By Tom Whitehead, Ruth Sherlock and Gordon Rayner
10:00PM BST 24 May 2013
For Britain’s soldiers, there was never any question of hiding. Nor was there any possibility of the public holding back in their show of solidarity.
Over 300 soldiers marched through the streets of York on Friday Photo: Getty Images
Proudly marching through the streets of York with cheers ringing in their ears, the men and women of 2nd Signal Regiment — recently returned from Afghanistan — were greeted by thousands of people lining the streets to welcome them home.
In the hours after the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby by alleged Islamist terrorists in Woolwich, south-east London, on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence had advised servicemen and women not to go out in uniform — an order that was promptly ignored by soldiers who refused to be cowed and almost immediately rescinded.
300 members of the Armed Forces were cheered by well-wishers who waved Union flags and wore Help for Heroes (H4H) T-shirts in an uplifting show of defiance.
The regiment’s commanding officer described the response as a “testament to the character of the British people”.
And the public have shown their defiance in other ways. It emerged last night that £600,000 has been donated to the H4H military charity since the death of Drummer Rigby, who was wearing one of its T-shirts when he was killed.
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Police are still waiting to question suspects Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, who allegedly killed the 25-year-old. Adebolajo was seen on video with his hands red with blood after the killing. In another dramatic day since the incident:
• MI5 and the police faced renewed scrutiny as it emerged that both suspects were linked to the now banned fanatical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, which has had links to one in five convicted terrorists.
• former Metropolitan Police chief called for urgent clarity on whether the security services and police had let the men slip through the net following revelations that they had been known to the authorities for up to a decade.
• The widow of Drummer Rigby, who was from Manchester, and mother of his two-year-old son told how she was “proud to be his wife” and would “always love him”. In a heartfelt tribute, Rebecca Rigby said: “He was due to come up this weekend so we could continue our future together as a family. He was a devoted father to our son Jack and we will both miss him terribly.”
• Two RAF fighter jets were scrambled to escort a Pakistani passenger plane to Stansted airport after two passengers tried to get into the cockpit, claiming they had a bomb.
• It emerged that Adebowale is the son of a probation officer and a Nigerian embassy official. His mother had tried for five years to turn him away from extremism.
Lt Col Colin Vaudin, commanding officer of 2nd Signal Regiment, who returned from a six-month tour of Afghanistan last week, said he was “humbled” by the crowd in York.
He added: “They’ve been very, very large, very supportive and hearing their claps and shouts of support means so much to myself and the soldiers of my regiment.”
His wife, Jenny, who was in the crowd, said of the Woolwich atrocity: “The good part of it is people are joining together in a show of solidarity and strength against acts like this, which are absolutely abhorrent.”
In London, Baroness Warsi, the minister of faith and communities, praised the country’s united response. She told The Daily Telegraph: “The potential for Woolwich being incendiary was huge. But instead, we’ve come out united, resolute, and unreserved in our response: we Muslims are revolted by what we’ve seen.”
MI5 and the police face fresh questions over their dealings with Adebolajo and Adebowale as more evidence of their links to extremism emerged. Omar Bakri Mohammed, the leader of al-Muhajiroun, confirmed that both men had been members of his former fanatical group, which was banned in 2010.
The Telegraph reported that Adebolajo had been associated with the group and Bakri Mohammed’s deputy, Anjem Choudary, and had a violent past. Speaking from Lebanon, Bakri Mohammed, who has been banned from the UK, said his “brothers in London” also had links with Adebowale.
He said: “Choudary knows his family well. He told me that Michael Adebowale man was known as Abdul Wahed.”
Research by the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank, has shown that of all those convicted of Islamic-inspired terrorism offences between 1998 and 2010, 18 per cent were either members of or had previous links to al-Muhajiroun.
At David Cameron’s request, the parliamentary intelligence and security committee is to investigate MI5’s dealings with the two suspects after it emerged that they had been assessed as not posing a threat to life.
Lord Blair, who was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner between 2005 and 2008, said the public must be told urgently whether the men were allowed to slip through the net. He said that in the aftermath of the 7/7 suicide bombings in 2005, the public had to wait four years to learn whether MI5 could have done more to prevent the atrocity.
He said: “I think it’s important for the public to have somebody say within the limits of legality that either something was mistaken, decisions were badly taken, or they weren’t, because I think it’s important for the public to know that security services and the police are operating properly.”
Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, said that the Prime Minister wanted to know “what went right and what went wrong” and expected a “thorough investigation”. The minister also stressed it was impossible for the security services to monitor and control everyone. “We need to be realistic that a free and open society is always vulnerable,” he said.
Richard Barrett, a former head of counter-terrorism at MI6, said it was hard to detect in advance attacks like that seen in Woolwich.
Woolwich attack: Cheers for our heroes... we will not be moved - Telegraph
