Irish ISIS Fighters

Usually I don't like doing blogs on political things. I don't feel educated enough, or interested enough, to talk about... well pretty much everything I talk about, but sometimes I read something in the news and wonder why aren't we doing something more. This was one of those times. I read about this in a paper, so it was probably sensationalised, still points out some flaws in our present system for dealing with things like that.

Last Saturday it was reported that there are 40 Irish citizens involved in Terrorist fighting in Syria and Iraq. Some of these Irish Jihadists are fighting with ISIS.

ISIS is an extremist Muslim group who believe in the establishments of Caliphates (Shariah law, Muslim controlled countries), right now specifically in Syria and Iraq. This group was once linked to Al-Qaeda but since has gone independent. It, like Al-Qaeda, uses deadly force against innocent people and civilians to get its way and achieve its aims.

It has now been revealed that there are 40 Muslim majority country born, Irish citizens involved in this organisation. They are fighting what they call a Jihad, a holy war.

Some of these Irish citizens have already returned home and the Gardaí fear that they will continue their Jihad here by attacking key buildings in Ireland.

Some of the buildings seen to be under threat are:

The US Embassy

The Israeli Embassy

The IFSC Building in Dublin

Apple headquarters, Cork

The Google Building

Intel, Shannon.

Shannon Airport

Pfizer

eBay

PayPal

The Gardaí have established a special unit (CTI) to deal with the problem but only have the resources to sort out the aftermath of an attack. They do not have the resources to protect all of these buildings.

Ireland is seen as the soft underbelly of Europe as there is less security here than other countries; making Ireland a prime target for recruiting for, funding and engaging in terrorist activities

Here's my question? If we know there are 'Irish' people over there fighting, if we know that Irish passports have been used to get to these terrorist groups then why aren't we doing something about it?

If people know there are Irish passports involved why aren't they taking down the names and then the second these terrorists land in Ireland again they could (and should) be arrested!

Even if we don't have names the fact we know there's 40 Irish passports out there means we could learn the names. Whoever reports the passport numbers must be able to see the names. (Even if 40 isn't real

Also there are some of these people appearing in promotional videos for these groups! We could arrest them as soon as they land on European soil again.

Either way it is time Ireland does something to protect our citizens and our businesses and relations internationally. It's time for harsher laws to deal with these problems before they become problems.

It's likely, though I do not know, that Irish law probably allows terrorists returning to Ireland to return; and that they then cannot be arrested. That needs to be sorted!

Perhaps a new rule could be brought in that takes passports from Irish citizens involved in terrorist activities. That could apply to IRA members as well. Wouldn't that be fantastic if the IRA members lost their Irish citizenship for being in the IRA, oh the irony. The Netherlands have been talking about something like that, or refusing people passports for fears there are involved in terrorist activities.

Rant over!

Wavey 2016