EVERY police officer in Scotland will be trained to carry out anti-terror investigations as part of a massive drive to disrupt al-Qaeda terror plots, The Scotsman can reveal.
Officers will be taught specific skills for assessing potential terror threats, such as stockpiles of fertiliser or other potential bomb ingredients.
New "briefing officers" are being recruited in every Scottish force, tasked with feeding the late
st terrorism-related investigative skills gathered from the aftermath of events such as the London bomb attacks in 2005 to rank-and-file police across the country.
The training will cover what they should do when faced with potential terror scenarios, such as checking out suspect imports of large amounts of fertiliser or how to secure reservoirs in the face of intelligence that water supplies may be poisoned.
The briefing officers are among more than 100 new counter-terrorism posts being created in Scotland.
Other key posts include extra Special Branch officers at air and sea ports, and a raft of security advisers to help minimise the terrorist threat to events like the Commonwealth Games and major construction projects such as the new Forth crossing.
Details of the new drive emerged after the Scottish Government yesterday announced an extra £3.8 million to create 50 additional posts to tackle the terrorist threat.
About £12 million of public funds has already been invested in new counter-terrorism positions.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said the money had been provided from central police funds to pay for counter-terrorism posts, including additional officers at ports, security advisers and extra specialist police within forces.
He added: "While specific deployment remains a matter for chief constables, clearly police officers across the country contribute to our resilience and efforts to detect and tackle any potential terrorist threats.
"The police and Scottish Government review the requirements of policing, including terrorism, on a regular basis to ensure that Scotland is as secure as elsewhere in the UK."
The major training exercise will also seek to build trust between Scottish Muslims and the police, in an effort to encourage people to raise concerns about anyone they suspect may be becoming radicalised.
Officers will be encouraged to be more conscious of the impact of investigations on ordinary Scottish Muslims, many of whom are increasingly suspicious and fearful of police and the government.
Allan Burnett, head of counter-terrorism in Scotland, said he wants police to "get much deeper into the communities".
"We want every police officer on the frontline to know all the elements of the counter-terrorism strategy we are trying to roll out. We want them to better understand the communities involved."
He admitted a major obstacle in preventing terrorism was the "stain" being left on the characters of law-abiding Muslims who come under investigation.
"We should be doing more to ensure completely innocent people are not being tainted. The general public and, I believe, the Muslim community, expects us to thoroughly investigate leads. But when there turns out to be nothing in them, we have to get better at communicating that."
Osama Saeed, chief executive of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, has already written to the chief constable of Strathclyde Police, Stephen House, raising concerns about the way Special Branch officers are questioning Asians about their lifestyles, religious and political beliefs and internet activities.
He added that the continued use of the tactics would lead to "further marginalisation of Muslims".
The full article contains 584 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
