So much for the oft-repeated canard that the only reason Britain is a target of global terror is that it allied itself to the US. The Guardian reports that France, le pays de dhimmitude numero uno, has just foiled a biological attack upon itself and other European countries. The police sting arose from the previous arrest of a man suspected of planning human bomb attacks on Russians in Paris. Now, even this relatively comforting illusion entertained by the axis of weasels has been destroyed:

'"After last year's arrests we thought we were dealing with a group planning bomb attacks on Russian interests, and possibly supplying false papers, money and lodgings to Chechens," an investigator said. "It now seems a cell around the Benchellali family was trying to manufacture chemical and biological weapons for attacks around Europe." '

This follows an impressive story in yesterday's Observer which reported a network of bombers planning attacks on Europe. The paper said there was 'a major war being fought, bitterly and secretly, in cities from London to Warsaw, from Madrid to Oslo. It pits the best investigative officers in Europe against a fanatical network of men dedicated to the prosecution of jihad both in Europe and overseas...Previously seen as a relative backwater in the war on terror, Europe is now in the frontline. 'It's trench warfare,' said one security expert. 'We keep taking them out. They keep coming at us. And every time they are coming at us harder.'

Indeed. This is the sobering, if terifying, reality. It makes no difference whether western countries are fighting honourably alongside the US or despicably trying to appease the forces of terror. War has been declared on the west, period. The only question is whether it chooses to fight back.

One fact in particular leaps from the Observer's account of an extensive network of Islamic terrorist cells built across Europe since 9/11. It is that London is its epicentre. Key quote:

'Britain is still playing a central logistical role for the militants, with extremists, including the alleged mastermind of last year's bombings in Morocco, and a leader of an al-Qaeda cell, regularly using the UK as a place to hide. Other radical activists are using Britain for fundraising, massive credit card fraud, the manufacture of false documents and planning. Recruitment is also continuing. In one bugged conversation, a senior militant describes London as 'the nerve centre' and says that his group has 'Albanians, Swiss [and] British' recruits. He needs people who are 'intelligent and highly educated', he says and implies that the UK can, and does, supply them.'

If the Tories are looking for a stick with which to beat Tony Blair, why don't they call an emergency debate on the fact that his government has done nothing to close down London's continuing key role in the global terror factory?