Counter Terror Gazette

AVSEC latest news

Protecting the British Royal Wedding

The event: 29 April 2011 sees the wedding of HRH Prince William of Wales, currently second in line to the British throne and the future King, to Catherine Middleton, at London’s Westminster Abbey.  The ceremony will be followed by a reception at Buckingham Palace. The event has been classed by security services and the police [...]

Cruise Missiles – protecting cruise ships from terrorism

Following 11 September 2001, the US government assembled a team of intelligence and maritime industry experts to identify what might be the most likely terrorist target in the maritime world. A consensus was reached that cruise ships, more than cargo ships, tankers or ferries, were likely to be the most attractive target to terrorists. Furthermore, cruise ships often sail to remote ports that specialise in cargo rather than passenger operations and in developing countries where security is not the same as at Western ports.

Group Profile: East Turkestan Islamic Movement

The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is an Islamist terrorist organisation, based in Waziristan, in the Pakistan tribal region, close to its border with China, whose aim is to establish an independent caliphate in ‘East Turkestan’ and to convert all Chinese nationals to Islam. ‘East Turkestan’ is a controversial term and an unofficial territory which approximately equates to Xinjiang province, an autonomous region in the far west of China, which borders Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is China’s biggest natural gas producing region and has large oil reserves, making it one of the country’s most valuable and economically important areas.

Regional Focus: The Caribbean

In February 2011, Russell Defreitas, a US citizen born in Guyana and a former baggage handler at New York’s JFK Airport, was sentenced to life imprisonment for plotting to blow up fuel tanks and a pipeline at the airport. The 40 mile long pipeline also serves LaGuardia and Newark airports. Defreitas is the alleged ring-leader of a cell whose plan was hatched in the Caribbean, a region, with the exception of the location of the US high security military base at Guantanamo Bay, usually associated with tourism not terrorism.

Terror Watch

Israel, 23 March: A British woman was killed when a bomb exploded at a bus stop in Jerusalem, near the central bus station. 30 people were injured in the attack, the first bombing in Jerusalem since 2004.

Thailand, 23 March: A roadside bomb exploded in Narathiwat province in the south of the country a day after three people were fatally shot by suspected Islamist insurgents. The bomb detonated as a truck carrying police officers brought in to investigate the shooting arrived.