[Infowarrior] - UK cops identify 200 children as potential terrorists

[Richard Forno]

Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists

Drastic new tactics to prevent school pupils as young as 13 falling  
into extremism

Exclusive by Mark Hughes Crime correspondent

Saturday, 28 March 2009

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-identify-200-children-as-potential-terrorists-1656027.html

Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been  
identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to  
spot youngsters who are "vulnerable" to Islamic radicalisation.

The number was revealed to The Independent by Sir Norman Bettison, the  
chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and Britain's most senior  
officer in charge of terror prevention.

He said the "Channel project" had intervened in the cases of at least  
200 children who were thought to be at risk of extremism, since it  
began 18 months ago. The number has leapt from 10 children identified  
by June 2008.

The programme, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers, asks  
teachers, parents and other community figures to be vigilant for signs  
that may indicate an attraction to extreme views or susceptibility to  
being "groomed" by radicalisers. Sir Norman, whose force covers the  
area in which all four 7 July 2005 bombers grew up, said: "What will  
often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the  
adoption of bad attitudes towards 'the West'.

"One of the four bombers of 7 July was, on the face of it, a model  
student. He had never been in trouble with the police, was the son of  
a well-established family and was employed and integrated into society.

"But when we went back to his teachers they remarked on the things he  
used to write. In his exercise books he had written comments praising  
al-Qa'ida. That was not seen at the time as being substantive. Now we  
would hope that teachers might intervene, speak to the child's family  
or perhaps the local imam who could then speak to the young man."

The Channel project was originally piloted in Lancashire and the  
Metropolitan Police borough of Lambeth in 2007, but in February last  
year it was extended to West Yorkshire, the Midlands, Bedfordshire and  
South Wales. Due to its success there are now plans to roll it out to  
the rest of London, Thames Valley, South Yorkshire, Greater  
Manchester, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and West Sussex.

The scheme, funded by the Home Office, involves officers working  
alongside Muslim communities to identify impressionable children who  
are at risk of radicalisation or who have shown an interest in  
extremist material – on the internet or in books.

Once identified the children are subject to a "programme of  
intervention tailored to the needs of the individual". Sir Norman said  
this could involve discussions with family, outreach workers or the  
local imam, but he added that "a handful have had intervention  
directly by the police".

He stressed that the system was not being used to target the Muslim  
community. "The whole ethos is to build a relationship, on the basis  
of trust and confidence, with those communities," said Sir Norman.

"With the help of these communities we can identify the kids who are  
vulnerable to the message and influenced by the message. The challenge  
is to intervene and offer guidance, not necessarily to prosecute them,  
but to address their grievance, their growing sense of hate and  
potential to do something violent in the name of some  
misinterpretation of a faith.

"We are targeting criminals and would-be terrorists who happen to be  
cloaking themselves in Islamic rhetoric. That is not the same as  
targeting the Muslim community."

Nor was it criminalising children, he added. "The analogy I use is  
that it is similar to our well-established drugs intervention  
programmes. Teachers in schools are trained to identify pupils who  
might be experimenting with drugs, take them to one side and talk to  
them. That does not automatically mean that these kids are going to  
become crack cocaine or heroin addicts. The same is true around this  
issue."

But Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said the police  
ran the risk of infringing on children's privacy. He warned: "There is  
a difference between the police being concerned or believing a person  
may be at risk of recruitment and a person actually engaging in  
unlawful, terrorist activity.

"That said, clearly in recent years some people have been lured by  
terrorist propaganda emanating from al-Qa'ida-inspired groups. It  
would seem that a number of Muslim youngsters have been seduced by  
that narrative and all of us, including the Government, have a role to  
play in making sure that narrative is seen for what it is: a  
nihilistic one which offers no hope, only death and destruction."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to stopping people  
becoming or supporting terrorists or violent extremists. The aim of  
the Channel project is to directly support vulnerable people by  
providing supportive interventions when families, communities and  
networks raise concerns about their behaviour."