G8 summit surrounded by a ring of steel
G8 summit surrounded by a ring of steel
Associated Press | July 4 2005
Gleneagles, Scotland: An eight-kilometre ring of steel, 10,000 police on standby, watchtowers, and a no-fly zone; Gleneagles Hotel was locked down yesterday as a sophisticated G8 security operation to protect the world's most powerful men came into force.
Chief Constable John Vine of Tayside Police has spent the past 18 months planning for the arrival on Wednesday of leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations in this picturesque corner of rural Scotland.
His team is braced for hundreds of anarchists and anti-globalisation protesters who intend to disrupt the three-day summit.
"Our strategy will be to try to deal with those people very quickly, very effectively, to try to separate them out from the peaceful protesters," said Vine.
"We know that this event will attract those elements to it. It always has done and it will on this occasion."
Operation Sorbus named after the berry of the rowan tree, which according to folklore wards off evil spirits includes a two metre-high steel mesh fence around the perimeter of the exclusive Gleneagles hotel and country club, running through rolling farmland in the Perthshire countryside. It is guarded by a series of watchtowers and a network of surveillance cameras.
As well as a formidable obstacle, the fence is also a clear demarcation line; protesters who attempt to cross it face immediate arrest, Tayside police say.
Inside the perimeter, where the leaders of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Canada, Japan and Italy will meet from Wednesday to Friday, are further extensive security measures, which police officials declined to describe.
About 10,000 officers drafted in from across the United Kingdom are available to deal with G8 protesters â?? from peaceful environmental and anti-poverty campaigners to hardcore anarchists.
Some 3,000 police are assigned to Gleneagles itself, including a specialist firearms team, officers mounted on horseback and a guard-dog unit.
An airship will act as a spy in the sky to spot troublemakers and beam back video footage to officers on the ground. Two helicopters also will patrol the skies.
Vine, who has 22 years of policing experience, said an extensive intelligence operation had been under way for months, involving Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5, Special Branch and London's Metropolitan Police, gathering details on anarchist groups.
"There has been lots of speculation about what has happened at other summits, particularly Genoa," he said, referring to the 2001 G8 summit in Italy, where an officer shot and killed a protester.
"We cannot predict what will happen," he added.
