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Special Branch absorbed into counter-terror unitBy Sean O’Neill 2006 10 03
Britain's policing response to the global terrorism of al-Qaeda was unveiled yesterday, more than five years after the September 11 atrocities. Scotland Yard announced the merger of SO12, Special Branch, with SO13, the Anti-Terrorist Branch, to form SO15, to be called the Counter-Terrorism Command. The new unit, which has 1,500 staff and officers in London alone, will also have three regional branches and a number of investigators based overseas. It has an existing workload of more than 70 investigations and is dealing with cases in which 90 people are awaiting trial for alleged terrorist offences. But the head of the new command, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, who also holds the title of National Co-ordinator of Terrorism Investigations, said that more resources would be needed. Mr Clarke said: “We have been growing in Special Branch and the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the number of resources devoted to counter terrorism has doubled since 2001. “That will continue to grow simply because of the nature and the demands of the threat.” When the Metropolitan Police first announced its plans for a unified Counter- Terrorism Command a year ago, it said it hoped to have a strength of 2,000 officers and staff. Mr Clarke said that the new command was a bespoke unit modelled to combat a worldwide terror threat. The previous policing model, developed over 30 years and designed to fight the IRA and other Irish terrorist groups, was no longer appropriate. Republican terrorism had posed an essentially domestic threat with tightly structured groups, pursuing an identifiable and negotiable agenda and using operatives who wanted to resist capture. Although the IRA perpetrated atrocities, it also employed a system of telephone warnings that had some effect on restricting casualties. The new type of terrorism, pursued by Islamist groups under the al-Qaeda banner, was entirely different in character. Mr Clarke said: “If you take all those characteristics (of the IRA campaign) and reverse them . . . you are not too far from describing the nature of the threat we now face. “Far from being domestic, it is global in origin, global in ambition and global in reach. There is clearly no determination to avoid capture because we have seen that the use of suicide attacks is a frequent terrorist method. “Far from there being any attempt, for political or other reasons, to restrict casualties, what we see time and again is an ambition to kill as many people as possible. There are no warnings and we have seen efforts here and overseas around unconventional weapons.” The merger of SO12 and SO13 means the end of Special Branch, which was established in 1883 to tackle Fenian terrorism and was called the Metropolitan Police Special Irish Branch. The key reform of the restructuring is to combine the intelligence-gathering activities of Special Branch with the investigatory functions of the Anti-Terrorist Branch. Mr Clarke said that it was often too dangerous to wait until suspects were in possession of bombs or guns. To minimise the risk to the public it was increasingly necessary for police to make arrests earlier, often disrupting planning, fundraising, communication or indoctrination processes. He added that the new command would continue to work extremely closely with MI5, the intelligence agency, and with the Crown Prosecution Service. Two regional units based in the Midlands and the North West will come under the new command and a third unit is to be established in the North East. The skills of the new unit will range from those of traditional detectives to specialist financial investigators and technicians trained in the recovery of evidence from computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. It will also have officers whose task is to work closely with Muslim communities. In conjunction with the new command, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has advertised three vacancies for senior posts in the emerging national anti-terrorist structure. They include a director at deputy chief constable level to manage the day-to-day business of the Acpo terrorism committee; a national co- ordinator for community engagement; and a national co-ordinator of Special Branch. The Forest Gate anti-terrorism raid, which failed to unearth any evidence of terrorist activity, cost the police more than £2.2 million, Scotland Yard said last night. The cost includes £979,000 spent on officers’ salaries, £864,000 on overtime and £120,000 on catering, erecting barricades and repair work. See also An overview of US and UK Security Services Attack on London |
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