Who is to blame?
On May 22, 2013, a british soldier named Fusilier Lee Rigby was killed by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, while off duty in South East London. [2]
The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament published a report on the the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby this morning. The report claimed that the murder of Lee Rigby could not have been prevented by intelligence services, however it could have been prevented if the unnamed internet company-which is now identified as Facebook, passed on information of Adebowale’s Facebook exchanges in December 2012. [1]
The mere fact that the parliament’s intelligence and security committee is blaming Facebook for failing to prevent the murder of Lee Rigby is appalling and an act of ’shooting the messenger’. In my opinion, the intelligence and security services are a more reasonable source to blame.
“Had M15 had access to this exchange at the time, Adebowale would have become a top priority. There is a significant possibility that M15 would have been able to prevent the attack.” said Committee chairman Sir Malcom Rifkind [3]
Sir Malcolm also went on to say that the unnamed firm, which we now know as Facebook, “does not appear to regard itself as under any obligation to ensure that its system identifies such exchanges.” As a result, it is “unintentionally providing a safe haven for terrorists.” [4]
I do not agree with Sir Malcolm’s statement because I do not believe that internet companies such as Facebook should be responsible for continually monitoring their user’s conversations for mention of potential crimes. However, I do believe that they should be expected to do so only when a suspect is identified to them by the intelligence agencies. As this was not the case with the Lee Rigby crime, then one cannot really blame Facebook.
To show why the fault lies in the hands of the intelligence agencies, it is necessary to shed light on the mistakes and failures of the intelligence and security services:
It was reported that Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo were under investigation by seven security services. Micheal Adebolajo had been arrested in Kenya for undergoing preparation to fight with the extremist terrorist group Al-Shabab. As reported, M16 had knowledge of that, but they regarded him as a “low-level” subject of interest. [2]
Furthermore, it appears that M15 had an eight-month delay before actively investigating Adebowale in 2012. In addition, in 2013, an application for intrusive surveillance on Adebowale took “nearly twice as long as it should have.” [2]
The delays in M15 to investigate Adebowale and the failure of M16 to take action after Adebolajo’s arrest in Kenya is evidence of the mistakes made by the intelligence and security services. Had the targets of the investigations on Adebowale and Adebolajo been met efficiently, than the death of Lee Rigby could have been potentially prevented by the agencies, not by Facebook.
Since Micheal Adebowale was not identified as a suspect and Facebook did not receive information from the intelligence agencies that he was planning an attack then, Facebook shouldn’t be blamed for failing to provide M15 with user data.
http://www.channel4.com/news/lee-rigby-woolwich-isc-inquiry-murder-security-services [2]
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30200311 [1]
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/its-wrong-blame-facebook-murder-4693127 [3]