Speaker 1: There were eight arrests in overnight raids in London and
Speaker 1: Birmingham following yesterday's deadly terror attack outside the British Parliament
Speaker 1: committed by one British born suspect using a car and
Speaker 1: a knife. Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament today that
Speaker 1: British security services investigated the terrorists behind the attack years
Speaker 1: ago due to concerns over his links to violent extremism.
Speaker 1: He was a peripheral figure. The case is historic. He
Speaker 1: was not part of the current intelligence picture. There was
Speaker 1: no prior intelligence of his intent or of the plot.
Speaker 1: Police have identified the suspect as Khalid Massued, a fifty
Speaker 1: two year old from Kent with convictions for violence dating
Speaker 1: back to three His last conviction was in two thousand
Speaker 1: three for possession of a knife. A full counter terrorism
Speaker 1: investigation is under way joining us is Julia Ebner, senior
Speaker 1: researcher at Quilliam of London based think tank that focuses
Speaker 1: on counter extreme amisum Julia. A number of so called
Speaker 1: lone wolf terrorists had drawn the attention of authorities at
Speaker 1: some point before the attacks, and some say law enforcement
Speaker 1: agency you should have more leeway to conduct surveillance and
Speaker 1: act on it, which may lead to issues with privacy
Speaker 1: among other things. Where do you stand on that? Yes,
Speaker 1: so I think Um, it's true that there has certainly
Speaker 1: been a trend moving away from these coordinated attacks that
Speaker 1: we knew from Alglida, and especially now that I should
Speaker 1: is losing ground UH in Syria and Iraq, it has
Speaker 1: shifted its strategy towards the more UH in inspiring self
Speaker 1: starter attacks, which are of course a lot harder to
Speaker 1: detect and prevent. And I think the British intelligence and
Speaker 1: security forces have done a tremendous job in preventing dozens
Speaker 1: of attacks in the last year. But of course in
Speaker 1: this it is very hard to even words to survellance
Speaker 1: measures in place, and with constant monitoring of over three
Speaker 1: thousand people in the view KAY who are at risk
Speaker 1: of stating attacks, it's very hard for them to UH
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on all of them, Julia, Up
Speaker 1: until now, the UK has been spared of this kind
Speaker 1: of attack, even though they have happened on the continent.
Speaker 1: Was it just a matter of time before this happened
Speaker 1: in the UK? Or does this attack tell us something
Speaker 1: new about the state of Britain. Britain's exposure to the
Speaker 1: sort of attack. Yes, Unfortunately, I think it was just
Speaker 1: a matter of time because of course these these kind
Speaker 1: of no tech but high impact attacks like using a
Speaker 1: truck or using weapons such as a knife, is something
Speaker 1: that can almost not be prevented. And um, as I said,
Speaker 1: since there was little all the men was known to
Speaker 1: the security forces UH the terrorist attacker it was, it
Speaker 1: was not possible for the security services to UH. They
Speaker 1: have to prioritize at some point. So I think um
Speaker 1: it takes twenty to twenty five people per per individual
Speaker 1: that they have to monitor twenty four seven so um
Speaker 1: M I five only has limited capacity to to monitor
Speaker 1: all the individuals in the UK that are at risk
Speaker 1: of radicalization. So, Julia, are there any answers, any possible
Speaker 1: avenues to stop this or curtail it? I think because
Speaker 1: it is impossible for the security forces and for the
Speaker 1: intelligence forces to do it by themselves, we have to
Speaker 1: take a more civil society that approach to this, and
Speaker 1: this means working closer with front line workers, but also
Speaker 1: heating some of the profound community divisions that have arisen
Speaker 1: in the last years and in fact some of the
Speaker 1: radicalization hotbed for is limited extremism are the same hotbeds
Speaker 1: that have also given birth to a lot of far
Speaker 1: right movements. So they're in a way far right. And
Speaker 1: isn't this extremist of feeding off each other's rhetoric and
Speaker 1: they're helping each other to recruit new people to there
Speaker 1: for their violent causes, Juliet, We're in this era where
Speaker 1: countries are closing themselves off, even from countries that used
Speaker 1: to be allies. Is that affecting the international cooperation against
Speaker 1: the sort of terror attack? Absolutely, especially now with Brexit.
Speaker 1: I think one of the main discussion points will be
Speaker 1: how to what extends the UK. There has been a
Speaker 1: leader in counter terrorism efforts across Europe, it has its
Speaker 1: intelligence services are better i think than than most of
Speaker 1: your counter terrorism forces or intelligence services um. But of
Speaker 1: course not being at this at the same table automatically
Speaker 1: and more after Brexit, not not being able to shape
Speaker 1: the debate and more what have a big impact. Also
Speaker 1: indust regards I think there's there is and also security,
Speaker 1: especially with security corporation, is a lot about trust and
Speaker 1: of course some of the trust tests has gotten lost
Speaker 1: in uh these emerging divisions on an institutional level, on
Speaker 1: the European level, but on an international level. Really finally,
Speaker 1: in about thirty seconds, Julia, what do you see as
Speaker 1: the immediate repercussions of this attack? I think, um, what
Speaker 1: what is most important now? Because it's immediately after attacks
Speaker 1: that the narrative is shaped. What is most important now
Speaker 1: is for the United Kingdom to uh to stay united,
Speaker 1: and for Great Britain too. That's the only way Great
Speaker 1: Pritain you can remain great because what isn't extremist for
Speaker 1: any form of terrorists are trying to achieve is widening
Speaker 1: the rifts within our societies. So I do hope that
Speaker 1: this one has happened, that in fact communities will stick
Speaker 1: together and even close to them before and try to
Speaker 1: give a response to this focus on solidarity rather than hatred. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for talking to us about this. That's Julia Ebner.
Speaker 1: She's a senior researcher at kill Um, a London based
Speaker 1: think tank.