The Reading Murders: Terrorism or Not?

According to the WHO's latest statistics, 490,481 people worldwide have died of Covid-19, 43,230 here in the UK. Because of these dreadful figures, which show how so many have lost their lives, perhaps we can be forgiven for not making too much of a fuss about the killing of three people in Reading on the 20th of this month - just a few days ago. After all, when faced with, or suffering from, a life-threatening plague, we have plenty to worry about. This "prioritising" is perfectly understandable, but I think it a mistake, for reasons I shall give later.
The government took action to prevent a media frenzy, releasing a "Media Advisory Notice" warning against the publication of information that could prejudice a future trial. This might be a valid warning, but the only newspaper that seems to have taken any notice is the Reading Chronicle, the local paper, which says:
"As legal proceedings have begun, The Chronicle could be in contempt of court to publish any information on the man arrested following Saturday's attacks, including reports of previous convictions".

Amusing really, when you consider that all the media, including The Daily Mail, have published details of the attack and the alleged attacker, Khairi Saadallah. From The Independent, we learn:

"The Libyan man accused of launching a terror attack that left three victims dead in Reading at the weekend was under probation supervision at the time, The Independent understands.Khairi Saadallah was released on appeal from HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire just 16 days before the mass stabbing".

That bastion of law and order, The Daily Mail, said in today's edition:

"Police intercepted the Reading terror suspect on the street just hours before he allegedly went on the rampage, the Daily Mail can reveal. A specialist mental health team was asked to search for Khairi Saadallah after officials failed to find him during a routine check at his home last Friday".

So much for Media Advisory Notices! Nonetheless, there has not yet been any kind of public reaction. Another reason for this might be the fact that there is some controversy over whether this was a terror attack or not. According to the same Daily Mail edition, members of Saadallah's family have been actively denying that he is a terrorist. Interestingly enough, MI5 had cleared him of being a terrorist last year, as The Guardian says:

"Saadallah was on the radar of MI5 in the middle of last year, sources said, when he was briefly placed under investigation as a person who might travel abroad “for extremist reasons”. The inquiry was closed relatively quickly without any action being taken, as no genuine threat or immediate risk was identified."

Various media outlets have emphasised the fact that Saadallah has mental health issues. According to The Sun:

"Saadallah was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and delusional and paranoid schizophrenia, requiring medication before his release, a source told the Sun."

As regular readers of this blog know - only too well - dangerous mental health patients are a recurring theme of mine. They might well expect a similar kind of article here, but I demur in this case. However much I acknowledge the fact that Saadallah has mental problems. I favour the police view that this was a terrorist incident. To make my case, we need to look at the attack itself.

The mass stabbing began in Forbury Gardens , Reading, at about 7pm, June 20. Three men (L to R in the photo): Joe Ritchie-Bennett, a US citizen, James Furlong, a History teacher and a scientist, David Wails, were killed. Three others were injured and taken to hospital. The attack was sudden, vicious, and chillingly efficient. The horror of this event will traumatise witnesses of the stabbings, as well as the relatives of the three men, for years - perhaps for the rest of their lives. I speak for all of us when I send my condolences to the friends and relatives of these three victims, should they happen upon this blog.

Saadallah's mental history does not preclude him from being a terrorist. On the contrary, terror organisations find people with mental health problems very useful.  Daesh, in its early days, used mentally handicapped individuals as carriers of suicide bombs; the German Red Army Faction, aka "The Baader-Meinhoff Gang", recruited mental health patients for their so-called "Holger-Meins Commando" in the 1970s. Nor does it rule out "lone wolf" attacks - Thomas Mair, the murderer of Jo Cox, M.P., had mental issues, but was still motivated by fascist ideology.

There are two main reasons for believing this to be a terrorist incident.

First, this was a targeted attack, rather than one of the random attacks which are carried out by people with mental health problems alone. All the victims were gay men, and, I surmise, Forbury Gardens is known as a gay meeting place. All Jihadist terror groups hate gay men and, in Iraq and in Syria, aimed to liquidate them physically. ISIS have the nasty trick of throwing gay men to their deaths from high buildings. The fact that Saadallah attacked a gay rendezvous site indicates, I think, that he shares this murderous, homophobic hatred - and the ideology which promotes it.

Secondly, the attack was carried out with a significant element of skill. Each of the three victims who died was killed by a single blow. Contrary to popular belief, it takes some knowledge and practice to kill with a knife, and Saadallah certainly seemed to have that. Quite where he acquired that skill is open to speculation - perhaps in his native country of Libya, either from one of the many militia groups that plague that land, or even the local branch of ISIS.

This, I believe, endorses the police view that this was a terror attack. However,  it might indicate something else as well. With the exception of the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, most of the deadly terror attacks have happened in London. The fact this atrocity happened in the provinces might hint at a change of attack location of choice for our terrorist minority - whatever their political or religious affiliations. 

Breaking Lockdown - "Only Half a Sausage"

The other day, a friend whom I shall name "Mr T" sent me an article from the online edition of "The New European", which is a rewarding paper to read, and I recommend it. The article dealt with the fact that the Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, Bob Seely, seen above, and the Brexit Party chairperson, Richard Tice, had attended a lockdown-busting barbecue on the Isle of Wight on May 22nd. As, on that date, we were all meant to meet only one person from another household out of doors, it was clear that these two political luminaries were in breach of the lockdown.

Tice admitted his presence at the event, which was held by his partner's deputy editor at the Spectator. Seely, on the other hand, tried to explain away his attendance. As well he might, as he at the time:
"... had been spearheading the efforts to promote a new government contact-tracing apps on the island"

Oh dear, what a clanger to drop! Seely claimed that he was unaware that a barbecue was being held, and had dropped in to discuss an article of his that The Spectator had published. He told his local paper that to leave would have been over-reacting. Besides apologising for his conduct, he stated that he had only eaten "half a sausage" (!).

Any right-thinking person would be displeased to learn about this event; what surprised me was the degree of anger expressed by Mr T. I have known this gentleman for about 45 years, and I have never known him to become angry over any political issue before. And angry he is! He wrote:

"... Richard Tice has always been at the spearhead of those pushing for Brexit; his partner is a journalist for the Daily Mail and was staying in her second home. They chose to ignore lockdown rules...Seems to me that everyone who was in favour of Brexit is incapable of dealing with serious problems and happy to ignore rules that they find inconvenient.
Bye bye liberal democracy run by educated, fair-minded people. Hello get what you can for yourself and cronies".
Well said! I am sure that most sane people agree with Mr T, but, unfortunately, some others vote Tory or for the Brexit Party. What these "patriots" do not seem to understand is the fact that the calibre of the people they vote for - Tory or Brexit Party - is very poor and making us a laughing stock around the world. One questionable Tory activist is Ryan Houghton, a Conservative councillor in Aberdeen. 

Mr Houghton was suspended from the Tory party last year after allegedly making a number of anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and homophobic remarks on his blog. He has been re-instated recently, and insists that the remarks were made ten years ago and taken out of context. The BBC quotes him as saying:

"The comments which led to my suspension were isolated and took place nearly a decade ago. They in no way reflect my political or professional record and I find prejudice of any kind abhorrent."

All well and good, but he is on record as saying that while there was:

"no credible evidence to suggest the Holocaust did not happen...I do find some of the events fabricated."
It is not clear what he meant by these "fabricated events", but the very suggestion that any of the painstakingly chronicled crimes of the Holocaust have been falsified, is itself a form of Holocaust denial. 

That will take some living down, both by Mr Houghton and the Conservative Party.

The Dominic Cummings fiasco will take even more living down. Attempts by BoJo to dismiss the whole affair have been a dismal failure. Cummings himself gave a very strange explanation of his condust to the media. As Ian Hislop said on "Have I Got News For You":

“He (Cummings) gave an hour and a half of utter twaddle. It’s absolutely clear he did break regulations. He found one tiny clause which he said made an exception, but that didn’t cover the journey to Barnard Castle, it was nonsense, absolute nonsense."

The events of Cummings' lockdown-busting trip are well enough known, and there is little point in repeating them here.  What is becoming clearer by the day, though, is that this government is failing in just about everything, whether it be in response to Covid-19 or to Brexit, in the quality of its candidates and ministers, and even by the breaking of its own rules. As the LibDem MP, Alistair Carmichael wrote in The Independent:

"Angela Eagle called Jacob Rees-Mogg the worst leader of the House of Commons “in living memory”. There is a palpable frustration about a leader of the house – and a government – that appears more interested in wielding its parliamentary majority than in accepting accountability for how it wields that power."

The one positive sign on the horizon is the growing anger of so many - even those with no firm political convictions - with this government which is growing increasingly unaccountable.

Ian Duncan Smith once said: "Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man"; the Tories would do well not to underestimate the anger of politically-quiet men like Mr T.

Mocking the Past - and Repeating It

Before Covid-19 launched itself upon the world, we looked back with a mixture of bewilderment and derision at the way people reacted to previous pandemics. The Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, which devastated Europe in the mid-14th Century, is thought to have killed 50 million people worldwide - 20 million in Europe. The disease brought fear and death in equal proportion. As no-one knew what caused it, and the medical science of the day could not provide a cure, people resorted in desperation to methods of treatment that now arouse ridicule and disgust. One such - self flagellation - is seen above.
A pre-Covid-19 website provides a mocking list of "10 Crazy Cures for the Black Death" - although it's hard for a modern reader not to be shocked at some of these "cures". One such was to rub your Bubonic sores with a live chicken. This method was invented by an English physician, Thomas Vicary:
 "People would shave a hen’s butt and strap it to their swollen lymph nodes . . . while the chicken was still alive. Then, when the chicken got sick, they would wash it and repeat the process until only the chicken or victim was healthy."
Other treatments included smearing yourself with excrement, washing in and drinking urine and - incredibly - eating crushed emeralds. Then there were leeches, used for bloodletting - a method which continued into the 19th century.

Racists, nowadays, blame innocent Chinese people for Covid-19. In the mid-14th century, the Jews were the target of much worse:
" Some people took the religious thing a little far and decided that the best cure for the plague was to purge the earth of Jews. Governors of cities across Europe rounded up Jews, boarded them up in their homes, and then set them alight".

Other, remarkably familiar-sounding treatments included positive thinking and not eating meat. Until recently, we would have spoken of all these "treatments" with great amusement.

The 1918 Flu Epidemic, erroneously described as "The Spanish Flu", was more terrible in its effects than the Black Death, but did not last as long. In 15 months, from the spring of 1918 to the summer of 1919, it is thought to have killed at least 50 million people in many countries - some historians say the true figure was double that number. Unlike Covid-19, it killed younger people rather than older, and took the lives of more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years. As with the Black Death, people lived in fear of catching the disease, and, lacking an understanding of the nature of the virus, resorted to outlandish methods of treatment.

Here in the UK, as the BBC tells us: 

"Public health messages were confused - and, just like today, fake news and conspiracy theories abounded, although the general level of ignorance about healthy lifestyles did not help."

It was thought that smoking could ward off the disease, and one Conservative MP asked, in the House of Commons, if drinking cocoa could prevent infection. Overuse of aspirin is now thought to have contributed to the appaling death toll. And, says the BBC:

"In November 1918, the News of the World advised its readers to: "wash inside nose with soap and water each night and morning; force yourself to sneeze night and morning, then breathe deeply. Do not wear a muffler; take sharp walks regularly and walk home from work; eat plenty of porridge."

In the USA, especially in the mid-West states, people fell back on folk remedies. The CDC website records the case of Sarah Elizabeth Northrip Wright, as told by her grandson, John H. Wright:

"Elizabeth′s father, Orian, did not become ill but most of the rest of the family did. The Northrips brewed a tea–like drink made of sassafras roots, leaves from the pokeweed plant, and elm tree bark. The roots, leaves, and bark were put into a one-gallon kettle, boiled in water, and cooled before drinking. Elizabeth believes this “tea” helped her family survive; there were no deaths."

One intriguing treatment with modern connotations comes from the son of Judy McGlaughlin Seggerson of Indiana. Her father, Art, had been working away from home and had been taken ill before returning home. The then little Judy rushed up to her dad and hugged him. Her worried father then:

" ... insisted that Agnes (his wife and Judy's mother) literally bathe Judy in Listerine®. In the next weeks, Judy and her sister were forced to frequently gargle with Listerine (which they were not very happy about). With a lot of loving care from Agnes, Art eventually recovered. No one else in the family became ill with the flu. For the rest of his life, Art credited Listerine® with saving his family, and I remember him gargling with it every day."

Whatever our views on the apparent follies of our forebears, Covid-19 has afflicted us with the same fear of the unknown and a desperate search for remedies, political, medical or otherwise. Among the weird and not-so-wonderful treatments extant we find cocaine, garlic and homeopathy. Other lunatic ideas include drinking bleach and spraying the body with chlorine. Social media throws up many fake remedies, including drinking hot water and the amazing diagnostic tool of holding your breath for 10 seconds - if you can do that, goes the "theory", you haven't got Covid-19.

Then there are the conspiracy theories, which have led to waves of hatred and violence against many innocent people around the world. David Icke's barmy idea that Covid-19 is 5G attacking our brains is one such delusion, as is the belief that the disease was manufactured by the Chinese government. Aliens from outer space are also suspected, as is Greta Thunberg. And there is worldwide hate crime against many groups, particularly people of Chinese and Far Eastern origin.

Perhaps, then, this pandemic has taught us that we are not really so different from our ancestors as we fondly imagined. At the risk of sounding flippant, I shall be sure to use Listerine twice a day.