.Secret war to stop dirty bomb attack
A SECRET war is underway to stop terrorists smuggling deadly "dirty bombs" into Britain, it was revealed yesterday.
Hi-tech machines have been installed at major ports to detect materials which could be used to build the devices.
The covert operation was disclosed by Government security supremo Lord Alan West in an exclusive interview with The Sun.
He also revealed there will be a big rise in the use of dogs to sniff out explosives. Lord West stressed they could have snared the underpants bomber who tried to blow up a jet in Detroit.
The peer, former head of the Royal Navy, said: "There is no doubt that terrorists still want to go for the big spectaculars - things like aircraft and dirty bombs.
"We have put in a whole range of measures to stop them but cannot be complacent. We have to be vigilant."
Lord West revealed security "portals" were set up under an operation called Project Cyclamen to monitor substances coming into the UK.
He said: "We have looked much more closely at chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials which could be used to make dirty bombs and how we can stop them being brought in.
"The portals enable us to see when a lorry or a container comes through whether it is has any of this kind of material on board.
"When the portals detect radiological and nuclear materials we can take whatever action is necessary.
They are already in a number of ports and other places and will be going into more.
"This has been highly complex because the technology is very difficult but I believe we have a world-beater."
Dirty bombs - known as "the poor man's nuclear weapon" - are crude devices that combine simple explosive with any radioactive material.
They are designed not to cause instant carnage and destruction like traditional bombs but to contaminate whole areas, kill thousands with disease and spark panic.
In 2003, BBC2's Horizon programme simulated the effect of a dirty bomb being unleashed in Trafalgar Square - leaving the heart of London a radioactive desert.
Lord West - made Under-Secretary of State for Security 2½ years ago - said: "Britain is safer than when I was appointed but we can never be completely safe. There are people who wish to do us huge amounts of harm."
He also outlined plans to use more sniffer dogs to detect explosives.
He said one of the full body scanners being introduced by the Government would have had only a 60 per cent chance of picking up Umar Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a jet on Christmas Day with explosives in his pants.
But a sniffer dog would have detected him.
He said: "You can have a row of people walking by and a dog will pick out the one with explosive.
"If the Detroit bomber had walked through a metal detector at a British airport nothing would have shown. But a a dog would have got him." Lord West also said the size of the security service MI5 and Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command SO15 had been doubled.
He insisted: "The biggest threat still is al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism, with the epicentre within Pakistan's borders.
"They will keep prodding and probing. As the IRA used to say, terrorists only have to get lucky once and we have to be lucky all the time.
"We are doing a tremendous amount to make sure that being lucky once is very hard for them."
The Sun
Hi-tech machines have been installed at major ports to detect materials which could be used to build the devices.
The covert operation was disclosed by Government security supremo Lord Alan West in an exclusive interview with The Sun.
He also revealed there will be a big rise in the use of dogs to sniff out explosives. Lord West stressed they could have snared the underpants bomber who tried to blow up a jet in Detroit.
The peer, former head of the Royal Navy, said: "There is no doubt that terrorists still want to go for the big spectaculars - things like aircraft and dirty bombs.
"We have put in a whole range of measures to stop them but cannot be complacent. We have to be vigilant."
Lord West revealed security "portals" were set up under an operation called Project Cyclamen to monitor substances coming into the UK.
He said: "We have looked much more closely at chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials which could be used to make dirty bombs and how we can stop them being brought in.
"The portals enable us to see when a lorry or a container comes through whether it is has any of this kind of material on board.
"When the portals detect radiological and nuclear materials we can take whatever action is necessary.
They are already in a number of ports and other places and will be going into more.
"This has been highly complex because the technology is very difficult but I believe we have a world-beater."
Dirty bombs - known as "the poor man's nuclear weapon" - are crude devices that combine simple explosive with any radioactive material.
They are designed not to cause instant carnage and destruction like traditional bombs but to contaminate whole areas, kill thousands with disease and spark panic.
In 2003, BBC2's Horizon programme simulated the effect of a dirty bomb being unleashed in Trafalgar Square - leaving the heart of London a radioactive desert.
Lord West - made Under-Secretary of State for Security 2½ years ago - said: "Britain is safer than when I was appointed but we can never be completely safe. There are people who wish to do us huge amounts of harm."
He also outlined plans to use more sniffer dogs to detect explosives.
He said one of the full body scanners being introduced by the Government would have had only a 60 per cent chance of picking up Umar Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a jet on Christmas Day with explosives in his pants.
But a sniffer dog would have detected him.
He said: "You can have a row of people walking by and a dog will pick out the one with explosive.
"If the Detroit bomber had walked through a metal detector at a British airport nothing would have shown. But a a dog would have got him." Lord West also said the size of the security service MI5 and Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command SO15 had been doubled.
He insisted: "The biggest threat still is al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism, with the epicentre within Pakistan's borders.
"They will keep prodding and probing. As the IRA used to say, terrorists only have to get lucky once and we have to be lucky all the time.
"We are doing a tremendous amount to make sure that being lucky once is very hard for them."
The Sun
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