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Category Archives: UK security and counter-terrorism
Police appeal for information on Belfast shooting of Jean Smyth-Campbell
A senior detective investigating one of Britain’s most controversial spy scandals has appealed to both ex-IRA and retired soldiers to help him get the truth about the killing of a young woman in the Troubles.
Jon Boutcher is a former chief constable of Bedfordshire and the head of Operation Kenova, which is investigating the military intelligence agent known as Stakeknife who betrayed the IRA for three decades.
Theresa May has launched a double attack on Boris Johnson’s government, speaking in the Commons to first warn about the security implications of a final no-deal Brexit, and then against the coronavirus quarantine plans.
May, who has largely kept a low profile since returning to the backbenches, used prime minister’s questions to express worry at a lack of possible lack of intelligence and data sharing if the Brexit transition period ends without a formal agreement.
Cybersecurity is ‘alpha and omega’ of global security, says DGSE director, in callout to young people ‘connected to technology’
The French secret service wants to recruit geeks rather than budding young James Bonds as it adapts to new demands in the post-coronavirus world, its technical director has said.
In rare public comments, Patrick Pailloux said there was a danger that many young tech-savvy French people did not consider themselves suitable for the stereotypes of France’s directorate-general for external security (DGSE).
Research suggests 5% commit another terrorism offence after leaving prison
Convicted terrorists are extremely unlikely to reoffend compared with other prisoners, research by academics and security services in Europe has found.
The research shows that less than 5% of convicted terrorists commit a second terrorist offence after leaving prison. In England and Wales, around 45% of all prisoners will reoffend within a year of release.
Government and parliament were told by the intelligence agencies last week not to use the videoconferencing service Zoom for confidential business, due to fears it could be vulnerable to Chinese surveillance.
The quiet warnings to limit the technology came after the cabinet had used Zoom to hold a well-publicised meeting at the end of March, a decision that was defended at the time as necessary in “unprecedented circumstances”.
Leaked German government report shows Britain has been requesting special access
The British government is making impossible demands over access to Europol databases in the negotiations over the future relationship with the EU, according to a leaked assessment of the UK’s position drawn up by the German government.
As talks between the two sides resumed via video calls this week, Britain’s negotiators not only refused to extend the transition period because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but also stated the UK side’s eagerness to continue taking part in EU-wide data-sharing arrangements and even expanding their reach.
Officer stabbed and murdered during a terrorist attack on parliament in March 2017
The Metropolitan police are facing legal action over the death of PC Keith Palmer, murdered during a terrorist attack on parliament.
An inquest in October 2018 concluded with the coroner, Mark Lucraft QC, ruling that the officer’s death may have been prevented had armed officers been closer.
The reporter was a ‘ceasefire baby’ who grew up in Northern Ireland in the 90s. This is the essay she was working on at the time of her murder last year
They call my generation the “Ceasefire babies”, though I’ve always hated that name. I hated the mocking tone in which it was usually said, as if growing up in the 90s in Belfast was a stroll. There were still soldiers on the street when I was a kid. I remember them – in uniforms and maroon berets, at checkpoints, on pavements, crouching down on one knee, as if ducking out of sight of an enemy the surrounding civilians couldn’t see. I remember walking past one with my sister, then aged about 16, after she had picked me up from school. “Do they wear hats on their heads to stop them from getting cold?” I’d asked. “Yes,” she’d replied, smiling, and the pale-skinned recruit I’d gestured to had smiled as well. He looked barely older than her, perhaps 18. That was around the time I learned that the toy gun I used for games of cowboys and Indians could not be brought outside, in case a passing patrol saw it and mistook it for a real one. It didn’t matter that it was silver with an orange trumpet-top on the end of the barrel.
It had happened, my mother assured me, to a little boy, on the same street where I’d seen the teen soldier. I was never sure if this was urban legend, but the only time I took the gun outside, to the back yard – which was surrounded by a 10ft concrete wall – I’d had the arse smacked off me. The helicopters were out; what if they’d seen it with their cameras, my mother said, and thought it was real? The scenario seemed unlikely to me: that a helicopter, thousands of feet up in the air, would spot a kid playing with a toy and send a patrol to our house. But my mother wasn’t taking any chances.
Critics say female Muslim travellers have been targeted. An out-of-court settlement suggests they are right
Police have admitted that forcing Muslim women to remove their headscarves at UK airports could be unlawful, a practice likened by one victim to being made “to remove her top”.
In an out-of-court settlement, the Metropolitan Police has conceded that when it coerced a woman to take off her hijab so officers could photograph her, it was a breach of her human rights and violated the woman’s right to religious observance.
Informed security source says Sunday Times report quoting unnamed officials is untrue
MI5 has rejected claims that its officials are withholding information from Priti Patel because they do not trust her.
An informed security source said the report about Patel’s relationship with the agency in the Sunday Times was “simply untrue” and that she was getting the same information from the agency as any other home secretary.
Sinn Féin president’s statement comes after senior party figures were threatened
Violent dissident republicans should disband, the leader of Sinn Féin has said. Anti-peace process renegades threatened the party’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, and veteran policing spokesman Gerry Kelly after they supported a recent recruitment campaign for new Catholic officers.
The party’s president, Mary-Lou McDonald, said they would not be deterred or intimidated by the gunmen. She added: “These people have no politics, no strategy and nothing to offer. They are at war with their community and are now threatening political representatives who serve the people.”
Legal action from Rights Watch (UK) comes amid spate of terror attacks in London
The government’s failure to appoint an independent reviewer of its Prevent strategy and assess the controversial de-radicalisation programme’s effectiveness is to be challenged in court.
A senior government minister has raised further questions over Britain’s relationship with the European convention on human rights (ECHR) as Boris Johnson scrambles to push through tougher sentencing for terrorists.
Legal experts have suggested the government’s intended plan to extend the time terrorists serve in prison could be in breach of the ECHR, to which Britain has been signed up for decades.
Woman attacked by Sudesh Amman tells how she escaped harm during ‘horrific’ incident
A woman attacked by Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman has revealed she escaped harm because he tried to stab her with a knife still in its plastic packaging.
The woman, 36, originally from the Dominican Republic, told the BBC the incident was “horrific” and “like a movie”. In an interview translated from Spanish, she said she is struggling to walk the streets again after the traumatic experience.
Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, has said, as he did after November’s London Bridge attack, which was – like the Streatham attack – carried out by a convicted terrorist, that he warned Boris Johnson four years ago about the threat posed by such individuals on release. He said he told the prime minister that proper de-radicalisation programmes were needed with mentoring, to which the response was that “that costs money”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that longer sentences were not the answer.
We could have delayed this inevitable crime by a few months if we’d given him that [a longer sentence] but there is a real problem with de-radicalisation and disengagement programmes. They have been largely underfunded, they are poorly executed.
Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Sir Lanka and Denmark have world-renowned evaluated de-radicalisation programmes, properly resourced, which are making a significant difference.
My thoughts with those harmed in #Streatham & with thanks to our police & security services for running towards danger I hate to remind people that the time bomb that releasing still radicalised terrorists was brought to the PMs personal attention 4 yrs ago https://t.co/lOsLktILSKpic.twitter.com/s7FkqZNiwO
Hello, this is Haroon Siddique taking over the liveblog from Jessica.
A witness told Sky News he thought at the time that it was probably gang-related.
"I just saw a fight, but that's kind of normal around here."
A witness to the terror attack in Streatham, south London told Sky News he thought it was just a regular fight until he heard a "shout" and everyone ran.
The chief secretary to the Treasury has rejected the idea that cuts to prison and probation services have made it harder to rehabilitate or monitor terrorism suspects after a man who left prison days ago was shot dead by police after he stabbed two people in London.
Rishi Sunak declined to reveal the measures that Boris Johnson or the home secretary, Priti Patel, would announce on Monday after the attack by Sudesh Amman on Streatham High Road.
The British Red Cross has provided this statement on the Streatham terror incident:
Our sympathies are with those affected by this afternoon’s incident in Streatham. We are in communication with the authorities leading the response and are closely monitoring the situation.
We are ready to make the UK Solidarity Fund available to those affected by the attack.
Police have given an update on the condition of the three people known to have been injured in the Streatham terror attack this afternoon.
One is in hospital in a life-threatening condition.
A second victim was treated for minor injuries at the scene before being taken to hospital.
A third victim has been taken to hospital – their condition is not life-threatening.
Exclusive: US agencies believed kingdom intended to monitor Hatice Cengiz after journalist killed
US intelligence authorities urged British counterparts to keep a close eye on Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after they became aware of a plan by Saudi Arabia to keep her under surveillance in the UK last year, according to western intelligence sources.
The US believed the kingdom had the “ambition and intention” to monitor Cengiz in London last May, seven months after Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain papers so the couple could marry.
Criticism follows government plan to include lie-detector tests in monitoring of convicted terrorists on release
The government’s adviser on terror legislation has warned that there is “no magic test” to determine the risks posed by a terrorist on release from prison, in further criticism of recently announced proposals to examine them with lie detectors.
Jonathan Hall QC said in a speech that it was “impossible to guard against all risks” of violent reoffending and that any system which handed over release decisions to “risk experts” using polygraphs or any other method would be unacceptable.
Telling lies is stressful. That’s the basic logic of a polygraph test: that the stress of deceiving others will manifest itself through fleeting physical responses that may be imperceptible to another person but can be measured by a machine. Typically, a polygraph records blood pressure, galvanic skin response (a proxy for sweat), breathing and pulse rate.
There is a fairly standard protocol for the lie detector examination. The examiner will mix specific questions relevant to a case – “Did you commit a robbery on 29 March?” – with a series of control questions. Crucially, the control questions are also designed to be anxiety-inducing – for instance: “Have you ever stolen from a friend?” Along the way, the subject will be reminded that the machine can distinguish truth from lies and that they must respond truthfully.