Archive for January, 2010

One of the reasons it is thought that the UK Threat level was raised from substantial to severe is to counter a new and emerging threat.

As we reported a few days ago AQ has gone through a restructure and are arguably more popular than ever in the Muslim world.

It is thought that AQ in Pakistan has the capability to take over an airliner and plan to fly it into a British City. We reported before Christmas how UK intelligence feared a Mumbai style attack on the Capital. AQ does indeed have global reach and despite mutterings to the contrary the UK is a hot breeding ground for fundamentalism.

We have no doubt that Farouk Abdulmutallab (Christmas Day bomber) was radicalised in the UK. We support free speech and of course with such liberal views on free speech is going to mean that suggestive ideas are bound to be aired.

We in no way advocate the damping down of freedom of speech but we certainly advocate the message to the masses that terrorism is and remains a very real risk and we ALL should be playing our part.

Vigilance is key to our safety. The Security Services have and do do a magnificent job but they also rely on low level intelligence, what's happening on your street that is unusual? Are you concerned about something that you have heard or witnessed?

We are very good and overriding our better judgement and trying to make sense of what we have seen or heard but if we take stock and report our fears it may just avert an attack.

The way AQ operate, especially in Europe and other developed Countries is to recruit people who are not on Security Service radar and so don't arouse suspicion.

The only way of combatting this is the vigilance of the masses. Many people don't think they or their businesses would be terrorist targets. What is a terrorist target? In the case of AQ any business and anybody is a target so burying heads in sand is a very short sighted and misguided view.

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There are reports that the UK Threat Level was increased due to AQ training a group of female suicide bombers to target western locations.

This comes amid a report that suggests that AQ have restructured and are becoming stronger, able to attack a location anywhere and a time of their choosing.

The US is also aware of the huge support and fertile breeding ground that AQ has in the UK. This comes after reports that Abdulmutallab was radicalised in the UK before going on to attempt detonating a device on an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.

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The home Secretary has announced, within the last hour that the current Threat Level has been raised from substantial to Severe.

He has said that this is not in response to any intelligence that could lead to attack.

The Home Secretary consults with The Joing Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) before making a decision as to the Threat Level. JTAC is made up of the main Security and Intelligence agencies.

The Tories have recently said they will turn around the law and allow people to look after there property and families safe in the knowledge that they wont be arrested as long as the act reasonably.

How nice of the Tories. Its a play on words and means absolutely nothing. The Criminal Law Act 1967 says in part Any person may use such Force as is reasonable in the circumstances.

Reasonable can be further broken down into necessary and proportionate. If you use force inside or outside your home which is necessary and proportionate then you have acted lawfully. If, as in so many cases you use force legitimately and the attacker runs off and you pursue him/her and carry on the attack then this would be unlawful as the threat has gone and the use of force becomes Retaliation Retribution Revenge and Teaching the person a lesson.

This is also backed up by Section 2 (2) of the Human Rights Act 19998. The hype that the press give to this is nothing short of scaremongering and plants the seed of doubt in the minds of the ordinary law abiding Citizen. This use of force stands whether the attacker is a child, adult, old, young, male or female.

Mark Twain once said there are "Lies damn lies and statistics"

The Government and in particular the Home Office have been caught with there hands in the cookie jar and pants down over the publication of statistics relating to knife crime..

In response to rising knife crime and serious assaults the government introduced Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) across 10 areas of the Country and used NHS information (against NHS advice) to show how its initiatives were working reducing admissions to hospitals by 27%

When the actual figures were released by the NHS Information Centre they were barely perceptible showing that in fact government initiatives had no real impact on knife or any other serious crime and in some cases figures had showed an increase.

There are now calls for an independent body to interpret and publish statistics so there is an impartial view and we, the public can get a more honest view of what, I'm sure we already know, government initiatives rarely work.

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Canada is on alert at its airports following intelligence reports from British and US agencies that terrorists are trying to enter the US through the country.

Intelligence from Britain and the US has warned Canada that 20 Yemeni-trained terrorists are trying to enter North America, according to a Canadian Television network on Tuesday.

Canadian intelligence officials have also ‘gathered credible evidence that there was another group of terrorists who were also trying to get into Canada,” the network reported.

The ability of UK police to use counter-terror stop and search powers against peace protesters and photographers lay in tatters after a landmark ruling by the European court of human rights.

The Strasbourg court ruled it was unlawful for police to use the powers, under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, to stop and search people without needing any grounds for suspicion.

The widely-drawn ruling said that not only the use of the counter-terror powers, but also the way they were authorised, were “neither sufficiently circumscribed, nor subject to adequate legal safeguards against abuse”.

The use of these powers has grown fourfold, from 33,177 times in 2004 to more than 117,200 in 2008.

The Metropolitan police have used them most, but 11 other forces in England and Wales also make routine use of them.

Well, despite the weather we have just completed another weekend Door Supervisors Course and to great success.

All the students commented on how much they had learnt and how much they enjoyed the course even though they lost a weekend in the process.

Get your course in before June of this Year as that is when the course content changes.

Our next course will be run at Langstone Technology Park over the 12, 13 and 14 of February 2010. We still have places available.

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Following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253 over Detroit, UK police reacted to a security incident at Heathrow airport on Fri 08 Jan 2010.

3 men were arrested aboard an Emirates flight to Dubai. A search of the plane was conducted but no hazardous material was found.

The worrying aspect is that this comes so soon after Christmas when security should still be high. It is another example of how ineffective current measures are. Yes the 3 were caught or arrested before airborne but even on the ground any device would have caused carnage with a full fuel load aboard the aircraft.

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A man returning from Slovakia to Dublin after his Christmas Holidays was arrested on Tuesday after explosives were found in his luggage. It has now emerged that the explosives were planted by the Slovakian Authorities at Bratislava Airport on unsuspecting passengers. 8 types of explosives were planted and 7 of the 8 were detected however 90g of Research Development Explosive (RDX) failed to be detected.

The 49 year old man was released without charge after the Slovakian Authorities alerted the Irish Governmemt. The Slovakian Minister for the Interior has expressed his profound regret at what happened.

The Irish Army have said that no passengers were at risk as the explosive was stable and was not connected to any other key components that would constitute a viable explosive device.