7/7-style terrorist attacks still a possibility, says police chief

Sir Norman Bettison told MPs that he believed others could follow the four Yorkshire suicide bombers who killed 52 innocent victims on London’s public transport network on July 7, 2005.

Government measures to stop young people becoming radicalised had been “more positive than harmful”, he added, although he stood by comments he made last year that they will probably take 20 years to bear fruit.

Sir Norman was giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, which is investigating the roots of radicalisation in Britain and its links to terrorism.

Asked by committee chairman Keith Vaz whether police knew what action to take to prevent an attack like the 7/7 bombings, the West Yorkshire Chief Constable replied: “I think we have learnt good practice, but that is not the same as ‘could it ever happen again’.

“Could the person go beneath the radar or go unchallenged in the way the four 7/7 bombers did? I think that could still happen.”

Sir Norman gave the example of 7/7 bomber Habib Hussain, an 18-year-old from Leeds who blew himself up on a bus in Tavistock Square, killing 13.

Hussain had come from a successful family, had been a “model pupil” and had no convictions, MPs were told.

Sir Norman, who leads the Association of Chief Police Officers’ work on preventing violent extremism, said terrorist threats could arise at both ends of the political spectrum, from the far Right as well as “al-Qaida-inspired” plotters.

He said a unit investigating extremist websites had received more than 2,000 referrals since it was set up last year.

Almost 200 of those cases had ended with offensive material being taken off the internet, “almost exclusively” voluntarily by the people who had posted it in the first place, he added.

Sir Norman said a manifesto written by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik would have come “very close” to breaching the Terrorism Act if it had been published in Britain.

In July it emerged that Breivik had praised the English Defence League (EDL) as a “blessing” in a message posted on the web.

Sir Norman said the EDL’s main purpose was to be “provocative” and that, even though police had sought to engage with the group, those moves had “absolutely no effect in terms of ameliorating their behaviour”.

He revealed that his force prepared for an EDL demonstration in Bradford last year by drawing on the experience of officers who had policed marches in Northern Ireland.

“We went to our colleagues in Northern Ireland to learn about work that they have done during the marching season, in terms of working with the community, and we employed some of the tactics that we brought back,” he said.