Taliban planning to down British Chinook The Taliban is planning a "show stopper" attack to destroy a British Chinook helicopter, defence sources have disclosed.   By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent and Ben Farmer in Kabul

   In the last fortnight coalition forces have destroyed four anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks averting a potential disaster. Insurgents are actively seeking to bring down one of the eight Chinooks operating in Afghanistan, which routinely carry more than 40 armed troops, in the hope it will weaken Britain's resolve to continue the campaign in Helmand.In the last fortnight coalition forces have destroyed four anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks averting a potential disaster.  
Intelligence sources suggest that the Taliban's surface-to-air missiles have been made redundant by sophisticated jamming systems fitted to every British aircraft. The insurgents have now resorted to the tactic of using AAA (anti-aircraft artillery) that was highly successful during Soviet occupation and are actively seeking to buy the weapons.Using a twin barrelled 14.5mm cannons mounted on the back of a truck the Taliban would easily be able to destroy one of the eight slow moving Chinook helicopters operating in Afghanistan.An operational helicopter commander said "any British helicopter" would be a high priority target for them but "a Chinook would be a great coup, a bonanza"."We have been extremely lucky so far with a mixture of tactics and a combination of good risk assessment," he added."But as something that keeps me awake at night the loss of a Chinook would be the most recurring nightmare."Every Chinook flight is always escorted by Apache attack helicopters as a further layer of security.Within the space of 12 hours local villager reported two ZPU-1s (anti-aircraft guns) mounted on the back of pick-ups trucks were destroyed by US aircraft in the Nad-e-Ali district close to the town of Lashkar Gah where the British brigade headquarters is based and is frequently visited by Chinooks, often carrying VIPs. The weapons were loaded and ready to fire in an area which has been a focus of heavy fighting between British forces and the Taliban in recent months.A few days later the deadly twin-barrelled ZPU-2 model appeared on April 25 and was destroyed followed a day later by another ZPU-2 towed by a tractor that was taken out by Hellfire missiles fired from a Reaper drone. The Taliban almost had a "spectacular" success when they hit a British Chinook which was carrying Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand, with AAA hidden in a wadi dry river bed. The pilot, Flt Lt Alex Duncan was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for landing the aircraft safely after a round punched a large hole in a rotor and damaged the hydraulics.As all four weapons were destroyed it has been difficult for forensic analysis to be carried out on their origins. But there is some intelligence that suggests the guns were of Chinese origin and might have been bought from arms dealers in Iran and slipped across established smuggling routes…

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  Social services in Nottingham claim mother is 'too stupid' to bring up child A mother has had her three-year-old daughter taken away from her by social services after authorities deemed her too stupid to look after the child.   By Sarah Knapton

                       Rachel Pullen, 24, claims the authorities 'kidnapped' the youngster and put her into foster care when she was just six months old. Now a family court has ruled her daughter should be placed with adoptive parents within the next three months before all contact is severed.   Related Articles Children brought up in care have far poorer life prospects
Miss Pullen is fighting the decision in the European Court of Human rights.Officials claim Miss Pullen, a single mother, from Nottingham, lacks the intelligence to cope with the complex medical needs of the child, who was born prematurely. The child, named only as Baby K, is currently with foster parents even though a psychiatrist said Miss Pullen "good literacy and numeracy and her intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range.""It has been going on for three years now. She has been kidnapped," said Miss Pullen, "All I want to do is care for my daughter and she wants her mummy back. She keeps asking why she can't come home to live with me when I visit her."They say it's not in her best interests to live with me and continually undermine and underestimate me. But I am her mother and I am the best person to look after her. All children really need is to be loved."The court here has now ordered that my contact with my daughter must be reduced from every fortnight until in three months' time it will all be over and I will never see her again. If I got her back it would be better than winning the lottery."Now Miss Pullen is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights as well as applying for a judicial review to stop the adoption. Nottingham City Council said its priority was the future welfare of the child. "Nottingham City Council is not able to comment on individual cases," said a spokesman. "Such cases are decided by the courts, taking into account all the information presented by all parties and putting the future welfare of the child as the priority."Social workers first voiced concerns after Baby K was born with breathing problems and needed operations on her bowel, eye, heart and throat.The authorities were concerned that Rachel was not visiting her daughter enough in hospital.A psychologist appointed to assess the mother claimed she had "significant learning disability" and would always need a high level of support in caring for her daughter.Without support, the psychologist claimed Rachel would pose a "high level of risk" to the child.Despite offers of help from concerned family members Rachel was unable to persuade social workers she could provide adequate care. Miss Pullen's attempts to fight the…

 Unshared intelligence is useless intelligence The public is entitled to expect security measures to work By Telegraph View
Published: 30 Dec 2009Comments 3 | Comment on this articleThe decade is ending in much the same way that it began, dominated by the threat posed by Islamist terrorism. In the fight against this menace, the most important weapon in any country's armoury is its intelligence system; and given the security measures that individual air passengers are required to endure, such as intrusive searches, body scanning and the advance provision of personal data, the public is entitled to expect this apparatus to function effectively. There is little point in imposing draconian travel restrictions on millions of people who are not terrorists if an individual who has already come to the notice of the authorities is allowed to board a plane carrying explosives. It is, then, understandable that Barack Obama should denounce what he called a "systemic failure" in American intelligence for failing to intercept the Detroit plane bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Of course, it is often easy in hindsight to point to "intelligence failures" when what seems obvious now did not seem quite so obvious then. On this occasion, American agencies had specific intelligence that a Nigerian who had been trained in Yemen was plotting an attack. On its own, that would not have been sufficient to identify Abdulmutallab. But it has also been disclosed that the would-be bomber's father had alerted the CIA to the radicalisation of his son, who had gone to Yemen. President Obama is right to ask how and why so many pieces of the jigsaw failed to produce a picture of the threat posed by Abdulmutallab before he boarded his transatlantic flight on Christmas Day with the intention of killing hundreds of people. Part of the reason is that intelligence was not shared among the American agencies. Huge sums have been poured into intelligence both in America and in this country to plug the holes that existed before September 11; and while determined terrorists who have never come to anyone's notice may get through, the least we can expect is that intelligence agencies work together in countering this danger. This should not detract from the successes of the security services, especially in Britain, in thwarting many deadly plots. Intelligence is not an exact science; nor is it like the TV series, Spooks, with conspiracies foiled by a handful of officers in the space of an hour. However, if mistakes are made then the security agencies cannot be immune from criticism and nor would they wish to be. We rely heavily upon their skills and dedication for our safety.Their job, certainly in this country, is not made any simpler by the ease with which those preaching hatred of the West have been allowed to operate. Yet again we have learnt that a terrorist had connections to a British university. Abdulmutallab is a former president of the Islamic Society at University College, London, and…