What & Who discovers terrorist plots?

[davidbfpo]

A rather good BBC article which poses the question after the Woolwich murder and a particularly nasty child murder in rural Wales:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22731671

When "snitching" and other phrases are used to advocate public reporting more few ever mention this:

Criminologist David Wilson says it's impossible to pinpoint when oddball behaviour turns into something worth reporting: "There is no tipping point."

[davidbfpo]

The retiring head of UK police CT has made some remarks:

(Direct quote)There are some very dangerous and very committed individuals out there that have got deadly terrorist intent, and if people really don't start coming forward and reporting that activity, especially that lower level stuff where they're looking to do something without the wider command and control, then there's a real strong possibility that we're going to get more attacks and there's going to be more fatalities. In all those instances, if the people that had known about it, if they had come to us and given us that information, we would have been able to do something a lot sooner and the country would be a much safer place.

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ief-warns.html

[davidbfpo]

An interesting CBC article 'Who are the most wanted extremists in Canada?' using open source material, then wonders why Canada does not have a public 'Wanted' website unlike those in the USA, notably the FBI's:http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/who-...nada-1.2845186

Within are two useful quotes for this thread's theme. First by a Canadian Muslim who became an informant on a terror plot:

They are missing public input...In this particular context it’s not going to be a police agent at a border point that’s going to pick the individual up. It’s going to be somebody who says ‘Hey, I know that guy.’ That’s how the information is going to come. I think there is a stronger case for making the information public.

Then a former FBI agent with a JTTF:

For any law enforcement organization your best asset at your disposal is the general public... Whether it’s an anonymous lead or somebody seeing a wanted poster and possibly motivated by the reward money - it’s to elicit help from the general public.

[davidbfpo]

A rare pointer to an accurate citizen part in discovering a plot; it is within an article on a new CT campaign in the UK, specifically trains:http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...rrorist-attack

Launching the campaign, the chief constable of British transport police (BTP), Paul Crowther, said: earlier this month a man was sentenced for terrorism offences after being caught in possession of information about how to make bombs. “This was as a direct result of a rail passenger reporting suspicions to train staff".

I shall try and identify the case involved. Alas this failed, which I found odd - including asking an ex-BTP senior officer.