The full body scanners being introduced to Britain’s airports risk breaking child protection laws against making indecent images of children, campaign groups have claimed.

The pictures created by the scanners are so graphic they are tantamount to “virtual strip searching”, according to privacy campaigners who oppose the use of the security devices.

Ministers may be forced to consider making under-18s exempt from the scans and civil liberties campaigners are demanding measures to ensure the images, which will include those of celebrities, are not leaked onto the internet. Airport officials say the images from the £80,000 scanners are only seen by a single security officer in a remote location before it is deleted.

But a 12-month trial at Manchester airport of scanners which reveal naked images of passengers only went ahead last month after children were exempted.

The decision came after Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, gave warning that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a “pseudo-image” of a child.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport told The Guardian: “We understand the concerns expressed about privacy in relation to the deployment of body scanners. It is vital staff are properly trained and we are developing a code of practice to ensure these concerns are properly taken into account.

Gordon Brown gave the go-ahead at the weekend for the scanners to be rolled out across all Britain’s major airports, and said travellers would see the gradual introduction of full-body scans and hand luggage checks for traces of explosives.

The Prime Minister told the BBC that the Government would do everything in its power to tighten security following the attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate a bomb on a plane bound for the USA on Christmas Day.

BAA, which runs six UK airports, said it would now install the devices “as soon as is practical” at Heathrow.

A spokesman said: “It is our view that a combination of technology, intelligences and passenger profiling will help build a more robust defence against the unpredictable and changing nature of the terrorist threat to aviation.”

But he added that nothing had yet been decided on exactly which passengers would undergo the full body scans, and declined to comment on how soon BAA would be extending the use of scanners to other airports.

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Civic leaders have asked Mr Choudary to reconsider his proposal for 500 members to walk through Wootton Bassett’s High Street carrying empty coffins.

And a Facebook site dedicated to preventing the march has already attracted more than 120,000 members.

The Prime Minister has called the plans by Islam4UK “abhorrent and offensive”. He said the town has assumed a “special significance” in the life of the nation which should be respected. “I am personally appalled by the prospect of a march in Wootton Bassett,” he added.

“I believe that we as a nation should honour those brave servicemen and women
who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

“Wootton Bassett has a special significance for us all at this time, as it has been the scene of the repatriation of many members of our armed forces who have tragically fallen.

“Any attempt to use this location to cause further distress and suffering to those who have lost loved ones would be abhorrent and offensive.”

Earlier, Mr Brown said said any march which offends the families of soldiers killed and injured in Afghanistan would be “completely inappropriate”. Facebook Group opposed to march

But Mr Choudary told Sky News: “The objective of this procession is not against the people of Wootton Bassett.

“It is about making a political statement.”

He went on: “Eight years ago this British government was saying they were fighting in Afghanistan in order to catch Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, now it’s a case of ‘Britain won’t be safe unless we’re in Afghanistan’.”

In a long letter on his website – “To the families of British soldiers who have fallen” – he misspells Wootton Bassett.

Mr Choudary, a former lawyer, said: “It is worth reminding those who are still not blinded by the media propaganda that Afghanistan is not a British Town near Wootton Basset.

“It is a Muslim land which no one has the right to occupy, with a Muslim population who do not deserve their innocent men, women and children to be killed for political mileage.

“The procession in Wootton Basset is therefore an attempt to engage the British public’s minds on the real reasons why their soldiers are returning home in body bags and the real cost of the war.” He said the event – if allowed by police – would be a peaceful one and would not coincide with the return of a dead soldier’s body.

Hundreds of people line the market town’s High Street regularly to pay their respects as the bodies of servicemen are driven past from RAF Lyneham.

Ex-mayor and councillor Chris Wannell said of the march: “We don’t do what we do at Wootton Bassett for any political reason at all but to pay our respects to those who have given their lives for our freedom.

“We are a traditional old English market town who honour very much our Queen and country. If this man has any decency about him he will not hold a march through Wootton Bassett.” The Facebook group states: “The Highway for Heroes and wonderful people of WB do not deserve this march to happen.

“This group can march anywhere it wishes in the country but have chosen to cause outrage and offence.”

Wiltshire Police – who have yet to make a decision on the march – say they are aware of the “significant community concern” caused by the proposal.

The Tories say the march must be prevented.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: “The actions of Islam4UK are utterly objectionable.

“It has close links with banned preachers of hate and has arranged for them to preach in the UK by audio and video link.

“We can’t go on like this, the law should already have made it possible for them to be prosecuted for doing that.”

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Afghanistan Notebook: flights are cancelled and departures delayed but the Army gets me – and members of my old regiment – to Kabul

The weather in London forces a last-minute change to my best-laid plans to get to Afghanistan as a “civvie” so I can revisit my old regiment out there. I’m grateful, though, that old habits die hard: my waterproofed bergen fares better than most of my fellow passengers’ luggage sitting out in the snow once our flight has been cancelled.

The advantage of being rescued by the RAF from my snowed-out plan to fly commercially into Kabul is the chance to return on an old Tri-Star with members of my former regiment, the Grenadier Guards, coming back from their R&R through Brize Norton. Compared with the increasingly angry chaos in London City airport, the announcement of a slight delay in our departure is met with resignation; maybe soldiers are more used to waiting around, more patient than the thwarted Eurostar customers. Then again, maybe they’re just not in such a rush to leave home. Those with faded and battered combats heading back out seem more relaxed than those in freshly pressed and bright new kit deploying for the first time. The unknown is always more intimidating than the familiar, even when the familiar is Helmand.

Croissant, anyone?

Kandahar airfield (KAF) has expanded since I was last here, a French patisserie and a German PX (kit shop) the most obvious additions to the “boardwalk” and testament to the increased Nato commitment to the region. What hasn’t changed, however, is a sense of coming and going. Although home to many dedicated staff and aircrew, KAF for most of the British is a staging post, a relaxed midway point between the comforts of home and the rigours of Helmand.

We stroll around the vast camp without the need to carry helmets, body armour or weapons, and shopping seems to be the main activity of troops in transit. I’m struck that it was slightly cheeky of recent reports to spin the Prime Minister’s stay here as being a night in a “war zone”. Neither the nice ladies in the coffee shop nor the pizza delivery boys can remember when the base was last attacked.

Forward march

The area around Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shawqat couldn’t be spun as anything but a war zone. The sparse ops room made of Hesco (prefabricated protection walls) is a hive of activity controlling the many elements of the Grenadier Guards Battlegroup spread across the Nad-e Ali region of central Helmand — vital ground in the current conflict, where the Taleban are paying no regard to it being Christmas Eve. Five shooting incidents on the day I arrive is a “quiet day” and the surrounding villages are still recovering from a devastating IED attack on the busy market the day before.

Nevertheless, the progress made in the two years since I was last here is marked. Back then we drove through opportunistic ambushes and past bewildered local farmers, across a vast area covered by barely a couple of hundred troops. Now the focus is on the population and the Grenadiers work alongside thousands of other British, Danish, Estonian and American troops integrating ever more fully with the Afghan National Army (ANA) and police. Afghan flags fly prominently from checkpoints and dozens of new buildings around the refurbished marketplace.

Tail of a sergeant

Progress, however, is fragile and a slight lull on Christmas Day deceptive. On Boxing Day I patrol north to the FLET (Forward Line of Enemy Troops), with Captain Tom Holmes and his mentoring team with their partnered ANA troops. The ANA are barely recognisable from the colourful bunch I worked with, smart in new uniforms and with new and improved weapons, but neither their bravery nor their fatalism has changed. When the inevitable contact begins, their disregard for their own safety in the fight is either inspirational or stupid, possibly a bit of both.

I feel strangely naked with a camera instead of a rifle and my arms feel frustratingly redundant, but I’m in safe and well-practised hands and after pinning down the Taleban section we extract without fuss or casualties back to the small checkpoint that is the effective front line. After crawling down ditches and through freezing canals under some pretty accurate fire, soaking and covered in mud with no prospect of a warm shower for days, morale is surprisingly high.

In a small corner where a carpet and a couple of chairs are an attempt at comfort, the soldiers who minutes earlier were scrapping hard are playing with an improbably cute mongrel puppy they’ve adopted and promoted to the rank of sergeant. The ubiquitous Santa hats are as much a nod to home as the scattered lads’ mags, but the graffiti on the blast-proof wall is a reminder of how far from home these guys really are: “I was taking cover behind the Hesco /while you were back in f***ing Tesco.”

Patrick Hennessey is a former captain in the Grenadier Guards and author of The Junior Officers’ Reading Club

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On his three-day trip to Russia, Rasmussen is to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Relations between NATO and Moscow have improved significantly since they were frozen for six months in the aftermath of the August2008 Russia-Georgia war.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed its willingness to help the war effort in Afghanistan, due to fears that any return to power by Taliban extremists would destabilize Central Asia and endanger Russia’s own security. Russia has allowed NATO nations to use its territory for the overland transport of supplies to Afghanistan.

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Already having visited Afghanistan and Jordan, Mr Obama, the US Democratic presidential candidate, and overwhelming favourite in European polls, Mr Obama left Israel having vowed to strengthen ties with the country. Now he is to enjoy a whistlestop tour of Berlin before leaving for France on Friday, where he will meet President Nicolas Sarkozy. He will round up his tour on Saturday in London, where he will meet Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, and David Cameron, the Conservative leader.

Downing Street has voiced dismay that Mr Obama has chosen to meet Tony Blair in London ahead of his meeting with Gordon Brown.

While in Berlin, he is due to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has said she will tell Mr Obama that there are limits to Germany’s military involvement in Afghanistan.

She said: “I will also tell Mr. Obama that there must be a balance between military engagement and the political expectations of the Afghan government,” adding that she would also talk to Mr Obama about trade, climate change and NATO.”

During his stop in Afghanistan, Mr Obama said that the situation in the country was “precarious and urgent” and urged George Bush to start planning the transfer of troops there from Iraq.

Following a further meeting with the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Mr Obama will also deliver a speech, expected to attract thousands of admirers, at the city’s Victory Column.

Some commentators have drawn parallels between Mr Obama and President John F. Kennedy, who gave a speech in the city in 1963. Professor Harold Wenzel, of the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at Berlin’s Free University, said: “Kennedy was very charismatic, Kennedy represented new horizons and appealed particularly to young people, and we can find that in Obama today, too.”

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Published Date: 14 December 2009
A £150 million package to tackle the threat of roadside bombs in Afghanistan is set to be announced today – after the Prime Minister bedded down in forces accommodation in the country at the weekend.

• Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets British troops from 1 Royal Welsh at the Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is due to announce the three-year spending programme, which will include establishing new training facilities in the UK and an intelligence centre in Afghanistan. The money will come from a “reprioritisation” of existing Ministry of Defence spending.

The government will also announce that a further £10 million will be drawn under “urgent operational requirements” to buy 400 state-of-the-art mine detectors.

Gordon Brown spent Saturday night in a prefabricated, corrugated shed, surrounded by concrete blast walls at Kandahar airfield, the coalition HQ for the region.

At the end of a week in which the number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year reached 100, Mr Brown said: “I wanted to be here with the troops to thank them for what they are doing. I wanted to see what it was like working with them.”

His stay – at the start of an unannounced pre-Christmas visit to meet the troops – was the first time a British premier had overnighted in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Aides said Mr Brown may have been the first Prime Minister to have spent the night in a war zone since Winston Churchill in the Second World War. Previously, Mr Brown – like Tony Blair before him – would fly in and out of Afghanistan in a single day, often staying in nearby countries. Although Mr Brown was given his own room, he had to share washroom facilities. Outside, there was a concrete shelter where he could take cover in the event of a rocket attack on the camp – currently running at one or two a week.

Following talks with President Hamid Karzai, who came to Kandahar to meet him, the Prime Minister said the coming months would be “critical” in the fight against the Taleban and called on the public at home to rally behind the troops. “I know this has been a difficult year,” he said. “I think the next few months are obviously critical. We need to show there is support for our forces back in Britain, which I know there is, and a determination to take on the Taleban.”

Both men denied there was any rift between them, despite recent criticism by western leaders – including Mr Brown – of Mr Karzai’s failure to tackle corruption after his controversial re-election.

Mr Brown emphasised the efforts being made to counter the threat from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) – the deadly roadside bombs which account for most of the casualties. “We have ramped up our counter-IED efforts to give the best protection possible to our troops on the ground,” he said.

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Mr Brown slept in what aides described as basic dormitory style rooms at Kandahar Airfield, the coalition headquarters for the region. It was the first time a British premier had stayed overnight in either Afghanistan or Iraq, and came at the start of a surprise pre-Christmas visit to the troops.

Mr Brown said: “I wanted to be here with the troops to thank them for what they are doing.

“I wanted to see what it was like working with them.”

Previously Mr Brown – and Tony Blair before him – would typically fly in an out of Afghanistan in a single day, often staying in top hotels in nearby countries.

Mr Brown stayed last night in a pre-fabricated, corrugated shed, surrounded by concrete blast walls.

There was a nearby concrete shelter for him to repair to in the event of a rocket attack on the camp.

Attacks are currently running at one or two per week from Taliban in the surrounding area.

Mr Brown was briefed late Saturday night and earlier this morning by senior military staff in Kandahar as well as meeting regular troops and inspecting new equipment purchased for them in recent months.

He later met Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who flew into Kandahar especially for talks.

The PM said the next few months would be “critical” and urged the Afghan government to take a bigger role in taking on the Taliban.

Last week saw the 100th British soldier killed in Afghanistan this year, prompting further controversy and debate over Britain’s role in the country.

This year has been the bloodiest for British forces since the Falklands War in 1982.

Mr Brown said he was “more confident” about the conflict following recent additions of equipment and the increases in troop numbers announced by himself and US President Barack Obama.

He paid tribute to the troops’ “bravery, professionalism and dedication”.

“I know this has been a difficult year,” he said, acknowledging that casualties have been “high”.

But he maintained that morale among the troops was good.

About 1,500 improvised explosive devices have been detected and dismantled in the past six months, the PM added, as efforts have been stepped up to counter the threat.

He went on: “I think the next few months are obviously critical. We need to show there support for our forces back in Britain, which I know there is, and a determination to take on the Taliban.”

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More than three quarters of the population think the Government is not doing enough to support British troops in Afghanistan, a survey revealed. The YouGov poll asked the views of 2,127 people and found only 13 per cent said it was “very clear” why British troops are in Afghanistan.

Over half (57 per cent) said they should not be fighting in the country. Thousands of people, including army chiefs and former Prime Minister John Major, have backed a Daily Telegraph campaign calling for better treatment for injured troops. Just over one in 10 people (12 per cent) in the poll, commissioned by Sky News, said they thought the Government was doing enough to support the troops and 82 per cent said it should provide better support.

Its publication comes as the Ministry of Defence prepares to name more British troops killed in Afghanistan.

Last night it was announced that another three soldiers had lost their lives in a Taliban attack – meaning that eight have been killed in just four days.

The toll now stands at 204 since operations began in 2001.

And further light is set to be shed on the scale of casualties suffered by UK armed forces when official injury figures are published this morning.

Gordon Brown expressed his “sorrow” that the grim milestone had been reached, but insisted that the mission in Afghanistan remained “vital”.

“In these moments of sorrow and sadness, we must never forget why we are in Afghanistan and why people are making the sacrifice that they are making,” he told reporters.

“Three quarters of the terrorist plots that hit Britain derive from the mountain areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan and it is to make Britain safe and the rest of the world safe that we must make sure we honour our commitment to maintain a stable Afghanistan.”

Tory leader David Cameron said UK troops and their families had endured a “harsh weekend”.

“Our forces are in Afghanistan to prevent that country from ever again being used as a base from which to prepare terrorist attacks, and to help Afghanistan take over responsibility for its own security as soon as it is able to.

“The latest deaths are yet another reminder of the debt we owe to our Armed Forces.”

The 200th British casualty in the conflict, who is expected to be named today, was serving with 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh, and died on Saturday at the Royal College of Defence Medicine, in Selly Oak, West Midlands.

His vehicle patrol had been hit by a roadside bomb near Musa Qal’eh in Helmand Province on Thursday morning.

The 201st casualty, who will also be named today, was from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. He was caught up in an explosion while on a foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand Province on Saturday.

Over the weekend the MoD also named three British troops killed providing security for a meeting ahead of Afghanistan’s crunch presidential elections.

Lance Bombardier Matthew Hatton, 23, of 40th Regiment Royal Artillery, was wounded in the initial attack in Sangin on Thursday.

Captain Mark Hale, 42, and Rifleman Daniel Wild, 19, both from 2nd Battalion The Rifles, were carrying him to a helicopter landing zone when there was a second explosion, killing L/Bdr Hatton and Rfn Wild. Capt Hale died of his injuries later in hospital.

There has been another upsurge in violence in Afghanistan as Taliban elements intensify efforts to disrupt the elections, due to be held on Thursday.

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The Prime Minister said a ”very substantial part” of the additional US force would be deployed to Helmand province where British troops have been engaged in heavy fighting against the Taliban.

However, he played down suggestions that British troops would start withdrawing from Afghanistan next year as the Afghans begin taking responsibility for security for some provinces and districts. ‘There was no question of us withdrawing our British troops until the point that we were sure that the Afghans could take over security control themselves,” he told MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions.

”We will stay and do the job that is necessary.”

In his highly-anticipated address, Mr Obama pledged to bring the conflict to a ”successful conclusion” by introducing the surge as quickly as possible.

But, while increasing the total American presence in the region to almost 100,000 by next summer, the President warned that the commitment would not be open-ended.

He set out plans for Afghan security forces to be trained to a sufficient level to enable the US to start pulling troops out as early as July 2011.

He also appealed to America’s allies to step up their own commitments in the region, insisting: ”This is not just America’s war.”

Mr Brown, who confirmed plans on Monday to send an additional 500 British troops, said that by the end of next year the total number of Afghan and coalition forces in the country will have risen from 200,000 to 300,000, enabling the Afghans to start taking control of some districts province.

“That is the point at which the balance between Afghan forces and British and American and coalition troops will start to change,” he said.

“It is absolutely crucial for our Afghanisation strategy that the Afghans start to take control of the security as soon as possible.

“Even if one or two parts of a district or a province are transferred in 2010, we will continue to have our troops in Afghanistan at that point.”

Mr Obama’s announcement came more than three months after the White House received a report from the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, recommending that 40,000 extra soldiers were needed.

In a speech to a military academy in West Point, New York State, the president indicated he had opted to go with fewer, but will deploy troops in a quicker time-frame that previously thought.

The accelerated schedule will see some additional troops in place by Christmas, it has been suggested, with the rest deployed by next summer.

The new strategy consists of three core elements: a renewed military effort; a civilian surge to reinforce positive action; and an effective partnership with Pakistan, Mr Obama said.

“These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan,” he said.

“They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan security forces and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight.

“And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans.”

He also pushed other members of the coalition to up their presence in an attempt to end the conflict, uphold Nato’s credibility and bring security to the wider international community.

Mr Brown said that the London conference on Afghanistan that he has called for January 28 would be a “vital next stage”.

“Britain will continue to play its full part in persuading other countries to offer troops to the Afghanistan campaign,” he said.

Downing Street said it was not intended as a “troop-pledging conference” but would be a “very significant event”.

“There has been a lot of talk about benchmarks and milestones and I am sure they will be discussed,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.

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Trooper Jack Sadler, 21, of the Honourable Artillery Company, was killed on December 4 2007 when his vehicle was caught up in a blast in Helmand Province.

But his father Ian said he only received a handwritten letter from Gordon Brown on November 17 2009, accompanied by a typed apology from an aide to the Prime Minister. Last month, Mr Brown was criticised for spelling mistakes in a handwritten letter to Jacqui Janes, whose son Jamie was killed in Afghanistan.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s The Report, Mr Sadler, from Exmouth, Devon, said: ”Jack was killed on December 4 2007 and I received a letter of condolence from the Prime Minister with no date on it on November 17 2009.

”I have a letter apologising, not from the Prime Minister, but from Jeremy Heywood who is his permanent secretary, apologising that an administrative mistake resulted in my not receiving a letter from the Prime Minister.

”It’s not good is it? Nearly two years later and the PM hasn’t apologised, just his aide.”

Mr Sadler added: ”It goes to show what this present administration thinks of our soldiers.”

In his letter, Mr Heywood reportedly said: ”This issue has only just been brought to the Prime Minister’s and my own attention; and the Prime Minister wanted to write to you at the earliest opportunity to correct the mistake that was made.”

He added: ”Please accept my and the Prime Minister’s apologies for the distress this may have caused and my most sincere condolences for your loss.”

A Downing Street spokesman said: ”I can confirm that the Prime Minister has written to Ian Sadler and Jeannette MacDonald.

”When this was brought to our attention and the Prime Minister’s attention the Prime Minister wanted to immediately write to both Ian Sadler and Jeannette to express his condolence at the loss of their son.

”Jeremy Heywood, Permanent Secretary at No 10, has also written to them both to apologise unreservedly for their not having received a letter following their son’s death.”

The spokesman added: ”When the Prime Minister was told about the mistake made in not sending the letter to the family of Jack Sadler, he ordered an urgent internal review by the MoD and No 10 to ensure that this mistake had not happened elsewhere.

”He also demanded a review of MoD and No 10 procedures to ensure this could not happen again.”

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