Counter-Terrorism Bill
12:00 pm
Sir Ian Blair: I will divide that in half and let Bob deal with the level of evidence, because we have quite a lot of that.
There is an interesting and pertinent comparison to make with our struggles against Irish republican terrorism. Without in any way diminishing the murderous intent of the IRA and some of the loyalists, there were three categories of difference. First, they almost invariably gave warnings. Secondly, they did not want to die. Thirdly, they did not want to cause mass casualties, with one or two exceptions. I suppose that you could add a fourth category, which was that they were heavily penetrated by British intelligence. There are obviously exceptions to all those events, but that is the general pattern. That is not the case with the threat that we currently face.