Jihadi brides

In all the discussion about who is responsible for the three schoolgirls’ flight to Syria (your report, 11 March), I have seen no mention of the part played by the travel agent who took payment of more than £1,000 in cash for three teenage girls to travel to Turkey. Surely under the circumstances this should have raised alarm bells, with questions raised certainly with their parents or even with the police.

My granddaughter, aged 14, is travelling alone to America this summer to visit family and is required to carry a notarised letter signed by both parents to say that the trip is authorised.

Rosemary Shaw

Caroline Terrace

Edinburgh

I had thought that prosecutions were matters for the appropriate authorities, not the police. The Assistant Commissioner may have remembered enough to insert the vital word “potentially” before “prosecuting” in his evidence but implies that the police are in charge.

The Glasgow family’s lawyer understandably detects an element of playing to the gallery when phrases such as “sort them out” are deployed.

As the other implications of being a jihadi bride suggest any return of this lady is extremely unlikely, it still seems the 
upside-down version of the Theodore Roosevelt remark about speaking softly and carrying a big stick.

LV McEwan

Kirkhill Road

Edinburgh