Bullring a city terror target.Byline: By Jonathan Walker Jonathan Walker (born 1799 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts - died May 1, 1878 near Muskegon, Michigan), aka "The Man with the Branded Hand," was an American reformer who became a national hero in 1844 when he was tried and sentenced as a slave stealer following his attempt to help seven THE Bullring Shopping Centre was today revealed as one of 26 possible terror targets in Birmingham and the West Mildands. It is the only landmark identified so far in a new list drawn up by the Home Office and the police as part of a new strategy for tackling international terrorism Noun 1. international terrorism - terrorism practiced in a foreign country by terrorists who are not native to that country act of terrorism, terrorism, terrorist act - the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain . West Midlands Police West Midlands Police is the Home Office police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second largest in the United Kingdom after London's Metropolitan Police [1]. It covers an area with nearly 2. has refused to name the 25 other targets. The report warned that Birmingham was the first British city targeted by Al Qaeda, after jobless waiter Moinul Abedin planned to bomb the city centre. Abedin, aged 27, was arrested in November 2000 and jailed for 20 years after being convicted of doing an act with intent to cause an explosion. Birmingham Crown Court heard he had turned his Sparkbrook terraced house into a bomb-making factory. At the time, police and security officers said they had not been certain of his intended target. But the new Home Office guidance states that he had planned to attack the city centre. The report is the first unclassified un·clas·si·fied adj. 1. Not placed or included in a class or category: unclassified mail. 2. document to contain a detailed account of UK officials' assessment of the underlying causes of the terrorist threat and its likely future direction. The Government paper highlights the work of police and the Home Office in the West Midlands as an example of the counterterrorism coun·ter·ter·ror adj. Intended to prevent or counteract terrorism: counterterror measures; counterterror weapons. n. Action or strategy intended to counteract or suppress terrorism. startegy, known as CONTEST, across the UK. There are now 400 dedicated police officers working in the West Midlands Counter-Terrorism Unit, as well as 23 community officers working to identify possible terror threats in partnership with local residents. Officers from the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, a specialist police department, have run training exercises with 356 Birmingham retailers on what to do if there is a terrorist attack. They have also provided security advice "to 26 high risk sites (including, for example, the Bull Ring Shopping Centre)," the report says. West Midlands Police would not identify the other 25 sites last night. The report warns: "By late 2000, the UK had itself become a target: the police and Security Service disrupted an attempt to conduct an attack in Birmingham city centre (well before the attacks in the US on 11 September 2001, the subsequent conflict in Afghanistan, and the 2003 Iraq war)." |
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