UK: A note about working with extremists

Two months ago Robert Lambert, a senior London police official, told terrorism professionals in Denmark how the British approach terror. The Salafist extremists are not terrorists, he said, but rather people who share a different point of view. It is impossible to fight terrorism without working together with them and it would be cowardice not to seize the opportunity to do so.

This seemed to me to be an extremely lop-sided view. After all, police don't "cooperate" with Neo-Nazis in order to find out who the "real" extremists are. They don't cooperate with the mafia in order to find out who the contract killers are. They don't cooperate with people smugglers just because they happen to practice a trade that the country thinks is illegal. Why should it cooperate with subversives who openly call for the destruction of the state? Infiltrate, maybe, but actually cooperate?

Looking at the news reports about the attacks in London and Glasgow, and the fact that they were averted mostly by luck, I am therefore left to wonder: didn't the London police know about these attacks in advance? There are reports that the London attack was advertised on a Jihadi website just hours before it took place. With all the strong bonds forged between the London Police and the extremist Muslim community - didn't somebody notify the police?

See also: UK police: you can't fight terror without working with extremist Muslims