Britain you should be afraid you should be very afraid! And Canada?

Good Day Readers:

The unspeakable murder of James Foley is deeply troubling for reasons that go far beyond its sheer brutality.

ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham) has vowed revenge on any country that assists its enemies in Iraq and Syria this from a terrorist group even El-Qaeda considers too violent. The Canadian government and other nations have been assisting the Kurds in Iraq. Intelligence analysts estimate there are at least 500 foreign ISIS jihadists in Iraq-Syria mostly from Europe but a small number of Americans, as well as, an even smaller number from Canada. You may have noted a few days ago there was a report one from the United States and another from Canada had been killed.

The latest expert analysis of the YouTube video (more about that in a subsequent posting) strongly suggests Mr. Foley's murderer was raised and grew up in South London. While the American media, especially CNN, has been totally preoccupied with the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, a potentially much more dangerous killer has been stalking Americans.

Why Britain should be very concerned

British intelligence sources estimate there are a couple hundred or more ISIS jihadists from the U K. Within the past few days two major newspapers (The Telegraph/Daily Mail) reported on the results of a detailed study of the country's border security system. Seven years ago the eBorder System was introduced by the then Labour government designed to track every person entering or leaving the country. The findings:

(1) Each year 20 million people (1 in 5) arrive or leave without proper checks against terror and criminal watchlists. Therefore, only approximately 80% of trips are being logged by the System

(2) 6 million people arrive each year by train who do not undergo advance checks

(3) 10 million sea and 4 million air passengers are not fully checked

The System is unable to accurately count every person arriving or leaving Britain. A returning ISIS jihadist has a 1 in 5 chance of making it back into the country.

Should Canada be concerned?

Back in December of  2012 American security guru Bruce Schneier did a walk around of Pearson International Airport only to discover several very serious lapses: doors that should have been locked not locked; unauthorized individuals in restricted areas (e.g. baggage handling); a perimeter airport fence easily breached; etc., etc., etc. Hopefully, these have subsequently been corrected.

If you take the British numbers and prorate them to Canada they're still very alarming. Of the thousands and thousands and thousands of containerized shipping units that are unloaded at all Canadian ports how many are not adequately checked? Terrorists would like nothing better than to smuggle some low grade radioactive material to make a dirty bomb.

How closely are passenger lists of trains arriving from the United States checked? The potential for breaches go on and on and on. Unfortunately, you'll never know because that's the kind of information the Canadian Boarder Security Agency will never release. Perhaps it's best you don't know then you'd really be scared.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the authorities (assuming they're not doing so already) put together lists of known terrorists then see how many individuals assuming these identities were able to enter Canada undetected.

Recruitment

Canada has been extremely fortunate up until now because any terrorist plots have been prevented before implementation. But ISIS is a new threat the likes of which the world has not previously seen. As the death of James Foley has shown it will stop an nothing to achieve its objectives.

Its social media savvy is being used to globally recruit young, impressionable, naive new members. The handful of Canadians it has managed to attract so far have departed the country for combat zones but what about those who may be radicalized here - the home grown terrorist - who never leave Canada. Yes Canada you too should be very, very worried.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk