– A RISKY IDEA

An anti-terror campaign showing members of the public how to spot possible plotters is launched, nowadays, by the UK’s biggest police force – The London Metropolitan Police, the UK Evening Standard newspaper claimed on Monday 03/16/2009.

The Metropolitan Police is running a press and radio campaign urging Londoners to report suspicious activity to the Anti-Terrorist Hotline. Its message is “Don’t rely on others. If you suspect it, report it”.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, head of the Metropolitan Counter Terrorism Command and a senior national anti-terror co-coordinator said: “Terrorists can be stopped in their tracks if suspicious activity is passed to police. They will not succeed if people report something unusual they have seen while going about their daily lives”. “We want people to look out for the unusual – some activity or behavior which strikes them as not quite right and out of place in their normal day to day lives – and to take responsibility for reporting it.” He said no piece of information would be considered “too small”.

Mr McDowall said: “Terrorists live alongside us in our communities. They make their plans while doing all they can to blend in. They try to avoid raising suspicions about what they are up to.”

Give-away signs include committing fraud to finance plots, buying large amounts of chemicals and studying security arrangements.

He added: “I completely understand and appreciate that some people may have concerns or reservations about contacting the police – possibly they think their friends or family may find out, or they are worried that their suspicions may prove to have innocent explanations. “But I can assure them that any information passed to the Anti-Terrorist Hotline is treated in the strictest of confidence. It is thoroughly analyzed and researched by experienced officers before, and if, any police action is taken.”

The new program is risky since it must be assumed that the “hot line” will be used also to incriminate and to annoy all kinds of rivals and opponents and to settle down old rivalries.

It also must be assumed that most of the calls on the hot line will refer to people with a strange dark look, Muslims, who are not yet accustomed to the British way of life and are speaking poor English with a strange dialect. To some degree this new program might deprive all those who are a little different then the ordinary, main-stream British Citizen.

 

 

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