Al-Qaeda 'only one of many' major security threats to
UK
Globalisation and climate change are perils, says
ex-spy chief
Jamie Doward, home affairs editor
Sunday December 16, 2007
Observer
Britian's outgoing intelligence chief believes there
is a danger of exaggerating the threat posed by
al-Qaeda at the expense of equally significant
security issues, such as global warming.
Sir Richard Mottram, who has just stood down as
Permanent Secretary in charge of Intelligence Security
and Resilience, the body that advises the Prime
Minister on the country's response to emergencies,
will use a lecture this week to call for individual
citizens to play a new role in combating the risks
associated with increasing globalisation.
Mottram, a career civil servant who, as chairman of
the Joint Intelligence Committee, was responsible for
evaluating the security threats posed to Britain, said
there needed to be a 'cultural shift' to ensure the
public played a broader role in making the country
safe.
There was a danger, he said, of over-emphasising the
spectre of international terrorism, which could play
to al-Qaeda's advantage and divide communities.
'What we shouldn't do is play into al-Qaeda's hands by
exaggerating the extent and nature of the threat they
present globally. This focus is not smart when it
comes to dealing with people who are trying to make us
think that they are the greatest threat.'
Instead Mottram, who will deliver the annual security
lecture at the think-tank Demos on Tuesday, said there
was a need to understand the potential impact of a
range of strategic risks, of which terrorism was just
one. He identified global warming, flu pandemics, the
emergence of rogue states, globalisation and its
impact on power balances, global poverty and its
impact on population movement, energy security, the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and
serious and organised crime as similarly significant
problems.
Mottram's comments are likely to be seized on by
critics of the government's counter-terrorism
strategy, who are concerned it is using the threat to
push through controversial legislation, such as an
extension of the time terrorist suspects can be held
without charge.
In a veiled reference to the myriad problems of
securing peace in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mottram said
it was vital that expectations of what was possible
were carefully communicated.
'The realisation that these are long-haul events
suggests we need to have a better understanding of the
context in which we operate and the breadth of
challenges we face,' he said. His remarks will be seen
as a coded rebuke for some in government who failed to
plan for a post-Saddam Iraq.
But on a domestic level, he praised the government for
improving the way it handled a number of recent civil
emergencies. 'Over the summer, the handling of the
terrorist incidents in London and Glasgow and the foot
and mouth outbreak showed the arrangements for Cobra
[the emergency response committee] all worked well,'
he said.
'In the summer, Cobra met within 24 hours of the foot
and mouth outbreak and then met constantly,' Mottram
said. 'But six or seven years ago, the central
machinery kicked in when it was too late. There's been
a big, big change.'
Mottram's times:
· Born 23 April 1946.
· Educated at King Edward VI Camp Hill, Birmingham,
and Keele University.
· In 1998, became Permanent Secretary at the
Department for the Environment, Transport and the
Regions.
· Most famous saying: 'We're all fucked. I'm fucked.
You're fucked...The whole department is fucked. It's
the biggest cock-up ever. We're all completely fucked'
during the rows about 'burying bad news' after 9/11.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited
2007
---------------
Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu
dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
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