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Staking out suburbia - why police moved quickly after a long watch
Even as Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan police commissioner faced television cameras and reporters in London last week to warn that a major terrorist attack on the capital was "inevitable" he knew his officers were working frantically to prevent just such an atrocity taking place. For weeks, MI5 agents and counter-terrorist police had been secretly watching the comings and goings at a nondescript rented-out industrial storage unit on Boston Road in Hanwell, west London. With the assistance of the Pakistani security services, they had also infiltrated a group of suspects and were monitoring their homes in London and the surrounding commuter belt. The lengthy, covert surveillance and the involvement of another country made UK security chiefs jittery. At Scotland Yard and Whitehall, they debated when to strike. Too soon and they risked jeopardising everything, too late and the consequences did not bear thinking about.
On Monday night, the final preparations were being put in place for one of the biggest and most complex counter-terrorist operations ever executed in the UK. In the early hours of yesterday morning, 700 police officers from five forces - the Met, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley - plus MI5, moved stealthily into position along streets in slumbering suburbs. None of the officers was armed - a security source said intelligence suggested guns would not be needed. The suspects were not expected to have weapons or to resist arrest. Just before 6am, police went to 24 addresses, mostly residential - but a few commercial premises too - in Uxbridge, Ilford and Colindale in London, and in Crawley, West Sussex, and Slough, Luton and Horley in the home counties. Many of the houses, in unremarkable terrace streets and quiet cul-de-sacs, belong to ordinary families, who have lived there for years. Most were not even awake before officers had bundled the eight suspects, the youngest of whom is 17, six others aged 18 to 22 and one 32-year-old, into waiting vehicles. They were taken to London's most secure police station, Paddington Green, where they will be subjected to intensive interrogation. All are British citizens of Pakistani origin.
The arrests have sent shockwaves through the Muslim community. It has suffered a huge upsurge of racist attacks since September 11 and now is bracing itself for another backlash. In Crawley neighbours of the arrested men complained that the raids were sure to increase anti-Muslim feeling. "It's taken effect straight away. People are already giving you looks as if they think you must be up to something," said Taseer Hussain, 19, from Langley Green."It's shocking. I am of Pakistani origin myself, like the guys who were arrested. I work for an airline company at Gatwick. People look at me as if I'm a suspect."
| Taseer, there's a way to fix this -- make damned sure that you're a loyal British citizen and are seen as such. |
The three young men arrested in Crawley live in neat, modest, red-brick terraces within walking distance of each other. Blue and white police tape was stretched across each driveway yesterday as officers stood guard outside. At Lime Close, the scene of another raid, one resident asked: "That family have lived here more than 12 years and seem like nice people. I can't believe they would be involved."
| "He was such a quiet man." |
Peter Clarke, the Met's anti-terrorist chief, was at pains to reassure Islamic leaders that the police knew the vast majority of Muslims were law-abiding citizens who utterly rejected terrorist violence. The young ages of most of those detained have raised concerns that others may have escaped capture, and there could be further arrests in the next few weeks. But security chiefs are convinced they have smashed a terrorist "spectacular", which could have cost hundreds of lives. The mood in the corridors of Scotland Yard and MI5 last night was one of "quiet jubilation". But with al-Qaida's determination, ingenuity and ever-shifting networks, they know only too well that complacency is the last thing they can afford.
Posted by: Dan Darling & Steve White 2004-03-31 |
