UK: PM to order Google & Facebook to clamp down on extremism
Web giants with blood on their hands: PM to order
internet bosses to clamp down on extremism as ‘it takes minutes on Google to
find how to build the bomb which brought terror to the Tube’
PM will take on Google, Facebook and Microsoft after
terror attack in London
Attacker used a ‘fairy light’ bomb that can built from
instructions found online
May is expected to warn tech giants during meeting with
Emmanuel Macron
By REBECCA CAMBER and LARISA BROWN and EMINE SINMAZ FOR
THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 17:50 EDT, 15 September 2017 | UPDATED: 06:05
EDT, 16 September 2017
Theresa May will order internet giants to clamp down on
extremism following yesterday’s Tube terror attack.
She will take on Google, Facebook and Microsoft after
hundreds of commuters and schoolchildren narrowly avoided death when a bomb
failed fully to detonate on a rush-hour train.
The attacker, who is on the run, used a ‘fairy light’
bomb that can be made from instructions still available online last night.
The Prime Minister will host a summit with French
president Emmanuel Macron next week and is expected to warn technology giants
they need to do more to tackle extremists.
Last night she raised the terror alert status to its
highest level ‘critical’, which means an attack is expected imminently. Troops
will be deployed at key sites to free up more armed police to patrol
thoroughfares and transport hubs.
The suspect for the attack at Parsons Green station in
west London has not been named. But he is said to be known to the security
services, who fear he will strike again and may be part of a jihadi cell.
It is understood investigators found fingerprints on the
device and have a CCTV image of the suspect. As Scotland Yard and MI5 deployed
hundreds of investigators to hunt for the attacker:
- Mrs May rebuked Donald Trump for saying the bomber was
‘in the sights’ of British police;
- Commuters told of pandemonium when a ball of flame
engulfed their carriage;
- Twenty-nine people were taken to hospital with minor
injuries;
- Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bomber fled shortly after dumping the suspected nail
device on a District Line train heading to central London.
It was hidden in a Lidl bag inside a large plastic food
or builder’s tub.
At around 8.20am it partially ignited, sending a fireball
through the carriage, causing flash wounds. The device fizzled out however
before the main charge could go off. Passengers covered in blood and with
scorched hands, legs, faces and hair, fled in panic, triggering a stampede.
The bomber is believed to have been captured on CCTV
making a telephone call. Experts at GCHQ have been working to match up calls
made in the Parsons Green area at that time.
Security services also looked at Oyster cards and contact
cards used to get in to stations on the line to work out who the bomber is.
The speed with which the terrorist was identified
suggests he could already have been on a police database or watchlist.
Mr Trump suggested in a tweet that the bomber was already
on the radar of Scotland Yard, a claim which was met with fury from police.
Forensics were last night examining fingerprints from
components of the explosive device and the container.
Earlier this week, an image was circulated on encrypted
messaging site Telegram of a jihadi pointing toward London landmarks such as
Big Ben.
Terror analysts suggested the real target yesterday could
have been major stations including Paddington and Earl’s Court which the train
was bound for on its way to Edgware Road.
There was a timer on the device and it is thought to have
detonated earlier than planned. The train would have passed through busy stops
including Earl’s Court, High Street Kensington, Notting Hill Gate and
Paddington, some of which are underground, where a blast would have been more
powerful.
Last night the Islamic State terror group claimed
responsibility for the Parsons Green attack.
Rita Katz, director of US intelligence group Site, said
IS claimed the bombing was the work of a ‘detachment’ rather than simply a
‘soldier’, which she said implied it was a coordinated attack.
Will Geddes, of security consultants ICP, said: ‘My
feeling is Parsons Green was not the intended destination for this device.
Modern day terrorists look for maximum publicity and recognition worldwide.
Unless you have been to Parsons Green, or live in London, you will not know it.
‘Earl’s Court, Notting Hill and Paddington, these are
internationally recognised destinations on that line that would have had much
greater impact.’
Police have revealed that the homemade bomb, likened to
pressure-cooker devices used in 2013’s Boston Marathon attack, did not fully
detonate.
Those bombs, which killed three and injured hundreds,
were packed with nails and ball-bearings to cause maximum damage, and it is not
yet clear if yesterday’s device had similar projectiles.
Hans Michels, professor of safety engineering at Imperial
College London, said the device bore similarities to those in the failed 21/7
London attacks.
He added: ‘There are a lot of similarities with the
aftermath of the second largely failed explosions on the London underground in
2005. In appearance and arrangement the remnants of the device seem highly
similar to those of the hydrogen peroxide based devices of 2005.
‘The flash flame reported suggests that the explosion was
only partly successful. In particular much of the bucket still seems to be
intact and there appear to be no victims with lethal impact wounds.
‘I must speculate that either the mixture was not of the
right composition or that the ignition system was inadequate or not properly
placed.’
Mrs May is being kept informed of developments after the
fifth major terror attack on British soil in six months.
The Prime Minister chaired an emergency meeting of Cobra
and announced the terror threat level would not be raised from severe to
critical – although this was later changed to critical.
She condemned the ‘cowardly attack’ saying ‘this was a
device intended to cause significant harm’. The public would see more armed
police on the streets to offer reassurance but people should ‘go about their
business as normal’.
Photographs show what experts believe is a ‘pretty
unsophisticated’ bomb with Christmas lights protruding out of the top of the
device– a type of fuse encouraged by ISIS in its online manuals and magazines.
It is not the first time extremists have used fairy
lights to build a device.
In May a radicalised former doorman Zahid Hussain was
found to have built an explosive device in his bedroom with fairy lights,
shrapnel and a pressure cooker.
He is said to have researched bombmaking techniques
online, with police finding a wealth of notes and instructions at his home in
Birmingham.
Terror manuals detailing how to build a ‘fairy light’
bomb were easily available via Google last night.
The vile ‘how to’ guides were readily accessible despite
repeated calls for the internet giant to remove links to the sites.
Fanatics set out step-by-step guides of how to build a
bomb similar to the device used on the Tube yesterday, using fairy lights as a
crude detonator.
Theresa May – who said ‘enough is enough’ after the
London Bridge atrocity – will put fresh pressure on Google, Facebook and
Microsoft next week, when she and French President Emmanuel Macron host an
anti-extremism summit with the internet giants in New York.
Daily Mail journalists were able to find the manuals
online within seconds – despite repeated warnings that they have been used to
commit terror outrages, and counter-terrorism chiefs saying it is ‘critical’
that would-be terrorists are blocked from accessing them.
The manuals detailed how to use basic household items to
make ‘an effective bomb that causes damage to the enemy’ and said followers
could use the devices to ‘kill tens of people’.
Last night, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg called for Google to
be held criminally liable.
He said: ‘Google has amazing software that makes it
possible to search for anything. This has made the company billions of pounds;
it is shameful that it will not use its technology to root out sites that help
evil-doers. I would like to see the company made criminally liable for the
result of any terrorist act.
Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was killed in
the July 7 Tube bombings in 2005, also called on Google to do more to tackle
such material.
‘Google has a social and corporate responsibility to work
to block these kind of manuals,’ he said. ‘In the last two years we have seen
an acceleration of attacks, but there has not been an acceleration in the
strategy to prevent them.
‘These sites need to be removed but the Government has
backed down from taking action. It has backed down on firms like Google and it
has backed down in the face of civil liberty campaigners who said police should
not have the power to watch these sites.’
In the hours after the Tube attack in Parsons Green, West
London, the Mail used Google searches to find terror guides to building bombs.
One guide – published in 2010 and still available online – was authored by a
fanatic calling themselves the ‘Al Qaeda chef’. The author wrote: ‘We are
conveying to you our military training right into your kitchen to relieve you
of the difficulty of travelling to us.
‘All you have to do is enter your kitchen and make an
explosive device that would damage the enemy if you put your trust in Allah and
then use this explosive device properly.’ The site boasted that all the bomb
components were readily available and could be bought without arousing
suspicion.
Its step-by-step instructions detailed how to use a string
of fairy lights as a detonator and how to rig an alarm clock as a timer.
Photographs of the Parsons Green device appear to show fairy lights protruding
from the bomb and it is understood to have been equipped with a timer. In
another guide, published last year, an anonymous author offered advice on how
to camouflage a bomb so it did not arouse suspicion, by placing it inside a
container or bag. The Parsons Green device was hidden in a Lidl carrier bag.
The article advised would-be terrorists to target ‘large
crowds’ to inflict maximum damage and to strike at ‘the most crowded time of
the day’. Yesterday’s attack targeted commuters in the morning rush-hour.
Downing Street has repeatedly called for internet firms
to do more to remove extremist material.
In May, a former nightclub doorman was found to have
built an explosive device in his bedroom after researching techniques online.
Islamic State supporter Zahid Hussain, 29, from Birmingham, tried to make a
series of devices, including a nail bomb, using Christmas tree lights and
researched railway lines as potential targets.
Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi reportedly learnt
how to construct his bomb via YouTube videos.
Simon Kempton, counter-terrorism lead for the Police
Federation of England and Wales, said: ‘The responsibility is on the internet
providers, the hosts, to take down this material if it is clearly a threat to
public safety. This type of thing should not be searchable.
‘This is critical for the prevention of terrorism.’
Downing Street last night said it was ‘plainly not
acceptable’ if a seven-year-old terror manual was still readily available
online.
But sources insisted Mrs May and Home Secretary Amber
Rudd were putting intense pressure on the technology firms to take the issue
seriously.
‘We have repeatedly told them they have got to do
better,’ a source said. ‘There is more to do and we expect them to do it.
‘We are working hard with them and they are facing
significant pressure to take things down quicker, but there is more to do.’
A Google spokesman said last night: ‘We remove links to
illegal content from our search results as soon as we’re notified of them.
‘We are committed to working in partnership with
governments to tackle these challenging and complex problems.’
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