Of course Gaddafi has his hands full on his own turf without being able to plan outrages in Britain or France. However that is not to say his surrogates will not do his work for him.
British Intelligence has for long stated the major threat in the UK comes not from Muslim inspired terrorism but rogue elements amongst Irish Republican groups. These members of the IRA and INLA do not accept the peace agreement and power sharing accords and are carrying on the fight long abandoned by their brothers and sisters in arms and Sinn Fein.
To see just how an important role Libya played in arming the IRA we have to go back to 1986 when Gaddafi resumed supplying arms to the Republican terror organisation because Britain assisted the USA in the bombing of Tripoli. Sound familiar?
In fact the first arms delivery was discovered back in 1973 when the Claudia was intercepted with guns and ammunition off the Irish coast. Experts say the most significant weapon supplied by Gaddafi to the IRA was Semtex which was used to create landmines for attacks against British soldiers in Northern Ireland. Before Libya’s intervention the IRA was fighting a modern war with ancient weapons.
At the time of the decommissioning of the IRA’s weapons it was estimated the organisation still held 2.5 tonnes of Semtex with a shelf life of another 20 years. Some of that would have gone, perhaps the vast majority, but enough may remain for dissident Republicans to plant another bomb in London in support of their aims and as a thank you to their embattled arms supplier. Even if the Semtex has gone they are not short of a bomb or two.
As I was writing this British Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, was being interviewed by The Guardian. In the interview he said the dictator could stage another Lockerbie-style terrorist attack: “The British people have reason to remember the curse of Gaddafi - Gaddafi back in power, the old Gaddafi looking for revenge, we have a real interest in preventing that...”
Clarke is envisaging an attack should Gaddafi survive in Libya. I am suggesting it may come before that.
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Below is from the BBC. Wonder what Mr Brown has to say about Libya - IRA - Gaddafi now!
Gordon Brown declined to put formal pressure on Libya to get compensation for IRA victims, No 10 has confirmed.
The victims say Libya should pay compensation because it supplied the IRA with explosives used in atrocities.
Mr Brown told a victims' lawyer it was not "appropriate" to discuss the claims, but aides have denied he was trying to protect oil deals with Libya.
Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the PM had done far less for victims than US leaders had.
'Strongly opposed'
Mr Brown's office released a letter written by the prime minister to IRA victims' lawyer Jason McCue last October in which Mr Brown wrote that the government did not "consider it appropriate to enter into a bilateral discussion with Libya on this matter".
He added that Libya would be "strongly opposed to reopening the issue."
In an earlier letter dating from last September, the prime minister told Mr McCue that Libya was now an "essential partner" in the fight against terrorism and it was in the UK's interests for that co-operation to continue.
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