Thousands to get lessons in how to spot terrorists as Smith warns of random attacks

[ginge51]

Sixty thousand British civilians are being trained by the Home Office to spot terrorists, Gordon Brown has revealed.

Huge numbers of staff on rail networks, at shops, public buildings and major sports venues have been picked out by MI5 and the police for the special training - teaching them to watch for 'suspicious behaviour' and respond swiftly to an atrocity.

The ambitious scheme was announced as the Home Secretary prepared to publish what she claimed would be the Government's most detailed counter-terrorism strategy document to date.

The plans are likely to spark questions over the effectiveness of such a huge army of amateur and lightly-trained 'terrorist watchers', including concerns that they will swamp the police and security service and inflame community relations with spurious alerts singling out law-abiding British Muslims.

The Home Office would not provide any details of their training on security grounds, but said it centred on increased vigilance and improved response to terrorist attacks, including evacuation and crowd control procedures. Officials said MI5 had helped draw up the training course.

Gordon Brown, writing in a Sunday newspaper said: 'Tens of thousands of men and women throughout Britain - from security guards to store managers - have now been trained and equipped to deal with an incident and know what to watch for as people go about their daily business in crowded places such as stations, airports, shopping centres and sports grounds.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...m-attacks.html

Someone please stop that woman and that 'news paper'

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by ginge51

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...m-attacks.html

I wonder if they'll stay calm enough when they spot any old muslim, and not rugby tackle them to the ground before they get better training or too many complaints of victimisation?

[nomadking]

One of the 7/7 bombers was being watched by the security forces and they didn't spot that he was a terrorist, so what chance have the rest of us got?

[ginge51]

All's this does is make society even more paranoid then what it is now.
Were already watched 24/7 by the biggest cctv camera situation in the world.
Every single thing any1 does will get scrutinised.
It's pathetic.
How many people lost their lives n the 7/7 attacks?(no disrespect to anyone who did btw)
Is this all necessary?
I think not.
What is even worse is they are asking for the public to do this but, we as a whole are not even being "asked" if we want this to happen.
It's a farse.

[Osem]

Given the Home Office's legendary ineptitude I wonder how many of these people will turn out to be illegal immigrants and/or budding terrorists..

[Russ]

Will they be using the same techniques employed by the security forces to watch out for Brazilian electricians?

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by Russ B

Will they be using the same techniques employed by the security forces to watch out for Brazilian electricians?

In fairness to our security forces the threat from Brazilian electricians has never been lower.

I've been caught out before commenting on Daily Mail tainted reports. I'll refrain from commenting untill I've viewed another source.

[Axegrinder]

Is it me or does sound like something out of Dads Army?

[nomadking]

The Guardian

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, yesterday pledged to end the "secret, behind closed doors" approach to tackling terrorism as the government prepared to launch a fresh strategy this week.
A new 60,000-strong civilian force, including security guards at shopping centres and hotel workers, will be hailed as one of the most important instruments in confronting the terrorist threat.
Smith outlined the new thinking in an interview on BBC One's The Politics Show programme. "It's the nature of this work that quite often in the past it's been the sort of thing that's happened in secret, behind closed doors," she said.

Now that wasn't difficult, was it?

[Angua]

Perhaps they will dust off all those mirrors for viewing under cars (which we never got anyway)

[Derek]

Hmmmm, even without this training I'm sure the most useless security guard or hotel worker would be able to work out someone wandering around with an AK shooting randomly is a bad thing.



Not that I'm in any way suggesting its another crackpot idea floated by the government to try and deflect media attention from all the bigger problems and it in no way will be quietly shelved never to be seen again like so many of the other headline grabbing plans floated by Labour over the last 10 years that vanished without a trace.

[Uncle Peter]

There's nothing like whipping up a bit of a terrorist threat frenzy to justify the unprecedented expansion of the security, border and immigration services. It keeps those hard working senior civil servants and ministers busy at least (they're that busy that they have to take their work into pubs or onto trains and invariably leave it there!)

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Derek S

Not that I'm in any way suggesting its another crackpot idea floated by the government to try and deflect media attention from all the bigger problems and it in no way will be quietly shelved never to be seen again like so many of the other headline grabbing plans floated by Labour over the last 10 years that vanished without a trace.

They wouldn't stoop to such cynical deceit would they?....

When GB starts a "spot the politician on the take" campaign then i might be interested this is pure headline grabbing and nothing else.