CSARN

SRM Update / Met Police, Major exercise in central London

 

 

 

 

 

22nd February 2012

Surrey Street, London, WC2R between the Strand and Temple Place

0700 - 1900

On 22nd February the Emergency Services and partners will be taking part in an exercise to test responses to an incident on the underground system.  This will include an emergency response by the Met, British Transport Police, London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service at the disused Aldwych tube station.

To facilitate the exercise Surrey Street, WC2R will be closed between the Strand and Temple Place from 0700 until 1900 on 22nd February.

The exercise is part of a National counter terrorism exercise programme, run by the Home Office, but is a key part of the testing of the readiness for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.  For further information about this exercise visit met.police.uk

If you have any further questions please email communitiestogether@met.police.uk or call 0207 230 4014.

Any press enquires should be made to the Metropolitan Police Service Press Bureau on 020 7230 2171.

CSARN SRM / Counter-terror profile for Olympic Borough shows concerns over would-be jihadists; local negative sentiment also a growing issue

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In this period the Counter-Terrorism Local Profile (CTLP) for Waltham Forest, one of the six Olympic boroughs, was leaked. The document identifies a high level of concern over al-Qaeda’s ability to inspire males aged 20-38, predominantly British born second/third generation South Asian migrants. Signs of “jihadi cool” have been reported in local gangs, mostly made up of youths from the aforementioned communities, and the perception of deprivation within the Pakistani community is particularly highlighted. Concerns over penetration by al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and other North African jihadist movements, as well as political movements such as Hizb-ut Tahrir, were also in evidence.

This fits with our previous assessment that a lone wolf jihadist attack remains one of the most serious security concerns around the games. However, the report also mentions growing right-wing extremism – itself in part a response to the growing radicalisation of

CSARN SRM / Increasing focus on Occupy movement as a potential threat; agenda, constituency and international background implies disruption highly likely

The last edition of the Monitor published details of a threat by Fathers for Justice against the rowing at Eton Dorney. Single-issue groups have taken on more prominence in this period, with increased discussion over the Occupy movement as a potential threat. This is in part due to the Home Secretary’s comments at a recent conference, at which she indicated that measures were being taken to add tents and other camping equipment to the list of banned items for Olympic venues. Further targeted actions are expected in an attempt to prevent the movement from significantly affecting the games.

Given the continued anti-consumerist agenda of the Occupy movement, and the trend towards the conflation of animal, environmental and human liberation as causes, Occupiers certainly do pose a very real threat, which may tie up significant security effort despite the anticipated pre-emptive moves (see later in this Report). Whilst the UK movement seems largely focused on attempting to maintain physical occupations as a symbol of the movement, US groups have embraced the “Occupy 2.0” trend of more adaptive, innovative and targeted roving protests. Whilst efforts to move Occupiers out of existing camps will almost certainly be aggressively pursued over the coming weeks, the point is that the loss of permanent encampments does not equal the negation of the threat – in fact the converse is possible, since losing the focus on a particular piece of ground actually allows the movement to be more agile and original in direct actions.

Further reports of planned single issue activist activity against the Olympic Games

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We have previously mentioned our assessment that single issue activism is likely to lead to attempts to disrupt the games. In this period several events have underlined this threat:

• Local protests have continued against Dow Chemical, a sponsor that is being targeted due to a predecessor company’s culpability for the Bhopal industrial disaster that killed and maimed people in India.
• Fathers for Justice, the pressure group campaigning for father’s rights to children when families split up, has threatened to carry out attention-grabbing direct actions during the rowing at Eaton Dorney (one of the four main sites outside London, where attention is likely due to Team GB’s track record, and where access may be easier).
  
  
• A 'Counter Olympics Network' has been formed by various threat actors, and this is engaged in producing various anti-games material on social media. It has also organised a protest conference on 28 January. The London anarchist collective group 'ALARM' have advertised this conference on their website, giving it credence, and the issue is also understood to have been discussed at that group’s own recent conference.

This last point suggests that some anti-capitalist planning discussion is beginning, which may yet tie into developments related to the Occupy movement. We believe that this could yet emerge into a seriously disruptive issue, and so will continue to report on this trend.

Reported explosives-related breaches of Olympic site cause security concerns, although lessons learned from main incident will have improved effectiveness; role of dogs highlighted

Security breaches have taken on prominence in this period, with two explosives-related incidents drawing headlines:

• In early January it was revealed that security procedures in place at the Olympic Park have been successful in stopping 90% of explosives penetration exercises. Whilst this was portrayed as a positive move and trumpeted a high success rate, numerous observers immediately and accurately noted that this means a 10% failure rate – so in spite of security measures applied at least one dummy device made it onto the site, which is already in pre-games lockdown mode.
• On 13 January it was further revealed that a lorry carrying 20kg of ammonium nitrate (a component for so-called fertilizer bombs) was passed as okay by a canine detection team. It was later intercepted by a manual search.

These incidents have attracted predictable levels of criticism. Penetration testing is however normal procedure and the aim is of course to show up any vulnerabilities in the...

Bristol anarchists target bank property with arson; letter bombs delivered across Europe; banks and financial institutions remain main anarchist targets

On 15 December anarchists in Bristol attempted to burn down what they described as a Lloyds bank depot by placing bins of flammable material soaked in gasoline in front of wooden doors. Their motive was to express solidarity with ‘comrades’ imprisoned in Greece for anarchist activity, and imprisoned in Chile and Switzerland in relation to attempted bombings. Bristol continues to be a particular hotbed of anarchist activity with the Stokes Croft riots, other clashes with the police, and subsequent arrests proving to be significant drivers in a prolonged anarchist campaign. 

The action in Bristol followed a series of operations by international anarchists earlier in the month. Letter bombs targeted the CEO of Deutsche Bank, the Chief Director of Italy’s tax collection office (Equitalia), and the Greek embassy in Paris. Another parcel was sent to Equitalia on 15 December, although unlike the first this did not detonate, and threatening letters containing bullets were mailed to the Italian Justice Minister and Mayor of Rome.

The letter sent to Deutsche Bank has been published and this claimed action on behalf of the “Free East and Billy Cell”. This refers to the case of two anarchists who were caught after torching an ATM in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on 11 October. Their action in turn was in solidarity with an injured Chilean anarchist, Luciano Tortuga. It is unclear if all these actions were launched by the same group, but the back story shows how networked anarchist groups have become, with causes transcending national boundaries.

UK Uncut plans to hit one particular target on 17 December, is also looking to raise funds for legal case versus HMRC and Goldman Sachs

On 17 December UK Uncut is going to hold a Christmas event targeting a particular offender, to be selected by the group’s members via a Facebook poll. This will result in coordinated action against one specific organisation, so a great deal of disruption is possible. The busiest shopping day before Christmas has clearly been deliberately chosen. 

UK Uncut is also calling for financial support in order to fight a legal battle against HMRC and Goldman Sachs, which it alleges made a deal that was unfair to the taxpayer. The group is asking for every supporter to send £1 to help their cause and will be launching a more general collection drive to support this.

30 November to see first national strike in decades; public transport and services will be severely impacted; Unions test water, attempt to nudge concessions from coalition government

26 trade unions representing more than three million members in the UK will come together next week to launch a National Day of Action in support of public sector pensions, in what is predicted by industrial relations analysts to be the biggest strike in generations. This follows on from the last Day of Action on 30 June, which saw 750,000 employees go on strike and a small number of anarchist activists hijack some of the central London protest points to attack businesses. This latest protest is designed more as a show of force for larger national trade union bodies to nudge the Coalition Government back to meaningful concessions at the negotiating table, rather than the beginning of a wave of destructive strikes. Influential figures in the Union movement, such as Unite’s (the UK’s largest Union) newly elected General Secretary Len McCluskey, have so far belied the past assertiveness characterised by his team during the recent strike against BA.

 

Security Risk Monitor / Gadhafi’s controversial death marks official end of fighting in Libya, but guerrilla campaign likely to continue; political infighting will become more apparent in National Transitional Council

On 25 October the bodies of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi and his son Mutassim were secretly buried, ending a dispute that had raged since their killing in questionable circumstances in the town of Sirte. Since Gadhafi was certainly captured alive, as evidenced by video footage, pressure has been placed on the National Transitional Council (NTC) to investigate the deaths and it has somewhat reluctantly agreed to do so. The incident has further tarnished the NTC’s image, which had already been degraded by factional infighting and allegations of mass torture of up to 7,000 Gadhafi loyalists.

Whilst an important milestone, Gadhafi’s death and the fall of Sirte may not herald a decisive end to fighting. His most effective heir, Sayf al-Islam, remains at large and has vowed to continue the campaign against the rebels. He is believed still to be liaising with Gadhafi’s former head of intelligence, General Abdullah Senussi, who seems successfully to have fled the country into Niger. It is probable therefore that this is where he too will end up, especially as it is a comparably welcoming base, despite most of his surviving family now being in Algeria. Gadhafi loyalists have previously mounted targeted terrorist attacks and such activity remains possible.