Securing London: Missiles on a Roof

The London Olympics are less than two months away and the British are putting the final touches on security for the Games.Securing the Olympics is a Herculean undertaking because its’ global reach make it a prime terrorist target.

 But recent reports of security officials positioning surface to air missiles on the roof of an apartment building near the Olympic venues, though well intentioned, is a security misstep.

 Though I don’t want any athlete or civilian injured in a terrorist attack, I fail to see what parking a bunch of missiles on a roof will do for security.

Placing missiles on a roof, in effect makes the apartment building itself a potential target. In the effort to provide security, you may also be creating insecurity within the law abiding population as a cache of missiles on an apartment roof doesn’t exactly breed secure thoughts.

Furthermore, these measures rely on the notion of a seen enemy through a suicide bombing or something. Terrorist history tells us that far less sophisticated means can be used to create the terrorist ideal of fear and chaos at the Olympic Games.         

Is Somalia’s Peace in London?

A recent conference held in London aimed to bring global attention to the crisis plagued state of Somalia. Various donor groups, Somali politicians, and regional allies gathered in London to discuss the troubled country that is garnering increased international attention.

The Guardian is reporting that the British government is considering air strikes on Al Shabab and the United Nations voted to send 5,700 peacekeepers to Somalia. The fear of Western governments is that Somalia expatriates in their countries will continue to live without hope of peace, making them recruits for Al Qaeda or pirates.

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/0222/Will-a-London-conference-help-set-Somalia-on-path-to-peace

Although a big conference in London may make good headlines, I doubt that Western governments have the political will to do anything about Somalia, particularly with so much on domestic agendas. Somalia needs a complex exercise in nation building and peace keeping that will likely cost millions.

 I’m not sure if heavily indebted Western powers have the stomach for such activity considering that fifteen years of the same problems have compelled little more than nice rhetoric. The people of Somalia deserve better than words.

London: Security with Cameras

With the London Olympics just a few months away, an article on London’s plentiful supply of CCTV cameras caught my attention.

London installed many of the cameras in the mid-nineties in an attempt to combat the cities high crime rate.

Privacy advocates argue that the cameras have created a surveillance city similar to Orwell’s 1984 where privacy and freedom are curtailed in the guise of fighting crime and terrorism. The balance between security and personal freedom is the central question confronting democracies.

If we as democracies surrender ourselves to personal intrusion in the name of security, than we have been defeated by the forces terrorism and repression. We’ve fought wars against Islamic extremism, communism, Nazism, and Fascism, holding democracy up as the greatest good.We cannot cede the democratic advantage in the name of security.

 Cameras have not shown the anticipated ability to reduce crime in the U.S. I think the U.K. will discover the same thing. The United Kingdom is merely opening itself to the charge of becoming Big Brother.