Policing terrorism and counter-terrorism Flashcards
Define terrorism…
- No universal definition, and term is subjected to continuing debate
- Tends to be politically motivated and , violence and target dramatic
- Starting point definition: ‘the use of violence for political ends, and includes any use of violence for the purpose of putting the public or any section of the public in fear’ (Prevention of Terrorism (temporary provisions) Act, 1989)
What is ‘Hillyard’s Suspect Community’ (1993)?
- Rose out of troubled in Northern Ireland
- legislative basis: 1974 Prevention of Terrorism Act
- A longevity that belied its temporary status, aka act gives untrue representation of Irish, whom are immediately seen as criminals
- A dual system of justice: Laws and policing for Ordinary decent criminals and draconian system to deal with Irish ‘terrorism’
- The use of special police powers such as trawling for information but to ‘to the extent that the legislation is principally directed at Irish people, it is an example of institutionalised racism’ (1993: 257-8)
- suspect communities are directed at due to terrorism and if arrested they are treated more severely
- Hillyard’s model has been challenged (Greer, 2008; 2010)
How have Pantazis and Pemberton (2009) applied Hillyard’s theory to Muslims?
- Highlights impact of legislation on individuals and communities and how democratic values might be undermined by the pursuit of achieving greater security
- Argued that ‘new terrorism’ discourses identify Islamic fanaticism as the greatest threat to Western Liberal Democracy
- The legislative basis: Terrorism Act 2000 (Criminalises/becomes suspicious of the Proscription of groups, and Connection with minority ethnic and refugee communities despite intentions)
- The dual system of criminal justice: 1) Stop and search and ‘ethnic profiling’ 2) Extension of pre-charge detention 3) Control orders
- An increasing shift towards pre-emption?
- Break down of police-community relationship therefore less information is passed on
- Radicalisation continues
- Community relations: ‘once a community is treated as ‘suspect’ by the police, the public are encouraged to do the same
What does Spalek (2008) add to the discussion that the muslim community is a suspect community?
- Assesses research findings in terms of ‘effective’ police-community engagement and partnership, and policy development
- The importance of dialogue and trust building
- The need to acknowledge grievances
- ‘active citizenship’ for Muslims is to some extent framed as a CT strategy
- Counter terrorism methodologies and future developments
- e.g. The purpose of CT needs to be clearly defined in engagement work
- e.g. Engaging ‘radicals’ [but risk of being ‘conned’]
- e.g. It is vital to have religious knowledge
- e.g. Inclusivity, gender and youth.
- How do you measure success?
What did Spalek and Imoual, 2007: 194 say about Muslim communities?
an assumption that Muslim communities remain the ‘locus of the issue of extremism’
What does Fekete (2004) say about Mosques?
Fekete (2004: 25) has suggested, public policy engaging with Muslims amounts to being ‘tough on mosques, tough on the causes of mosques’ – at a political level it is nonetheless the case that there is an expectation that Muslims tackle extremism
Why is secrecy important in CT and T activities?
- Secrecy required to plot plan to circumvent agencies or agents & also threaded through methodologies and cultures of gov. agencies.
- Keeping key practices in the shadows it is argued necessary condition for sustaining the effectiveness of CT measures
- Need to counteract the way in which their own operational secrecy negates levels of social trust and democratic accountability.
- Penetrating the secrecy of their adversaries in order to achieve tactical advantage.
- However…. both t & Ct require a degree of public knowledge, however manipulated or mediated it may be. Terrorism as a strategy is predicated upon generating publicity
What are the key aims of CT methods to prevent Terrorism? (4)
- Create the perception of a hostile environment for the terrorists by creating the illusion that there are informants or undercover cops involved.
- CT also has to be balanced with a need to reassure government and the public.
- Establishing and maintain trust in moral standing of CT agencies are critical for effective CT.
- CT & T are not reflections of each others moves and responses, its more of a refraction, distorted impression of one another due to clandestine operations and other influences, mainly political
What has Brodeur said about the reconfiguration of policing?
High police functions such as MI5, security and Intelligence Service, CT, CID
Low Police functions such as Neighbourhood policing, multi-agency work, etc
- These boundaries have changed over time. Hierarchical organised CT structures it worked, the more non hierarchical cells.
What government CT structures are there? (4)
Who is this directed through?
COBRA
Ministerial Committee on National Security (NSID)
Weekly Meeting
Operational Response
Directed through the Home Office: Office for Security & Counter Terrorism (OSCT)
What are the 4 tiers from the diagram of policing structures?
TOP: ACPO - Association of Chief Police Officers & TAM
2nd: Counter-terrorism command (CTC) & SO15
3rd: CTUs and CTIU (counter-terrorism intelligence units)
4th: Local policing
What 8 structures make up UK intel?
1) ISC - international security conference
2) JIC - Joint intel centre
3) MI5
4) GCHQ
5) JTAC (joint terrorism attack centre)
6) Police
7) DIS (defensive investigative service)
8) MI6
Europes CT agency rescourses - how much budget and how many staff... UK? BELIGUM? FRANCE? SPAIN?
UK - 1.9 billion and 3,800 staff
beligum - 126 million and 500 staff
France - 208 mil and 3,600 staff
Spain - n/a budget and n/a staff
What do MI5 do?
- MI5 monitors about 3,000 so-called “subjects of interest” (SoIs) — deems national security threat because of their ties with Islamic extremism
- MI5 uses a calibrated framework for investigations into terror SoIs: all are assigned a prioritisation, on a ranking of P1-P4. Each individual connected to such investigations is given a tier indicating their centrality to any plot, from T1-T3.
- Takes about 10 people to monitor one suspect 24 hours
Why is the security services of MI5 less effective at classifying people on the periphery? (4)
- Complex charts to map IRA terror cells and their rigid structures
- then al-Qaeda networks, more cellular but dependent on chains of communication and command.
- Now potential terror suspects are like “particles in a teapot”, sometimes linked, sometimes not –
- difficult to judge risks from lone wolves - who may or may not be muslim
