CONTEST video transcript
Date: Tue Mar 24 14:54:38 GMT 2009
Bob Quick (former ACPO Terrorism Chair): The severe threat level that we are currently at means that an attack is highly likely. And it's highly likely to occur without warning.
Pursue
Bob Quick: This is a national issue. We've already seen attacks outside London. We saw the attack at Glasgow Airport. Over the last couple of years, several major attacks have been thwarted that had they been brought to fruition, we have no doubt, we would have seen mass murder probably on a scale that we tragically witnessed on the 7th July 2005.
Prepare
News reader: An explosion at a restaurant - the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter city centre - police say the shopping centre has now been completely evacuated.
Kevin Bowen (Counter Terrorism Security Advisor): It was Thursday the 22nd May, I was actually working down in the west of Cornwall. I received a phone call from my colleague saying that there had been a bomb in the Princess Hay shopping centre. All of a sudden, the realisation is that, actually, this is a nationwide issue now.
Project Argus is a multimedia simulation of a terrorist incident for shopping centres, bars, clubs, pubs.
Argus simulation film: You are working in the centre of your community, which as a result puts you in a very important position.
Kevin Bowen: It prepares them to make the decisions, not only for themselves - but also for their staff and their business. How to deal with - recover from - a terrorist incident.
Protect
Julie Gillis (UK Border Agency): E-Borders is part of a much wider programme to modernise the UK border. It’s about collecting passenger information from the carriers in advance, checking that data against watch lists and then issuing alerts to the frontline staff.
The technology that’s accompanying E-Borders are the automated gates. We’ve got the Iris gates – if your iris is recognised then you’ll be allowed to pass through without seeing an immigration officer. But we are also trialling biometric gates with a biometric passport – you walk up, swipe your passport against the reader and then the gate will open and allow you through.
What the border agencies are also able to do is actually build profiles so that they know the various behaviours that a terrorist might employ.
Prevent
Syed Naqui (Community Engagement Officer): The Prevent agenda is actually about engaging with people that may find it difficult to talk about very, very difficult issues. But doing it in a way that they feel comfortable, they feel they are being listened to, they feel that they are not being judged. It’s about dialogue.
Sohail Nawaz (Debate facilitator): Ok when you find the organisation who is responsible for this plot, what do you do?
Young man 1: Look into this organisation using an Imam.
Young man 2: You’ve got people who are youth facilitators or youth workers.
Young man 3: You’ve always got someone to talk to.
Sohail Nawaz: It think it’s vital to spread education and to galvanise youngsters with Islamic knowledge to have a counter narrative to some of the things they might come across in their lifetime.
Young man 4: Jihad’s like a holy war and you shouldn’t use it to kill innocent people.
Young man 5: People have lack of knowledge who are on drugs they don’t have much knowledge on jihad.
Young man 6: With our Islamic knowledge we do know that killing innocent people is wrong.
Sohail Nawaz: If anybody ever gave them any kind of leaflet in terms of killing innocent people they would be able to quote chapter and verse to these people in terms of where they are wrong, they can source where that information on why they are wrong is and actually run these people out of the town.
Young woman: I think they key to everything is that we need to unite and we need to help each other out.
Sohail Nawaz: Islam absolutely does not allow any kind of violent extremism or terrorism – end of the story.
