May 28 2007
John Reid’s random thoughts.
"Excuse me, who are you?" "Where are you going?" "Why are you walking about on the streets this afternoon?" "Are you a terrorist?"
You?? couldn’t make up anything so silly. The man who wanted to be the anti terrorist supermo so much he decided to break up the Home Office so he could concentrate on anti terrorism, has come up with the bizarre idea that they might catch more terrorists if they stopped and asked people at random on the streets who they are and what they are doing.
Does he seriously expect a??criminal stopped in this way to blurt out that he is a terrorist just popping down to the agricultural supplier to buy a bag of fertiliser? If someone belongs to a highly trained radical group, they will have put in place forged papers(or been given entry papers by this government at its weak border controls), or they willl be home grown young people radicalised by others. They will be able to answer the quesitons who are they, where?? they live and what are they doing without having to reveal their terrorist aims.
What does he think the odds are to apprehend a terrorist on the streets anyway, given that there are maybe a few hundred potential terrorists in a population of 60 million? On a random basis you would have to interview a very large number of people before catching the odd honest terrorist.
There can be no substitute for eavesdropping, intercepting, and infiltrating??their networks, no??shortcut to the need to collect evidence and build up a picture of who is in these terrorist groups, where they??go to recruit and train,??how they get their money and where they buy the components for their weapons.??Talking to a few people outside the shops ??is not going to advance our intelligence, just as random searches or fixed search points cannot prevent a determined bomber from getting around the security by deception in order to carry out his or her murderous intentions.
??Let’s hope his replacement under Gordon Brown is more sensible, and understands that taking away more civil liberties from the law abiding is not going to lead to the arrest of more terrorists.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
JR:
It was said that at the end of the Cold War, the majority of the members of the US Communist Party were FBI agents, and thus that the biggest funder of the party was the US government. That was a joke, but I imagine it had some truth to it, and it makes one think. Infiltrating the networks of suspected terrorists seems by far the best way to catch them to me.
Given how keen they are to recruit, I can’t imagine the infiltration itself could be very difficult, and when we’re talking about infiltrating UK-based groups the dangers are minimal. Terrorists’ strengths are their ability to strike powerfully from a weak position, but we should remember that they are indeed in a weak position. If there is a hint of danger of discovery an infiltrator could be moved to a safe house with minimal fuss, a terrorist’s strength is their ability to strap a homemade bomb to themselves and blow it up in a crowded area at random; few groups would have the capability to attack someone hidden by the state. Infiltration allows surveillance to be used more effectively and even in a cell-based organisation allows a good amount of information to be gained.
Incidentally it is worth bearing in mind terrorists’ weakness when thinking internationally: they pose no substantial threat to us in the UK. In the Cold War there was a genuine danger of millions dying in a war that would decimate large portions of the world. Terrorists in Iraq can attack our soldiers, but they have little ability to bring the fight to us (as we can to them). The absolute worst case scenario is the closure of our borders to all Arabs, and some admittedly abhorrent curbs on the freedom of Muslims living in Britain. As a Libertarian such measures worry me, but it’s a lot more palatable than a nuclear war or the invasion of Britain by the Nazis.
It is indeed obvious however that random stop and searches in the street are an utter waste of time.