2006:
‘We have no specific intelligence [...] The level of threat against the United Kingdom is of an unparalleled nature and growing. [...] Unparalleled in terms of operational threat since the second World War. Far graver threat in terms of civilians than probably during the second World War or the Cold War; that's it.’So on one hand Sir Ian Blair says he doesn't have any specific intelligence, and on the other that the threat is greater than during WW2 when tens of thousands of people were killed in London. This is irresponsible propaganda.
The National DNA Database (NDNAD) records the DNA profile for a particular individual. It does not hold data on arrest and criminal records. This information is held on the police national computer (PNC). The facilities do not exist to cross-refer between all records on the NDNAD and PNC to the level of detail that would be required to provide the information sought.In other words, 1,139,445 of the entries in the DNAD as of last July were for persons never having been found guilty of any crime. A third (32.96%) of the DNAD entries are for innocents.
However, we can say that information provided by the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) from the PNC indicated that as at 14 July 2006, when there were approximately 3,457,000 individuals on the database, 2,922,624 of these persons also had an entry on PNC. Of these, 2,317,555 (79.3 per cent.) had a conviction or caution (i.e. a criminal record). The difference between the two figures is attributable to: young persons under 18 who have a formal warning or reprimand recorded on PNC; persons who have been charged with a recordable offence where proceedings are on-going; and persons who have been arrested for a recordable offence but no further action was taken.
As indicated in the answer of 20 December 2005, Official Report, column 2890W, there were 139,463 people who have a DNA profile on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) who have not been charged or cautioned with an offence. This figure comprised 124,347 people who have been arrested and subsequently not been charged or cautioned with an offence and 15,116 people who had volunteered a sample and given consent to the profile being loaded on the NDNAD....and John Reid (Home Secretary), not even two months ago, in October 2006 was stating:
It is not currently possible to determine how many of the 124,347 "CJ arrestees" (persons with a DNA profile on the National DNA Database who have been arrested and subsequently not charged or cautioned with an offence) have never been convicted of an offence. [...] The figures might suggest that the remaining 100,828 persons have never been charged, reported for summons or sanctioned for any offence.The number of innocents in the NDNAD in a year has gone from 139,463 (Andy Burnham) to 100,828 (John Reid), to eventually more than an eightfold to 1,139,445 (Joan Ryan). Is it alright for the Parliament and us to be misled with such contradictory figures?
Andy Hayman, the Metropolitan Police's assistant commissioner responsible for anti-terror probes, said few arrests or charges arose from such searches.I raised this very issue with MPA last year.
[...]
I am not sure what purpose it serves, especially as it upsets so many people, with some sections of our community feeling unfairly targeted.
Mats Lindoff, the chief technology officer at Sony Ericsson, a leading handset-maker, points out that the processing power of mobile phones lags behind that of laptop computers by around five years. Furthermore, studies show that people read around ten megabytes (MB) worth of material a day; hear 400MB a day, and see one MB of information every second. In a decade's time a typical phone will have enough storage capacity to be able to video its user's entire life, says Mr Lindoff.
Joan Ryan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office) answers:
Planned projects in the Home Office which will make use of biometrics include:The Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office did say "include" - one major omission is the NDNAD (National DNA Database). And the PNC includes data from some of these biometric databases.In addition there are a number of smaller projects some of which are partnerships with other organisations in the UK and abroad. Existing projects in the Home Office which make use of biometrics include:
- preparation for the addition of a second biometric in the UK ePassport;
- Identity Cards programme in support of the national identity scheme;
- UKvisas Biometric programme to ensure that all UK issued visas will use biometric identifiers by the end of 2007 or early 2008;
- Biometric travel documents;
- Biometric residence permit to be developed in line with common EU standards;
- IAFS+, extension of IAFS (Immigration and Asylum Fingerprints System) to accommodate the biometric visas and biometric residence permits;
- e-Borders programme, delivering a modernised border control, which is fundamentally more effective, efficient and secure to meet the future operational needs of UK border, law enforcement and intelligence agencies;
- PITO project to use face recognition to support FIND;
- LANTERN, a mobile fingerprint system under development by PITO.
As for planned projects there are a number of smaller projects some of which are partnerships with other organisations in the UK and abroad. The Home Office is continuing to examine new technologies, and new ways of using existing biometric technologies, to ensure the protection of the public.
- IDENT1, UK police platform for fingerprints and palmprints;
- UK ePassport: completion of its rollout scheduled for third quarter of 2006;
- IAFS (Immigration and Asylum Fingerprint System), database of biometric data relating to immigration cases and asylum seekers;
- ARC (application registration cards) and the use of mobile quick check readers. ARC is a credit card sized plastic credential which contains fingerprint details of asylum claimants and others;
- RepARC (Reporting with ARC) programme to require asylum claimants to produce their ARC card at each reporting event;
- ISRP (Immigration Stateless Refugee Project) to collect fingerprint details from holders of the 1951 UN Convention Travel Document;
- VIAFS (Visa Immigration and Asylum Fingerprint System), collecting fingerprints of visa applicants from certain countries;
- EURODAC, European-wide system in support of the Dublin Convention uses fingerprint data in order that member states can determine whether an asylum-seeker or a foreign national found present within a member state has previously claimed asylum in another member state;
- IRIS (Iris Recognition Immigration System), a free and voluntary way for air passengers to clear immigration utilising their iris image to verify their identity;
- Systems in prisons to prevent escapes by prisoners exchanging places with visitors;
- C-NOMIS (Custody- National Offender Management Information System). Fingerprint based for confirmation of prisoner identity against IDENT1 and PNC.
- Pilot of a Methadone dispensing system using iris recognition, at HMP Eastwood Park.
- Trial of fingerprint based access control to IT systems in prisons.
FIND Pilot has now gone Live. Good news on the FIND project is that the FIND Pilot has now gone live in 5 Forces around the country. The Pilot started 06/11 and will run for approximatly three months with an option to extend the system if requested by the Forces and it is feasible. A Benefits / evaluation workshop is happening 29/11 to assess the first months success of the Pilot and capture the benefits gained so far to the Forces. The Forces involved in the Pilot are Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Merseyside (supplying their data and images) and Devon and Cornwal and British Transport Police Leeds Office (read only). We have had requests for access by other Forces '/ goverment bodies and of which need to be considered.
Some of my personal encounters with IDENT1 and NDNAD: fingerprints, palm prints and DNA samples taken. As recorded in the PNC. Raising some of these issues with the MPA. Finding that private companies are keeping their own DNA databases, possibly including my own DNA; complaining about it to the ICO; one response; a further one. Discovering that DNA samples and profiles are kept until death of the subject. Discovering that DNA samples and profiles are kept for eternity and that the NDNAD records information as to whether the subject has been convicted (which can of course be incorrect).
The Home Office is also involved in these changes.
At a time when the EU should have been providing global leadership in the wake of US abuses, European governments were secretly colluding with the Bush administration on secret detention and unlawful rendition
[...]
Poland, the United Kingdom and Italy are singled out as having been especially uncooperative.
[...]
The committee's report concludes that there were at least 1,245 overflights or stopovers by CIA planes in Europe, and that some of these flights probably involved prisoner transfers.
| Evidence types | Success rates |
| Semen | 90% |
| Blood | 87% |
| Chewing gum | 78% |
| Cigarette butts | 75% |
| Fingernail clippings | 69% |
| Comb/Razor | 53% |
| Hair with roots | 50% |
| Saliva | 40% |
| Hair without visible roots | 15% |
| Cigarette lighter | 10% |
| Watch strap | 8% |
Advice for border guards when conducting the border check:
- when you take the travel document always have a look at the face of the traveller at first (try to remember as much as possible of the noticeable features of the traveller's face);
- compare the features of the traveller with the photo and description included in the travel document, match them also with the visa when this is required (this could help to eliminate impostors);
- check the travel document through in order to rule out the possibility that it is counterfeit or forged (the numbering, printing and stitching of pages, seals and stamps inserted, the inclusion of other persons; all corrections made in the document especially at the personal data page should be clarified by the traveller);
- check the data in the file system; while doing this keep always verbal contact and observe the behaviour and reaction of the traveller (e.g., nervousness, an aggressive attitude, excessive willingness to co-operate);
- before you put the border's stamp make sure that the person did not overstay the allowed period during his/her last stay within the Schengen States territory (i.e. 3 months within six months[)];
- do not interrogate the traveller as a potential criminal or illegal immigrant. All the questions should be well balanced and asked in a friendly way.
- questions posed by the traveller should not be considered as intrusive and should be answered in a factual and polite manner.
Since Tony Blair's New Labour government came to power in 1997, the UK civil liberties landscape has changed dramatically. ASBOs were introduced by Section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and first used in 1999. The right to remain silent is no longer universal. Our right to privacy, free from interception of communications has been severely curtailed. The ability to travel without surveillance (or those details of our journeys being retained) has disappeared.
Indeed, as Henry Porter (the Observer journalist famous for his recent email clash with Tony Blair over the paring down of civil liberties) reveals in this unsettling film, our movements are being watched, and recorded, more than ever before.
The meeting will be attended by senior representatives from the emergency services, Transport for London, and the National Health Service. The Committee will ask them questions about what progress they have made on key issues such as underground communications, digital radios / alternatives to mobile telephones, and putting in place plans to care for survivors of major incidents.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, QC, MP, Ross Anderson and Henry Porter consider where we go from here. The Identity Cards Act 2006 is law, and must be repealed, but meanwhile the government is already working on extending its scope, through "information sharing" across the public sector and an "Identity Management Action Plan" to be produced by the end of this year. What new threats does this offer to personal liberty? How can the slide to the database state be halted?
Plenary speakers: Gareth Peirce, Mark Thomas, Craig Murray, Mark Muller, Brian Haw, Bill Bowring, Nafeez Ahmed
Themes: Anti-terrorism measures, detention and repression of asylum seekers and other migrants, new police powers against demonstrators, ASBOs, ID cards and state surveillance; and how foreign policy and new state strategies for social control relate to all of these measures.
Speakers: David Cole (Professor of Law at Georgetown University and author of Terrorism and the Constitution) and Louise Christian (Human Rights Lawyer and Liberty Board Member)
Chair: Katy Clark MP
David Cole and Louise Christian will discuss whether sacrificing civil liberties has in fact made us safer, and suggest that some trade-offs in liberties may have actually made us less safe. They will discuss what has and has not changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11 and July 7, respectively, and how we should proceed as we seek security and justice for all in the future.
UK Police Terrorism Arrest Statistics (Excluding N. Ireland)I was likely counted in some of these numbers.
2005
266 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 and Terrorism Act 2006
11 arrests under legislation other than the Terrorism Act, where the investigation was conducted as a Terrorist Investigation.
277 Total
Outcomes
8 Charged with Terrorism Act offences only
22 Charged with Terrorism Act offences and other criminal offences
32 Charged under other legislation. E.g. murder (incl conspiracies), grievous bodily harm, firearms, explosives offences, fraud, false documents, etc.
9 Handed over to Immigration Authorities
13 On Police Bail awaiting charging decisions
0 Cautioned
1 Dealt with under youth offending procedures
2 Dealt with under Mental Health legislation
0 Returned to Prison (subject to recall)
1 Transferred to PSNI custody
188 Released without charge
1 Remanded in Custody under US Extradition warrant
0 Result of Investigation awaits
277 Total
8 Terrorism Act convictions to date.
25 Convicted under other legislation. E.g. murder (incl conspiracies), grievous bodily harm, firearms, explosives offences, fraud, false documents, etc
26 Awaiting Trial
2006
143 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 and Terrorism Act 2006 - To 30/09/2006.
16 arrests under legislation other than the Terrorism Act, where the investigation was conducted as a Terrorist Investigation.
159 Total
Outcomes
31 Charged with Terrorism Act offences only
21 Charged with Terrorism Act offences and other criminal offences
13 Charged under other legislation. E.g. murder (incl conspiracies), grievous bodily harm, firearms, explosives offences, fraud, false documents, etc.
2 Handed over to Immigration Authorities
6 On Police Bail awaiting charging decisions
0 Cautioned
0 Dealt with under youth offending procedures
0 Dealt with under Mental Health legislation
0 Returned to Prison (subject to recall)
1 Transferred to PSNI custody
83 Released without charge
0 Remanded in Custody under US Extradition warrant
2 Result of Investigation awaits
159 Total
4 Terrorism Act convictions to date.
7 Convicted under other legislation. E.g. murder (incl conspiracies), grievous bodily harm, firearms, explosives offences, fraud, false documents, etc
55 Awaiting Trial
One in four men could soon be included on the national DNA database which is helping to turn Britain into a nation of suspects, an expert group has warned.The figures I had included in Is the UK a police state? where from March 2004. A million more DNA samples have been collected since.
The database has been established with little or no public consultation but over the past 10 years has collected DNA profiles on more than 3.5 million people, including 24,000 children and youths under the age of 18.
[...]
Sir Bob [Hepple, chairman of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics] said that this implies that the Prime Minister would be happy to see every citizen's DNA profile being stored on the database. "The cost would be enormous but there is also the deeper question - instead of being a nation of citizens we become a nation of suspects," Sir Bob said.
[...] Mr Raissi, 32, an Algerian pilot, was the first person to be arrested in connection with 9/11 when armed police raided his West London home at 3am on September 21, 2001. He was held for five months in Belmarsh high-security prison before a judge declared that there was no evidence that he was involved in terrorism.
[...] The alleged terrorist link was one of a number of false allegations made against Mr Raissi. Prosecutors claimed in court that he was the “lead instructor” for the main hijackers who crashed aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. The FBI was said to have video material showing him in the company of Hani Hanjour, one of the hijack pilots.
However, all the evidence was shown to be unsubstantiated and, in February 2002, District Judge Timothy Workman ordered Mr Raissi's release.
[...] Mr Raissi said: “My life has been ruined. I lost my freedom, my reputation and my career. The courts have said I am innocent – why does the Home Secretary not accept this?” Jules Carey, Mr Raissi's solicitor, said the Home Secretary's decision (to refuse compensation) was “morally wrong. We hope to establish that his decision is also legally wrong.”
For instance: In 1993, John Matthews was arrested and detained for 10 weeks by the Police in connection with an IRA bombing. When the case came before a Magistrate's Court the prosecution offered no evidence and he was told by the Magistrate that he left the Court without a stain on his character.More...
As he literally left the Court, on the steps, he was served with an "Exclusion Order" and immediately removed to N.Ireland.
‘[...] he felt compelled to speak out to protect other innocent travellers from a similar experience.
"This man could have garrotted me and what was awful was that one or two of the passengers went up afterwards to thank him," said Mr Stein. He has since been told by airline staff he was targeted because he was using an iPod, had used the toilet when he got on the plane and that his tan made him appear "Arab". [...]’
The Information Commissioner is aware of no evidence indicating that the MPS are inappropriately giving away DNA information to third parties or are allowing such information to be used for purposes incompatible with the police forces statutory functions.More...
This is not to say however that the Information Commissioner is unaware of media reports or does not respond to them when he becomes aware of things.More...
Free Unions - Unions Libres. Published July 1946 (1 issue). Dir. Simon Watson Taylor. London.(Thanks to AB for recently mentioning this story.)
Planned as a series of texts which would summarize the surrealist position at the end of the war, Free Unions was published 2 years after its conception, due to the arrest of the editors and the seizure of the proofs - thought to be coded messages of anarchists. With its publication, English surrealism became aware of the need for unity following the dissentions of the pre-war period, in order to establish a firm basis for the future. Artistic contributors included Lucien Freud and E.L.T. Mesens.
From the Introduction:
The concept of unity has today come to imply an antithesis to that of freedom. It is this antithesis in politics, morality, art and society that denies life... It is in our search for liberty that we, in the dark jungle of torpor, destruction and imbecility that has dug its roots into the world today, have discovered for ourselves the path cleared by surrealism in the tangled undergrowth.
"The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn't a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave,"
Questions raised over some terror plot charges
By John Crewdson
Tribune senior correspondent
Published August 31, 2006
LONDON -- He is 17 years old, the son of a Muslim family that emigrated years ago to Britain from India. His lawyer describes him as a "steady, strong young man," which is good, because at the moment he is in a world of trouble.
Under British law his name cannot be published because of his age. But public documents attest that he is the youngest person among the 15 so far charged in what Scotland Yard calls a plot to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" by blowing up airliners en route to the United States.
The teen is accused not of helping to plan the alleged attack, but of "possession of items that would be of use to terrorism." Among the items were documents the police described as "suicide notes" signed by other young men preparing to die.
"They're not suicide notes at all," retorts his lawyer, Gareth Peirce, whose application for bail was rejected Tuesday by a London judge. "They're really simple wills. To call these suicide notes was absolutely disgraceful."
The wills, Peirce adds, "all date to 1995," when her client was 6. She says they appear to have been drawn up by British Muslims going to fight alongside other Muslims in Bosnia more than a decade ago, "which was not a crime."
The charge against the youth --along with the release of five suspects and the failure so far to formally accuse five others out of 25 arrested more than three weeks ago--suggests that the British police may have erred on the side of caution in arresting individuals who knew little or nothing about the plan to blow up the airliners.
The alleged plot has been portrayed as potentially another Sept. 11 attack, or worse. Some of those who have seen the prosecution's evidence agree that several defendants seem to have been contemplating the in-flight bombings of passenger jets.
Skepticism grows
But skepticism has grown about some of the initial police claims and charges, reminding some Britons of other recent instances in which police initially overstated the seriousness of purported terrorist plots, such as the arrests two years ago of eight men suspected of planning to bomb the stadium where the famed Manchester United soccer team plays. The suspects were quickly released when the case against them evaporated.
In large part, the skepticism has been fueled by the reluctance of the police to more fully describe the evidence supporting their dire warnings that an attack had been "highly likely."
But two defense lawyers who have seen some exhibits presented by prosecutors in closed court hearings say there does appear to be solid evidence that a core group of the defendants was planning to smuggle liquid chemicals--from which a powerful but relatively unstable explosive can be made--aboard trans-Atlantic airliners.
One of the defense lawyers, who spoke on condition that he not be named because to do so would risk a citation for contempt of court, called the evidence "quite serious indeed."
Both lawyers said that they had seen no evidence linking a number of those arrested to a terrorist plot, and one lawyer termed what the police did Aug. 9-10 as "over-broad sweeps."
The documents in the youth's case, according to Peirce, were found by police in a box in the boy's mother's house, apparently left there by his since-divorced and departed father, who once operated a London charity that collected clothing and medicine for Bosnian Muslims.
The box, Peirce said, also contained another of the items listed in the charge against her client, a crude map of Afghanistan--drawn years ago, Peirce says, by the boy's younger brother: "It's a child's map!"
A third item mentioned by police, recovered from the same box, is a book investigators say contains instructions for building bombs. Peirce says the book is filled with drawings of electrical circuits that might contain information useful in building a bomb, although not the kind of bomb the defendants are suspected of having tried to make.
"He saw a book that had diagrams," Peirce says. "He said it looked like the textbooks at school. What I said in court was this charge can only have been brought by people who are seeing things through spectacles that say `terrorism,'" Peirce said after the bail hearing.
The 17-year-old's only connection to the alleged plot, Peirce maintains, is that some of the other suspects in the case worked for his father's now-defunct charity, which she identified as Islamic Medical Aid.
Questions also have been raised about charges against Umair and Mehran Hussain, two university-educated brothers in their early 20s who lived in the heavily Pakistani-Muslim Walthamstow area of northeast London, where eight of the defendants grew up.
Their father, Fazal Hussain, who labored in a shoe factory to put his sons through college, was described by a family friend as "devastated" by the arrests.
Umair and Mehran Hussain are both charged with a single count of withholding from police information pertaining to a possible terrorist act, a far less serious offense than conspiracy to commit murder and terrorism, of which 11 of their fellow defendants have been accused.
Will allegedly withheld
The information allegedly withheld, according to one source who has seen the prosecutors' evidence, is a Muslim will signed "nearly a year ago" by a third brother, Nabeel Hussain, who was charged Tuesday with conspiracy to commit terrorism and murder.
Umair and Mehran Hussain are not accused of participating in or even knowing about the alleged bombing plot, the source said, only of having failed to tell the police about Nabeel's will.
The prosecution's contention that the will relates to terrorism, this person said, hinges on a quotation it includes from the Koran. Nabeel's lawyers are said to have assembled Koranic scholars who will testify that the quotation has nothing to do with terrorism.
Muslims say there is no ideological significance attached to the making of an Islamic will.
The full range of evidence in the case is not likely to become public unless there is a trial, something lawyers say could be two years away.
----------
jcrewdson@tribune.com
A panel of five MPA members interviewed the officers with Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, acting as police advisor. Catherine Crawford, Clerk to the Authority, was also in attendance.
MPA Chair Len Duvall, who led the interview panel, said:
<snip>
"Clearly there are some sensitive and unprecedented circumstances involved. Candidates were chosen on the basis of their application and ability. The MPA would not prejudice an officer's fair promotion prospects by making assumptions about future disciplinary action. Officers will not be posted into new posts until outstanding issues are resolved."
Without protection for the individuals who make up society, society itself founders. Nor is there a balance to be struck between the rights of individuals and national security: national security depends upon every individual in this country having inalienable rights
Paul Stephenson, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘We are confident that we have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction and commit mass murder. This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.’What are they trying to achieve with this unprecedented scale terminology? Isn't one supposed to be a professional presenting dispassionate facts and risk assessment, and the other a politician offering a measured reaction with a way forward? Instead all we get is propaganda.
John Reid, the Home Secretary, said that ‘loss of life would have been on an unprecedented scale’.
‘This has ruined my life, I cannot sleep, I have flashbacks, I cannot sleep with the light off.’The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) issued a press release asking for the MPS to produce a report on the ‘Forest Gate operation’. I would have hoped for stronger language when we learn that at the last Authority meeting the Commissioner misled the Authority. I expect the chair of the MPA wouldn't want anyone to think the MPA is a soft touch when some innocent Londoners are shot by the MPS.
I am told by the Library that this is the 52nd Home Office Bill since the Government came to power in 1997.More...
As ‘The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) does not consider the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to have overreacted to the horrific terrorist attacks’ of last July 2005, and that ‘the MPS response in terms of both disaster-management and investigation has drawn respect and recognition from around the world’ we have an essential disagreement. If the MPA finds the MPS is doing a perfect job in respect to its anti-terrorism response then a discussion on how it can be improved is not possible.
This satisfaction can not be shared by all Londoners when there are so many stop and searches under Section 44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000, and subsequent arrests of innocent Londoners. This does not make us any more secure but does impact the lives of Londoners.
Even Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, appears to disagree with MPA's assessment. He is reported by Bloomberg to have said at the MPA's own 'Together Against Terror?' conference last December: ‘London police have arrested 130 suspects since suicide bomb attacks in July, yet the threat of terrorism continues to increase’.
That's more than all the arrests, whether in connection with terrorism or not, resulting from stop and searches conducted under Section 44(2) during the combined financial years 2003/4 and 2004/5 (the Met arrested 125 persons during this period according to the Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System). And that's only for five months.
Former Home Office criminologist and visiting professor at Kent University, Professor Marian Fitzgerald mentioned on BBC One, on 22 January 2006, that ‘under the Terrorism Stop and search [legislation], the arrest rate there is only 1% and very few of these arrests are anything to do with terrorism.’
This shows that that the MPS must work more effectively with more intelligence instead of stopping, searching and arresting Londoners, without reasonable cause, on the basis of a stereotypical profiling.
How can the MPA be satisfied that the MPS keeping DNA samples, fingerprints and palm prints of innocents forever, and PNC records, including mentions of non-conviction, until the Londoner reaches 100 years old increases our security.
The MPA is to be commended on getting the MPS to publish statistics such as the Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System. May I suggest the MPA puts further pressure on the MPS for the statistics to be published earlier and to include the number of arrestees being tried and how many are convicted.
The MPA's 'Together Against Terror?' conference was I'm sure a very interesting. It is unfortunate that its existence was announced by a press release only three days earlier and that the selection of the over 150 (100 in the press release) community members has not been open and transparent. I couldn't find transcripts or videos of the event, either. Hopefully lessons have been learned from organising this event and the forthcoming events will be more open to Londoners.
I am disapointed that your response has not convinced me that ‘in counter-terrorism, as in all other fields of policing, the MPA remains committed to securing an effective, efficient and fair police service for all of London's communities.’
Terrorist need:Common sense would have prevented such publication. Don't law abiding residents also need "a place to live"? Don't law abiding residents need to be aware of security measures to respect them? Don't law abiding residents ever return goods even for large cash refunds? Don't law abiding retailers sell legal goods and shouldn't be surprised to have people buy them?
- A place to live: Are you suspicious about any tenants or guests?
- To plan: Have you seen anyone pay an unusual amount of attention to security measures at any location>
- Money: Individuals may set up bogus bank accounts, copy credit cards, return goods for large cash refunds.
- Equipment: If you are a retailer, do you have any cause to be suspicious about anything being bought?
There once was a fellow called Mery,
A brilliant techie? Yes, very.
Then to UIQ he went,
Well, perhaps it was meant,
But we hope he'll remain very merry.
