Posts Tagged ‘Farouk’

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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It has been announced by the Home Secretary that full body scanners will be introduced to all UK airports within the next 3 weeks. Alan Johnson also said that explosive trace detection equipment should be introduced at all airports by the end of the year. This announcement comes after Gordon Brown ordered a review of Security at UK airports.

BAA has reportedly begun training their staff in behavioural analysis techniques in an attempt to heighten security awareness. Transit passengers are also to face more scrutiny when passing through the UK as Farouk Abdulmutallab did on Christmas Day.

The Government is also looking at identity based profiling in the battle against terrorism. As expected civil liberty groups have reacted angrily to the new proposals.

We reported a few days ago how Gordon Brown had ordered a review of security at all UK airports. BAA announced that it was to install full body scanners as a matter of urgency. We said at the time that while electronic systems were invaluable in the fight against terrorism, there were not the be all and end all. What makes the real difference is well trained motivated and valued staff. It is the training of staff that lets the whole security system down.

A report published today outlined that the full body scanners to be installed in the UK and in use by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the United States would be unlikely to have found the device carried by Farouk Abdulmutallab on the Detroit bound Nothwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day.

These scanners intended for UK use work on millimetre wave and while they are effective in spotting items with a heavy density they are unable to detect lower density items such as clothing powders liquids etc. It is this property of millimetre wave scanners that cause the subject to appear naked in the scanner.

Because the device carried on Flight 253 was in powder form the concern is that even if full body scanning was in place the density of the PETN would have made it invisible. The US use X-ray backscatter scanning which is prone to also making less dense object very difficult if not impossible to detect although X-ray backscatter devices do provide a much sharper resolution.

http://www.examiner.com/x-28973-Essex-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m1d2-Fullbody-scanners-might-not-work-as-advertised

As 2009 draws to a close the UK and indeed the World is no better place than when the Year began. We have reported in the last 2 weeks that London Business was briefed by SO15 (Counter Terror Command) that there was a threat of a Mumbai style attack in London in the New Year. On Christms Day Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a trsatlantic flight as it came in to land in Detroit. He had evaded airport security with PETN in his underwear.

A Somalli man is in custody in Mogadishu for attemting to take explosives onto an aircraft in November. The style of attack was similar to that of the detroit attack and targeted a Daallo Airlines plane flying to the northern Somali City of Hargeisa then on to Djibouti and Dubai.

Airports in Somalia are one area that the fragile Government still has control of with help from the African Union peacekeeping force. With much of Somalia in the hands of radical Islamist groups it is the first reported attempt of such an act.

In the wake of the Detroit attack calls have been made for improved airport security on transatlantic flights. Why only transatlantic flights? In our opinion security improvements should me made accross the board and the Mogadisu attempted attack highlights that the targets of Islamist groups are not just American and British.

Installing electronic measures is fine and there are some fantastic products on the market but with every electronic system there needs to be effective human intervention to interrogate and investigate what the electronice device has detected. Whereever Humans are involved there will always be the chance of failure.

One way of limiting the chance of failure is to provide a robust well planned and well executed training programme and not the run of the mill packages currently available. I have travelled from UK airports and can spot weaknesses in security at every level.

If we can spot these weaknesses then so can terrorist operatives engaged on Hostile Reconnaisance, and be under no illusion that Hostile Reconnaisance will be taking place all the time.

Spain has just incresed their terror alert level as it prepares to adopt the EU Prsidency on Friday. Raising threat levels is fine but what do they mean? Ask most people involved in physical security what the UK threat level and responses are and they wont have a clue. Give the same people information and training as to what it means wont defeat terrorism but it will reduce the risk.

Not a plesenet way to end 2009 but it is reality.

We wish you all a safe end to 2009 and look forward to providing information to help keep you safe in 2010.