.
Secret Intelligence Service
.
Counter-Terrorism Library
Relevant Reports in Brief
(II)
.
Illustrations : Crown copyright (c) 2018
.
The Threat of Terrorism is now at an Unprecedented Level
Andrew Parker. Director General. MI5
.
The terror threat is multi-dimensional, evolving very rapidly and operating at a scale and pace we have not seen before. It is at the highest tempo I have seen in my 34-year career. Today there is more terrorist activity, coming at us more quickly, and it can be harder to detect.
500 live operations are currently monitoring 3,000 potential suspects, out of 20,000 people connected to terrorism, which represents a dramatic up-shift in the threat, as the Security Service is already having to expand by a quarter to 5,000 staff to cope with a diverse set of dangers, united only by a toxic ideology.
The threat is more diverse than I have ever known. Plots developed here in the U.K., but plots directed from overseas as well. Plots online, complex scheming and also crude stabbings; lengthy planning but also spontaneous attacks. Extremists of all ages, gender and backgrounds, united only by the toxic ideology of violent victory that drives them.
36 people have been killed across the U.K. in four separate jihadist attacks during 2017, including a suicide bombing in Manchester in May and two deadly vehicular attacks in London, it is impossible for the Security Service to monitor every threat, or prevent every incident. Salman Abedi, the man who killed 22 people with a homemade nail bomb, was not even on any extended terror list.
We have to be careful that we do not find ourselves being held to some sort of perfect standard of 100 percent because that just is not achievable. Operatives have to make life or death decisions based on fragments of intelligence, pinpricks of light against a dark and shifting canvas.
As many as 850 homegrown Islamist recruits were due to return from the Middle East, but the most practical danger comes from the ease by which trained and amateur extremists can exploit safe spaces online and can make threats harder to detect and give us a smaller window to intervene.
We do not want to be seen as King Canute trying to hold back the tide of developing technology but Facebook, Google, Amazon and other internet giants have an ethical responsibility in combating terrorism.
No company wants to provide terrorists with explosive precursors. Social media platforms do not want to host bomb making videos. And communications providers do not want to provide the means of terrorist planning, beyond the sight of MI5, MI6, or the police.
.
.
Relevant Reports in Brief XIII
Relevant Reports in Brief XV >18+
Relevant Reports in Brief XVII
Relevant Reports in Brief XVIII
.
U.S. Domestic Terror / Hate Groups
Brief Fact Sheet on Dirty Bombs
.
Go to Relevant Reports Page (III)
> Enter the Counter-Terrorism Library <
.
Addendum (I)
It can be said that terrorism and its ideology is used by various social and political forces to implement their political and geopolitical objectives. Terrorists themselves, as a rule, take as a basis to justify their violent ideas from any ideology (be it religious, ethnic, political, etc.), the distribution of which is provided by their external or internal funding.
One can highlight a few areas of information counter-terrorism, the implementation of which the institutions of civil society, scientific, educational and business community, the media can and often do actively participate, along with the governmental institutions. These are :
– Information-analytical (release all kinds of memos, brochures, books, downloads, posters, public service advertising, press releases regarding the activities of law enforcement and anti-terrorism committees, thematic documentaries and films, etc.)
– Propaganda (separately – for the civilian population, separately – for members of illegal/potentially armed groups)
– Counter-propaganda (adequate response to misinformation, speeches, statements warlords, spread leaflets and propaganda literature)
– Ideological (the formation of religious and ethnic tolerance, patriotism, healthy lifestyle, human values and priorities, etc.)
– Organisational (promoting the activities of public and religious associations constructive counter-terrorist, media relations, competitions for the best counter-terrorist materials, conferences, gatherings, round tables, etc.)
– Education (creating a system of training in the field of counter-terrorism information).
Considerable attention should always be focused on the prevention of anti-U.K. sentiment.
.
Addendum (II)
Significantly increased is the role of the Internet as a means of promoting terror. Terrorists freely disseminate information through the World Wide Web, openly promoting their ideas, recruiting new supporters, buying weapons and equipment, communicating with each other.
On the issue of the use of the Internet; almost all terrorist and other extremists, including the so-called ‘rebel/dissident/protestor/insurgent’ groups and organisations (in the world there are about 500), who have their own websites (currently there are more than 5000 websites, in 1998 there were a total of 12), these promote the ideology of terrorism and extremism in general. Thus proving that the necessity and legitimacy of the violent activities of these entities are subject to practical tools and guidelines for the organisation of clandestine activities, assembling explosive devices, selecting objects and tactics so to commit acts.
Of course, given the current role of telecommunications networks is a requirement to develop and maintain a mechanism of state regulation of social relations associated with the use of the Internet (including on the registration of domain names), thus eliminating the creation of sites under false setting data, along with the procedure to take down websites that extend from the point of illegal information, that is, promoting the ideology of terrorism, extremism, violence and racial intolerance.
.
Addendum (III)
The main purpose of countering the ideology of terrorism and counter-terrorist formation of consciousness is to create a society in the interests of the counter-terrorist ideology – more a vaccinated population, immune to attempts at involvement in terrorist activities, the reduction of the social base of support for terrorists and the strongest condemnation of the use of terrorist methods under any ideological slogan. To achieve this goal it is necessary to perform the following tasks :
To improve the legal security of all areas of counter-terrorist threats while increasing the level of counter-terrorist culture of the population.
To explain to citizens, especially those segments and categories of the population who are most affected by terrorism and, in general, extremist ideology, the destructive, illegal, anti-human nature of terrorism.
To embed in the public consciousness of British beliefs the futility and destructiveness of using violence to achieve ends via destructive purposes under any slogan.
To bring to the public specific examples convincing of the strategic national position on the inevitability and the hardness of punishment for committing acts of terrorism.
To create a positive image of governmental bodies and employees of units of special services and law enforcement agencies engaged in the fight against terrorism, as well as the motivation to develop the civilian population to assist the government in combating terrorism.
To expose the myths that glorify terrorist and extremist activity.
To demonstrate the hypocrisy of the organisers and sponsors of terrorism.
To debunk the superficially attractive slogans and propaganda techniques.
To educate the law abiding public respect for government representatives, human rights and freedoms of all members of society.
To create a citizens willingness to actively counter extremists, via supporting of government action to suppress illegitimate violence.
To establish in the public mind the respect and appreciation of the diversity of cultural expressions, ways of being human.
To establish and maintain among the creative intelligentsia and media representatives incentives to create artistic, journalistic, documentary works, aimed at creating counter-terrorism awareness in society.
As well as a number of other problems to be solved in the political, social, legal, ideological and spiritual spheres to achieve the main goal which is; the creation of a system to counter terrorist ideology and the formation of counter-terrorism awareness in society.
Above photograph : Phil Noble
.
.
Enter the Counter-Terrorism Library
.
.
.
Relevant Reports in Brief
(II)
Counter-Terrorism Library
Adversitate. Custodi. Per Verum