Civilian Force Of 60,000 Trained As “Terrorist” Spotters
MI5 and UK police groom thousands to spy on public
MI5 is currently training up to 60,000 UK citizens as part a civilian network of terrorist spotters, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and home secretary, Jacqui Smith.
Details of the initiative were revealed yesterday as part of the British Government’s new £3.5bn a year counter-terrorist framework known as “Contest Two”.
Writing in the London Observer yesterday, Gordon Brown outlined how large numbers of staff on rail networks, at airports, shopping centres, public buildings and sports venues are already being groomed by MI5 and the police and trained to watch for “suspicious behaviour”.
“We should be under no illusion that the biggest security threat to our country and other countries is the murderous agents of hate that work under the banner of al-Qaida,” Brown wrote. [Read more]
