LONDON - In the aftermath of the bombings of London's transit system, British officials are considering criminalizing "hate speech" in mosques, barring "fomenters of terrorism" from entering the country and loosening the rules for the government to eavesdrop on phone conversations and computer messages.
Britain's three major political parties, divided on civil rights grounds over such measures before the attacks July 7, agree that some version of the proposals is needed to make Britain safer.
But almost no one seems to believe that those measures - or anything else proposed - will make Britain safe.
Meanwhile, a Briton of Indian descent who reportedly had telephone contacts with the four London transit system bombers just before the attacks was arrested yesterday in Pakistan, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The arrest of Haroon Rashid Aswat appeared to be a major break in the investigation of the bombings because he could tie the events directly to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida movement in Pakistan and Afghanistan, even though the four bombers were British citizens.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, his minister in charge of domestic security and top law enforcement officials at Scotland Yard continue to say - as they did before the bombings, which killed 56 people including the bombers and injured more than 700 - that Britain remains a prime target for attacks.
Across Europe, as borders are tightened and intelligence forces are enhanced, there is widespread agreement on this: There is only so much that can be done to ward off attacks, and new attacks are nearly inevitable.
"It's one thing to make some arrests or for the threat to lessen simply because an attack has just occurred, so there's one less bullet in the chamber, if you will," said Jonathan Stevenson, senior fellow for counterterrorism at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. "But a substantial threat remains."
He continued, "Will there be another major attack in Britain or some other Western country next month or within the next year? I don't know. Is another attack inevitable? I'm afraid I'd say that yes, it's inevitable."
In the days after the bombings, while London mourned its dead and police investigated how the bombings occurred, focus in Britain was understandably on how the bombers - four British-born Muslims - succeeded in targeting three subway trains and a bus.
Only in recent days has serious discussion begun on why they might have done it.
