British Airport security - the rationale

[David Guyatt]

And the band plays on:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/break...public_rss

Police machine gun squads for Britain
From: NewsCore October 31, 2010 2:15pm

PARAMILITARY police squads armed with machine guns that can fire 750 rounds a minute will be set up across Britain to tackle the threat of a Mumbai-style terror attack in the run-up to the London Olympics.

In a move that will change the face of British policing, chief constables have agreed to buy several hundred Heckler & Koch G36 machine guns to arm the new units.

The squads will be composed of marksmen hand-picked from forces and will be attached to units in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and other regional centers. They will be on stand-by for 24 hours a day to deal with any attempts to replicate the raid by 10 gunmen on Mumbai in November 2008 in which 174 people died.

As well as terrorists they will be called out to incidents such as that involving Derrick Bird, the taxi driver who killed 12 people in Cumbria this summer before shooting himself.

The move follows months of Whitehall wrangling. Some regional chiefs had been reluctant to back the plan, fearing it would transform the image of the British bobby. But it has the backing of Prime Minister David Cameron, who is said to have taken a close interest in how to address the terrorist threat.

The machine guns are being deployed by the German and Spanish armies and have been used in counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They have a range of 800m and can be fitted with a grenade-launcher. They will supplement the current model used by British police which is configured to fire a single round at a time.

The network will be under the control of local chief constables. But in a national emergency such as a terrorist assault they will be overseen by a new national co-ordinator based at Scotland Yard.

The anti-terrorist firearms response teams will mirror the half-dozen or so regional counterterrorist hubs set up after the July 2005 London bombings in which 52 people died.

The foregoing is reported by today's Sunday Times which is now pay to read.

And:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...mpics.html

U.S. wants own aircraft carrier in the Thames Estuary during Olympics

By Glen Owen
Last updated at 12:26 AM on 31st October 2010

The White House has offered to send a U.S. aircraft carrier to be stationed off the British coast and boost security during the London Olympics, Ministry of Defence sources claimed last night.

The suggestion is said to have been rejected by No10 because it would make the UK look ‘weak’. And last night Downing Street was silent on the claim.

But a well-placed source, with knowledge of international discussions about security for the 2012 Games, said the MoD had been offered a U.S. carrier, based in the Thames Estuary, to help defend the skies over London and eavesdrop on any terrorist ‘chatter’.

It is believed the Americans offered a 40,000-ton Wasp class amphibious assault ship, which carries up to 40 Sea Knight helicopters for the ship-to-shore ferrying of marines and equipment, as well as up to 20 Harrier II attack aircraft. It boasts a formidable battery of missiles capable of shooting down airliners in the event of an attempt to copy the 9/11 atrocities.


Offer: The White House wants to send a U.S. aircraft carrier to be stationed off the British coast and boost security during the London Olympics

The source said the ‘main motivation’ for the offer was felt to have been American self-interest.

If the Olympics were the object of a terrorist attack U.S. special forces could launch operations from the ship to airlift American citizens to safety.

In the past the Olympics have been a target for terrorists. In 1972 Israeli athletes were massacred at the Munich Games.

‘This idea was raised by the Americans over the summer,’ said the source. ‘The MoD put it up the chain and word came straight back from No10 - “No thanks, we don’t need the help”.’

The claim comes at a sensitive time for Britain’s Armed Forces. Cuts announced by David Cameron in the Defence Review this month will lead to the axing of our Harrier jump jets and the decommissioning of the Ark Royal carrier.

That means that no British planes will be available to fly from our sole aircraft carrier, Illustrious, in 2012.

Discussions about security at the London Games are already well-advanced, involving extensive liaison between Scotland Yard, the military and the major intelligence services - MI6, the CIA and Mossad.


The London Olympic Park in east London is currently under construction. If the Games were the object of a terrorist attack U.S. special forces could launch operations from the ship to airlift American citizens to safety

Last night an MoD spokesman said that plans were being drawn up for a naval vessel to offer ‘aerial defence’ in the Thames Estuary during the Games, but it was likely to be a British ship.

He said: ‘We haven’t made final decisions yet. There are a lot of options available, including Special Forces. But we are certainly capable of protecting ourselves. The Royal Navy can provide a Type 45 destroyer for aerial defence.’

Under current plans, one of the Navy’s three Type 45 destroyers - likely to be HMS Dauntless, which will come into service next year - would be moored in the estuary. It will be armed with the Principal Anti-Air Missile System, said to be capable of tracking and destroying a moving target the size of a cricket ball at a distance of 19 miles.

The ship could provide a secure, independent radio network linked to a military satellite if civilian radio communications collapsed during a terrorist incident.

The U.S. Navy sent a frigate to patrol the Greek coast during the 2004 Athens Olympics. But Greece had admitted it needed help with security. It is ranked 27th in the list of world economies - Britain is sixth.

A Pentagon source said last night that it was ‘very possible that there will be a U.S. naval presence’ at the London Games, although he claimed it would merely ‘fly the flag’.

What a delightful prospect - machine gun armed police on the streets and a US warship "flying the flag" and providing SpecForces personnel for security at London Olympics.

Of course, everyone knows that the UK has no special forces personnel at all, no SAS, no Commando regiments, no Special Boat Squadron, no Para's - and naturally we don't have any warplanes close to the Thames Estuary.

So, let's bring US military occupation of Blighty on, baby. On the plus side it'll remove the need for rendition flights - just ship them onto US sovereign "soil" in ol' father Thames. We can all line-up, buy snacks and sugar-drinks and settle down to enjoy the new show in town, as we watch the power-grid diminish as extra-judicial "terrorist" suspects get frazzled, and see the water-levels of the Thames lower as water-boarding becomes the deck-sport of the choice.

Luvely.

Bring back pubic executions I say.