LONDON, 11 August 2005 — London Police Commissioner James Hart warned businessmen and bankers yesterday that a terrorist strike on London’s financial heartland was only a matter of time.
Hart, the police officer responsible for the “Square Mile” in the City, raised alarm bells when he said that terrorists have been on “hostile reconnaissance” of the City on several occasions since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Hart faulted big corporations based in Square Mile — which includes the offices of major US, European and Japanese financial institutions — of failing to take the threat seriously.
“I am not trying to scare anybody,” explained Hart. “What I am trying to do is to actually say ‘look, the threat has not gone away. The threat is as real as ever, and we need to work together to make sure we minimize the potential consequences of a further terrorist attack’. I believe that by encouraging businesses to join with us we can actually try to disrupt whatever activity is directed toward the City of London and make this trading center a much safer and more prosperous place.”
Hart told the Financial Times newspaper in a front-page interview: “Every successful terrorist group pre-surveys its target.
“There’s no doubt we’ve been subjected to that surveillance,” he said adding that “that sort of thing has been successfully disrupted”.
Potential targets staked out have included iconic sites, business and prominent buildings — “anywhere where the maximum damage can be inflicted on the financial systems of the City of London.
“If you want to hurt the government, hurt people at the same time, and you want to cause maximum disruption ... what better to hit than at the financial center?” he said.
Yet, he said, despite the July 7 attacks on three underground subway trains and a double-decker bus that killed 56 people, including four apparent suicide bombers, only half of businesses in the City have contingency plans in place.
“All big businesses are well aware of their vulnerabilities in terms of the need for business planning,” Hart said. “How much that planning translates into operational effect, I sometimes wonder.”
The warning was received with skepticism in some quarters in the City and by some intelligence experts.
Former government intelligence analyst, Crispin Black, criticized the tone of the message, if not the message itself. The police, he stressed, could have adopted a more softly-softly approach, engaging with the City and offering advice and help. Others stressed that no specific threat has been made or received. As such Commissioner Hart’s warning may be an over-reaction.
The City of London of course has been a terrorist target for almost 30 years, during which several buildings were hit by the IRA, including the famous Baltic Exchange near Bishopsgate in 1992 and Canary Wharf in the Docklands in 1996. Other iconic buildings and businesses that have borne the brunt of IRA terrorism in the past include the world famous department store, Harrods.
Scotland Yard and Treasury officials have had ongoing talks with businesses in the City in the aftermath of 9/11. Commissioner Hart himself has briefed over 130 CEOs and the police have extended the security cordon around the Square Mile as far as possible.
Businesses stress that they need expert advice and tax breaks to implement emergency plans for terror attacks, because these plans are costly. But with the 7/7 and failed 7/21 London bombings, the awareness for such plans to be adopted has increased sharply.
Meanwhile, Michael Howard, the opposition Conservative leader, in a show of support for Prime Minister Tony Blair’s war on extremists, yesterday warned Britain’s judges not to undermine the fight against terrorism. Howard blamed “aggressive judicial activism” especially in interpreting the 1998 Human Rights Act, which is drawn from the European Human Rights Convention. He warned this activism could jeopardize the Britain’s “security and the very freedom the judiciary seeks to defend”.
Last week, the Prime Minister gave notice that he was determined to push through a whole new list of anti-terror powers even if it meant amending the Human Rights Act. And he warned the British judiciary that he was ready for battle should they try to scupper his policies.
