International Law

How much "war on terror" training for "tens of thousands" of people is the Labour government providing ? As little as 3 hours (including a coffee break)

Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown's article in The Observer yesterday, managed to use the headline "war on terror", even though, only a few months ago, the consensus seemed to have been, that this phrase is actually counterproductive.

We are about to take the war against terror to a new level

Gordon Brown
The Observer, Sunday 22 March 2009

[...]

Tens of thousands of men and women throughout Britain - from security guards to store managers - have now been trained and equipped to deal with an incident and know what to watch for as people go about their daily business in crowded places such as stations, airports, shopping centres and sports grounds.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was also on the publicity spin offensive on Sunday,and she managed to claim that

Thousands getting terror training
Page last updated at 11:41 GMT, Sunday, 22 March 2009

[...]

Ms Smith told BBC One's Politics Show: "What we're completely clear about is that if we're going to address the threat from terrorism, we need to do that alongside the 60,000 people that we're now training up to respond to a terrorist threat, in everywhere from our shopping centres to our hotels.

Some of the media are claiming that means that some sort of "Home Guard" style "army" is being recruited and trained, but there does not seem to be any evidence of anything even as remotely well organised or well trained as even the fictional platoon in "Dad's Army" led by Captain Mainwaring in "Walmington-on-Sea".

What does exist is something called Project Argus, which is little different from "what to do in case of fire or flood etc.".training.

Project ARGUS is a National Counter Terrorism Security Office initiative, exploring ways to aid you in preventing, handling and recovering from a terrorist attack.

It achieves this by taking businesses through a simulated terrorist attack. The simulation identifies the measures to take for preventing, handling and recovering from a terrorist attack.

This simulation provides you with a unique opportunity to both learn from and contribute to valuable lessons helping to protect you, your business and your community, whether you are a national chain or a small business.

The event explores your options; what is likely to happen in the event of a terrorist attack; and what your priorities should be. Project Argus highlights the importance of being prepared and having the necessary plans in place to help safeguard your staff, customers and your company assets.

What can you expect?

Project Argus is a free event which takes you through, using a multi-media simulation, a terrorist attack. A series of questions and challenges are put to you, both individually and as a group. You will work in small syndicate groups with other local business representatives and develop your responses to the attack. The whole event including a coffee break will last three hours.

[our emphasis]

We assume that this means that Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith's claims that "tens of thousands" or "60,000" people who have been, or will have been "trained " ( by some vague unspecified date in the future) really amount being exposed to a three hours (including a coffee break) multi-media presentation and group discussion.

Even "Dad's Army" was better trained than this !

The Home Office quango in charge of this, the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, does produce some Crowded Places advice brochures, with pretty photographs, supposedly tailored for different sectors where there are crowds of people e.g. Pubs and Clubs, Commercial premises etc.

These all have basically the same content, but the chapter on hostile reconnaissance makes this stupid claim in the brochure aimed at Visitor Attractions i.e. the main tourist attractions:

• people taking pictures - filming - making notes - sketching of the security measures at attractions. Tourists should not necessarily be taken as such and should be treated sensitively, but with caution

{bold emphasis in the original}

The common chapter on hostile reconnaissance:, also mentions Operation Lightning:

Full post as published by Spy Blog on March 23, 2009 (boomark / email).