After all the nerves and security in New York, Washington and London, the only attempted
terror plot on the anniversary of 9/11 appears to have been foiled outside an arts centre in Gothenburg. The Swedish press says that the four people arrested on Saturday night are believed to belong to a cell linked to al-Qaeda.
There are no more details yet, but it’s a reminder that the al-Qaeda threat has not gone away. Its Arabian Peninsular
division is still active, responsible for the underpants bomber and the bomb bound for Detroit, intercepted in London. This is also a reminder of how chillingly random its attacks are.
This matters because there is a school of thought in the West that 9/11 and 7/7 attacks were somehow punishment for foreign policy, and the best way of insulating a country against terrorism is to change foreign policy.
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