Terror czar warns of changing threat

Published on Saturday 2 February 2008 19:04

MUSLIM fanatics in Scotland could be radicalised within weeks, the country's terror czar has warned. And John Corrigan stressed that the exact potential of the threat is constantly changing and can never be quantified.

He spoke to Scotland on Sunday just six weeks before retiring as Scotland's counter-terrorism chief, having spent four years in the post overseeing such operations as the arrest of Mohammed Atif Siddique and the inquiry into the would-be car bombing of Glasgow Airport.

Recent research has shown the time it takes for an individual to show an initial interest in fundamentalism to actively taking part in an attack is reducing all the time.

Several years ago, experts figured that period may be up to 18 months but now with perceived threats to Muslims being featured virtually daily on our television screens, that timescale is down to just a few weeks.

In his first interview since the attacks on Glasgow Airport in June, Corrigan, who is also assistant chief constable of Strathclye Police, said: "There were some benchmarks up until 9/11 but, recently, it would be possible to find someone willing to involve themselves in a terrorist act in a much shorter timescale. That makes the challenge facing policing a bit more acute."

Corrigan said it was impossible to state with any conviction how many suspects were active in Scotland at any time.

He added: "I cannot quantify how many suspects we have in Scotland.

There is simply no way, short of getting access to the detailed plans of those who want to do harm to the UK, of telling how many individuals there are in this position. And it is not possible to separate Scotland from the rest of the UK. But it would be an act of the utmost complacency that Scotland is at risk any less than the rest of the UK."

Unlike England and Wales, Scotland does not have a dedicated Counter-Terrorism Unit but Corrigan said this, in no way, made the country more susceptible to attack. He explained: "We have decided not to create large, stand-alone units for counter-terrorism. We believe every police officer in Scotland is a counter-terrorism officer."