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15 terrorist plots foiled
Evening Standard 22 Apr 2008Fifteen planned terrorist attacks in Britain have been foiled since the 2005 London bombings, Met chiefs said today.
The revelation came as Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair warned that the country was being threatened by dangerous extremists who were emerging from "left field" to attempt terrorist attacks.
Sir Ian added that some suspects were moving "very fast" to carry out their plots, forcing police to make pre-emptive arrests to protect the public.
The warning came as Sir Ian and the Met's most senior anti-terrorism officer, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, told a parliamentary committee scrutinising the Government's counter-terrorism Bill that they backed an extension of the pre-charge detention limit.
The Met Commissioner said he feared that the current 28- day limit, which the Government wants to extend to 42 days, would soon prove insufficient because of the growing complexities, scale and international scope of plots that police and the security service were detecting.
Sir Ian rejected suggestions from some MPs that suspects could be detained on lesser charges instead and warned that in many cases police were forced to act on the basis of intelligence when virtually no evidence that would be admissible in court existed.
He said this meant that prolonged investigations were needed to gather material to bring prosecutions and that it was a "pragmatic inference" that pre-charge detentions longer than 28 days would soon be required.
"Part of the problem that we have is the way in which individuals and groups go from what appears to be facilitating into active attack planning very fast. There are people who are emerging from left field about whom we know very little and about whom we become very concerned."
In his evidence, Mr Quick, who is also the Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on terrorism, said about 15 terrorist plots had been thwarted since the 7 July London bombings of 2005. He added that some of these included "very recent" plots that had been disrupted by police using "very sophisticated" methods.
The Met Commissioner said that while the Crown Prosecution Service had suggested an extension to the current limit was unnecessary, the police were the "professionals" in charge of gathering evidence and took the view that a longer detention period was needed. "There have been a number of cases where the level of threat that we perceive means we make an arrest when we have almost no evidential material at all," he said.
Sir Ian added that the complexity and extensive use of information technology by extremists meant longer pre-charge limits could be necessary to enable experts to complete investigations.
Reader views (6)
James you think its lies? So you must have missed the court cases where they have been found guilty of plotting and jailed.
Fertiliser bombers jailed for at least 95 years. Waheed Mahmood, 34, of Crawley, and Anthony Garcia, 24, of Barkingside, east London, were sentenced to a minimum of 20 years. Jawad Akbar, 23, of Crawley and Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire were sentenced to a minimum of 17 and a half years.
The gang of middle-class young men was heard discussing attacking targets including the Ministry of Sound Nightclub and Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.
what about the failed attempted suicide bombers on 21st July? They are in jail found guilty.
What about the Glasgow attempted suicide bombers ?
What about the London attempt they tried earlier where the explosives failed to go off ?
What about the plots to blow up 8 transatlantic airliners in court at the moment?
There's plenty more examples, but of course because their plots had been stopped before they actually carried them out, there are NO dead bodies as evidence and people don't praise the police when they have saved lives.
I bet you would be the first to condemn the police if these plots had been carried out and there were thousands of dead people.
Well done to the police.
And shame on the government for allowing these people into the country.
- Bert, Somerset, 23/04/2008 09:48
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James: "more fear, more lies". Do you honestly believe this? Do you actually think we are being manipulated by the Police? What do they have to gain? I bet you'd be one of the first people to complain about lack of Police activity if one of your relatives got blown up on a tube train.
Mike? Good question. Of course, while we continue to live in a country where the Human Rights Act means we are duty bound to protect individuals from countries who have no identification with western liberal values and only want to destroy our society, I'm afraid we'll continue to be a soft-target for immigrants and asylum seekers who want to change our way of life. In fact, they probably count on this ridiculous state of affairs when planning in which country to try and stage their next atrocity.
- Louis, London, 22/04/2008 20:42
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"There have been a number of cases where the level of threat that we perceive means we make an arrest when we have almost no evidential material at all,"
I cannot be alone in finding this statement a wee bit sinister.
Odd that out of 15 plots none should have slipped through the police net to result in an "incident". Just how far on the safe side are we erring?
Or is there perhaps an element of the "Scottish elephant hunter" about this? Are our boys in blue suddenly just that good?
As someone living well within earshot of three IRA bombs in more innocent times (before the days when we had to take off our shoes, display our carry on liquids at gunpoint and have our every motorised move monitored), I am moved to wonder who the current "war on terror" really serves.
I don't doubt that the police are earnest and diligent in their task. But I do wonder, when it seems to serve so many ends to keep us in thrall to imponderable peril in a way that our island nation had previously prided itself in transcending, just who is guarding our ancient rights?
As Benjamin Franklin might have said: those who give up a little bit of liberty for a little bit of security deserve neither and will lose both.
- Martin, London, UK, 22/04/2008 20:24
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Another authoritarian remark on the eve of the commons vote to 42 days detention without trial.
On the subject of terrorism, when will Ian Blair take responsibility for the extra-judicial shooting of an innocent tube passenger by his officers ? Don`t hold your breath..
- Stuart Andrews, London, UK, 22/04/2008 20:18
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Just some small questions one is perhaps not supposed to ask.
How did it come about that these dangerous extremists plotting terrorist attacks are in this country in the first place?
Is anyone politically responsible and could it have been avoided? And is the process continuing? If so why?
- Mike Newland, London, 22/04/2008 15:21
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More fear more lies.
- James Colton, Diss Norfolk, 22/04/2008 15:12
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