Daily Express
London, February 8, 1999
MI5 act to smash race gangs
Secret service teams up with Yard to combat Far Right thugs
EXCLUSIVE BY HAL AUSTIN AND IAN GALLAGHER
SCOTLAND Yard and MI5 are planning a huge covert operation to break up violent racist organisations. The Express has learned that Intelligence officers will infiltrate Far Right groups such as the British National Party.
Other officers will tap telephones, open mail, and scrutinise bank accounts and medical records. "We plan to close down these organisations by using every administrative device available to us," said a Yard source.
"These may include tax and VAT details, local authority planning infringements and breaches of charity regulations. You must remember that Al Capone was brought down by the American Inland Revenue -- not the FBI. At the end of the day we will know everything about the people in these groups, more than they know themselves."
The operation is being masterminded by Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve, head of the new Metropolitan Police race crime unit. He will work closely with the security services and the Yard's criminal intelligence unit.
Officers plan to apply the skills successfully used by the security services and the anti-terrorist squad against the IRA and Middle East bombers In London.
Mr Grieve, former head of the anti-terrorist squad, is aiming to build comprehensive computer files on the country's active racists and their relatives and associates.
"He will be using all his skills and techniques used against the IRA in the fight against the racial terrorists polluting our inner cities," said the source.
The files will detail racist groups' views and the extent to which they will use violence. It will also include a list of non-active supporters in key Government and local authority departments who are prepared to pass on vital information. The ultimate intention is to bring a series of criminal charges against the ringleaders of racist organisations and the thugs who follow them.
"If it works, and there is no reason why not, it will mark a sea change in the way subversive organisations are policed in this country," said a senior detective.
Mr Grieve will draw on the resources of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, Department of Social Security, Inland Revenue, immigration organisation and Customs. Benefits agencies, local authorities, British Telecom, credit agencies, schools and other educational institutions will also be involved. Detectives will monitor some suspects if they go abroad.
"If anyone can get to the bottom of the menace of racial violence and attacks, then John Grieve can," said a source close to the new unit.
In Australia, the anti-immigration One Nation party leader, Pauline Hanson, was jailed for "infringing electoral law". It seems that in this country the police are to infiltrate opposition parties and subvert them so that only parties which support multiculturalism and liberalism are allowed.
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Interview John Grieve, race crime unit chief: `Who trains little kids
Independent, The (London),
Aug 5, 2001 by Sophie Goodchild
"Have a look," says John Grieve, pointing at the untidy heap of documents and files piled on his desk and scattered around his office. "Who would be able to come in here and clear out my office?"
The Deputy Assistant Commissioner is referring to the fact that, at 55, he is due for retirement. Three years ago he started planning for a quiet life. Then he got a call asking him to lead a unit dedicated to solving race-hate crimes.
Smarting from the accusations levelled at it by the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the Metropolitan Police set up the unit to prove to a cynical public that the police are taking race crimes seriously. As head of the Race and Violent Crimes Task Force, Grieve has now vowed not to retire until Stephen Lawrence's killers are brought to justice.
( Interesting - is he still working with the Met Police then ? )
Certainly he will need all the energy and resilience he can muster. With race riots in the north and Midlands, black-on-black gun crime in London and now a promised visit from the controversial black separatist Louis Farrakhan, Grieve's work is higher on the social and political agenda than in the last 20 years.
Casually dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and trousers, Grieve is disarmingly accessible. He could be mistaken for an eccentric university professor rather than one of the Met's highest-ranking officers.
Grieve's CV is impressive. With 14 police commendations and awards for outstanding courage, he led the Met's elite antiterrorist unit and was in charge of key investigations, such as the 1996 Docklands bombing.
His critics, however, mutter that beneath the genial exterior is a master at the game of office politics.
At the end of last year, he was called upon to apologise to a Sikh sergeant, Gurpal Virdi, who was wrongly accused of sending racist hate mail. Grieve refused, although he said he personally sympathised with the officer.
A realist, he accepts London will never be completely free of racial tension. In his opinion, the key is keeping those tensions under control through the Task Force.
"My job came from Stephen's racist murder, and our tribute to Mr and Mrs Lawrence has to be that we try to make things better, and that's what I've been doing.
"People say: `It's all very well, John Grieve, but no one's doing anything'. But they (the Task Force) are arresting 200 people a month. For every two people arrested, three race crimes are being cleared up - two for three is pretty impressive.
"I concede that is a fraction of what is being reported. That's still 220 people that weren't being arrested when Stephen was murdered."
Unlike some of his senior colleagues, Grieve knows when to accept blame. After the Lawrence inquiry, he personally accepted the charge of institutional racism by stating: "I am a racist. I must be because Sir William Macpherson of Cluny said that I am ... I've found inside myself evidence of subtle prejudice, preconception and indirect discrimination. I'm for change inside myself and in the behaviour of others."
The impression is that "change" and obtaining justice for Stephen Lawrence has become a personal crusade. Grieve's role as race "troubleshooter" has made him the target of hate-mail attacks from far-right groups who have dubbed him "the man who would be Stalin".
He is dismissive of them. "Our message to the community is we will arrest them if they commit a criminal offence. But we refer to the BNP and Combat 18 as `the flag of convenience' for some of these racists - they are not card-carrying members of the party."
In his experience, racism is not confined to whey-faced skinheads. "Who's training these little kids at nursery school spitting out race hate? Sometimes you discover it's their nan: `My nan says I shouldn't sit next to you because you're black or gay'."
As if Grieve didn't have enough on his plate, there is also domestic violence. With 7,000 incidents a month in London alone, he says the Met has "dramatically" changed its views on these attacks.
He is concerned about the long-term impact that domestic violence has on children and the fact that it can lead to other violent crimes. "In many other kinds of criminality there is a history either as a child in a domestic violence situation or they are domestic abusers themselves in violent relationships.
"The cost to society and the economy is enormous if you think of the days they don't go to work because they've `fallen down the stairs' again."
While he remains in post Grieve wants no one to be in doubt about his commitment to making London a safe place for ethnic communities.
And until there is something positive to say about the Lawrence investigation, he is keeping quiet, except to appeal for witnesses to come forward.
"We have a good idea about what some witnesses would say which would help the investigation. There will be a time when they come forward ... loyalties change."
Until they do, he has no plans to clear out his office. John Grieve is a patient man.
Biography
1946 Born John Gilbert Grieve in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the son of an accountant.
1982 Graduates from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Psychology.
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1986 Obtains M Phil at Cranfield Institute of Technology examining police drug and crime strategies.
1993 Head of Department of Criminal Intelligence.
1996 Head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch.
1997 Deputy Assistant Commissioner.
1998 Head of Met's Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010805/ai_n14410626
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John Grieve is a former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police and head of Special Branch, a National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism who at one stage expressed a desire to become an Assistant Chief Constable in the RUC, a force he apparently held in high regard. John Grieve is the Chairman of the John Grieve Centre for Policing and Community Safety. The John Grieve Centre receives financial payments from the PSNI whose members deliver lectures and receive training at the centre. Ronnie Flanagan, former Chief Constable of the RUC is a Board member.
John Grieve, is one of the heads of the Independent Monitoring Commission in Northern Ireland and former head of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch and then "national co-ordinator" of Britain's Anti-Terrorist Squad, with Richard Kerr, who is a former director general of the CIA, and Joe Brosnan, ex-secretary general of the Department of Justice.
Dr Nick Ridley is currently an associate researcher at the John Grieve Centre.
He was a criminal intelligence analyst for just over 22 years, firstly at the Metropolitan Police, New Scotland Yard, working in various departments including Special Branch and the Anti Terrorist Branch, and then at Europol, the EU law enforcement agency in The Hague. At both Scotland Yard and Europol he specialised in organised crime from south east Europe, financial crime and financing of terrorism. At Europol he was attached to Anti Terrorist Unit where he was responsible for the operational analysis of financing of terrorism. In 2002 he was seconded to the FBI headquarters Washington, engaged on analysis on financing of terrorism.
http://johngrievecentre.co.uk/Nick.htm
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http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/depts/dass/research/jgc/
Note that serving police officers are working for the John Grieve centre ;
John Grieve CBE, QPM, BA, MPhil. Emeritus Professor
Retired Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, currently a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission for the Northern Ireland peace process.
Professor Allyson MacVean BSc (Hons), MPhil, PhD, Director
Professor MacVean previously worked in the Home Office Serious and Organised Crime Unit before entering academic life. She is a specialist in risk and dangerous offenders, community impact assessments, and paedophile on-line crime and has undertaken a number of dangerous offender risk assessments for police forces. She is also an external examiner and course validation assessor for other academic institutions.
Dr Clive Harfield BA (Hons), MSc, LLM, MPhil, PhD, Deputy Director
Dr Harfield has he has been a serving officer for 18 years in the National Crime Squad and National Hi-Tech Crime Unit as well as three local police forces and has a career background in uniform operations, CID, intelligence and covert policing. He is currently on long-term secondment to the John Grieve Centre. Dr Harfield is a specialist in mutual legal assistance and international law enforcement co-operation and has previously represented UK law enforcement at G8. In 2001 he held a Fulbright Fellowship at Georgetown University, Washington DC.
Irish Nationalists attack Gable / Searchlight / MI5 Axis ( Note the anti-semitism of the Irish Nationalists ) ;
http://irish-nationalism.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-858.html
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On 28 February 2007, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the retiring Director of MI5, spoke on co-operation between the police and the Security Service, and the UK counter-terrorism strategy of 'prevent, protect, pursue, and prepare', and also fielded many questions from the audience.
The event, chaired by Professor Emeritus John Grieve, former head of the anti-terrorist branch of the Metropolitan Police Service, was hosted in a Metropolitan Police Service venue for security reasons.
The John Grieve Centre hosts, on average, one police practitioner seminar a month and, wherever possible, these events are opened to academic colleagues. The seminars are generally held in London, Kidlington near Oxford or Birmingham. Future speakers include the filmmaker Roger Graef and BBC Correspondent Mark Daly.
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/news/latest-news/john-grieve-centre-police-practitioner-seminars.cfm
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THE BRITISH WAR ON TERROR TIMELINE
2001
19 February- The Terrorism Act 2000 comes into effect replacing the Prevention of Terrorism Act that had been in effect since 1974.
7 June- Tony Blair and the Labour Party are re-elected in the general election.
11 September- Attacks occur in New York and Washington D.C. killing just under 3,000 people, including sixty-seven Britons.
21 September- Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian flight instructor living in Britain, is arrested on suspicion of having been involved in the 11 September attacks. He is sent to Belmarsh Prison for several months. On 21 April 2003, all charges against him are dropped.
7 October- British and American air attacks against the Taliban in Afghanistan begin.
12 November- The Blair government introduces the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill in the House of Commons.
13 December- The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill receives Royal Assent.
19 December- Raids in Luton, London, and the West Midlands leads to the detention of eight individuals with alleged ties to international terrorism under the new Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act.
22 December- British citizen Richard Reid is arrested after he attempts to destroy American Airlines Flight 63 with an explosive hidden in his shoe.
2002
15 February- Home Secretary David Blunkett ends efforts to extradite accused terrorist Abdelghani Ait Haddad because of concern about the legitimacy of the evidence against him.
MAY 2002 - John Grieve retires from the Met Police and then sets up John Grieve Centre to run secret taskforve linking MI5, Special Branch and the government to tackle far right groups and muslim extremist groups.
7 May- Lord Rooker, a Home Office minister, said that since the Terrorism Act 2000 came into effect on 19 February 2001 ‘144 person have been arrested under [it]. There have as yet been no convictions for terrorist offences to date but 10 people are undergoing or awaiting trial for such offences.’
6 July- The Guardian reports that the British Air Transport Association opposes a Home Office plan to require airlines to record personal information.
23 July- The date of the so-called ‘Downing Street Memo.’ The document reveals that the Bush administration was set by this date on war with Iraq.
30 July- The Special Immigration Appeals Commission rules indefinite internment under Part 4 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 is both ‘unlawful’ and ‘discriminatory.’
2 August- The Home Office lists two new Codes of practice under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 related to intelligence collection.
9 August- An Old Bailey jury acquits Suleyman Zainulabdin, a London chef, who was arrested the previous October and charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 with ‘inviting another to receive instruction or training in making or using firearms or explosives.’
22 August- The UK Home Office issues a Circular (Circular 44/2002) authorizing police and other authorities to request airline and shipping companies to provide ‘police intelligence’ on passengers.
5 September- Amnesty International issues a report expressing concern ‘about serious human rights violations that have taken place as a consequence of the United Kingdom (UK) authorities’ response to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States of America.’
12 October- Bombs explode in the Indonesian resort of Bali killing 202 people. Twenty-four Britons are among the dead.
2003
5 January- Police arrest seven men in London related to a plot to manufacture the poison ricin for attacks on London Underground. All six were later acquitted of murder charges related to the ricin plot, although one would be convicted of ‘conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by the use of poisons or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury.’
14 January- Police raid a flat in Manchester while searching for a terrorism suspect. In the course of being arrested, Kamel Bourgass, one of the ricin suspects, stabs to death Detective Constable Stephen Oake.
20 January- Police raid the Finsbury Park mosque. They arrest seven people and seize weapons and forged passports.
30 January- Richard Reid, the ‘shoe bomber’ is convicted of terrorism by an American court and sentenced to life in prison.
5 February- During a public briefing to the United Nations Security Council, Colin Powell makes reference to the ricin arrests in the UK the month before and links these to the Saddam Hussein regime.
11 February- The Blair government deploys the British military, including armoured vehicles, at Heathrow Airport because of the apparent threat of a terrorist attack.
12 February- Five weeks before the invasion of Iraq, the Joint Intelligence Committee warns the government that the invasion of Iraq would increase the risk of terrorist attacks against the UK.
7 March- The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith sends a thirteen-page memo to Tony Blair warning that the invasion of Iraq could be deemed illegal without the second United Nations’ resolution.
17 March- In a shorter memo Attorney General Lord Goldsmith declares the proposed invasion of Iraq to be legal.
19 March- The American and British invasion of Iraq begins. Twenty-seven British service personnel die in the first ten days of hostilities.
31 March- The US/UK Extradition Treaty signed.
1 April- Two Algerians with ties to Al Qaeda, Brahim Benmerzouga and Baghdad Meziane, who were arrested in the UK in September 2001, are sentenced to 11 years in prison because of their involvement in terrorism fund raising and recruitment.
1 May- President George W. Bush from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Lincoln announces that ‘Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.’
17 July- Scientist and WMD specialist Dr. David Kelly commits suicide.
18 July- The Blair government announces an inquiry under the leadership of Lord Hutton into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. David Kelly.
25 October- Andrew Rowe arrested under terrorism act in Dover. He was found to be carrying socks containing traces of high explosives and would be convicted of terrorism offences in September 2005.
20 November- On the day that President Bush arrived in London for a state visit, bombs explode at the British consulate and headquarters of HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey. Thirty people die in the blasts and hundreds are wounded. Among the dead is Consul-General Roger Short, the top British diplomat in Istanbul.
2004
1 January- Extradition Act 2003, including the US/UK Extradition Treaty, comes into effect.
28 January- The Hutton Report is released. It is highly critical of BBC news coverage that alleged that Downing Street had ‘sexed up’ a pre-war intelligence dossier while absolving the Blair government of any wrongdoing.
3 February- The Blair government announces an inquiry under the leadership of Lord Robin Butler, a career civil servant, into British intelligence surrounding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
11 March- Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist train bombings in Madrid kill 191 people and injure over 2000.
30 March- Seven men allegedly in possession of approximately half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer are arrested in West Sussex as part of Operation Crevice. The Crown would later allege that they intended to bomb several targets including the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London. Five of the seven would be convicted in April 2007.
6 April- Cabinet secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull writes to John Grieve, permanent secretary at the Home Office, and notes that Cabinet had ‘recently discussed relations between the Muslim and other communities here in the UK.’ The letter set forth a number of topics related to the disaffection of British Muslims for further discussion.
19 April- Over 400 officers raid homes in the Manchester area and arrest eight men, one woman, and a sixteen-year-old boy. Media coverage links those arrested to plots involving attacks on Old Trafford during a Manchester United game.
10 May- John Grieve writes back to Turnbull and includes a draft of a Foreign Office and Home Office paper entitled ‘Young Muslims and Extremism.’
18 May- Sir Michael Jay from the Foreign Office writes to Sir Andrew Turnbull about the findings in ‘Young Muslims and Extremism.’ The actual report lists a number of forces that were leading to the radicalization of young British Muslims, ‘including the issue of British foreign policy, especially in the context of the Middle East Peace Process and Iraq.’
29 June- Court sentences Kamel Bourgass to life imprisonment for murder of DC Stephen Oake.
14 July- The Butler Report is released. It is critical of the quality of British intelligence in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq.
3 August- Fourteen men are arrested and eight eventually charged over plot to blow up financial buildings in London. The plot’s leader, Dhiren Barot, would later plead guilty and be sentenced to life in prison.
26 August- Abu Hamza, a radical Islamic cleric based in London, is arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
24 September- Four men are arrested in Brent Cross, London after they tried to buy ‘red mercury’ in a newspaper sting. Three would be charged and would be acquitted at their trial in July 2006.
19 October- Abu Hamza is charged with sixteen different offences.
2 November- George Bush is re-elected President of the United States.
17 November- Tony Blair promises to bring in legislation to target the ‘economic sabotage’ done by animal-rights extremists.
19 November- Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer arrive in Karachi, Pakistan in order, it is believed, to attend terrorist training camps.
24 November- The government introduces the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The new act requires protesters to seek police permission before being allowed to demonstrate within one kilometre of Parliament Square. It receives Royal Assent the following April.
16 December- The Law Lords rule that the detention of nine non-Britons at Belmarsh Prison without trial, under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, is unlawful under European human rights law, although the detentions continue.
2005
22 February- The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 is introduced to the House of Commons.
4 March- Hazel Blears, the minister responsible for counterterrorism, announces in the House of Commons that ‘some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community’ since terrorists are ‘falsely hiding behind Islam.’
6 March- Sir John Stevens, former head of London Metropolitan Police, warns in the News of the World that as many as 200 Al Qaeda-trained terrorists may be in the UK.
11 March- The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, designed in part to deal with Law Lords’ ruling from previous December through a new regime of ‘control orders,’ is given royal assent.
17 March- The Blair government announces a ‘National Identity Scheme’ that will see the issuance of Identity Cards.
5 May- Tony Blair and the Labour Party are re-elected in the general election.
6 July- According to the Guardian, the head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, briefs a group of Labour MPs, assuring them that no terrorist attacks are on the horizon.
7 July- Four suicide bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain, and Jermaine Lindsay, kill 56 and wound 700 in London.
On 28 February 2007 AT THE JOHN GRIEVE CENTRE SEMINAR, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the retiring Director of MI5, spoke on co-operation between the police and the Security Service, and the UK counter-terrorism strategy of 'prevent, protect, pursue, and prepare', and also fielded many questions from the audience
8 March 2007 - It is announced that a career intelligence agent and specialist on Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda-related groups, Jonathan Evans, who also had experience in dealing with the Irish Republican Army, will succeed Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller as the head of MI5 when she retires at the end of March.
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