When members of the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) were sent to Afghanistan I had no doubt that they would get Bin Laden. After watching the "Regiment" end the seige at the Iranian Embassy in 1980 as a schoolboy and then later in the Falklands War I had a sort of blind faith in these elite soldiers. The same can be said for the other elite units such as MI5, the domestic intelligence service, SIS or MI6, the foreign intelligence, Scotland Yard´s SO19 and of course the Counter Terrorist Command and GCHQ, the modern equivalent of the now infamous Bletchley Park. These units and organisations have been hugely successful in keeping Britain safe and in some ways they have been a victim of their own success. They have an almost super-human reputation and the British public have a blind faith in them.
But over the last few weeks some have said the security services have failed and to some extent they are right. It must be remembered that over the last few years the security services have stopped numerous terrorists attacks in Britain. They make a super-human effort but after all they are human and sometimes mistakes are made. But I continue to have the same faith in the security services that I did back in 1980. They are the best in the world and while questions will have to be asked about the Manchester and the London attacks, Britain should be very proud of its security services.