Terrorist Attack Backfires
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The bombings in London: This is why I thought the Brits should let the French have the Olympics (search) — let somebody else be worried about guys with backpack bombs for a while.
But, all Thursday proved is that they come to get you anyway. And, by the way, they come and get their own too:
If we can believe that this was an Al Qaeda (search) attack in London — and it probably was — you have to ask if it was a coincidence that on the same day, July 7, the Al Qaeda folks in Iraq executed the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq, whom they kidnapped a couple days ago.
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Ihab al-Sherif (search) was a Muslim and a high official of a Muslim country. But none of that saved him. He was the representative of a tyrannical country, which had relations with both the U.S. and Israel.
So, Thursday was a big day for Al Qaeda. They got nearly four-dozen Brits and they killed the Egyptian ambassador. But you have to ask if the attack in London was in fact so big.
It's the first time big terror attack on Iraq war coalition countries since the Madrid bombing of March 11, 2004. In Spain, 191 were killed. In London the death toll was less.
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That's not to minimize what happened today by any means, but one terror expert told me that if anything this attack shows the relative weakness of Al Qaeda.
Why?
The terrorists managed to get a few guys to be suicide bombers. That's strong. But they didn't get the big bang they like to have and it has only drawn the Brits together: the pro-war and anti-war, the left and the right. Now the Brits are mad. All of that is arguably weak.
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Now, is it bad that they managed to do this at all? Of course. Should we do everything we can to make sure people who think like this can't act? I argue, yes.
And for this exact reason, I think the Patriot Act (search) and other powers the feds have asked for to keep an eye on potential terrorists are important and should be put in place and kept in place and the police should use those powers.
That's My Word.
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Watch John Gibson weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on "The Big Story" and send your comments to: myword@foxnews.com