Posted on 07/08/2007 7:08:36 PM PDT by blam
New terror threat from foreign students
By Brendan Carlin, John Steele and Duncan Gardham
Last Updated: 2:25am BST 09/07/2007
The new crackdown on terrorism following the attempted car bomb attacks is "fatally flawed" amid fears of widespread failings on immigration checks, the Government was warned last night.
Militant muslims demonstrate outside Downing Street. Brown has been warned that the terrorist threat could 'last a generation'
As new concerns were raised that the intelligence services are struggling to monitor more than 200 extremist groups operating in Britain, it emerged that a loophole on student visas could allow terrorists in.
Many students from "hot spots" of Muslim unrest around the world are thought to obtain visas for study but "go under the wire" by failing to show up for their courses when they arrive in Britain.
The head of Interpol also accused the authorities of failing to check visitors to Britain against its global database of 11,000 suspected terrorists.
Amid warnings that the terrorist threat could last a generation, Gordon Brown sought to adopt a strong position on combating the threat by calling yesterday for a new world-wide database on suspects.
Data-sharing between countries was "a matter of urgency", the Prime Minister said.
But the Tories warned that any crackdown was in danger of being undermined by a failure to monitor immigrants.
They said that without tackling immigration issues such as this, Mr Brown's overall strategy against terrorism was "fatally flawed".
A Tory spokesman said the student visa loophole had to be closed as soon as possible.
Damian Green, a shadow Home Office minister, told The Daily Telegraph: "If someone does not show up for their course and explain immediately, their visas should be cancelled at once. It's an appalling loophole that the Government has to deal with urgently."
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "We welcome the Prime Minister's sentiments but they are undermined by the revelation that Britain is not checking potential immigrants against an existing global database of terror suspects.
"Yet again it is not the Government's policy that is the problem - it is their lack of competence in delivering on that policy which is threatening our security."
Mr Davis was referring to a claim by Ronald K Noble, the Interpol secretary general, who said it had the passport numbers, fingerprints and photos of more than 11,000 suspected terrorists on its database.
But he said Britain does not check it against immigrants coming into the country or foreign nationals it has arrested.
"The guys detained last week could be wanted, arrested or convicted anywhere in the world and the UK would not know," he said.
Mr Brown's call came as his new security minister, Adml Sir Alan West, told The Sunday Telegraph that the fight against terrorism could take 15 years.
Following the car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, Sir Alan said the overall threat, from both home-grown and foreign terrorists, was now at its greatest-ever level.
Yesterday it emerged that MI5 is attempting to monitor more than 200 extremist networks across the country. The security service is watching 219 groups, mostly in the Midlands and North.
A "risk map" of terrorist threats shows a total of 80 groups of extremists in the Midlands, 60 in Leeds, Bradford and Manchester and 35 in London.
There are also 20 being watched on Merseyside, 12 in Scotland, 10 in Wales and two in Northern Ireland.
Each network can involve more than a dozen people bringing the total to well over 1,600 - some estimates have put it as high as 3,000.
Most are not involved in plotting attacks but the security service is alarmed at the increasing speed with which groups move from radicalisation to action.
It is struggling to monitor all the networks and is unable to keep all the people under constant surveillance. Some are believed to move away from their homes to more remote locations as they finalise their plans, to avoid being watched.
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, while still head of MI5, said last year that there had been an 80 per cent rise in its casework.
She said MI5 was monitoring around 200 groupings or networks comprising more than 1,600 individuals "who are actively engaged in plotting or facilitating, terrorist acts here and overseas".
To help fight the threat outside London, regional counter-terrorism units have been set up in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds to work with the Metropolitan Police in London.
Sir Alan, the former First Sea Lord brought in from outside the Labour Party by Mr Brown to serve in his "all the talents" administration, said people would now have to be "a little un-British" and if necessary, inform on each other to trap suspected terrorists.
He will today present Mr Brown and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, with a hastily-prepared interim report on vetting arrangements for NHS staff after it emerged that eight of the suspects in the London and Glasgow attacks worked for the health service.
The report was only commissioned last Wednesday although Mr Brown has already told MPs that background checks on foreign doctors and other health workers coming to Britain will be stepped up.
However, deep concerns were raised over the weekend that a loophole in visa controls for foreign students could have been letting in extremists without real checks.
One report yesterday said that in Portsmouth University alone, hundreds of foreign students who were offered places failed to turn up.
Of those, 379 were from Pakistan, 16 from Saudi Arabia and two from Iraq.
Until recently, a student could obtain a visa for up to three years essentially by showing an acceptance letter.
The Home Office said last night it had taken steps to close what it accepted was a "loophole" open to abuse.
Foreign students would now have to show details of a "sponsor" who will certify that they have been offered a place. The sponsors will have to report any who fail to show up.
We did. At least 1/2 of us.
Neil Gabler’s comment about the hysteria in the US when terrorists are arrested is very interesting in light of this. Sounds like Gabler spoke too soon. The Brits are definitely a lot more hysterical than Americans have been under similar circumstances.
We did?
What did we do? Nothing has changed.
Illegal immigrants are still streaming across our border by the thousands...and, 12-20 million are still here.
The folks in Washington are laughing at us.
"Britain must withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to protect the country from terrorism, it was said today."
"Migrationwatch, which campaigns against mass immigration, said the treaty acts as a "positive encouragement" for terrorists to come to Britain."
You’re missing the whole point in your anti-Mexican hysteria. The terrorists are NOT illegal immigrants to GB and do not zip across some European border. They are legal, permitted and even sought by the UK.
Just like the legal visas we issue here. I am much less worried about the illegal Mexicans - who will go home when their economy improves or if we get a rational guest worker plan here - than about the people we let in legally.
You are aware, aren’t you, that we’re planning on taking in something like 2,000,000 Iraqis eventually? We’ve given unrestricted visas to 7,000 “refugees,” taking great pains to give no preference to Christian Iraqis (who actually are persecuted and should be accepted as refugees). So we’re voluntarily filling up our country with Muslims who hate us. Go figure.
Best wishes from across ‘the pond’.
Gosh...why does this sound...........so familiar?????
I totally agree. Terrorism can last for another generation if we let it. Either here or abroad. The Brits can end it there if they get to...........so can we and so can the EU. We best do it before it gets to the point that people start asking for another Crusade.
My Mexican blood relatives would disagree with you. Illegal is illegal regardless of where they're from.
proper political correctness
My whole point is that these Brit immigrants are NOT illegals.
And we’re doing the same thing here. The illegal Mexican thing will sort itself out with (a) the states and cities being forced to stop defying federal law and granting benefits and protection to illegal immigrants, (b) Mexico being forced to take some responsibility for its criminal emigrant population and (c) Mexico suddenly realizing (as it is doing) that it has entire towns where there are no longer any adult males.
But nobody is saying a word while we LEGALLY let in a ton of Muslims, supposedly “highly educated,” who are a heck of a lot more dangerous than a bunch of Mexican gardeners. I want us to control our LEGAL immigration policy. There is no way we should be letting these people in. The Brits did, and we can see how well that worked for them.
They still don't grasp the obvious point. The threat will last until the last generation. Either the last generation of non-Muslims in the UK, or the last generation of Muslims in the UK. By stating it will only last one generation, they simply comfort themselves while condemning the public's grandchildren to a worse sociopolitical situation. The politicians, bureaucrats and coppers are all interested in a quiet tax payer funded pensioner's life, they don't have the stomach or will to stand up and openly and frankly discuss and ameliorate the problems. That would involve sticking their necks out, and possibly losing that pension which is apparently in their view the tantamount apex of British society..
I agree and am worried about ANY Muslim immigrants, legal or illegal.
Yep. Gotta keep those diversity figures up. If there is an underrepresented group, well, gotta give them representation, even if it kills us.
Suggest we copy that imbecile, Chertoff...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.