FYI
Woolwich murder probe: 'Thousands' at risk of radicalisation, says Theresa May
Theresa May: "We need to see if there are additional steps we should be taking
to prevent radicalisation"
Thousands of people are potentially at risk of being radicalised in the UK,
Home Secretary Theresa May has said.
She also told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that those at risk
were at "different points on what could be a path to violent extremism".
Mrs May said a new taskforce would look at whether new powers were needed to
tackle radicalisation.
Three more arrests have been made in connection with the killing of soldier Lee
Rigby in Woolwich.
On Sunday, the family of Drummer Rigby visited the scene of his death and
Woolwich Barracks.
Two men already arrested on suspicion of his murder remain in custody in
hospital in a stable condition.
Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, were shot
and wounded by police at the scene in Woolwich on Wednesday after the
killing.
The Metropolitan Police said counter terrorism officers
arrested three men, aged 21, 24 and 28, in London on Saturday evening on
suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder - a Taser was used on two of
them.
Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson: "The first role of government is to protect
its people"'Resignation issue'
Mrs May said "500 officers and others" were working on the
case, including counter terrorism officers brought in from elsewhere in
the country.
She said the government had introduced "a new programme,
which is not for those immediately at danger of radicalisation, but for
those who are perhaps "further out". Around 2,000 people had been worked with
within the last year, she added.
When asked if she would now push ahead with a Communications
Data Bill, Mrs May said: "The law enforcement agencies, the intelligence
agencies, need access to communications data and that is essential to
them doing their job."
Mrs May has previously said such a bill would help modernise
crime-fighting laws, to combat criminals' use of internet-based phone
calls and social media sites.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
Chris Mason Political correspondent
The killing of Drummer Lee Rigby has posed a series of
questions for the government to grapple with. The central one is this:
what more, if anything, can ministers do to reduce the likelihood of
other similar attacks?
The Home Secretary Theresa May is very keen on giving the
police and intelligence agencies more power to access details of online
communications where necessary.
There is no such thing as a trade union of former home
secretaries. But on this issue, it sounds as though there is. Labour's
Lord Reid and Alan Johnson and the Conservative Lord Howard all agree
with her. In short, their argument is we have seen the classified files
and the spooks need this power. Critics - including most Liberal
Democrats - accuse them of going native and backing a "snooper's
charter".
The other big question is whether the government's existing
policies for dealing with extremism and radicalisation are up to the
job.
A so-called "taskforce" will look into this. Money is not
everything in devising government policies that work. But critics will
point to, and ministers will have to defend, the big cut in the annual
budget for the Prevent strategy two years ago.
The bill was sent back for reassessment in December after criticism from a
joint committee of MPs and peers, includes plans for internet service providers
having to store for a year all details of online communication in the UK.
Mrs May said the government needed to look at how organisations outside
government could help, such as Ofcom.
Senior Whitehall sources have previously confirmed to the BBC both suspects
arrested at the scene of the killing of Drummer Rigby
were previously known to security services.
When asked if there were mistakes made by the security
services in dealing with this case, Mrs May said: "What we have is the
right procedures which say when things like this happen we do need to
look at whether there are any lessons to be learned."
She also said the government's Intelligence and Security
Committee will review what the security service's actions in this case,
but added that this report "won't happen immediately, because they will
look back at the operation and the case".
Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson also told the programme a
Communications Data Bill should be "on the statute book before the next
election".
"It is a resignation issue for our home secretary if the
Cabinet do not support her in this central part of what the security
services do," he added.
Lord Carlile, the Lib Dem former independent reviewer of
terror laws, told the BBC that while it was not known whether the bill
would have prevented this incident, "it might have [and] it would
certainly help to prevent similar incidents in the future".
Michael Adebowale was photographed brandishing a knife and speaking to a woman
at the scene
But Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes said there is "no evidence at all" that
the bill could have prevented the killing.
In other developments:
* Prayers were said on Sunday at a service dedicated to Drummer
Rigby at St Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, in Woolwich, at a
service at the town's St Mary Magdalene Parish Church and in his local
church in his home town of Middleton, Greater Manchester
* A 29-year-old man, arrested on Thursday on suspicion of
conspiracy to murder, has been bailed to return pending further
inquiries
* French authorities are investigating whether the stabbing of a
soldier in a Paris suburb was a copycat attack. The soldier, who was stabbed in
the neck by an unknown man who escaped, is in a stable condition
* MI5 director general Andrew Parker is expected to present an
initial report to a Parliamentary committee next week about what the
security services knew about the two murder suspects
* There has been a large increase in anti-Muslim incidents since
Wednesday's murder, an inter-faith charity has said
Mrs May said the government taskforce announced this
weekend would "be able to look across the whole of government" and look
at institutions such as universities and prisons to see if more could be done
in tackling the issue of countering extremism.
The special government committee being set up will be chaired by the prime
minister and will include senior cabinet ministers and
security chiefs.
People paid their respects to Drummer Rigby in Middleton, his home town
Downing Street sources have said the new taskforce will "build
on" Labour's Prevent Strategy, which was set up to counter
radicalisation.
The coalition reviewed this Prevent Strategy in 2011 reducing its annual budget
from £63m to £36m saying at the time that some of the money was going to groups
who should have been confronted.
Hazel Blears MP told the Observer that vulnerable people who are likely to be
influenced by extremist preachers were being spotted too late.
Meanwhile the Independent on Sunday is one of a number of papers to feature a
picture it says is of Mr Adebolajo appearing in court in Kenya in 2010 accused
"of being at the centre of an al-Qaeda-inspired plot".
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