Security and intelligence - new material (11)
01 July 2009
Hackers recruited to help fight against cybercrime, Nigel Morris and Jerome Taylor. The Independent 26.6.09. pp. 10-11. This interesting article reports that Security minister, Lord West, says that the new cyber security operations centre at GCHQ in Cheltenham will be staffed “with younger people who had unconventional – and not strictly legal – talents”, namely reformed computer hackers. In announcing details of the new national security package West is quoted as saying: “We need youngsters who are absolutely into this stuff. If they have been naughty boys, quite often they enjoy stopping other naughty boys.” However, he promised that GCHQ would not recruit any “ultra, ultra criminals.” The minister also hinted that GCHQ had its own online attack capability “but he refused to say whether it had been used.” The UK’s move echoes Barak Obama’s establishment of a cyber security office in the White House.
Te-sat: EU terrorism situation and trend report 2009. Europol (European Police Office) 2009, pp. 54. This report has chapters on Islamic terrorism, Ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorism, Left-wing and anarchist terrorism and a couple of pages on Right-wing terrorism and Single-issue terrorism. “For 2008 seven member states reported a total of 515 failed, foiled or successfully perpetrated terrorist attacks. Thirteen member states arrested a total of 1009 individuals for terrorism. The majority of arrests were carried out on suspicion of membership of a terrorist organisation.” Available as a free download: http://www.europol.europa.eu/publications/EU_Terrorism_Situation_and_Trend_Report_TE-SAT/TESAT2009.pdf
Could 7/7 Have Been Prevented? Review of the Intelligence on the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005. Intelligence and Security Committee (Cm 761) May 2009, pp. 102. This report asks why the London bombs of 7 July 2005 were not prevented, concluding that there was a lack of resources to monitor suspects: “Whilst the increase in surveillance capability is welcome, the Committee remains concerned that not enough targets can be covered adequately. The Head of MI5 explained that they still need to prioritise ruthlessly. This means that, even today, they can still only “hit the crocodiles nearest the boat.”: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/210852/20090519_77review.pdf
End the unlawful blacklist! Labour Briefing November 2009, pp. 27. This article follows the case of trade union activist, Mick Dooley, who recently won the first round of his fight against construction giant Balfour Beatty after being blacklisted, along with thousands of other construction workers, by Ian Kerr’s Consulting Association. Dooley’s case is now listed for a four day hearing in January 2010. Kerr was fined £5,000 for breaching the Data Protection Act in July. The Central London Employment Tribunal also heard about Balfour Beatty’s relationship with the right-wing Economic League. Labour Briefing email: office@labourbriefing.org.uk
Spooked! How not to prevent violent extremism, Arun Kundnani. Institute of Race Relations 2009, pp. 45. This pamphlet discusses the Preventing Violent Extremism (Prevent) programme, a government counter-terrorism strategy which it says “focuses on mobilising communities to oppose the ideology of violent extremism.” This study finds that in reality the “Prevent programme has been used to establish one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain”. It also forcefully argues that: “there are strong reasons for thinking that the Prevent programme, in effect, constructs the Muslim community as a ‘suspect community’, fosters social divisions among Muslims themselves and between Muslims and others, encourages tokenism, facilitates violations of privacy and professional norms of confidentiality, discourages local democracy and is counter-productive in reducing the risk of political violence.” This important report is available as a download at: http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf2/spooked.pdf