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Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:41 am
by Baconsticks
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."
Ok, I know it's The Independent, but come on; tagging kids as future terrorists? Wtf?

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:12 pm
by Dr. Sticks
I don't really see the difference between this and determining kids that are at risk in america to joining gangs ...?

Re: Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:04 pm
by nickspoon
Ok, I know it's The Independent, but come on; tagging kids as future terrorists? Wtf?
I'll have you know that The Independent is one of the better British newspapers.

Re: Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 5:45 pm
by Rooster
Ok, I know it's The Independent, but come on; tagging kids as future terrorists? Wtf?
I'll have you know that The Independent is one of the better British newspapers.
Phht, if it had an opinion of it's own I'd agree....it's just a no-identity liberal rag.

Also, trust good ol' West Yorkshire Police. I'm so glad I live with these guys protecting me...

Re: Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:36 pm
by Baconsticks
Ok, I know it's The Independent, but come on; tagging kids as future terrorists? Wtf?
I'll have you know that The Independent is one of the better British newspapers.
Phht, if it had an opinion of it's own I'd agree....it's just a no-identity liberal rag.

Also, trust good ol' West Yorkshire Police. I'm so glad I live with these guys protecting me...
Heh, over here our police forces don't protect us. They randomly beat people and can hold you in jail without a trial, all in the name of "justice". :P

And why should a newspaper have an opinion anyway? This kind of stuff should be neutral.

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:44 pm
by Dr. Sticks
I personally believe that news outlets should be biased, because people are biased and thus news involving politics (which, fyi, terrorism is politics), will inherently be biased. facts obviously stay the same, editorials do not.
reading different peoples opinions thus allows you to see the different sides and have your own opinion.

of course that's not the problem with The Independent. the problem here is that they should change their name to The Dependent. damn commies

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:23 pm
by Steve the Pocket
I personally believe that news outlets should be biased, because people are biased and thus news involving politics (which, fyi, terrorism is politics), will inherently be biased. facts obviously stay the same, editorials do not.
I wonder how accurate a news outlet with a clear bias could really be in reporting said facts, though. Fox News doesn't only get criticized for airing The O'Reilly Factor, after all.

Also you're full of it if you think the average citizen actually bothers to listen to the opinions of people who they don't already agree with. Especially if they have to go out of their way to do so (like rereading/rewatching the same stories in multiple sources).

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:56 pm
by Dr. Sticks
not all news should be biased but yeah bro, I like my liberal news media.

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:49 pm
by Baconsticks
not all news should be biased but yeah bro, I like my liberal news media.
But biased news is just bias in the end. You can't possibly form your own opinion when you are only given one side of the story.


As for the terrorist thing, this helps create a culture of fear. Suddenly, anyone looking at a security camera is an OMG TERRORIST. This is only the tip of the iceberg, pretty soon you'll start signing away your rights for a bit more security.

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:31 pm
by Arloest
I say the young hooligan whippersnappers had it coming to them. Get them before they get you!

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 12:56 am
by osprey
This could lead to Fisher Price marketing ventures such as My First Suicide Bomb and C4-Doh.

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 2:12 pm
by Mekkah
/knows furries are terrorists.

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:12 pm
by MuffinSticks
That hardly works with a command backslash.