Transcripts For RT Watching The Hawks 20240713

Much worse from a civilian point of view on had to be simply targeted a Christmas Market using an automatic rifle we wouldnt be talking about 2 fatalities in the war 5 injuries would be talking multiple fatalities and perhaps dozens of injuries so its very telling that the attacker chose perhaps the most heavily guarded building the most heavily guarded area aside from the kremlin or the white house perhaps in moscow he very much knew what would happen and indeed the timing of this event how quickly it wrapped up how many lives were saved by the actions of the Security Service as well is something is one Silver Lining as you quite rightly say if you just look back through i mean russia had its fair share of terrorist attacks as. You know developed countries if you look back 2010 moscow metro bombings the least 40 dead over 100 injured 2011 domodedovo airport bombing 37 killed 2070. St petersburg metro bombing 15 died we were very sadly used to multiple fatalities when youre talking about a terrorist attack and that says again there has to be some kind of credit go to the Security Services that this was over very quickly. You know the minimal number of fatalities which sadly is not something were used to talking about when youre talking about terrorist attacks but again just remarkable though because when we talk about an assailant with an automatic weapon if they had wanted they could have caused a lot more devastation exactly as we said had he opened fire in a crowded bus in the metro station at a Christmas Market we would be talking sadly entirely different casualty figures that he had a very clear aim in mind a very clear plan that you know again the fact that you didnt get inside the building the fact that he was stopped. At the Entrance Hall at the lobby again testament to the response of the Security Services but as you say this marks a bit of a different strategy to what we have seen in terms of the incidents youve mentioned prior incidents as well all over russia they have explicitly targeted crowded areas in and crowded civilians usually using explosive devices detonators that have been either left there or did it detonated on the the attackers themselves for him to for this attack or to use an Assault Rifle to target again a heavily guarded area really kind of one of the symbols of power a domestic power within that within russia certainly they wanted to make a statement they wanted to make things very clear and they expected not to leave that area alive and youve worked on incidents like this in the past its going to take. Quite a bit of time i would imagine the least 24 hours of thought just to even make initial steps into what an earth led. To this position what was the motivation of the attacker thats going to be very difficult to find out how are they going to presumably go through find out where he lived and who we associated with and what his possessions were and its going to be a painstaking process and absolutely theres going to be a there is a court in place this is very much a life scene theres going to be forensics there vividly looking at c. C. T. V. At forensics and witnesses as well and there would have been dozens of witnesses in the area. To get a statement from one of them catch up and see what exactly took place in those opening minutes of that attack lets take a listen. Theres 6 pm i was leaving a store a bridge and then those sounds began at 1st people thought it was a firework but the road police see what we stand there started shouting not to stand and watch but you wonder why the understood the situation immediately they were not 12 or 3 shots there were lots of them so many that i cant even count. You mentioned the location of the target there 1st people and its a symbol of power that would have been always a target for extremists the timing as well a particular jacket i was speaking you and i mentioned as well todays the press conference the annual press conference given by president Vladimir Putin its another marathon lots of people in attendance nearly 2000 journalists in central moscow in and around this area. Mr putin was also in the kremlin at an event you may well still be there marking the service as we said earlier of the Security Service personnel he was giving a speech on the importance of dealing with terrorism dealing with extremists dealing with extremism before grows into something more dangerous it goes into a threat this was part of a speech she was giving literally in the last 2 and a half hours. We need to be more. Extreme is a. Compromising provocation. Thats meant to draw visually you. Radical activist but i mean. Something i want to point out is that if anyone is not familiar when president putin is out some kind of events whether its work or social in central moscow disappeared i mean it is phenomenal you will see snipers on rooftops they will the authorities will not allow you to be on a rooftop yourself no matter who you are its the most level of security which again makes it quite incredible that anybody would carry out an attack knowing that on a day like this National Security would be everywhere in the air and yet weve seen this video footage of and it just shows him as a matter where you are and you want you cannot stop chaos and panic and terrorism if somebody puts their mind to it and its terrifying for anybody who was using close proximity you know thats right i mean. We speak so much you know in the wake of these sorts of incidents on the balance between keeping people safe and keeping their liberties and their privacy and their rights protected thats always a balance to be had and very often when we see attacks such as the London Bridge attacks carried out by vans by knives theres simply so such a little way of preventing those things happening similarly with this attack as well you know the scenes of panic we would have seen in shewing when that shooting took place you would expect to see you know in a war zone but not in the center of a major European Capital lets just take a look back and see what exactly was happening in those opening few seconds. Ok right lets bring in a guest youve outlined the key elements of whats happening today lets get some analysis from Peter Williams going to peter who said policing and terrorism expert interesting to get some some expert analysis and context on this federal security you know the facts on the ground still being established it looks like were talking about one assailant now killed potentially a Security Officer killed as well more than a hospital why might the f. S. B. Have been targeted in your opinion. Yesterday evening i think weve probably just heard from your colleague there as to. Why this is happened because he mentioned 100 she and im sure your views are well aware of what happened then and of course that the it looks like the alleged perpetrator in that case. Could have less could have done that in stoke on trent but he chose not to do it he chose an opportunity when he was in the capital when he was in an i like iconic location which i am looking at the pictures now and this strikes me as having a complete total l. And. An opportunity which is being taken i also understand today was. A fairly lengthy and of the year Media Conference by the president s now those 2 facts the location being the headquarters of the security search it was in russia and the fact that theres a lot of Media Coverage globally of the president s Media Conference that this individual or these people have taken the opportunity and so therefore it strikes me as that they are russian interior are quite right to deal with this as a terror attack. Maybe its because our working is sadly it feels like such a regular occurrence these terrorist attacks and i wonder are they becoming more frequent or myself just kind of losing perspective because thats kind of part of part of my work other becoming more frequent and thats why they think. Well it is a few issues there think i think with as ive mentioned the global media we are certainly hearing a lot more of them nowadays and for example if you if we focus on the u. K. Situation in relation to what happened during the trouble was in Northern Ireland which ended 20 years ago joe in those days a lot of the media was truly probably pretty restricted just to the United Kingdom or maybe just to western europe it wasnt global like it is now so were certainly hearing a lot more of it but i think also terrorist groups are now i want to global footing which is the reasons why they can they carry out these attacks in iconic locations because they are sending a message to their supporters globally now we are in the middle of a wave of terrorism which is what we call the 4th wave which is linked to islamic extremism. It is i wouldnt imagine if this is this as the hallmarks at the moment of being some think thats probably affiliated to what we know as isis now its about full 5 weeks ago there was an american attack in syria on the leader of isis and it looks like he was actually killed during that now i think that was toss of the motive for the London Bridge attack and of course this may be associated with thats does well its a something which the the americans are fair to as blowback i. E. To an extent the policy always has some repercussions so think to answer your question theres a few issues there in relation to to where we are but of course the way to defeat terrorism is is to do it by air and hand and better intelligence. When youre talking about an assailant with an automatic weapon which appears to be the case here. I mean these are weapons that can fall of multiple rounds in just a few seconds potentially does a killing machines and you can cause multiple fatalities in just moments. Realistically theres no way you can stop and act like this from ever happening is that with all the Great Security and all the best will in the world and all the prevention just needs one person with a gun and a couple of seconds and it happened. Yes because what you just been referring to the. East security measures there they are what we call see terrorism techniques now in relation to counterterrorism thats a slightly different concept it is what i mentioned before and that is using means such as intelligence at the end of the day at the end it doesnt feel like that now but typically to yourselves in moscow and older but if we look at what how intelligence has been able to downgrade terrorist groups throughout history for example mention the ira they were shot through with intelligence. Informants in the law and were able to the british to an extent were able to neutralize that group that has happened previously so the way as of mentioned to actually the best section is enhanced intelligence now obviously its too soon to say as to whether this individual is known or not we dont know that will be looked up out of course in the recent attacks in the United Kingdom London Bridge in manchester in 17 there were some 2 particular. Tolerance of inquiries. Carried out one by a Parliamentary Select Committee on both of those reports it came back of course that in some way the Intelligence Services maybe have been able to act differently and perhaps maybe prevent the attack so the way to go here is to enhance intelligence and that is what we call Counter Intelligence and that is the best way to downgrade any terrorist group. Around the need for greater counterterrorism efforts that they were putting was speaking to us today about the need to do more to counter extremism if if if its the preventative measures that are came to this how do you bolster those. Do you need to take away some of the liberties of the people that we need to be looking into peoples for example instant chat social Media Communications on the stand thats where extremists will learn with their communications perhaps and in some kind of secure communication methods and hackable so to speak is that where we need to be going or somewhere else. Well the extent of think we already have after 2001 the americans you views may remember past what was called the patriot act that enhanced the powers of the state in relation to those sorts of things again in the United Kingdom 2015 and hans powers. Given to the states now. It looks as though at the moment those measures even in the in the aftermath of Edward Snowden and those older revelations there has been some sort of tacit tacit acceptance by the public but at the moment whilst were in this wave of terrorism those measures are necessary but you quite right what you say social media on those. All the types of florens is where the Security Services can focus their. Efforts in trying to obviously pick up the chatter and prevent you know any sort of terrorist attack again i can only speak for the United Kingdom but i know weve been particularly successful in that regard assisted doing that bill walton makes it difficult as what you colleague mentioned some minutes ago is the fact what we call the low level attacks where people use the eccles all knives theyre the ones which are almost very impromptu and they are very difficult in order to stop in trucks whats going on. But yes youre quite right and we are Getting Better i think at the monitoring although it must be pointed out that isis when they saw when they were forming they were able to evade the conventional monitoring methods of that particularly the west. Particularly g c h q and the National Security agency in maryland in the us. Here today hawkins in the studio there a correspondent just in times of the the choice of target and the timing i know weve mentioned before that the mr burton was giving a big speech that a lot of media in the center of attention on that also giving a speech in the kremlin for Security Service day thats going to take place tomorrow of course in moscow. If this had chosen say a different target a crowded metro station a bus a market i mean how much worse could things have been because in a way i suppose he chose the worst target to attack you probably knew that he was going to get us where for a sponsor knew he was going to die really i suppose the Silver Lining here is things may have been a lot worse should a target of been different and should have you know Security Services not been at the scene so quickly. Salut i mean im sure you can remember recall what happened in 27 saying in the attacks in london i think only for you know the very prompt arrival of the Police Counterterrorism units they were able to new chill out neutralize the threat or the wise we would have seen a major must casualty attack of course could have happened here in moscow very often that is naturally the charge that the targets is the location the charges is the global Media Coverage that you and your colleagues and all the all the Media Outlets will will will actually be providing at the moment that is what the actual attacker has actually been looking for to exploit as best they can what it is that they were intending to do thats why they picked and i kind of like location on a given day when the president was making this looks like this one. Speech which of course is receiving all the me here as you know so its its its whilst the signature of the attack how its being done is important and thats what we look at more important perhaps is the location and what they can derives from that to send to their supporters and that is i think why theyve chosen this location today. To really appreciate you coming on good to get some expert analysis Peter Williams my guest is policing terrorism expert thank you. Good of that all correspondence in central moscow that straw man culture of youve been updating us from close proximity to where the attack occurred with the latest information coming in what can you tell us. Bludgers all the latest information its a little bit too early to talk about the number off but casualties because we are getting information from the russian the Health Ministry who are saying that there are now. But theyre not giving medical aid to at least 5 people and of course in terms of casualties that we already do know about cell one metherell Security Officer has been confirmed that he said that hes killed and one federal Security Officer by medics are now all operating on him trying to save his life now in terms of what happened here the terrorist attack which is the now russias federal Security Service have quantify this is a terrorist attack and now it took place just after 6 pm rush hour center of moscow i mean the kremlin is about a 500 meters away from me this is the famous. Street which became very popular among football fans said hearing their world cup in that the in the summer all 520 team to the right of me we have the main the biggest choice store in russian of course so we are very close to new year holiday so a lot of people are shopping with their kids of course russias federal Security Service building their Main Building is right here behind me a russian state supported him and the dumas is an old soul just a stones throw away though the president ial Administration Building is also right here very poor. A poor place in moscow that could have been a lot more casualties bazza right now as i said the Russian Health ministry are saying that theyre tending to at least 5 people and im sure well show footage a little bit later on how people were being evacuated from the streets here those people who were wounded and theyre speaking off the officers low Law Enforcement who were on the scene while they were very very quick to clear all this free so make sure that the number of casualties the would to. Grow i mean it was the National Guard the federal Security Service even the Traffic Police they were all involved in making sure that no one else gets heard so now once the situation occurred this whole area here was cordoned off you can see right now the traffic is back online the transportation is back to normal but initially it was all closed off metro stations here workloads as well but Russian Federal Security Service were quick to neutralize the assailants and as soon as that happened as soon as they they knew that said it was ok for people for pedestrians for traffic to continue normally while they let things go back to normal as well forgive me for. Here but this situation is still developing you can see behind me the police are still here he can still not make it. To certain areas and. As as we know bomb squads are also working to make sure that there is nothing else thats going to happen here a lot of media here a lot of thought people just Walking Around night in moscow doing their new years shopping their Christmas Shopping of course everybody coming off lost trying to find out so whats going on. But where. Some few people were surprised to find out that the terrorist act had occurred so the judging from that so can say the situation in terms of returning back to normalcy. That now had happened people are now continuing to shop for going to restaurants or leaving work or going home so that you ation is back to normal in those terms but were still what were yet to find out are what were the motives of this is sailings and this remains to be found out and were waiting for official information from the Russian Federal Security Service from the russian investigators. Committee who have already qualified this as a terrorist act and as soon as that happens as soon as we find it will make sure to let our viewers know as well if it was mine closer there in central moscow with that report thank you. Ok lets head to the studio now because staying in all cases are you compiling information from various news sources as we try to get a clearer picture and it is changing its been just under 3 hours since this attack 1st took place a different picture now from what we had then i just want to say this point lets pick up on something the romance said and i say this with no kind of emotion all the way and it just its an observation it is incredible. How quickly the people of russia return to normality very and its not insensitivity its just incredible. Kind of stoic nature that they have and ive seen it in previous terrorist attacks that the authorities get things under control very quickly and people carry on about their business which actually is good in the sense that it denies terrorists what they want which is chaos and panic to last long as possible whereas see it but its incredible the way still from your experience is that the line you need i mean as we have for all the things you know as back to. As they can be in the air 3 metro stations around. The most because the bridge and the whole need out they open and back to normal traffic obviously sealed off for investigation people forensics experts theyre gathering evidence but aside from that things are moving once again after something that really could have looked like. An incident on a scale and you know with respect to the officers that did tragically lose their lives the scale of this incident could have been far larger and some of the reports we heard initially coming in that there were 3 attackers with automatic weapons it would have indicated something a huge amount. We saw today. Of course things have calmed down now although in the moments leading up to the attack leading up to rather be. Being shot dead in that exchange of gunfire as he ran out of the Security Services building people. To evacuate the area very quickly to take cover in nearby shops and restaurants and we spoke to one witness who described the opening minutes of that incident. When the shooting started i was in the opposite building in the starbucks cafe and was just sitting there working at my laptop that misfit was Christmas Music playing in the background and i heard the sound of gunfire and it was the last thing i expected why the 10 minutes past 6 the gunfire and it was not just a few shots that came in bursts we saw officers taking cover behind the cars so i spent an hour inside that cafe the lights and there went out and then the real lead out of there through the back door which. We just bring you coverage of an attack that occurred just in the 3 hours ago in central moscow we believe one assailant killed and while the drill Security Officer will bring you more on this story can take a very short break to stay with r. T. For more analysis and coverage. In the troubled 19 seventies a group of killers rampage through. The was coordinated loyalists attacks on the population. Were forced to flee their homes. These attacks was that the r. U. C. The Police Actually took part in the attacks so instead of preventing it they were active participants in the burning of coal streets in belfast at the take more than a 100 innocent civilians women. As the review can seniors and we found out more i was surprised about the extent to which they was involved in some of those cases the killers would later be named. I think it went to the very very top i think it is. The water where all the tastes. And give the go ahead. During the Great Depression which im old enough to remember there was most of my family were unemployed. And it wasnt it was bed much worse objective listen today but there was an expectation that things were going to get better. There was a real sense of hopefulness there isnt today todays america where shaped by the 10 principles of concentration of wealth and power. Reduced democracy at tax. Engineer elections manufacture consent and other principle holds according to no on. One set of rules for the rich. Thats what happens when you put her into the hands of. Sector of. Will switch will is dedicated to increasing power for chills just as youd expect one of the most influential intellectuals of our time speaks about the modern civilization of america. Was. That. It. Was. One person has been killed in a shooting incident at the federal Security Service building in central moscow. A federal Security Service is reportedly investigating the incident as an act of terrorism and. Police say that the attack acted alone and according to reports the suspect was neutralized stuff the witnesses have described as a long series of shots the shooters identity i still dont think. They had to get at 5 the 10 minutes past 6 the gunfire began and it was not just a few shots that came in bursts we saw officers taken come