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The Domestic Section from this week’s Dilitas International Security Brief.

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is SUBSTANTIAL

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The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is SUBSTANTIAL Threat levels are designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack. LOW means an attack is unlikely MODERATE means an attack is possible, but not likely SUBSTANTIAL means an attack is a strong possibility SEVERE means an attack is highly likely CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently AFRICA The Somali government has fired two top security officials after twin blasts and a siege left at least 27 people dead on Saturday. Reported 29th October 2017 – Security forces in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have ended a 15-hour siege of a hotel stormed by armed militants. The gunmen entered the building after two bombs were detonated in the area. At least 20 people were killed, and it is feared more bodies will be found as security forces search the hotel. The Islamist militant group al-Shabab said it had carried out the bombings. Reported 28th October 2017 – Two explosions have rocked the Somali capital Mogadishu, just two weeks after huge bomb killed more than 350 people. The first blast was caused by a car bomb being driven into a hotel. Militants then stormed the building. The second explosion took place near the former parliament house nearby. The number of casualties is unclear. The Islamist militant group al-Shabab – which officials blamed for the attack two weeks ago – said it carried out the latest bombings Reported 27th October 2017 – The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind Tuesday’s attack which killed at least eight Nigerian soldiers in a military base in the north-eastern state of Yobe. In an online statement in Arabic, the Islamist militant group said its fighters seized weapons and four military vehicles in the attack. Reported 27th October 2017 – Three Chadian soldiers serving in the UN mission in Mali known as Minusma were killed on Thursday when their vehicle drove over a mine. There are currently more than 12,000 UN soldiers and police in the north of Mali, fighting Tuareg separatists and various Islamist militant groups, some affiliated with al-Qaeda. Reported 26th October 2017 – Kenya’s presidential election re-run has been marred by isolated clashes and a boycott by the main opposition. A teenage boy was shot by police and later died amid clashes in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu, one of four counties hit by violence. Reported 24th October 2017 – The US is withdrawing military assistance units from Myanmar over the country’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. The state department said it had also dropped travel waivers for Myanmar military officials, and was considering economic sanctions. Reported 24th October 2017 – Suspected pirates have kidnapped six crew members from a German-owned container ship off the coast of southern Nigeria, maritime site SeaGuardian reports. It says that the ship was en route from Equatorial Guinea’s port city of Malabo to Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. Reported 24th October 2017 – A woman in Somalia has held up a large truck at gunpoint, ordered the driver off and searched it for explosives. The vehicle was the same model as the one used in the recent massive truck bombing in the capital Mogadishu which killed more than 350 people. ASIA Reported 28th October 2017 – The threat of nuclear attack from North Korea is increasing, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said during a visit to South Korea. Mr Mattis warned it would face a “massive military response” if it used nuclear weapons. Separately, North Korea released a South Korean fishing boat which it said had been found in North Korean waters illegally. AUSTRALIA Reported 24th October 2017 – An Australian man has been charged with sending money to a US citizen fighting for so-called Islamic State in Syria. The man, 43, was arrested at his Melbourne home on Tuesday after a 16-month investigation by counter-terrorism authorities. EUROPE Reported 28th October 2017 – Greek police say they have arrested a man in Athens in connection with a series of letter bomb attacks on EU officials earlier this year. Eight packages were intercepted in Athens in March after booby-trapped post was sent to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Paris and the German finance minister in Berlin. Reported 25th October 2017 – A blast in Ukraine’s capital Kiev has killed a man and injured three others, including an MP, in what officials say may have been an assassination attempt. A bodyguard of Ihor Mosiychuk – a nationalist Radical Party MP – was killed, the organisation’s head said. Reported 26th October 2017 – A Pakistani man wanted by Interpol in connection with alleged contract murders has been arrested in Hungary. Authorities in Pakistan had issued an international warrant for his arrest in connection with 70 deaths there, listing him as the country’s most-wanted person. Police said he was caught in a group of migrants being smuggled to Austria. Reported 23rd October 2017 – A court in Bavaria has jailed a man with far-right links to life imprisonment for killing a policeman during a raid on his home last year. The man, named only as Wolfgang P, was described as a “Reichsbürger” – part of a group that rejects the German state. LATIN AMERICA Cuba says there have been no sonic attacks against US embassy staff in its capital, Havana, and that the claims are a “political manipulation” aimed at damaging bilateral relations. Clashes erupted between protesters and police in French Guiana on Thursday night during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron. Petrol bombs were thrown and police responded with tear gas in the French overseas territory’s main city Cayenne, amid anger over social deprivation. The territory in South America has 23% unemployment – more than double the rate of mainland France. Reported 24th October 2017 – Thousands of taxi drivers in the Colombian capital Bogota have blocked roads and clashed with police in protest at hail services such as Uber. Yellow cabs lined the streets of the city on Monday as drivers objected to what they said was an unfair advantage awarded to app-based services. Reported 23rd October 2017 – Police in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro say they have shot dead a 67-year-old Spanish tourist. The woman, María Esperanza Jiménez Ruiz, was on a tour of the Rocinha favela when the car she was travelling in broke through a police blockade, officials said. The officer who fired the shot has been detained, police said. MIDDLE EAST Syria’s government was responsible for a deadly chemical attack on a rebel-held town in the north-west of the country on 4 April, a UN report says. The authors say they are “confident” Damascus used sarin nerve agent in Khan Sheikhoun, killing more than 80 people. Reported 26th October 2017 – Iraqi forces have launched an offensive to recapture the last bastion of so-called Islamic State in the country. Soldiers, police, Sunni tribesmen and mostly Shia paramilitary fighters are taking part in the assault on al-Qaim and Rawa, in the Euphrates river valley close to the border with Syria. A court in Iran is believed to have sentenced to death an Iranian doctor who is a resident of Sweden after convicting him of spying for Israel. Tehran’s prosecutor said a person had been found guilty of passing to Israeli operatives the addresses of 30 nuclear and military scientists – two of whom were killed in bomb attacks in 2010. At least 5,600 supporters of so-called Islamic State (IS) have returned to their home countries as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria, a new report says. The Soufan Center, a US-based think tank, says 33 states have reported arrivals in the past two years. The figure includes half of the estimated 850 people who left the UK. Reported 23rd October 2017 – Egypt’s government has disputed reports that more than 50 policemen were killed in a shootout with militants in the Western Desert on Friday. RUSSIA Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution extending the mandate of the only official mission investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria. UK, NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE Reported 29th October 2017 – Heathrow officials are investigating after a USB stick containing confidential data – including the exact route the Queen takes to the airport – was reportedly found in the street. A total of 76 folders were on the stick, including maps, videos and documents, the Sunday Mirror reported. None were encrypted or password protected. The newspaper said it contained details of identification needed to access restricted areas, the location of CCTV cameras, tunnels and escape shafts linked to the Heathrow Express, and a timetable of patrols against terror attacks. Reported 28th October 2017 – A 21-year-old man from Oxford has been charged with being a member of so-called Islamic State, officials from the Kurdish region of Syria have said. Jack Letts, dubbed “Jihadi Jack”, travelled to Syria in 2014 and was later captured by the Kurdish-led YPG – the group fighting against IS – when he left IS territory. Reported 27th October 2017 – A man arrested as part of an inquiry into banned neo-Nazi terror group National Action has been charged with encouragement to murder an MP. Police said Christopher Lythgoe, 31, from Warrington, Cheshire, had been charged with encouragement to murder the Labour MP for West Lancashire, Rosie Cooper. Lythgoe was also one of six men charged with being members of a proscribed organisation, contrary to section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Reported 26th October 2017 – A woman who bought a combat knife and training dummy for her husband has been found guilty of helping him prepare for a planned terror attack in Birmingham. Madihah Taheer, 21, from the city, denied preparing an act of terrorism by assisting her husband Ummariyat Mirza earlier this year. Ministers should not “criminalise thought” with plans to prosecute people who view extremist content online, the UK’s terror watchdog has said. Home Secretary Amber Rudd recently announced plans to increase jail terms for those found guilty to 15 years. Police failed to properly deal with disorder in a seaside town because senior officers “misread the significance of events”, a report says. A Norfolk Police review into why Cromer went into “lawless lockdown” after 100 travellers visited was instigated by the chief constable. Reported 24th October 2017 – A British man who has been fighting so-called Islamic State in Syria has been killed while clearing landmines in Raqqa … Jac Holmes had been fighting with Kurdish militia the YPG since 2015. Kurdish representatives in the UK said they had been told by YPG officials the former IT worker from Bournemouth was killed while he was clearing an area to make it safe for civilians. Reported 24th October 2017 – A great-grandmother has been found guilty of making hoax calls about a bomb at Cardiff’s Motorpoint arena. Deidre Murphy, 62, had told Cardiff Crown Court she made the calls to disrupt an arms fair at the venue. Murphy, from Swansea, who represented herself, was found guilty of two counts of communicating false information. USA Reported 30th October 2017 – Two elite members of the US Navy are being investigated for murder after a 34-year-old special forces serviceman was found dead in Mali in June, officials have told US media. Army Staff Sergeant Logan J Melgar, from Texas, was found at US embassy housing in Mali on 4 June. Police have arrested a student in connection with a shooting that killed two people on a university campus in the US state of Louisiana on Wednesday. The attack at Grambling State University (GSU) left student Earl Andrews and his friend Monquiarious Caldwell, both 23, dead. New security measures affecting flights into the US are coming into effect, which US authorities say are aimed at reducing the threat of hidden explosives. They include enhanced screening of passengers and electronic devices. Two students have been arrested, accused of plotting attacks against students and staff at their high school in Georgia. The students, both 17, were named as Alfred Dupree and Victoria McCurley and are being charged as adults. Police said they found a homemade incendiary device and an undetermined powder substance at McCurley’s house. CYBER NEWS The super-rich clients of a Bermuda-based offshore company were braced for their financial secrets to be exposed after it admitted that its computer records had been hacked. Appleby said that it suffered a leak last year “which involved some of our data being compromised” and admitted that it was “not infallible” but denied any wrongdoing. An incredible sequence of security mistakes led to a US National Security Agency contractor leaking his own confidential hacking tools to Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based company has alleged. The claim comes as part of an internal investigation into allegations that the company helped Russian spies discover and steal the NSA files, by locating and flagging the contractor. A new strain of ransomware nicknamed “Bad Rabbit” has been found spreading in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere. The malware has affected systems at three Russian websites, an airport in Ukraine and an underground railway in the capital city, Kiev. Agents at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been unable to extract data from nearly 7,000 mobile devices they have tried to access, the agency’s director has said. Christopher Wray said encryption on devices was “a huge, huge problem” for FBI investigations. The UK’s financial regulator has fined Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch £35m for breaking reporting rules. The US bank failed to report nearly 69 million transactions over two years, the Financial Conduct Authority said. A high-profile plastic surgery clinic has said it is “horrified” after hackers allegedly stole data during a cyber-attack. London Bridge Plastic Surgery (LBPS) said its IT experts and police found evidence of the breach. A group claiming to be behind the breach said it had “terabytes” of data, the Daily Beast news site reported. The Metropolitan Police is investigating the attack. Credit rating firm Equifax is being investigated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over a large data loss. The FCA released a short statement announcing the investigation but did not provide further details. Reddit has closed down several extremist forums after updating its policy regarding violent content. The newly banned and removed pages include r/NationalSocialism, r/Nazi, r/whitesarecriminals and r/far_right. Twitter is banning two of Russia’s biggest media outlets from buying advertising amid fears they attempted to interfere with the 2016 US election. The ban on advertising from Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, and all linked accounts, was “effective immediately”. The number of malicious communications recorded by Welsh police forces have more than doubled in a year, figures have shown. A BBC Freedom of Information request revealed there were 2,915 reports of cyberbullying, trolling, online harassment and death threats in 2015. Newegg, the well-known online electronics retailer and slayer of patent trolls, has been sued in federal court in Los Angeles by several major Korean banks. The banks, which include Industrial Bank of Korea, Nonghyup Bank, Keb Hana Bank, and Kookmin Bank, allege that Newegg and ASI Corporation pursued fraudulent deals with Moneual. Island companies will be “better informed” about potential cyber security threats as a result of a new Channel Islands section of the UK Cyber Security Partnership, Jersey’s assistant chief minister says. Information about potential cyber security threats can now be shared between Guernsey’s and Jersey’s governments, firms and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. A section specifically for the islands has been set up on its Cyber Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP). Six men accused of laundering hundreds of thousands of euros, allegedly by reselling bitcoins paid for by illegal drugs sales, appeared in a Dutch court on Wednesday. Prosecutors have asked judges to impose sentences ranging from six to 36 months on the suspects. Computer scientists have developed artificial intelligence that can outsmart the Captcha website security check system. NHS trusts were left vulnerable in a major ransomware attack in May because cyber-security recommendations were not followed, a government report has said. CORRUPTION, FRAUD, BRIBERY NEWS Africa A French court has handed down a three-year suspended jail term to Equatorial Guinea’s Vice President Teodorin Obiang for corruption. The 48-year-old, known for his lavish tastes, is the son of the oil-rich West African country’s president. Nigeria’s Justice Minister Abubakar Malami, has said that the country recently recovered $85m (£64m) of stolen assets from the UK. He claimed the money is linked to the Malabu scandal, a major case of alleged bribery involving oil giants Shell and ENI. The Lusaka Magistrates Court has sentenced former Ministry of Health Human Resources Officer Henry Kapoko to two years imprisonment with hard labour for abuse of authority of office and money laundering. Reported 23rd October 2017 – A Nigerian court has ordered a temporary freeze on millions of bank accounts with incomplete identification documents and the forfeiture of funds in those accounts as the government seeks to ensure compliance with money laundering rules. In a court order seen by Reuters on Monday, the government asked banks to disclose details of millions of personal and business accounts where holders have not provided biometric information and asked the court to stop the accounts operating. Reported 23rd October 2017 – The Edo State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested 86 people, suspected to be trafficking illicit drugs. The Commander of the agency in Edo, Mr Buba Wakawa, told the Newsmen in Benin on Monday that the suspects were arrested between July and September this year. Asia SINGAPORE — A 45-year-old Nigerian man who had been charged in a United States court for swindling Citibank was charged in a district court here on Wednesday (Oct 25) with laundering S$1.7 million. Paul Gabriel Amos, who is a Permanent Resident in Singapore and married to a citizen, faces eight charges under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act. Australia Federal police seized more than $1.1 million in cash and arrested three people in dawn raids that busted an alleged Sydney money laundering syndicate suspected of funding terrorism. Eight households in Bass Hill and Bankstown woke to a barrage of ­counter-terrorism and riot police on Wednesday morning. Prisoners at Mobilong Prison allegedly used a mobile phone to co-ordinate smuggling opioids into the state’s prisons with seven people being arrested over the sophisticated set-up. Seven people have been arrested as police and corrections officers teamed up for Operation Portrait. Europe Spanish authorities are seeking the surrender of an Irishman for a drugs trafficking charge related to the recovery of 148 kilograms of cannabis resin. Patrick Joseph Mangan, (51) with an address at Valeview Drive in Finglas, is wanted for prosecution on a single drugs charge allegedly committed in Spain on November 29, 2010. Latin America A judge in Guatemala has ruled that former president Otto Pérez Molina will stand trial for his alleged role in a huge corruption scheme involving the country’s customs service. Argentina’s former Planning Minister Julio De Vido has handed himself in to the authorities after he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity. Mr De Vido is facing corruption charges, which he denies. Brazil’s President Michel Temer has secured enough votes in the lower house of Congress to avoid facing trial on corruption charges. Prosecutors had accused Mr Temer of obstructing justice and racketeering, which he has repeatedly denied. UK, Ireland & Eire Nine sailors from a nuclear missile submarine have been dismissed from the Royal Navy after failing drugs tests, the Ministry of Defence has said. They had been serving aboard HMS Vigilant, which carries the Trident nuclear deterrent. Royal Bank of Scotland has settled a US criminal investigation that accused its traders of lying to clients over investments between 2008 and 2013. The US Department of Justice said RBS will pay $44m (£33.4m) under the non-prosecution agreement. A third of charity fraud cases in England and Wales are suspected to involve staff, trustees or volunteers, the charity watchdog has claimed. The Charity Commission report said organisations should stay alert to “insider fraud”, and make sure that “mutual trust” is not abused. A sub-post office was raided by police as part of a £3 million county-wide money-laundering operation, the Examiner can reveal. Salendine Nook Post Office in New Hey Road, Salendine Nook, shut on October 10 for what the Post Office later described as “operational” reasons. But now police have revealed that the post office was linked to a series of raids in West and South Yorkshire. The former HSBC banker on trial in a landmark “front-running” case has been found guilty of defrauding Cairn Energy over a $3.5bn currency deal. Mark Johnson, who was the bank’s head of global cash foreign exchange trading, was found guilty on nine counts, according to a spokesman for the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. He was found not guilty on one other count. Charities are losing hundreds of thousands of pounds a month to fraud, with more than 800 instances of charity employees defrauding their organisations reported to authorities over the past six months, according to City of London Police. USA & Canada A former Guatemalan judge who once served as a general secretary of the executive board of the Central American country’s soccer federation was sentenced to eight months in prison on Wednesday, the first person to be sentenced in a U.S. probe into bribery surrounding world soccer governing body F.I.F.A. Nine Broward County residents have been federally charged along with six others in a $94 million international money-laundering and fraud scheme, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. The fraudulent operation ran from 2008 to the present and involved romance frauds, email hacking schemes, as well as inheritance and lottery scams, prosecutors said. A Massachusetts pharmacist was convicted of racketeering and fraud charges but was cleared of murder on Wednesday for his role in a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 76 people and sickened hundreds more across the United States. New York City: Fourteen people – including two city inspectors and a certified asbestos investigator – were busted Wednesday in three bribery schemes that resulted in shady inspections and construction work at properties across the city. The inspectors were paid off with cash or gifts by property managers, owners and contractors to rubber stamp paperwork for inspections they never actually performed. Reported 23rd October 2017 – A man agreed to plead guilty to hacking into 550 Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts, including those of celebrities in Los Angeles, officials said Monday. Emilio Herrera, of Chicago, fooled hundreds of men and women, including 40 celebrities, into sending him username and password information by using phishing emails that looked as if they came from Apple, Yahoo and Hotmail, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Reported 23rd October 2017 – Authorities found assault rifles and about $90,000 worth of narcotics and cash when they arrested a convicted felon — who had been out of state prison for two and a half years — last week in Milton. At a Monday afternoon news conference, Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson expanded on the details of the arrest of Antonio Dewayne Davis, 35, for allegedly dealing narcotics out of his home at 6488 Renee Circle in Milton. RICHLAND COUNTY, OH (WOIO) – Federal and local law enforcement officers arrested 25 out of 39 people during a drug sting in Mansfield early Wednesday. The suspects were indicted on numerous charges including trafficking heroin.

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With the news that some police organisations are only going to investigate burglaries committed on the side of the street where the even numbers are located, the ever-increasing speed of demise of the UK police hit an all time low.

The scheme, which must rank as the most ridiculous idea in the history of policing world-wide, is now being considered by some five other counties, after it was said the even number scheme had no impact on crime rates or public satisfaction, by Leicestershire police, who trialled this stupidity.

I have tried to find out how this scheme has, according to police sources, “had no impact on crime rates”, but have been unable to track down the empirical data that supports this statement. As for public satisfaction, well no problem there, he public have no satisfaction in the police so, ergo, public satisfaction naturally would not be affected.

Furthermore, this lunacy has apparently saved money. I fail to see how this saves money and, again, cannot find the empirical data that supports this statement. It is of course possible, the police consider part cessation of their work as a means of saving money.

This follows hard on the heels of the illustrious Chief Constable of Chad Valley Police and Vice President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sara Thornton, who has admitted that the public should no longer expect police officers to turn up at their door if they are burgled. An absolutely staggering statement of self admitted incompetence and ineffectiveness.

As a Chief Constable, it is her job, her primary objective to ensure police turn up to report burglaries, not slope shoulders and tell her customers not to hold their breath.

During Thornton’s studies at the University of Durham and the Cambridge Institute of Applied Criminology, they probably missed the point that if you tell the local burglars you will only investigate crimes committed at even numbers, the smarter villains will focus on the odd numbers. Remember, smart, streetwise villains are a lot sharper than Chief Constables with Criminology degrees.

The other concern is how long will it take before the insurance companies start increasing the premiums for properties with odd numbers. This is not a facetious comment, but a serious question.

Just to give you an insight into how fast the rusted hulk of SS UK Policing is sinking with all hands, I thought you might like to review a conversation sent to me by an old and trusted chum, with a long and distinguished career in the Met spent at the front line of policing and not academia. He has given me permission to publish the e-mail he sent. Be prepared to gulp and gasp!

At an evening dinner the other day, a serving officer told me openly, that the most recent recruits (his son, proudly joined ‘the best force in the world’) arrived for their first week at their training centre, to be greeted by – NO INSTRUCTOR at all!!!

They took it in turns to train the class themselves, by reading from their manual and testing each other!

Then, to add insult to injury, they were told that as there are not enough items of uniform to issue to them, that before they went out on attachment, they could look on eBay to find white shirts with pockets etc., so they could wear them while out on the streets, AND that while out on attachment to division, they should ask if they could ‘borrow’ a helmet as there are NOT ENOUGH to issue them personally to everyone!

They should also ask if they could keep the helmet until after their passing out parade as there is no chance of getting their own before then.

Suffice to say that the father of the ‘proud new officer’ was blushing all the way to his PayPal account to help his son buy his police issue clothing from eBay.

What a sad state of affairs.  I wonder where all the money has gone and why the criminals are getting the upper hand?  Maybe some of the money spent on that discipline hearing you reported on the Dilitas Facebookpage might be better spent elsewhere?

Recently, you have heard I am sure about the police being told not to chase youths that commit robberies while riding motorcycles along the roads/footways because the poor little dears might fall off and get hurt/die in the chase.

Well, the Commander for the Met’s Traffic Division hadn’t heard of that policy; and at a public meeting when challenged on this ‘fact’, was truly embarrassed when he heard that news.

For me there are two parts to worry about.  First, his lack of awareness of reality on the streets, and secondly, the fact that is allowed to happen in the first place!  ‘The Prevention of Crime and Arrest of Offenders if crime is committed’.  How do you achieve the first, of preventing crime, if the little dears don’t think you don’t care what they do?

The Commander of Traffic has now vowed that he will not just challenge the wisdom behind the present thinking of not chasing these hell raisers, but will actively send his resources to the affected areas so they can do just that!

My answer is to chase them until they stop finding it ‘fun’ to do these robberies, or die in the process!  When do the public feel confident?  When the Old Bill do something about crime!

Soon, they’ll be telling the squads to stop shooting these terrorist types in case one of them, or their relatives sues the Job for compensation.  To me, the kids on their motorcycles are worse than the terrorists.   They are making the public at large afraid to sit down and enjoy our pavement culture styled coffee bars, for fear of having their hard earned property stolen.  Civilisation?

God bless us all…

This is now the unmitigated shambles that stands between the law abiding members of society and the avalanche of criminal chaos, that is waiting to come crashing down upon us.

In case this is read by any Chief Constables or similar, I would be happy to help to produce the blue print that would enable you to turn this round and start doing what the police should be doing, “prevent crime and then next, the detection and arrest of offenders”, regardless of which side of the street they operate on.

The Police Financial Audit & Research Centre for Experimentation has announced that, after many years of hard work and spending a small fortune (which completely dwarfs the cost of water cannons), they have developed the very latest and absolute cutting edge of law enforcement operational units.

This unit is capable of performing a multiplicity of actions, throughout an eight-hour tour of duty, in all types of weathers and any environment, be it urban or countryside.

The actions performed by the units are as follows:

•  Prevention of crime
• Intelligence gathering
• Positive marketing of the police product
• Delivering a wide range of advice from crime prevention through to marriage guidance
• Develop a strong working knowledge of the residents and businesses in its area of patrol
• Manage traffic congestion
• Report traffic accidents
• Keep traffic flowing
• Give words of advice to those local miscreants who need it.
• Words of advice are given once and failure to comply results in arrest
• Develop a level of communication with a variety of strata’s of society and with ethnic minorities, which is unparalleled in any other UK work place.
• Identify criminal activity as it happens by instinctive knowledge gained over many years of patrolling
• Arrest of offenders
• Interviewing offenders to gather evidence and intelligence
• Conduct searches of properties and open areas
• Have a strong working knowledge of Traffic Law, Criminal Law and some aspects of civil law.
• Deliver dreadful news such as death messages.
• Risk life and limb by physical engaging with violent individuals
• Liaise with detectives & crime squads, who enter its patrolling area, to provide timely and factual intelligence absent from current intelligence gathering processes.
• Leave their area of patrol and operate complex command and control centres
• If required, drive a variety of police vehicles, when drivers are not available.
• The units walk, so they are cost free, carbon free and completely green.

There are also a wide variety of other tasks they can perform, but these are not mentioned, as the accountants cannot quantify them.

These units will be called Police Constables and they will patrol given areas, which will be known as “Beats” and whilst walking their beats will perform all of the above task and many others that cannot be quantified by accountants.

This is policing in the 21^st Century!

Well actually it is not.

The reason being is that this fulcrum upon which policing turns, is being steadily reduced almost to a point of oblivion, for the simple reason that those who now run & control the police force/service/something else {Delete as you think appropriate} no longer understand the value or nature of the patrolling police officer.

This was exemplified by the comments of Nick Alston, Police & Crime Commissioner for Essex Police and the Chairman of the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners (APCC). So we can understand the lofty and authoritive position of Master Alston, his antecedents are understood to include his father who was a police officer in Essex police, who rose to the rank of Deputy Chief Constable. Young Alston then took a commission in the Royal Navy and then served for 30 years in the Civil Service.

Naturally, this exemplary Curriculum Vitae provides him with all the experience and knowledge to know what policing is and how it is undertaken on a day to day basis.

Alston recently told The Times that neighbourhood uniformed patrols had not been relevant for decades, while their impact on crime was “at the very best completely unproven”.   This statement shows that Alston has absolutely no idea what he is talking about and I could fill a book with factual anecdotes that would disprove the statement completely.

Alston states that ‘Beat Bobbies are out-of-date-luxury we cannot afford”. Wrong. They are more of a necessity in today’s modern world, than they have ever been.

His statement, however, shows that modern policing suffers from a throat-choking hold by accountants and financial managers, none of whom understand the fact that the biggest and best results in policing comes from uniformed officers patrolling the streets and making instinctive decisions based on hard-earned experience.

The other critical point, is that these instinctive decisions cannot be quantified on a spread sheet, as neither can a good 45% of what a patrolling uniformed officer achieves by just being on the street.

Alston continued to wade into the guano by stating that ”Bobbies have beats because in the old days they didn’t have telephones, they didn’t have cars. Those days went 50 years ago”. This shows that he does not have the smallest clue what policing is or how you perform it and manage it.

As an example, when the modern military operates in violent areas of the world, they operate from their own bases from which they regularly leave and put “boots on the ground”. They engage with the locals as positively as they can, to win their hearts and minds. They engage with the terrorists as rapidly and aggressively as possible to neutralise criminal activity, risks and threats. Effectively, they become a visual, patrolling presence doing a difficult and dangerous job.

This process is exactly the same thing that “Bobbies” have done since 1839, when Sir Richard Mayne was the first Commissioner of the Metropolis and issued the guiding words that “The primary objectives of an efficient police force (note the word Force!) are the prevention of crime, then next the detection and arrest of offenders”. This sentence embodies the very principles on which policing is undertaken. This has not changed.

This was the first thing taught to all police officers who joined the “Met”, until eventually it was dropped in favour of a more politically correct approach to policing, which, we have all seen, no longer works.

Alston continued that he did not support the total abolition of neighbourhood response teams and police community support officers as a level of visibility, “gives confidence to the public”. Clearly, 30 years in the Civil Service has served him well, as he cannot decide whether the uniform presence is relevant or not. Furthermore, in order to provide him some free advice, Neighbourhood Watch teams do not work; you cannot find them and, most importantly, you never see them. Ergo, they cannot provide confidence to the public and, frankly, they do not.

The thorny political discussion of the Police Community Support Officers ever lies below the water. The PCSO was a totally flawed concept, dreamt up by the Blairite Government. They achieve nothing as far as operational policing is concerned and cost the policing budgets a fortune, which should be employed on recruiting and training real police officers. PCSOs’ are policing on the cheap to save money on wage bills and pensions and to fool the public into thinking there are lots of police on the street.

Alston continues, that in a climate of swinging cuts, forces (there are no police forces any more) needed to give evidence-based policing priority. Specially trained officers who could tackle child abuse and sexual exploitation or crime on the internet were more important. Ahh, the pointless, eloquence of the civil servant.

If Alston knew anything about policing, which he quite clearly does not, he would know that these offences are being committed and often continue in homes. One of the best way of identifying these offences and reacting to them, is by having uniformed officers constantly patrolling, being embedded in a community and knowing what goes on. It used to happen some 40 years ago, when Beats were patrolled and it clearly does not now (as there are no beat patrols).

None of these offences mentioned by Alston will ever be discovered by a fast moving, brightly decorated police car and crew, rushing up, taking a quick burst of reactive policing and driving off again.

Alston continues deeper into the mire when he states that, “The ‘bobbies on the beat’ language for me is just very out-dated and misses the point about modern policing. We want our police officers focussed where we know they can make a difference to crime reduction”.

The place where you make the biggest difference to preventing crime and then arresting offenders is by having uniformed officers on the street and doing their job. We are not sure if this comment is referring the Essex officers who, last week, attended the scene to find a dead man, but failed to completely miss the point that he had been shot several times! Outstanding police work.

Alston bangs on about that “I’d love other forces to learn that you don’t want bobbies on the beat, you want highly trained detectives who can obtain best evidence interviews really well, who have the skills to manage a relationship with social care so we can do the safeguarding for the children who come to harm.” What a great statement from a man who has never done the job and yet again, shows that he is talking total tosh.

Frankly, in my experience, there are hardly any highly trained detectives left.

The worrying point is that many senior police officers are reported to share Alston’s views, according to Fiona Hamilton, Crime Editor of The Times, who believe that neighbourhood patrols should be the first unit to be sacrificed in the present cuts.

In order to assist beleaguered senior police officers and the high quality and experienced Police and Crime Commissioners such as Alston, here are some areas where they could make some cuts to save money and improve operational efficiency:

• Remove the role of all PCCs’ and disband their organisations. Millions saved in one hit!
• Remove all civilian staff who do not directly contribute to operational matters.
• Don’t buy water cannons, which would never have been used, and if they had, would never have worked operationally.
• Start reviewing the extraneous costs that do not have anything to do with operational policing.
• , etc.

People like Alston now control the UK police. In the main, they do not know what they are doing, they operate from a point of nil experience and carve out policing policies that do not work.

This is why the standards of policing in this country have plummeted and will continue to do so.

Operation Elveden is the Scotland Yard enquiry into the investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police and is overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Operation Elevden is led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, CBE, QPM, who is also leading Operation Weeting & Operation Tuleta. The Metropolitan Police service’s Directorate of Professional Standards is also involved in Op Elveden.

The IPCC was born out of the Lord Scarman’s inquiry into the Brixton riots in 1981 and the Stephen Lawrence inquiry in 1999, which heralded the call for the establishment of an independent body. In April 2000, the human rights organisation, Liberty, issued a study called “An Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Partly in response to these calls, in May 2000 the government carried out a consultation on a new complaints system. It produced a briefing note called, ‘Feasibility of an Independent System for Investigating Complaints Against the Police’. These consultations culminated in the Police Reform Act 2002, which established the IPCC. The IPCC became operational in April 2004.

The IPCC has been in the forefront of most major enquiries into serious allegations against Police, as it also deals equally with allegations made against the National Crime Agency and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Its effects on a police officers career can be dramatic and draconian. Whilst, there is no support for those who have done wrong, abused the trust placed in them by the public they serve and the colleagues with whom they work; there are questions being asked about the modus operandi of such investigations and the results they may or may not produce.

Many of these questions relate to the manner in which the IPCC and, indeed, “The Job” itself, responds to those officers who have been investigated and found to be innocent of all allegations made against them.

More often than not, these officers receive no apology, there standing is not restored, nor is there any recompense for the manner in which the officers and their families have been treated.

An excellent case in point is Frank Armstrong, a recently retired Assistant Commissioner of the City of London Police. Frank, 54, who had just retired was arrested in March 2013 when police raided his home at 07:00 following allegations that accused him of passing “unauthorised information to a journalist”.

Frank had completed an unblemished career, which included long service in one of the most elite and confidential units of the Police, was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in recognition of his service and had been the former head of the protection detail for Tony Blair. Despite the allegation, there was never any suggestion that money had changed hands between Frank and the unidentified members of the press.

Frank was released from Bail in November 2013, but told he was still under investigation, which continued for another 18 months. The outcome of this investigation, which took over two years and resulted in the IPCC withdrawing the file before charging decisions were made, concluded that there was a lack of evidence.

Frank has commented that he understands the need to investigate leaks and acknowledged that the IPCC has a difficult job to do. He questioned the need to initially arrest him and to undertake the arrest at 07:00. This being more the process intended to frustrate career criminals at the outset of the investigation.

The effect of this failed inquiry resulted in Frank loosing a non-executive position with a security company and his inability to work thereafter. He has also not been asked to attend the Palace to collect his QPM.

Mark Spragg, an expert on arrest law at Keystone Law, commented that Frank’s arrest was very heavy-handed and probably unlawful.

Two years and two months worth of investigation for a unit of supposedly competent detectives, led by an experienced Deputy Assistant Commissioner and supported by the Directorate of Professional Standards, to complete an investigation which dies on its hunkers, is a matter that requires a detailed review to see what has occurred. Notwithtanding the astronomical cost this must have been to a police force under the cosh to save millions from its budgets.

The cost of this inquiry will have been substantial and has achieved nothing. It is understood that the baying hordes of the left wing, which played an integral part in the creation of the IPCC, have not flooded to Frank’s assistance during this period. Which of course, comes as no surprise.

Investigations should be conducted into all allegations of crime, but let those so engaged, make the right decision as to whether there is a case to answer, rather than ploughing on and getting no where.

Conversely, those who are cast into this legal meat grinder and churned out, battered but unbowed, should have the same resources applied to a return to their original position, as those resources applied to initiate their downfall.

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

UK, NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

Four people have been arrested at Manchester Airport on suspicion of terrorism, police have said. Two others were arrested on Tuesday as part of the same investigation, launched after nine people were stopped on the Turkey-Syria border on 1 April. The four are aged between 22 and 47 and are all from Rochdale, Greater Manchester Police said.

A 25-year-old man has been arrested in Birmingham on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences, West Midland Police has said. West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit detained the suspect, from Yardley Wood, at an address in Billesley, Birmingham, at 07:00 BST on 15th April 2015.

A second man has been arrested and a mosque is being searched after a Syrian-born preacher was found shot dead in his car in north-west London. Abdul Hadi Arwani, 48, was found dead on 7 April in Wembley. He was believed to be a critic of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

Three men accused of helping a 17-year-old Cardiff boy leave the UK to join fighters in Syria have pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. The three appeared via video link for the hearing at the Old Bailey charged with the preparation of terrorist acts. They will next appear at the Old Bailey on 25 June for a four week trial. The three men are all charged with preparation of terrorist acts with the intention of assisting an individual – who cannot be named for legal reasons – to commit acts of terrorism.

Reported 14th April 2015 – RAF Typhoons have been launched to intercept two Russian aircraft near UK airspace, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The incident came as Britain hosts a Nato exercise in northern Scotland involving more than 50 warships. The MoD said the Typhoons, from RAF Lossiemouth, were deployed “after Russian aircraft were identified flying close to UK airspace”. The Russian planes later turned back, flying north past Norway.

A missing UK family of six could already be in Syria, police have said. Asif Malik, 31, Sara Kiran, 29, their daughter Zoha, seven, and three sons Essa, four, Zakariya, two, and Yhaya, one, were last seen on 7 April. Police said online rhetoric from Islamic State (IS), the family’s direction of travel and concerns voiced by relatives made officers “concerned” that they were heading for Syria.

A British jihadist who fled the UK to join extremists in Syria has posted a list of ISIS “jobs” online for supporters who do not want to fight. A man writing under the name of Abu Sa’eed Al-Britani insisted that an aversion to battle was a “sign of weak faith” but there was work available for press officers, fitness instructors and bomb makers. According to the list of 10 jobs released earlier this month, volunteers are needed to indoctrinate children in ISIS-held territories, implement its violent interpretation of Sharia law and care for injured fighters. Number one on the list is press officers for the so-called Islamic State’s ‘media center’.

Last week a British court ruled that a convicted member of the Basque separatist group ETA can be extradited to Spain. In the judge’s ruling, he said there had been no abuse of process in Antonio Troitino’s case, and he could receive a fair trial in Spain. Troitino served 24 years in a Spanish prison for his role in more than 20 killings. He was released in 2011. However, Spanish authorities said he had been released too soon. Troitino was arrested in the UK in 2012 on a Spanish warrant, and he has been fighting extradition ever since. Troitino has 7 days to appeal.

Northern Ireland’s police ombudsman has launched an investigation into whether the British security forces could have prevented at least 20 murders of alleged informers by the IRA. The inquiry by the Historical Investigations Directorate is focusing on one of the darkest episodes of the Troubles and the role of the double agent known as Stakeknife, who ran the republican movement’s so-called “nutting squad” or counter-intelligence section. Stakeknife has been identified as Freddie Scappaticci, a republican activist who fled Belfast after being unmasked more than a decade ago. He has always denied working for British military intelligence and continues to deny being Stakeknife.

INTERNATIONAL:

ISIS

Islamic State (IS) militants have released a video purportedly showing the killing of up to 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya. Footage shows one group of men being beheaded on a beach and another group being shot in the head in a desert. The victims are believed to be members of the Ethiopian Church seized in Libya by IS-linked militants.

Islamic State (IS) has lost more than a quarter of its territory in Iraq since the US-led coalition air campaign began in August, a Pentagon spokesman says. Col Steve Warren said it was too early to say the tide was turning, but that air strikes and Iraqi ground forces had “unquestionably inflicted some damage”.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s social media have launched a new campaign threatening to repeat 9/11 and bring war to America. The campaign, given the hashtag #WeWillBurnUSAgain, is accompanied by a video compilation showing some of ISIL’s “greatest hits”, including the beheadings of the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. “America thinks it’s safe because of the geographical location,” its voiceover says. “Thus you see it invades Muslim lands, and thinks that the army of jihad won’t reach in their lands. But the dream of Americans to have safety became a mirage.” The hashtag campaign was announced on April 8 … when pro-ISIL accounts posted thousands of tweets with the hashtag with variations on the same theme, of America’s vulnerability to lone wolf and other attacks.

MIDDLE EAST

Members of the UN Security Council were moved to tears after they were shown a video of an apparent chlorine gas attack last month in north-west Syria.
The footage shows the unsuccessful attempts of doctors to revive three children all aged under four. US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power described the meeting as “very emotional” and said those responsible will be held accountable. The Syrian government denies it was responsible for the attack in Idlib.

Houthi rebels have condemned Tuesday’s UN Security Council arms embargo imposed on them and their allies. They called for protests against what they termed UN support of “aggression”.

Palestinian fighters have advanced in clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Palestinian officials say.

US President Barack Obama has offered the Iraqi Prime Minister $200m (£135m) in humanitarian aid on his first official visit to Washington. The humanitarian aid is to help Iraqis displaced by the militants. President Obama said that Iraqi troops, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, had now recovered about one-quarter of the territory in Iraq seized by the group. Source ISIL has lost more than a quarter of its territory in Iraq since the U.S.-led coalition air campaign began in August, according to a Pentagon spokesman. Colonel Steve Warren said the lost territory amounts to some 5,000 to 6,600 square miles and added that it was too early to say the tide was turning, but that air strikes and Iraqi ground forces had “unquestionably inflicted some damage”.

ASIA

Men claiming to be Islamic militants shot and wounded an American woman in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, leaving leaflets in her car naming her and saying they had targeted her because she was American, police said. Gunmen on motorbikes shot the woman in the face and the hand as she drove home from the dental college where she worked as a vice principal. “Pamphlets claiming the attack have been found in the car, giving impression that some banned (militant) outfit carried out the attack,” the deputy police superintendent told reporters

Japan is scrambling fighters at near-unprecedented levels in response to foreign aircraft – mainly Russian and Chinese – approaching its airspace, the defence ministry says.

Satellite images show China is making progress on building an airstrip on a reef in disputed territory in the South China Sea, a report says. The images, published by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, show construction work on reclaimed land on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands. The landmass could accommodate a runway about 3,000m long, the report said. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations including Vietnam and the Philippines. They accuse China of illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use.

AUSTRALIA

Australians fighting alongside Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq pose a “serious national security threat”, according to a new report. However, the Lowy Institute for International Policy report said the government’s response could help lower the risk of an attack.

Australia and Iran have agreed to share intelligence about Australians fighting with militant groups in Iraq. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said the deal will help both countries in their efforts to tackle Islamic State (IS).

AFRICA & SOUTH AFRICA

About 700 migrants are feared drowned after their boat capsized off Libya, survivors have told Save the Children. The Italian coast guard rescued 144 people from the boat on Monday and launched an air and sea search operation in hopes of saving others.

Italian PM Matteo Renzi has led calls for more European Union action on sea migration after the latest deadly capsize of a boat in the Mediterranean. Demanding a summit on the issue, Mr Renzi said trafficking was “a plague in our continent” and bemoaned the lack of European solidarity. The 20m (70ft) long boat was believed to be carrying up to 700 migrants, and only 28 survivors have been rescued.

A United Nations supply convoy has been attacked near the city of Gao in northern Mali, with two civilian drivers killed. The attack took place about 15km (9 miles) west of the city late on Friday, the UN Mission in Mali said.

Earlier last week, Al-Shabab militants attacked a government complex in a busy area of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, leaving at least 17 people dead, including seven assailants. A car loaded with explosives was driven into the wall surrounding the compound, and gunmen then stormed the building.

Somalia’s Islamist al-Shabab militants are recruiting heavily in north-eastern Kenya, according to evidence gathered by the BBC. The recruitment marks a new tactic for al-Shabab, underscoring fears voiced by Kenyan intelligence services and MPs.

Reported 15th April 2015 – A suicide attack on a UN base in northern Mali has killed three civilians and wounded nine peacekeepers, the UN has said.
The bomber attempted to drive into a UN camp in Ansongo town when his explosives detonated, it added.

Foreign-owned shops in South Africa have been attacked and looted in eastern Johannesburg, the latest in a series of xenophobic attacks. Police said about 200 foreigners took refuge at a police station, and 12 people were arrested over the attacks. The violence comes despite Thursday’s rally against xenophobia in the coastal city of Durban, and condemnation from President Jacob Zuma.

UKRAINE

There has been a surge in violence between government troops and pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine, despite diplomatic efforts to enforce a truce. Ukraine said six government soldiers were killed in a 24-hour period and rebels said one of their fighters died in an army attack.

A Ukrainian opposition politician, Oleg Kalashnikov, has been found dead with gunshot wounds in Kiev – the latest ally of the former government to have died in suspicious circumstances. Mr Kalashnikov had been involved in the “anti-Maidan” protests in support of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. It is not clear if he was murdered or committed suicide. Police say an investigation has been launched.

About 300 US paratroopers have come to western Ukraine to train with Ukrainian national guard units, the US Army says. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that the move “could seriously destabilise the situation” in Ukraine.

EUROPE

One of Italy’s most wanted gangsters has been detained on the Costa del Sol in Spain while trying to withdraw money from a post office. Lucio Morrone, known as “Spalluzzella”, is described by Spain’s Guardia Civil as head of a dangerous clan in the Naples Camorra.

LATIN AMERICA

Mexican authorities have issued an alert for five states after the theft of potentially dangerous radioactive materials. A container of Iridium-192 used for industrial radiography was taken from a truck in the town of Cardenas in Tabasco state.

Cuba has welcomed as “fair” a US decision to remove it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying it should never have been on the list in the first place. The move comes amid a normalisation of ties between the US and Cuba.

USA & CANADA

A former Blackwater guard has been sentenced to life in prison and three others to 30 years over the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007. Nicholas Slatten and three others were convicted last year for the killings in Baghdad’s crowded Nisoor Square. A further 17 Iraqis were injured as the private contractors opened fire to clear the way for a US convoy.

The US has expressed concern after Russia lifted a ban on supplying Iran with the sophisticated S-300 air defence missile system. Secretary of State John Kerry raised the matter in a phone call with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, the White House said.

A close associate of a Philadelphia woman charged in a plot to join the Islamic State group in Syria pledged to avenge her arrest with attacks on the U.S. and violence at the jail where she is held. The associate tweeted a call for suicide attacks after federal agents searched Keonna Thomas’ home in late March and posted an image of an exploding truck with the message, “No prison door would be able to stand against the force” after her arrest last week, the Assistant U.S. Attorney said.

CYBER ISSUES:

Cybersecurity is now a core consideration for all weapons purchases at the Defense Department. The Pentagon released its new buying guide, Better Buying Power 3.0, last week. For the first time, it discusses cybersecurity. “Cybersecurity is a pervasive problem for the department,” the acquisition chief told a press conference. “It’s a pervasive problem in the sense that it affects and is a danger, if you will, a source of risk for our programs from inception all the way through
retirement.”

Hundreds of planes flying commercially today could be vulnerable to having their onboard computers hacked and remotely taken over by someone using the plane’s passenger Wi-Fi network, or even by someone on the ground, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. One of the authors of the report told CNN that the planes include the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A350 and A380 aircraft, and all have advanced cockpits that are wired into the same Wi-Fi system used by passengers. He said, “Modern communications technologies, including IP connectivity, are increasingly used in aircraft systems, creating the possibility that unauthorised individuals might access and compromise aircraft avionics systems,” according to the report, which is based on interviews with cybersecurity and aviation experts.

Hacking attacks that destroy rather than steal data or that manipulate equipment are far more prevalent than widely believed, according to a survey of critical infrastructure organisations throughout North and South America. The poll by the Organisation of American States found that 40 percent of respondents had battled attempts to shut down their computer networks, 44 percent had dealt with bids to delete files and 54 percent had encountered “attempts to manipulate” their equipment through a control system. Those figures, provided exclusively to Reuters ahead of the official release, are all the more remarkable because only 60 percent of the 575 respondents said they had detected attempts to steal data, long considered the predominant hacking goal.

An international coalition of cybercrime agencies is working to take down a major botnet that has installed malware on the computers of over 12,000 Americans and Asians. Called Beebone, the botnet acts as a “downloader,” installing other forms of malware on victims’ computers without their consent or even awareness, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre said. Initial figures show that over 12,000 computers have been infected, however it is likely there are many more. Once the botnet has installed malware on a computer, it allows cyber criminals steal banking logins and passwords, create fake anti-virus programs and activate ransomware. Source Europol, in collaboration with Dutch authorities, the U.S. FBI and private security companies, have seized the domain names used to control a botnet called Beebone. The police action on 8 April redirected domains used by the botnet’s command-and-control servers to a server controlled by security companies.

Iran poses a growing threat to America’s computer networks and has launched increasingly sophisticated digital attacks and spying on US targets, according to a new report released last week. Iran’s far-reaching hacking efforts indicate the regime is searching for vulnerable infrastructure that could be hit in future cyber-assaults, said the study by private cyber-security company Norse and the American Enterprise Institute think tank. “Iran is emerging as a significant cyber-threat to the US and its allies,” the study said.

Prosecutors say they have evidence indicating the former head of computer security for a state lottery association tampered with lottery computers prior to him buying a ticket that won a $14.3 million jackpot, according to a media report. Eddie Raymond Tipton, 51, may have inserted a thumb drive into a highly locked-down computer that’s supposed to generate the random numbers used to determine lottery winners, The Des Moines Register reported, citing court
documents filed by prosecutors. At the time, Tipton was the information security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, and he was later videotaped purchasing a Hot Lotto ticket that went on to fetch the winning $14.3 million payout.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

April 20, 1870 Birth Date of Hitler (occasional rallies by extreme Right Wing groups)
April 20, 1998 Germany’s Red Army Faction announces its disbandment
April 21, 1926 Birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth ll. Gun salutes in Hyde Park
April 21, 1997 End of 126-day siege at Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Peru.
April 22, 2002 Al-Qaeda attack on a Tunisia synagogue in Djerba kills 19 people
April 24, 1915 Anniversary of Armenian genocide in Turkey.
April 24, 1916 Start of the Easter Rising in Dublin.
April 24, 1968 Founding of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.
April 24, 1993 A massive Provisional IRA truck bomb at Bishopsgate, City of London, kills one person and injures 35 others.
April 24, 1996: Large Provisional IRA Semtex bomb under Hammersmith Bridge fails to function properly.
April 25, 2011 Easter Monday
April 25, 1997: To date, the last Provisional IRA attack on mainland UK prior to their current ceasefire. A bomb attack on an electricity pylon next to M6 in Walsall.
April 25, 1980 Failed U.S. military hostage rescue mission to free 53 U.S. hostages held in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
April 26, 1986 Chernobyl Disaster
April 27, 1984 End of Libyan Embassy siege in London
April 28, 2011 Bomb kills 15 in Marrakech cafe frequented by Westerners in first major attack in country since May 2003; government blames AQIM but group denies responsibility
April 29, 1992 Rioting in Los Angeles following verdict in Rodney King case
April 30, 1975 The war in Vietnam ends as Saigon surrenders to the Vietcong.
April 30, 1973 President Nixon takes responsibility for the Watergate scandal but denies any personal involvement
April 30, 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London – ended on May 5th in a resolution by 22 Special Air Service Regiment.

Andrew Staniforth examines the devious processes by which online criminals hide evidential data. New Strategic Policing Requirements (SPR) published by the Home Secretary earlier this month reinforce the priority of police forces to ensure they have the capacity and capability to contribute to a national response to a cyber security incident. SPR is a central government tool to counter the growing concern among security professionals that a sophisticated cyber attack could cause grave damage to the safety and security of the UK and its citizens.

Cyber terror A national cyber incident may arise from numerous sources, but given the severe terrorist threat level assessment from international terrorism, an attack via an act of cyber terrorism by a terrorist organisation appears most likely.

Terrorists have a strong presence in cyberspace and are utilising its capabilities to progress their chosen political, religious or ideological extremist cause.

There are two principal motivations for the terrorist’s use of cyberspace which includes supporting their activity ­ the acquisition and laundering of money and the recruitment of individuals to their cause ­ and the use of tools in cyberspace to instigate an actual attack.

It is the terrorist’s use of cyberspace to attack UK interests that is the focus of the Home Secretary’s SPR ­ and all police forces have a responsibility to contribute to a national response when required.

Attack categories as a rule, a distinction should be drawn among three basic cyber terrorist attack categories: an attack on the gateway of an organisation, an attack on an organisation’s information systems ­ and the most sophisticated, an attack on an organisation’s core operational systems.

An attack on the gateway of an organisation, that is, its internet site, is the most basic level of attack. The simplest tactic is to mount an attack denying service designed to disrupt daily life and operations ­ but such attacks do not cause substantial, irreversible or lasting damage.

An attack on an organisation’s information systems is the intermediate level on the scale of damage in cyberspace which includes attacks against the organisation’s information and computer systems such as servers and communications networks. Such attacks cause substantial disruption, major embarrassment for organisations and the loss of community and customer confidence.

Critical infrastructures The highest level of cyber attack risk is an attack on an organisation’s core operational and operating systems. Examples include attacks against critical infrastructures ­ such as water, electricity and gas supplies and public transportation systems.

Such attacks may deny the provision of essential services for a given time, or in more severe cases, even cause physical damage by attacking command and control systems. The key difference with this level of cyber attack is that a virtual attack is likely to create physical damage and its effects are liable to be destructive – the very reason why the capacity and capability of police forces across the UK needs to be ready to respond to such a cyber crisis.

Anti­ forensics Responding to a national cyber incident will be complex, but the investigation of post incident cyber attacks presents its own unique challenges as cyber criminals and terrorists become increasingly aware of forensic analysis methods. As a direct result, they often implement counter measures to prevent an investigator harvesting useful information. This practice is called anti­ forensics, the purpose of which is to destroy or hide evidential data. There are a number of techniques that are used to apply anti­forensics and it is important for all cyber investigators to develop awareness of the practices cyber criminals put in place in an attempt to conceal their activities.

Methods such as “slack space anti ­forensics”, which hide malicious software in reserved, empty or spare capacity areas that are not being used by operating systems, and “smart anti ­Forensics technology”, used by a cyber­ criminal to identify whether a hard drive has been removed for a forensic duplication process, are all part of the dark arts of cyber crime to avoid capture.

Steganography One of the most common cyber tactics used to avoid detection is steganography ­ the art and science of hiding information by embedding messages within other, seemingly harmless messages.

Steganography works by replacing bits of useless or unused data in regular computer files (such as graphics, sound or text) with bits of different, invisible information. This hidden information can be plain text or even images. Steganography sometimes is used when encryption is not permitted, or, more commonly, is used to supplement encryption.

An encrypted file may still hide information using steganography. So even if the encrypted file is deciphered, the hidden message is not seen. Operational challenge Anti­ forensics is a reality. Terrorists and criminals conducting their activities online are just as devious as counterparts operating offline, making every attempt to conceal their crimes. Every cyber investigation will include some element of anti ­forensic tools or approach. Of course, cyber criminals may adopt operational security protocols that are not necessarily designed with anti ­forensics in mind.

For instance, passwords, code words and file shielders may be used that are in place simply to provide an appropriate level of safety, security and privacy ­ but they can be used as an anti­forensic tool since they can protect and conceal data. The technical complexity of contemporary cyber investigations has brought the skill of the cyber forensic investigator to the fore. Their increasingly important role in community safety and national security is not to be underestimated. The cyber forensic investigator today is a “safe hacker” who must use the full range of legitimate and lawful investigative tools and technologies to retrieve vital intelligence and evidence to bring cyber terrorists and criminals to justice. Increased connectivity Cyber criminals continue to develop new and increasingly sophisticated anti­forensic tools and technologies to thwart law enforcement efforts. The identification of anti­forensics and the sharing of knowledge of new and emerging anti­forensic tools and approaches between cyber investigators is essential to maintain an effective cyber investigative capability. The increased connectivity between cyber professionals working in different agencies is also vital if the UK is to be able to tackle cyber threats and respond effectively to a national cyber incident.

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

Two men have been charged with terrorism offences. Ibrahim Anderson, 38, and Shah Jahan Khan, 62, from Luton, are accused of inviting support for a banned organisation. They were arrested after an investigation by Met Police counter-terror officers. Anderson has also been accused of possessing information of a kind likely to be useful for terrorism. Both have been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 21 April. The offences are alleged to have taken place in August and December 2014.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been fined £180,000 after thousands of confidential documents from a high-profile bribery investigation were mistakenly sent to the wrong person. The papers, from an investigation into a BAE Systems deal, contained evidence relating to 64 people.

Libya’s collapse since the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi has turned it into a potential security threat to the UK, the Foreign Affairs Committee says.. The group of MPs warn that fighting in Libya has allowed Islamic State (IS) extremists to become influential there.

Not enough is being done to prevent people leaving the UK to join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a group of MPs has warned. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said Britain must win their “hearts and minds”.

The UK will no longer tolerate the behaviour of Islamist extremists who “reject our values”, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, said on 23 March. Mrs May said everyone in Britain had “responsibilities as well as rights”, and must respect laws and institutions. She added there was “increasing evidence that a small but significant number of people living in Britain – almost all of whom are British citizens – reject our values”. She said the government wanted to defeat extremism in “all its forms”, but said it was “obvious from the evidence that the most serious and widespread form of extremism we need to confront is Islamist extremism.”

One extremist network has emerged as the dominant force in big terror attacks and plots in Britain over the past 20 years, a new study shows. The study by Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism expert, shows that the al-Muhajiroun organisation which targets young Muslims, has been so successful in radicalising jihadists that its influence can be seen in about half of the atrocities committed or planned by Britons at home and abroad. Pantucci suggests that the group’s growth could have been stopped if it had been prevented at the start from sending Britons abroad. Al-Muhajiroun was founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed, and subsequently its leading figure was Anjem Choudary. It was disbanded in 2004 but has resurfaced under ten pseudonyms which have all been outlawed by the Home Office between 2006 and June 2014.

The Scottish launch of anti-Islam group Pegida collapsed in farce, a weekend ago, after its followers failed to show up for their own first demonstration. A few dozen right-wing protestors gathered in an Edinburgh sports bar, but failed to stage a protest outside the Scottish Parliament – the 200 or so anti-fascist protestors who gathered outside Holyrood Palace for a counter-demo waited in vain. Pegida, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, was formed in Germany last year and attracted around 25,000 people to a recent march in Dresden.

Britain is to “beef up” the defense of the Falkland Islands the government has confirmed, amid reports of an increased risk of invasion by Argentina. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the defense secretary, Michael Fallon, said, “We have been reviewing our defense arrangements of the Falklands where there is obviously a continuing threat even 30 years after the Falklands war. I’m going to be announcing in parliament how we are going to beef up the defense of Falkland Islands – obviously I can’t go into details before I tell parliament.” Later, on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, Fallon was asked whether the threat to the Falklands had increased following reports that Argentina was planning to lease 12 long-range bombers from Russia.

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

Six IRA fugitives connected to atrocities of the Northern Ireland Troubles were among those given “get-out-of-jail cards” under a controversial scheme that MPs have described as possibly unlawful. The six are suspects in the 1983 Harrods bomb1i that killed six people outside the London department store and the Enniskillen massacre four years later in which 11 people died. The six were among almost 100 IRA activists who were given “letters of assurance” from Tony Blair’s government as part of moves to secure Sinn Féin’s support for policing and justice reforms under devolution.

INTERNATIONAL:

ISIS

ISIL threaten to create a “Fourth Reich” through violence and propaganda equal to the Nazis, a Nobel Prize-winner has said, as he warned of a “contemporary holocaust”. He said that like the Nazis, Islamic State fanatics believe in their own racial superiority, and have “wiped out” civilian populations of whole regions and towns. He warned that ISIL must be regarded as “the most potent threat to the world since the Third Reich”, and urged the West to “urgently expand” their efforts to defeat the group and preserve the “ideological and material freedoms” of the world.

A new study of the Islamic State’s finances has revealed that previous estimates suggesting the terror group earns $2billion every year could be far too low. ISIS’ finance chief Sheikh Abu Saad al- Ansari – who operates from ISIS’ Iraqi stronghold Mosul – is understood to have recently approved the terror group’s first annual budget – revealing an estimated spend of $2 billion this year, plus an expected surplus of $250 million. The budget suggests ISIS’ annual income could be as much a quarter of a billion dollars more than experts previously suggested – with the bulk of the terror group’s revenue coming from oil sales, organ harvesting, ransom and extortion payments, and the looting and sale of ancient antiquities. If the revised figure is accurate, it means ISIS’ annual income now exceeds that of al-Qaeda – making the terror group lead by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the wealthiest jihadi organisation in history.

SYRIA

Islamist rebels have captured the north-western Syrian city of Idlib from government forces, monitors say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the Ahrar al-Sham, Jund al-Aqsa and Nusra Front groups had taken the city on Saturday.

GAZA

Rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian militant groups during last summer’s conflict in Gaza amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International says.
Militants displayed a “flagrant disregard” for the lives of civilians during the 50-day war, a report found.

IRAN

Representatives of six world powers are intensifying talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, ahead of a 31 March deadline for a deal. The US secretary of state and German and French foreign ministers have all cancelled their travel plans in a final push for an agreement. Representatives from China, Russia and the UK are also at the negotiations.

IRAQ

A US general says Iranian-backed Shia militia in Iraq are no longer leading the operation to recapture Tikrit from Islamic State (IS) militants.

ISRAEL

Israel has strongly denied a report that it spied on US-led talks on Iran’s nuclear programme in order to build a case against a deal. A senior Israeli official said that the claims, reported in the Wall Street Journal, were “utterly false”. The Journal said the White House had been particularly angered that Israel allegedly sought to share confidential details with US lawmakers and others.

YEMEN

The heads of Arab League countries meeting in Egypt have agreed to create a joint Arab military force. The League has been meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh amid a crisis in Yemen and the threat of jihadists who have made major gains in Iraq, Syria and Libya. However, establishing the make-up and remit of the force could take months, analysts say.

Yemen President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has accused Iran of destabilising the country, calling Houthi rebels the “stooges of Iran”.

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia has launched air strikes in Yemen against Shia Houthi rebels, the Saudi ambassador in the US has said. Adel al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia acted to “defend the legitimate government” of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Supporters of President Hadi say that they recaptured Aden airport on Thursday after heavy fighting with forces allied to Houthi fighters.

TURKEY

Turkish media have released the name, as well as video footage, of an alleged agent for Canadian intelligence, who says he helped three British schoolgirls travel to territory controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The three girls, aged between 15 and 16 years old, crossed into ISIS-controlled territory on February 17, after traveling by plane from London to Istanbul. [The] Turkish media eventually disclosed the identity of the alleged agent, who has been detained by authorities in Turkey as Mohammed al-Rashed. Also known as “Mohammed Mehmet Rashid” or “Dr. Mehmet Rashid”, the man is a Syrian national who claims to be working for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

BANGLADESH

Two Bangladeshi workers kidnapped nearly three weeks ago by gunmen in Libya have been freed and are in good health, officials say. The Bangladeshi foreign ministry said the two men were now safe in hospital in the city of Sirte. They were seized on 6 March from the al-Ghani oil field along with seven other foreigners.

INDONESIA

Indonesian police have said jihadis returning from Syria were probably responsible for a chlorine bomb planted in a Jakarta shopping centre last month, and warned that the Syrian conflict is providing “fresh oxygen” to local extremist networks.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea is prepared to launch nuclear missiles at any time, a North Korean diplomat told Sky News in an exclusive interview published two weeks ago. Hyun Hak-bong, North Korea’s ambassador to Britain said North Korean officials are closely watching U.S. military exercises in the Pacific amid concerns of a looming invasion. “We are prepared,” Hyun said. “That is why I say if a sparkle of a fire is made on the Korean Peninsula; it will lead to a nuclear war. We don’t say empty words. We mean what we mean. It is not the United States that has a monopoly on nuclear weapons strikes.” The Sky News reporter further probed the ambassador, asking, “So can I just be clear? You are telling me that North Korea has the ability now to fire a nuclear missile?” Hyun replied, “Anytime, anytime. Yes.” North Korea has long threatened the United States with nuclear weapons and the Pentagon has said it takes such threats seriously.

CHINA

China has announced a new initiative to help bring to justice corrupt officials who have fled overseas. The plan, called Sky Net, starts next month as part of efforts spearheaded by President Xi Jinping to crack down on rampant corruption.

TUNISIA

Tunisia’s prime minister has sacked six police chiefs following last week’s attack on the famous Bardo Museum. Habib Essid had noted several security deficiencies during a visit to the museum, his office said.

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tunis for an anti-terrorism march, this last weekend. Chanting “Tunisia is free! Terrorism out!”, they marched to the Bardo Museum, the scene of an attack in which 21 tourists and a Tunisian died. Hours earlier, Tunisian authorities said that they had killed one of the prime suspects in the attack.

AFRICA

The US embassy in Uganda has warned that Westerners – including Americans – may be targeted for terrorist attacks in the capital Kampala.

A court in Chad has sentenced seven ex-policemen to life in prison for torture committed during the rule of ousted President Hissene Habre. Another three ex-policemen were sentenced to 20 years hard labour, in the first trial of Habre’s accomplices.

Nigeria’s government has denied that militant Islamist group Boko Haram abducted 500 children from the north-eastern town of Damasak. A former resident said last Tuesday that the militants had taken away about 500 boys when they fled the town earlier this month.

RUSSIA

Russia has gone on the offensive in the Baltic, warning Denmark that if it joins Nato’s missile defence shield, its navy will be a legitimate target for a Russian nuclear attack. “I don’t think that Danes fully understand the consequence if Denmark joins the American-led missile defence shield. If they do, then Danish warships will be targets for Russian nuclear missiles,” the Russian ambassador to Denmark told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

FRANCE

Reported Tuesday 24th March 2015 – An Airbus A320 airliner crashed in the French Alps between Barcelonnette and Digne, French aviation officials and police have said.
The jet belongs to the German airline Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa. The plane, flight 4U 9525, had been en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf with 144 passengers and six crew.

One of the two pilots of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps was locked out of the cockpit, according to reports. Early findings from the cockpit voice recorder suggest the pilot made desperate efforts to get back in, sources close to the investigation say.

Five days after Germanwings flight 4U 9525 crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 on board, investigators say they have isolated DNA of 78 victims. However, they denied German media reports body parts of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had been identified. The cockpit voice recorder suggested he crashed the plane deliberately.

The threat of a jihadist attack in France has reached a level “without precedent” and new attacks are inevitable, top counter-terrorism officials say, according to AFP. “The threat is permanent,” said one high-level official in the defence ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Not one day goes by without an alert, the discovery of a network trying to send people to Syria or Iraq, or an intervention (by the security services). The number of targets has exploded. There are two or three thousand,maybe four thousand, people identified or suspected of evil intentions.” “Nor are they all amateurs”, the source added, “many are highly educated. They are pros, not drop-outs,” he said.

CANADA

In Canada, a jury has found two men guilty of a plot to derail a train. They were arrested in April 2013 and police at the time said the plot was backed by al-Qaeda. The case against the two men, one a Tunisian postdoctoral student and the other, a permanent Canadian resident of Palestinian descent, relied heavily on intercepted conversations between them and an undercover FBI agent. The agent posed as a wealthy businessman with radical views who could help pull off the train attack and other violent plots, including plans to target political leaders. The two men will be sentenced at a later date.

USA

Islamic State has posted online what it says are the names, U.S. addresses and photos of 100 American military service members, and called upon its “brothers residing in America” to kill them. The Pentagon said after the information was posted on the Internet that it was investigating the matter. “I can’t confirm the validity of the information, but we are looking into it,” a U.S. defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a week ago. “We always encourage our personnel to exercise appropriate OPSEC (operations security) and force protection procedures,” the official added. In the posting, a group referring to itself as the “Islamic State Hacking Division” wrote in English that it had hacked several military servers, databases and emails and made public the information on 100 members of the U.S. military so that “lone wolf” attackers can kill them. The New York Times reported that it did not look like the information had been hacked from U.S. government servers and quoted an unnamed Defense Department official as saying most of the information could be found in public records, residential address search sites and social media.

Utah will resume the use of firing squads to carry out the death penalty when lethal injections drugs are not available. Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed the measure into law last Monday.

Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, who went missing from his US Army base in Afghanistan in 2009, has been charged with desertion and misbehaviour. A hearing will determine whether he will have court-martial proceedings. He could then be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty.

A U.S. soldier and his cousin have been arrested and charged with conspiring to ISIL, the Department of Justice has said. The National Guard soldier Hasan Edmonds, 22, and his cousin, Jonas Edwards, allegedly discussed using army uniforms and military access to attack an Illinois military facility. The soldier also planned to travel to the Middle East to fight with ISIL, say prosecutors. Both men have been charged with trying to provide support to a terror group.

CYBER ISSUES:

A European police chief says the sophisticated online communications are the biggest problem for security agencies tackling terrorism. Hidden areas of the internet and encrypted communications make it harder to monitor terror suspects, warns Europol’s Rob Wainwright.

An in-house review of the FBI has found the agency failing to go far enough in its expansion of physical and cyber surveillance programs, urging the bureau to recruit deeper networks of informants and bring its technological abilities up to pace with other intelligence agencies. While billed as a damning critique of the FBI, the in-house assessment known as the 9/11 Review Commission primarily attacks the bureau for not moving fast enough to become a domestic intelligence agency, precisely the direction in which the FBI has pivoted since the 2001 terror attacks.

The number of reported phishing sites in China doubled last year, with U.S. IP addresses blamed for “booming” numbers of attacks on systems inside the Great Firewall, according to new state-backed research. The report was released on 20 March by the Internet Society of China […] and picked up by state-run media. It claimed the volume of phishing sites increased 2.1 times from 2013 to 2014, to stand at 93,136 by the end of the year. It was also claimed that the authorities found 36,969 websites in the country had been interfered with and 40,186 webpages had backdoors inserted. Xinhua also reported that 4761 U.S. IP addresses effectively controlled 5580 Chinese sites via backdoors, allowing remote access to computers in the Middle Kingdom. Beijing periodically releases stats like these to support its long-held narrative that it is a victim, not a perpetrator of cyber-attacks.

AND FINALLY

One of UK’s worst robbers has been spared jail after he tried to hold up a bookmaker’s shop with a tin of pilchards. Rory Seager, 18, owed a friend £1,800 and spent the day ploughing his last pennies into roulette machines hoping to win the money until he was down to his last pound. The 6ft 4in teenager then hit upon plan to rob the bookies – where he was a regular customer. He bought a 99p tin of John West pilchards from his local corner shop and burst into William Hill in Longwood Gardens, Ilford, Essex, on 20 December last year. Seager demanded cash and claimed the tin of fish in tomato sauce he had in a black bag was a lethal explosive device, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard. ‘I’ve got a bomb,’ he told an astonished cashier Adeyemi Awomudu who simply walked off into a secure room at the back of the shop. Seager hurled his fishy snack across the shop in frustration and left. Seager was given a two-year suspended sentence, two year’s supervision by the probation service and was ordered to undergo mental health treatment.

Authorities in Minnesota say three would-be burglars picked the wrong time to pocket their cell phone that had inadvertently dialled 911. Blue Earth Sheriff’s Capt. Rich Murry says a dispatcher took the call early morning 19 March and heard two voices on the other end. Murry says what she could hear of the conversation suggested the men were involved in a theft or burglary. Murry says officers were able to use the 34-minute call to figure out where the men were. They stopped the
men and arrested them together with a third suspect. Murry said that one of the last things heard by the dispatcher on the unintentional 911 call was, “I think I see the police,” followed by sounds of running. KTOE-AM reported Murry as saying that the officers later found a local supply business premises had been ransacked, with cash and other items stolen.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

30 March 1979 British MP, Airey Neave, killed by under vehicle bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster. Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

1 April 2015 All Fools Day (UK and US)
2 April 1998 In the Irish Republic, a 990lb VBIED is discovered at Dublin ferry port bound for England. The device was made safe. Real IRA blamed.
2 April 1986 Attempted sabotage of TWA flight 840. Four people killed, nine injured.
2 April, 1982 Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, precipitating war with Britain
April campaign across the USA
3 April 2015 Christian festival – Good Friday
4 April 1986: La Belle discothèque bombed in Germany killing three. Libya implicated in the attack.
April 4 1979 Execution by hanging of former Pakistan President Bhutto
4 April 2015 Pesach (Passover)
5 April 2015 Christian festival – Easter Day
April 5, 1988 Hezbollah hijack a Kuwaiti B747 aircraft, an incident that lasted 16 days.
6 April 2015 UK Public Holiday – Easter Monday
April 6, 2001 Algerian Ahmed Ressam is convicted of the New Years Day plot to bomb Los Angeles airport.
April 6, 1994 Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi killed when their aircraft was believed shot down by a missile. Start of Rwanda civil war.
April 7, 1998 Rocket attack on the Athens branch of the U.S. Citibank
April 10, 1998 Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement signed
April 10, 1992 Massive Provisional IRA truck bomb functions outside the City of London’s Baltic Exchange killing 3 people and causing immense damage.
April 11, 1968 Founding day of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command
April 12, 1997 Police in Sarajevo thwart an attempt to kill the Pope.
April 12, 2000 HM Queen presents the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery.
April 14, 2005 In the UK, Kamel Bourgass is jailed for 17 years for plotting to spread Ricin. He was already serving life for the murder of a police officer during a police raid on his Manchester apartment in 2003.
April 15, 2013 Three killed, 264 wounded when bombs explode at Boston Marathon; Djokhar Tsarnaev arrested, Tamerian Tsarnaev killed in manhunt
April 15, 1986 U.S. fighter planes from USAF Lakenheath attack targets in Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Libya threats to retaliate against US and UK.
April 16, 1988 Assassination in Tunis of PLO Leader Abu Jihad by Israeli Agents
April 17, 1984 Murder of woman police officer, Yvonne Fletcher, outside Libyan Peoples Bureau in St. James Square, London.
April 17, 1961 An invasion force of Cuban exiles lands at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs to try to overthrow Fidel Castro.
April 18, 1983 Hezbollah mounts a massive VBIED attack on the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon killing 63 people and wounding more than 100.
April 18, 2010 Abu Ayyub al-Masri and ‘Umar al-Baghdadi, the leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq, are killed in Coalition raid in Baghdad
April 19, 1993 End of the siege at the Branch Davidian Cult in Waco, Texas.
April 19, 1995 Massive VBIED attack on the Federal building in Oklahoma kills 167 people. McVeigh later executed for this crime June 2001.
April 20, 2014 Easter Day – Christian
April 20, 1870 Birth Date of Hitler (occasional rallies by extreme Right Wing groups)
April 20, 1998 Germany’s Red Army Faction announces its disbandment
April 21, 1926 Birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth ll. Gun salutes in Hyde Park
April 21, 1997 End of 126-day siege at Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Peru.
April 22, 2002 Al-Qaeda attack on a Tunisia synagogue in Djerba kills 19 people
April 24, 1915 Anniversary of Armenian genocide in Turkey.
April 24, 1916 Start of the Easter Rising in Dublin.
April 24, 1968 Founding of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.
April 24, 1993 A massive Provisional IRA truck bomb at Bishopsgate, City of London, kills one person and injures 35 others.
April 24, 1996: Large Provisional IRA Semtex bomb under Hammersmith Bridge fails to function properly.
April 25, 2011 Easter Monday
April 25, 1997: To date, the last Provisional IRA attack on mainland UK prior to their current ceasefire. A bomb attack on an electricity pylon next to M6 in Walsall.
April 25, 1980 Failed U.S. military hostage rescue mission to free 53 U.S. hostages held in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
April 26, 1986 Chernobyl Disaster
April 27, 1984 End of Libyan Embassy siege in London
April 28, 2011 Bomb kills 15 in Marrakech cafe frequented by Westerners in first major attack in country since May 2003; government blames AQIM but group denies responsibility
April 29, 1992 Rioting in Los Angeles following verdict in Rodney King case
April 30, 1975 The war in Vietnam ends as Saigon surrenders to the Vietcong.
April 30, 1973 President Nixon takes responsibility for the Watergate scandal but denies any personal involvement
April 30, 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London – ended on May 5th in a resolution by 22 Special Air Service Regiment.

The largest public sector union is calling for a national review of unpaid volunteers in the police service.

Unison has called on Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and the College of Policing to examine the “increasing trend” of replacing paid police staff with volunteers.

Coincidentally, the call has been made the same week that a force announced volunteers would soon be deployed at football matches and festivals.

As previously reported, the union has compiled a report, which claims that the recruitment of 9,000 unpaid police support volunteers is risking the national reputation of policing.

PoliceOracle.com understands that representatives will be meeting representatives from the College over the issue imminently.

The union says it is especially concerned that volunteers are carrying out roles, which were previously undertaken by paid staff or warranted officers including crime scene and digital investigation.

National officer Ben Priestley said that this happened “without any public debate outside of the police service” and that there was a suspicion it was being done due to cuts.

He told PoliceOracle.com: “We’re not opposed to volunteering, it’s a good thing, but there is public interest in knowing about the roles volunteers are performing. With police staff bearing the brunt of cuts it’s right that we ask about it, and with austerity set to continue this is only going to become a bigger issue.”

It is also calling on Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to carry out a “thematic inspection” of the issue.

So with this in mind lets think how this impacts on Football, Festivals and ANPR.

This week Cambridgeshire Constabulary has announced that it is deploying unwarranted volunteers in a mobile automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) van, and will also be using them at football matches and festivals in the future.

Regarding football policing PC Matthew Selves explained: “The role of the support volunteers will be mobile camera operators. They will be in the van and parking in areas where we don’t have CCTV coverage to provide a deterrent as well as an evidence gathering mechanism and reassurance to the event goers.”

The force says the volunteers are an extra capacity, not linked to budget cuts, and they are a resource they would not have had to deploy otherwise.

But former football policing strategist Chris Hobbs told PoliceOracle.com: “If they are going to be carrying out targeted filming of hooligans they’ll have to have officers nearby anyway because they could easily become a target themselves.” This is a very good point as many BBC and ITV producers and technicians could attest when they have been in satellite vehicles that have been attacked.

Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Graham Bright said: “Police support volunteers play a crucial role in the modern police force. The volunteers carry out a wide variety of roles and have a range of specialist skills that increases public trust and confidence in the service.”

Sir Graham’s statement clearly and adroitly demonstrates his total lack of any form of grip on policing reality. How on earth he thinks that volunteers can have any specialist policing skills that increase the public trust and confidence in the service is, quite frankly, staggering. He is clearly delusional and totally out of touch.

Just to drag him into the 21^st Century, the British public’s trust and confidence in the police is probably lower than it has been since its inception in 1839. At least in those days there were loads of coppers patrolling the streets in uniform.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has repeatedly praised the role of volunteers in policing, and is actively promoting people becoming involved in different capacities.

The organisation did not respond to a request for comment on this story before it went live, but members have in the past said volunteers should not be replacements for paid officers or staff.

The point that ACPO, a failed and self-serving organisation which does nothing for the man or woman on the street, has failed to grip, is that the good ship SS British Coppering is going down with all hands. This is the very time a time when they, i.e. Chief Constables and politicians, should be doing everything to keep the vessel afloat and get it to dry land for urgently needed repairs.

Instead, they are dreaming up schemes that are so far in the realm of fantasy, they make Lord of the Rings look like a documentary.

Add to all this, one very major point that does not appear to have been mentioned, which is if all the highly specialised and wonderful volunteers are going to be deployed operationally to perform jobs such as targeted filming of hooligans etc., surely they need to licensed by the Security Industry Authority (SIA)?

Does this not also apply if Plod deploys volunteers to provide security at public events? In this case they must be licensed by the SIA, they must complete the training and somebody will have to pay for this.

No doubt Chief Constables such as the visionary Sir Graham Bright, will expect the volunteers to pay for their own training. The frightening thing is, the volunteers probably will be in a rush to move from enthusiastic amateurs to have a certificate and thus, overnight, become a professional security person who can start policing.

We then fall back to the SIA and hopefully they can organise the training and administration to meet this project. The one thing you can guarantee is that the training will not be standardised and after a few weeks of whatever training the volunteer can get at the best price, they will be licensed and ready to go policing.

How does this make the Special Constabulary feel? Frankly it seems a complete insult to a gallant and valiant group, who although often criticised by their full time colleagues, have turned up in uniform pounded the beat and done the Job for nothing.

If this is going to roll into place, then the death knell of the police is sounded long and loud. God help us each and every one.