The rising threat of ‘gig economy terrorism’
The arrest of five men near a British airbase comes amid a trend of saboteurs being recruited on social media.
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Armed police standing guard outside the RAF Fairford airbase, after the arrest of several men on Sept 28. Europe’s security services, built to hunt professional spies and committed ideologues, now find themselves policing a casual labour market in violence, says the writer.
PHOTO: REUTERS
For most of this week, a British military base used by the US Air Force was the scene of – depending on whom you want to believe – either the most serious threat to American military power in Europe or the most amusing whodunit story in some time.
Soon after several young British men were arrested in an English village near the airbase and had their vans impounded, US President Donald Trump announced that plotters aiming to hit the base had been watched “for a long time” and were finally caught.