Security: Will we be safe from terrorists?

Experts and politicians debate the big issues relating to security.

Tartan terrorists and attacks on Scottish soil are rare but not unknown. Scotland saw Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky in 1988. 270 people died in the attack which was ultimately blamed on Libya.

The question of the motive for the attack has never been entirely cleared up but it’s unlikely the UK was the target. The US and Gaddafi’s Libya were enemies at the time and some theories claim the plane was meant to explode over the Atlantic rather than over land where it caused carnage on the ground in Lockerbie.

The only person convicted over the attack was one of Colonel Gaddafi’s secret service officers Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. He was tried under Scottish law and jailed in 2001 before being released on compassionate grounds eight years later when he was dying of prostrate cancer, an act that angered families of the victims and the American administration in Washington.

In 2007 Glasgow found itself at the centre of a terror plot. Two Islamist attackers saw their plan to set off car bombs outside London nightclubs fail. Bilal Abdullah, a British-born doctor working at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley at the time, and engineer Kafeel Ahmed travelled from Scotland to carry out the bombings and returned after they’d failed. Then, 36 hours later, they loaded up a jeep with flammables and explosives and drove it at Glasgow airport.

Bollards outside the airport prevented them getting close to the terminal and when one of the men emerged from the burning car baggage handler John Smeaton “set about him”, becoming a national hero in the process. Ahmed died from burns sustained in the attack and Abdullah was jailed for 32 years.

In all seven gallantry medals were issued to members of the public who helped thwart the would-be bombers.

EXPERT VIEW

It’s Mission Possible for Scots

by Allan Burnett, former head of counter-terrorism at the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland

It is a principal duty of any State to protect its people and other assets from security threats and keep them safe. An independent Scotland offers the opportunity to reduce threat levels and deal more effectively with the residual risks.

The current UK threat level for international terrorism is ‘substantial’. In a distinct Scotland we can reduce the threat by making ourselves less of a target through measures such as not participating in illegal wars. As a nuclear-free state potential targets would be removed from our land and lochs.

The white paper includes an exciting and achievable plan for Scotland to improve the effectiveness and efficiency in the way we deal with security threats including terrorism and cyber attacks, and our response to national emergencies.

Be in no doubt, UK security is far from being perfect. Inappropriate Government interference is rife. Trust and information-sharing can be lacking and even competence can be in doubt witness the struggling Borders Agency. I know we can do much better in an independent Scotland.

Headlines from the white paper include the proposal to set up a modern Scottish security and intelligence agency. I have witnessed the great Scottish talent in military, secret and police intelligence and our outstanding cyber specialists. I can envisage the massive ability, energy, integrity and innovation they would pour into this exciting mission.

It is clear that an important part of the plan is to maintain and enhance existing relationships and build new ones.

Our friends, including those south of the Border, will want Scotland as allies as much as we want them. Our Scottish security and intelligence agency will be welcomed as a professional ally, trusted both as a recipient and contributor of intelligence for global good.

SNP plans simply do not add up

by Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee

The disappearance of the union of England and Scotland would have security consequences for both countries. Two features of SNP policy stand out as having direct implications for security: the disavowal of nuclear deterrence and the expulsion of UK nuclear forces from Faslane and the stated aim of having a distinctly different immigration policy from the rest of the UK.

In a chilly world, the Scottish Government wisely wants an independent Scotland to be a member of NATO with the availability of the forces of other countries this brings. But it is hard to see this being compatible with rejection of the Alliance’s central defence doctrine and the ousting of some of the most important European contributions to Alliance nuclear capability.

The Scottish Government recognises the value of sharing intelligence with Allies to which its proposed Security Agency would need sufficient capability to be able to contribute. This would take time and considerable investment to create. In its own interests, the remaining UK would co-operate as far as it could and the principle governing use of third-party intelligence from countries like the United States would still be permitted.

The loss of a single security area would however undoubtedly diminish security. And, notwithstanding the Common Travel Area (assuming Scotland could continue to belong), the border between England and Scotland, as an international frontier, would have to be actively controlled, with all the costs and frustration this would entail.

The security case for maintaining the union is overwhelming.

From the YES political camp

Scotland will have first-class security

by Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretay for Justice

We recognise that it’s vital Government ensures the security of its citizens and protects them, their property and their way of life against threats.

An independent Scotland will have first-class security and intelligence arrangements that are proportionate and fit for purpose, based on a full review of security requirements and regular assessments of the risks and threats we may face.

The Scottish Government will set up a single security and intelligence agency with independence. We will not duplicate the large, complex three-agency structure currently in operation across the UK, although we will continue to work closely with these agencies and the rest of the UK as our closest neighbour and most important friend and ally.

We will build on existing relationships and mechanisms, such as the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce, which I chair.

In line with good practice, the agency will work closely with, but be independent of, Police Scotland. There is already a long track record of close co-operation between the police and UK security services.

For the first time, there will be democratic control and oversight in Scotland of what our security and intelligence agency does. Controls over the agency will be set out in legislation agreed by the Scottish Parliament. Scotland’s new written constitution will set the framework with a clear focus on human rights at all times.

Established arrangements for cross-border policing will also continue, including arrangements so that criminals can be pursued and brought to justice across borders.

It will be in the best interests of an independent Scotland and the remaining UK to agree arrangements for cross-border arrests that work as well as the arrangements currently in place. This will be in addition to participation in the European Arrest Warrant scheme to deal with criminals in member states.

Under our proposals, criminal activity at ports related to immigration, customs offences or organised crime will be dealt with by a Scottish Border and Migration Service, working closely with Police Scotland. Indeed Police Scotland are already responsible for tackling criminals seeking to exploit Scotland’s ports.

And citizens from the rest of the UK and Ireland will continue to move freely across borders as they currently do as part of the Common Travel Area.

From the NO political camp

Going it alone will be costly

by Graeme Pearson, shadow Justice Secretary and former Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency

Currently Britain maintains across its national boundaries support from MI5, MI6 and GGCHQ alongside law enforcement (Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency) when dealing with threats from terrorism and organised crime. In the event of independence for Scotland that landscape will necessarily change.

In fast time, the interests of the UK and Scotland will separate as a Scottish Government creates its own priorities and assessments. With that separation the Scottish Government will require to maintain a capacity both at home and abroad to gather intelligence, assess that intelligence and task a response as required.

The costs involved in the creation of these services will be significant. They will be counted in the hundreds of millions of pounds and to include an effective listening post likely in the billion pounds range. In addition the personnel, skills, equipment and locations necessary to facilitate those who would conduct the work to combat terrorist and organised crime groups will require planning, selection and additional training. Threats search out the weakest link in country responses. Scotland cannot afford to be that weakest point!

All of this is no easy task and will require time to deliver. Equally there is no guarantee that other nations will be happy to share intelligence and facilities.

I therefore wonder whether the sheer effort and costs are worth it as a side effect of independence. The knock on impact for Police Scotland also needs an assessment.

In the Glasgow Airport bombing incident, intelligence reports passing between English authorities and Scotland ensured a fast response identifying the bombers involved in an attempt to bomb London, within days at Glasgow Airport the bombers were arrested and, with authorisation by the Lord Advocate in Scotland, all evidence travelled to London for a prosecution to be conducted outside Scotland.

Post independence presumably European Arrest Warrants and the likes will become a necessary element of such cases but in truth no one really knows. That work will require to be completed after independence is decided.