Must we forgive the 7/7 bombers?
Many of the victims of 7/7 have spoken in detail about how they have used sometimes miraculous escapes to reframe their lives and give them new purpose. Others have spoken about the freedom and closure of forgiveness. Those who have suffered inconceivable pain through the sudden kinetic brutality of terrorism, either as victims or the bereaved, have every right to process how they make sense of it in their own way. But I worry that the busy hand of reconciliation that seems to elevate forgiveness above all other reactions leaves those simply – and legitimately – angry untouched.
Much is made of the Christian instinct to forgive those who trespass against us. The father of Marie Wilson, murdered in the 1987 Enniskillen bombing, became famous around the world for forgiving the terrorists who killed his daughter in the rubble feet away from him. It exposed the moral vacuity of the IRA's campaign like nothing else could. But for every Gordon Wilson, there are other victims of terrorism who cannot forgive and who will not move on. Their experience is every bit as valid.
In the Christian tradition, forgiveness is also contingent on repentance. In the case of 7/7, there is no one left to seek absolution for their grave sins. The suicide bombers denied their victims any possible closure in a final act of nihilistic wickedness. Subsequent attacks by Islamist militants have only demonstrated an increasingly depraved indifference to human life. Several survivors of the atrocity have said they still see the faces of the four bombers whenever they close their eyes. There may be forgiveness for some. But for many there is no forgetting this side of the grave.
I have sat with several victims of terrorism who are implacably consumed with hatred for what has been done to them or theirs. The fashionable consensus is that these people damage only themselves with unrelievable rage. Many well-meaning clinicians argue that letting go of such emotions and moving on with life is the psychologically healthy option. We must be extremely wary of somehow labelling such emotions as a 'second-class' response.
Anger can sometimes give birth to new purpose or even a way of going on for those affected. Not everyone can or should subscribe to the 'don't look back in anger' Disneyfication of events like the Manchester Arena bombing. Candles and flowers are a natural expression of community grief and resilience but the closer you are to the epicentre of a terror attack, and the more they happen regardless, the more disfiguring reflexive forgiveness can seem.
Survivors of the 7/7 bombing have found their own way to handle what was done to them. All responses, including simply wanting to forget, are equally valid and must be endowed with the same dignity. The government is currently considering the idea of a national day of remembrance for the victims of terrorism. Any arrangements must not seek to constrain the different ways people process violence against them or their loved ones.
Gill Hicks, a 7/7 survivor, provides another perspective. She lost both legs and spoke movingly on the BBC's Women's Hour today about her ordeal. An extraordinary presence of mind kept her alive, fixing tourniquets to her shattered limbs. Other survivors spoke about fellow passengers holding the dying as they slipped away, the heroic emergency response, the comfort of strangers in an inconceivable hellscape of noise, dust and suffering, the forging of lifelong friendships in adversity. These behaviours cannot defeat the terrorists. But they signal something beyond their comprehension which we can use on days like these: they will never crush love.
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Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Wagner arson ringleader tried to forge ties with IRA
A drug dealer who organised arson attacks in the UK on behalf of Wagner, the Russian terrorist group, was trying to forge links with the IRA when he was caught, it can be revealed. Dylan Earl, a 20-year-old labourer, admitted organising a firebomb attack on a Ukrainian-owned warehouse in east London and plotting to burn down a Mayfair restaurant belonging to a prominent Russian dissident. Along with co-conspirator Jake Reeves, 23, he recruited a group of men to carry out the warehouse attack, which caused an estimated £1 million of damage, in March last year. It is understood that Earl became fixated with the Wagner group, a Russian mercenary organisation, in his late teens while following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Having already begun dealing Class A drugs from his bedroom, Earl was attracted to Wagner's links with the criminal underworld and connections to prominent members of the Russian mafia. He joined Wagner early last year, just a few months after it had been proscribed by the UK as a terrorist organisation. But instead of being content as a foot soldier, he wanted to go further and forge links with other terror organisations across Europe, including the IRA. Earl was the first person to be charged under Section 18 of the National Security Act, brought in last year to target those working secretly for hostile states within the UK. He and Reeves admitted aggravated arson and an offence under the National Security Act. Nii Kojo Mensah, 23, Jakeem Barrington Rose, 23, and Ugnius Asmena, 20, denied aggravated arson but were convicted on Tuesday after 21 hours and 55 minutes of jury deliberation. Paul English, 61, denied, and was cleared of, aggravated arson. Ashton Evans, 20, a Welsh drug dealer, denied but was convicted of one count of failure to disclose information to police about terrorist acts, but was cleared of a second count. Lithuanian-born Dmitrijus Paulauskas, 23, denied and was cleared of two counts of failing to disclose information. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she would pass sentence in the autumn. Reeves, whose stepfather is a police officer, worked as an aircraft cleaner at Gatwick Airport. As well as trying to make contact with dissident Republicans, Earl discussed acting as a bridge between Kinahan, a Dublin-based crime cartel, and the Wagner group. When police raided the rented house in Leicestershire he shared with his parents and sister, they discovered a black holdall containing a Russian flag, more than £20,000 in cash and almost one kilo of cocaine with a street value of almost £35,000. Rather than being recruited, Earl volunteered his services to Wagner after contacting the group via a Telegram account in April last year. Police were unable to see the contents of hundreds of encrypted messages sent to Earl, but it is believed some included instructions on targets to hit in London. Ringleader 'urged to watch spy drama' Messages on Telegram that were successfully recovered revealed chats between Earl and a Wagner agent known as Privet Bot. The agent asked him: 'Hello friend, how are you? Do you have any friends among hooligans or acquaintances in the IRA? 'Can you find out about warehouses like this… do you have access to firearms? The task on this warehouse will be the first step.' The Privet Bot account also asked if Earl could watch The Americans, a television drama set in Washington DC during the Cold War in the 1980s. In the programme, two Russian spies are embedded in US society so they can complete missions on behalf of the KGB. The Privet Bot account said: 'Watch this series, it will be your manual.' In March last year, a group of four men struck at a warehouse on the Cromwell Industrial Estate in Leyton, using an accelerant to start the fire. More than 60 firefighters and eight fire engines battled the flames before the blaze was brought under control. The two units targeted were occupied by Oddisey Ltd, which delivered and received goods packages ordered by customers in post-Soviet Union countries, and Meest UK Ltd, a Ukrainian-based shipping company. The businesses were also involved in delivering Starlink satellite equipment to the region to aid Ukraine's war effort. Upping the ante Before the job was even complete, Earl's Wagner handlers had already planned his next job, significantly upping the ante. They asked him to firebomb Hide Restaurant in Mayfair and the nearby Hedonism Wines shop, and also to kidnap Evgeny Chichvarkin, its Russian-born owner. Mr Chichvarkin is a Russian dissident and outspoken critic of Putin, who fled the country in 2008 and sought refuge in London. In a statement read to the jury during the Old Bailey trial, he explained why he believed he had been targeted by the Wagner group. He said: 'I was significantly outspoken on my views of Russian aggression against Ukraine, beginning with the annexation of Crimea in 2014. I have publicly supported Ukraine throughout both conflicts.' Mr Chichvarkin said he had been declared 'public enemy No 13 in Russia', adding: 'I have received daily death threats and terrible abuse ever since.' Earl attempted to recruit people to carry out reconnaissance, but the plot never came to fruition. Following his arrest on April 10, police examined his phone and found inquiries linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Wagner Group, arson and cryptocurrency. His phone contained images of a pistol, magazine and bullets, while another screenshot showed a cryptocurrency account holding £58,425.80. 'Hostile agents' Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: 'This case is [a] clear example of an organisation linked to the Russian state using proxies – in this case British men – to carry out very serious criminal activity in this country on their behalf. 'The ringleaders, Earl and Reeves, willingly acted as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state. I am pleased that, working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, we were able to use the new National Security Act legislation, which meant the severity of Earl and Reeves's offending was reflected in the charges they faced.' He added: 'The warehouse arson put members of the public at great risk, and it was only by good fortune nobody was seriously injured or worse. 'Those involved showed little or no regard for the potential impact of their actions on the UK's wider security. Seemingly motivated by the promise of money, they were prepared to commit criminal acts on behalf of Russia.' Earl was said to have been motivated by the 'accumulation of wealth and status and the associated lifestyle it would bring'. Prof Mark Galeotti, an expert in modern Russia, said an increasing number of young men were being drawn to Moscow. He said: 'There is no real ideology in Putin's Russia, but there is a kind of perverse mystique. It is a very macho country. It stands up for traditional values, but at the same time it is ruthless and brutal, and this appeals to some. 'Wagner and Russia leverage this perverse appeal to the fullest. For disaffected lads and thugs, this ideal is very appealing.' Prof Galeotti added: 'I have a suspicion this was a test run, an opportunity to test out a strategy. As long as Putin is in the Kremlin, they will continue to see the West as an enemy and a threat. 'This is the new normal. These proxies are the equivalent of drones in that they are disposable.'
South Wales Guardian
11 hours ago
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In Pictures: Thatcher ally Tebbit won plaudits as Brighton bomb survivor
Although his staunch defence of the UK's first female prime minister did not sit well with some in his early years at the cabinet table, he won universal admiration for his courage in surviving the Brighton bomb IRA assassination attempt on Mrs Thatcher. His wife, Margaret Tebbit, spent her life in a wheelchair after the attack that killed five people, when Lord Tebbit was seen grimacing in pain in his pyjamas on breakfast TV while being pulled from the rubble by firefighters in the aftermath of the explosion at the Grand Hotel in 1984. Mr Tebbit, a former airline pilot, was a confirmed supporter of Mrs Thatcher's project to turn from consensus to what she called 'conviction' politics, implementing the policies they believed in rather than trying to keep a consensus with other parties. In 1981, a year of riots in big cities, he was given a significant appointment as employment secretary with a brief to tackle the trade unions and at the party conference in Blackpool he caused outrage with a speech when he said his father, when unemployed in the 1930s, had not rioted but had got on his bike to look for work. His speech was portrayed by critics as telling the modern-day unemployed to get on their bikes while other remarks also raised eyebrows, including his 'cricket test' suggestion that people from the subcontinent should only be allowed to settle in the UK if they committed to supporting the England cricket team. His pugnacious style saw him lampooned as a thug by the Spitting Image show while Labour's Michael Foot once described him as a semi-house trained polecat. Mr Tebbit's life would change dramatically on October 12 in 1984 in Brighton at another Tory conference in an outrage of a totally different scale. Although Mrs Thatcher and her cabinet survived the blast, one Tory MP was killed with four other activists. Lord Tebbit was seen being pulled from the wreckage hours after the explosion had devastated the frontage of the seafront hotel, with his banter with a fireman called Fred audible to the TV audience. Mr Tebbit's wife, Margaret, and mother of his three children, survived but spent the rest of her days in a wheelchair. As well as his employment and trade and industry roles, Mr Tebbit also served as party chairman and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster before a lengthy spell in the House of Lords in which he took on a more Eurosceptic role, opposing the Maastricht Treaty which further integrated the member states, a position shared by his former boss, Mrs Thatcher and the former supporter of the EU committed himself to withdrawal while on the red benches in 2007. When he had joined the Lords as Baron Tebbit of Chingford, he chose a polecat for his coat of arms and also enjoyed reminding people of his 'cricket test' suggestion when successive governments said immigrants were expected to adhere to 'British values'.
Rhyl Journal
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