MI5 uses Army helicopters to track terror suspects

By Mail On Sunday Reporter
Last updated at 10:05 PM on 20th February 2010


MI5 and anti-terrorist police are using newly adapted military helicopters to carry out surveillance across the country.

The Army Air Corps Gazelles are fitted with top-secret equipment thought to be able to pick up telephone calls and conversations on the ground.

Plane-spotters have seen the specially adapted aircraft flying over densely populated areas of Manchester.

The Army Air Corps Gazelles are fitted with top-secret equipment

The Army Air Corps Gazelles are fitted with top-secret equipment

The Gazelles are normally based at Salisbury Plain.

The aircraft are well-suited to a surveillance role, having recently been given voice-control equipment to let

pilots fly them without removing their eyes from the outside world.

The helicopters have a powerful searchlight known as Nitesun to illuminate a wide area. The system can also be narrowed to a ‘pencil’ beam to help ground units track suspects.

It is believed the helicopters are being used to supplement three Islander aircraft, based at RAF Northolt in London, that already carry out MI5 surveillance work, mainly in the North of England.

Those operations are part of a search for Britons who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan and who may have returned to plot attacks in the UK.

The hope is to match voice prints of men with British accents picked up by RAF spy planes monitoring Taliban battlefield signals.

 

 
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Not that anyone would notice one of these aircraft overhead, of course........

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Justto let all the Terrorist know wouldn't want to infringe on their human rights !!!!

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If only the men and women who fought in 2 World Wars could have seen the future of Britain where unlimited immigration has brought this to the streets they fought so hard to protect. I would guess that a large proportion of those still alive would wonder if it was all worthwhile? not to mention the present day heros who risk their lives in Tony Blair's wars only to see their enemy allowed in and out of the UK without hassle, most likely living off their taxes as well. A government that allows this state of affairs is little less than treasonous , it is time for someone in Whitehall who will put Britons and their interests first , not just mouth the words. The present incumbents have failed the British people so lamentably that they deserve to be destroyed as a political entity at the next election hopefully never to re-emerge on the scene again.

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Excellent....let's hope they catch the scum they are looking for......But PLEASE can we have a Government that will give the court PROPER POWERS to kick them out

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"The Army Air Corps Gazelles are fitted with top-secret equipment thought to be able to pick up telephone calls and conversations on the ground."

Thought to be able to pick up telephone calls and conversations on the ground. I repeat: THOUGHT to be able to pick up TELEPHONE calls and CONVERSATIONS ON THE GROUND.

Can I just step in and save us all an awful lot of money and needless intrusion here? If, like with the airport scanners article, I see comments along the lines of: 'Better safe than sorry' and 'Let's see those Taliban try and hide now' I will be physically ill.

What we have here is an expensive, excessive and seemingly pointless solution to a vague intangible problem with a very high risk of mistaken identity. Based on the explanation we're presented in this article, something else is going on, and it has little to do with the Taliban and more to do with the 4,200,000 UK CCTV cameras that regretfully help solve 3% of crime inspite of their cost to the taxpayer.

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Have any of these traitors actually been arrested and dealt with? I doubt it?

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