and leaders, that is, than any other capital in Europe or even in the Middle East, outside the Middle East that is. And the fact of the matter is open immigration, a very liberal asylum policy and they still continue to embrace and empower radical Islamic groups. For example, in Prime Minister Blair's comments right after the attack he praised the Muslim Council of Britain. That is an organization that is directly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood that believes in carrying out suicide bombings, that has been linked directly to Hamas and to other jihadist organizations.

KASICH: That's unbelievable.

EMERSON: Why he would embrace them and why the mayor of London would embrace Yusuf Qaradawi, a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, only goes to the whole problem that the Europeans have created on their own soil."

Steve also compared the presence of sleeper cells in Britain with those already in the U.S. "And my feeling is that it is probably going to be a local cell with those types of graduates of the jihad camps able to give them technology and expertise necessary to pull it off. Those types of people by the way are in the United States as well."