New police units to tackle terror threat » Communities » 24dash.com

Manchester will hold the first terror trials to be held outside London since the 7/7 attacks, it was announced today.

The details come as new units to tackle terror threats in the regions become operational.

Greater Manchester Police have established a Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), which is operational from today.

Three other units in West Yorkshire, London and the West Midlands are being established.

Smaller Regional Intelligence Cells will also be set up in several other regions including Wales, the East Midlands and South West.

Over the next three years each CTU is expected to expand to around 350 staff to create a national counter terrorism infrastructure, working with MI5 and other security services including GCHQ.

The CTUs will gather intelligence on suspects planning attacks inside and outside the UK and also look at those financing, facilitating or helping to plan terror, and the networks or groups of people involved.

Their job will include carrying out covert surveillance operations with high-tech crime officers employed to recover data from computers seized in raids.

A problem faced by officers after such raids has been the volume of data seized from the computers of suspects - much of it in foreign languages and the units will have a pool of specially vetted interpreters to help them analyse the information.

Security experts at MI5 and Scotland Yard estimate there are 1,600 people involved in extremism in the UK with 200 "networks" involving people intent on violence, concluding the terror threat is "real, deadly and enduring".

An anti-terrorism unit was set up by Greater Manchester Police two years ago, but the new CTU will be much larger in size and in the scope of its work.

Each new unit aims to be "self generating", getting its work through "bottom-up" investigation, as well as following up leads from other security services.

Covert surveillance will be carried out on suspects and officers concede while phone intercepts are not admissible in court, there is sometimes a dilemma between gathering evidence and acting on intelligence.

Police are sometimes compelled to act on a threat when it would be better for the purposes of gathering evidence for a prosecution to not pre-empt suspects' activities.

But senior officers say it can be a fine balancing act between taking action to prevent a threat and the need to accrue intelligence.

Part of the CTU's job will also involve "community engagement" and "consequence management" after raids have taken place.

CTU officers will speak with neighbourhood police officers and community leaders in the run-up to any planned operation - but without compromising the secrecy of the raids.

Already increasing numbers of people have come forward with information to help police, but officers concede the level of "engagement" is not enough and they must win "hearts and minds" to get people to trust them.

Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Porter, head of GMP CTU, said: "This is a significant development that will enhance our capability to protect the public from the terrorist threat. The CTU will build on the existing good work that has been taking place in the region.

"I can reassure people that the unit is being created so we can meet the challenges of the threat from terrorists.

"It is the main strand of the Association of Chief Police Officers and Home Office plans to tackle the terrorism in the UK and is not linked to any immediate threat to Greater Manchester."

:: Omar Altimimi, 36, from Lansdowne Road, Bolton, is scheduled to go on trial at Manchester Crown Court in June charged with four offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 and one offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

A second man, Yusuf Abdullah, 29, of no fixed address, is also due for trial in Manchester under the Proceeds of Crime Act. They were arrested in June last year in Manchester.

Greater Manchester Police have also arrested and charged Habib Ahmed, 26, from Cheetham Hill, Manchester, with two offences under the Terrorism Act; Mehreen Haji, 26, from Cheetham Hill, with entering funding arrangements for the purposes of terrorism; and Abdul Rahman, 24, from Cheetham Hill, with an offence under the Terrorism Act 2006.

Copyright Press Association 2007

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