BRITAIN’S MOST senior anti-terrorist police chief, assistant commissioner Bob Quick, has resigned after admitting that his mistake could have compromised the ongoing investigation into a suspected al-Qaeda terror plot against UK targets.
Prime minister Gordon Brown confirmed the police and security authorities were dealing with “a very big terrorist plot” following the arrests of 12 men – 11 of them Pakistanis – in a massive security operation involving hundreds of police in raids in Manchester, Liverpool and Clitheroe in Lancashire on Wednesday night.
Early press reports speculated that a nightclub and two major shopping centres in Manchester were the likely targets for a planned attack, although the chief constable of greater Manchester, Peter Fahy, later insisted there was “no particular threat against any particular location, and certainly not the ones mentioned in the media”.
Police had to bring their planned raids forward by some hours on Wednesday after Mr Quick was photographed entering Downing Street with a classified “secret” briefing paper containing clearly visible details of the imminent operation “Pathway”.
The prime minister said: “We are dealing with a very big terrorist plot. We have been following it for some time. There were a number of people who are suspected of it who have been arrested . . . We know that there are links between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Pakistan. That is an important issue for us to follow through and that’s why I will be talking to President [Asif Ali] Zardari about what Pakistan can do to help us in the future.”
Statements by Mr Brown and by chief constable Fahy appeared to suggest that no terrorist suspect had escaped as a result of the earlier-than-planned arrests. Mr Quick, however, accepted that his position had become untenable and offered his resignation in the knowledge that his action could have compromised the operation. “I deeply regret the disruption caused to colleagues undertaking the operation and remain grateful for the way they adapted quickly and professionally to a revised timetable,” he said.
Speaking to reporters in Manchester, Mr Fahy confirmed that the arrests “would have happened in the next 24 hours in any event”. Mr Brown also described the police action as “successful”.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said Mr Quick was right to resign. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: “I think it was the right thing to do. My own view privately was I didn’t see how he could possibly stay. I think Mr Quick had made his position untenable, not just in the eyes of the public but also within the organisation.”
Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne agreed: “This was the right decision from Bob Quick. He resigned from a position of great responsibility in an honourable way. This should be a lesson to his political masters when they commit similar misjudgments and mistakes.”
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone agreed Mr Quick had made “a ridiculous error” but questioned if he should have been forced out, adding: “I think al-Qaeda will be laughing, we will have had three senior officers in charge of counter-terrorism in the space of about a year.”
Mr Livingstone described Mr Quick’s successor, John Yates, as “brilliant” and a potential future Metropolitan commissioner, but suggested people might think “we have got our priorities wrong” following the forced departure of a distinguished officer “on a relatively minor error. . . and by a political establishment who are mired in scandals of the abuse of expenses”.
Mr Livingstone’s successor, mayor Boris Johnson, paid tribute to Mr Quick, saying: “It’s thanks to him and his efforts that people have been kept safe from terror in London and across the country.” He added, however: “I do think it is greatly to his credit that he so swiftly recognised the seriousness of the lapse that took place.”
Mr Fahy said his force was used to having to deal with fast-moving situations and often having to take action quicker than perhaps anticipated. Asked if this might be an example of another high-profile terror raid ending with no one actually charged with an offence, Mr Fahy said: “There will always be situations where, as there has in the past, either we can’t achieve the evidential threshold or as a result of the investigation we find the threat was not how it appeared to us at the time.”