‘Encryption’ unacceptable: UK min

London attacker was acting alone: police

LONDON, March 26, (Agencies): Technology companies must cooperate more with law enforcement agencies and should stop offering a “secret place for terrorists to communicate” using encrypted messages, British interior minister Amber Rudd said on Sunday.

Local media have reported that British-born Khalid Masood sent an encrypted message moments before killing four people last week by ploughing his car into pedestrians and fatally stabbing a policeman as he tried to get into parliament in an 82-second attack that struck terror in the heart of London.

There may be difficulties in taking on technology companies — in the United States, officials have been trying to make US technology firms provide a way around encryption, talks that have intensified since a mass shooting in San Bernardino.

But while saying she was “calling time on terrorists using social media as their platform”, Rudd also appealed for cooperation from the owners of encrypted messaging apps such as Facebook’s WhatsApp, backing away from seeking to introduce new legislation.

Asked for her view on companies which offer end-to-end encrypted messages, Rudd said: “It is completely unacceptable, there should be no place for terrorists to hide. We need to make sure organisations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other.”

“We need to make sure that our intelligence services have the ability to get into situations like encrypted WhatsApp.”

The attack on Wednesday looks set to reignite the privacy-versus-secrecy debate in Europe, especially after warnings from security officials that Western countries will be increasingly targeted as Islamic State loses ground in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, British anti-terrorism police said on Saturday they still believe the man who launched a deadly attack outside parliament this week was acting alone but conceded they may never understand his motive.

British-born Islamic convert Khalid Masood, 52, was shot dead after killing four people including a policemen in a rampage on Wednesday when he rammed his car into pedestrians and tried to force his way into the parliament building in central London.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack and police inquiries since have concentrated on whether Masood was acting with accomplices.

Attacks

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said there was no intelligence to suggest further attacks were planned. “We still believe that Masood acted alone on the day,” he said in a statement.

Basu said that even if he acted alone, police need to give as much of an explanation as possible to reassure Londoners.

“We must all accept there is a possibility we will never understand why he did this. That understanding may have died with him,” he added.

“Nevertheless we are determined to understand if Masood was a lone actor inspired by terrorist propaganda or if others have encouraged, supported or directed him.”

Police raided properties in several areas of England after the attack and arrested 11 people but only one remained in custody on Saturday.

They have appealed for any friends and associates of Masood to come forward to help them piece together his movements before the attack and any specific reasons for his actions.

Before he launched Britain’s deadliest attack since the 2005 London bombings, Masood was considered by intelligence officers to be a known criminal who posed little serious threat.

Earlier, the British man who killed four people during a London rampage had made three trips to Saudi Arabia: He taught English there twice on a work visa and returned on a visa usually granted to those going on a religious pilgrimage.

More details about attacker Khalid Masood’s travels, confirmed by the Saudi Arabian embassy in Britain, emerged Saturday amid a massive British police effort to discover how a homegrown ex-con with a violent streak became radicalized and why he launched a deadly attack Wednesday on Westminster Bridge.

The embassy said he taught English in Saudi Arabia from November 2005 to November 2006 and again from April 2008 to April 2009, with legitimate work visas both times. He then returned to Saudi Arabia for six days in March 2015 on a trip booked through an approved travel agent and made on an “Umra” visa, usually granted to those on a religious pilgrimage to the country’s Islamic holy sites.

The embassy said Saudi security services didn’t track Masood and he didn’t have a criminal record there.

Before taking the name Masood, he was called Adrian Elms. He was known for having a violent temper in England and had been convicted at least twice for violent crimes.