Sean O’Neill
Crime and Security Editor
Times [UK]
December 15, 2009
A terrorist attack on London was averted because two beat patrol officers stopped a man who was acting suspiciously while filming with a mobile phone, police said today.
The Algerian man claimed he was a tourist but when his phone was examined it yielded 90 minutes of footage of Tube stations, security cameras, mainline rail stations and shopping centres.
Police took the unprecedented step of releasing the “hostile reconnaissance” video as a counter-blast against mounting criticism that they are using anti-terror powers to stop and question tourists and photographers.
“I’d much rather justify what we did do in stopping someone than having to justify why we didn’t do it against the backdrop of a burning building and a terrorist atrocity,” said Detective Superintendent Chris Greany of City of London Police…
…The woman constable who stopped the terror suspect inside Liverpool Street station became suspicious because he was using a Nokia N95, the same model of phone that she owned. The officer noticed that the man was covering with his finger the red light indicating that the phone was in video mode…
The article continues here and includes about 90 seconds of the suspect’s video.
