I started this thread because I didn't feel it was appropriate in the original one where the subject is about innocent people who died so recently.
The media keeps asking the question: Could the Sydney cafe siege have been prevented? I would like to take the spotlight off that particular incident slightly, and ask a more general question: Can any random acts of violence be prevented?
I don't think so. Not many of them, anyway. As the Australian PM Tony Abbott said, even if Man Haron Monis had been front and centre of the intelligence services' attention, he could still very well have committed the same act.
I recall the inquiry into the death of Fusilier Lee Rigby concluding that the security services could not have prevented his death even though one or both of his killers was on their radar.
The key word here is "random". Unless the relevant agencies know it's going to happen, they can't prevent it. Southpaw raised a good point in the original thread about how seemingly easy it would be to walk on a crowded train with something as humble as a kitchen knife and wreak havoc (I'm para phrasing here). Which brings me to my next thought - are the days of big planned attacks like 9/11, which involved dozens of individuals to plot and carry out (thereby increasing the ease for security agencies to gather intelligence and potentially stop an attack*), gone? Have we instead moved into an era where attacks are carried out against soft civilian targets (rather than political or military installations) by one or two lone actors using simple, everyday instruments?
What steps could be taken to prevent (or at least reduce) terrorist attacks?
Thoughts?
* I know 9/11 wasn't prevented from happening, but my theory is more plotters = greater chance of discovery.
The media keeps asking the question: Could the Sydney cafe siege have been prevented? I would like to take the spotlight off that particular incident slightly, and ask a more general question: Can any random acts of violence be prevented?
I don't think so. Not many of them, anyway. As the Australian PM Tony Abbott said, even if Man Haron Monis had been front and centre of the intelligence services' attention, he could still very well have committed the same act.
I recall the inquiry into the death of Fusilier Lee Rigby concluding that the security services could not have prevented his death even though one or both of his killers was on their radar.
The key word here is "random". Unless the relevant agencies know it's going to happen, they can't prevent it. Southpaw raised a good point in the original thread about how seemingly easy it would be to walk on a crowded train with something as humble as a kitchen knife and wreak havoc (I'm para phrasing here). Which brings me to my next thought - are the days of big planned attacks like 9/11, which involved dozens of individuals to plot and carry out (thereby increasing the ease for security agencies to gather intelligence and potentially stop an attack*), gone? Have we instead moved into an era where attacks are carried out against soft civilian targets (rather than political or military installations) by one or two lone actors using simple, everyday instruments?
What steps could be taken to prevent (or at least reduce) terrorist attacks?
Thoughts?
* I know 9/11 wasn't prevented from happening, but my theory is more plotters = greater chance of discovery.
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