Credible Threats in "Real Time"

"This is the world we now live in."
"I don't want people to think that this is some sort of blip for a week. This is part of an evolving and constant review."
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

"We in national security are very concerned about the foreign fighter flow, going into Syria in particular, from the United States, other countries, and we're tracking that population."
American Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson

Alert: Britain's airports were put on a new terror alert last night amid fears of attacks from Islamist extremists, who US officials say are working on a new 'undetectable' bomb (file photo)

• ARE PICTU

Travelling from Europe to the United States just got a little more complicated. Oh yes, it was complicated already, and has been since 9/11, but now it's just a little lengthier for the delays inherent in implementing more thorough checks. The terrorist hordes between al-Qaeda and its sinister affiliates and other fanatical Islamist lunatics who claim to love death and court it through martyrdom in the process of murdering as many of their "enemies" as they possibly can, don't have to do much more to terrorize Europe and North America.

The very threat inherent in those fanatical loose cannons returning to the Western democracies that gave them haven when their families fled the tyranny of Islamic rule around the Globe, is enough to strike terror into the hearts of those who welcomed them and who no longer feel that wholesale welcome should apply to those who aspire to fulfill the obligations of mass murder through Islamic jihad. This new alert goes beyond fears of a strike on America's famous Fourth of July independence commemorative day.

But then, it's a bit of a stretch, in any event. There may be some governments wishing to take legal, institutionalized action to defer forever welcoming back those with such evil intent by lifting the privileges of citizenship. Britain has seen fit to do just that. Canada is attempting to follow suit. And here's the Canada Day editorial published in one of that country's national newspapers:

"The new law lengthens the residency requirement and asks for a statement of intent from would-be Canadians, to make sure they actually plan to live in this country. ... But the law has a flip side that is much darker. ... It gives the government the discretion to strip the citizenship of any dual citizen convicted of terrorism, treason or spying abroad. ...The consequences are disturbing and unfair for Canada's 863,000 dual nationals. They run the risk of being treated as somehow less Canadian. ... There is an ugly xenophobic side to this law, which may well play with some voters, but has no place in a modern, multicultural Canada."

Really? There are, on the other hand, many Canadians, both born in Canada and naturalized, who support the new law fundamentally asserting that citizenship is a privilege that must be earned, and that respect and honour and commitment remain a two-way street. Bill C-24 seeks to ensure that not only are those granted citizenship given all the privileges of citizenship but that they fully understand and commit to their own obligations to earn that privilege. "Modernity" has given momentum to Islamist terror everywhere, including within "multicultural Canada".

Travellers at Heathrow Airport in London were given "vigorous" body searches, their clothing and footwear swabbed for possible explosive traces. Ordered to switch on laptops, cellphones and other electronic devices, it is understandable that now delays will become even lengthier and more tediously intrusive than ever before. U.S. intelligence appears to have surfaced with a plot hatched by Islamists to use Western fanatics to explode a U.S.-bound plane in flight.

In essence, American authorities advised their democratic, trade and travel partners that anyone wishing to enter American airspace must do so with enhanced security firmly in place; all passengers boarding U.S.-bound planes henceforth are to undergo double security checks. Yemen based al-Qaeda is being credited with new aspirations courtesy of its master bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan Al-Asiri, through new links with the Jabhat Al-Nusra jihadists in Syria.

Among whom are hundreds of eager-to-jihad young European and North American Muslims who left those continents for the Middle East to do their jihadist duty as they have been called upon to do; recruits determined to show their shaheed mettle and in the process gain honour for their families and bliss in Paradise by order of Allah who amply rewards his faithful.

Delayed: The new measures are likely to lead to longer queues, delays and increased checks at airports, as well as an influx of sky marshals on some transatlantic routes

Therefore, it is now assumed that AQAP's premier bomb-maker has passed on his skills to enterprising young European/North American jihadis. And since al-Qaeda inspires young men eager to gain acclaim through such enterprises to commit jihad in the very places where they came from, the newly-battle-hardened and explosives-skilled 'combatants' are expected to return and play for the crowd whom they most despise.