David Veness

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David Veness

David Christopher Veness (born 20 September 1947) was Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1994 to 2005 and Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security for the United Nations until 2008.

Career

Policing and counterterrorism

Veness attended Raynes Park County Grammar School and joined the Metropolitan Police Cadet Corps in 1964. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1966 and became a CID officer in 1969. In the early 1970s he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1975. [1]

Veness trained as a hostage negotiator in 1979, he was one of the negotiating team at the Iranian Embassy siege (1980) and led the negotiations at the Libyan Peoples Bureau incident in 1984. He was an instructor and then Director of the Scotland Yard Negotiators Course between 1980 and 1987. [2]

In early 1987 he reportedly set up a specialist unit SO 10 (not to be confused with the undercover unit SO 10 formed in 1989) whose official job was providing ‘logistical support for crime operations’ but in fact was set up to specialize in handling sieges and cases requiring delicate negotiating skills or special planning. [3]

In October 1987 Veness was appointed a Police Commander, and served with Royalty and Diplomatic Protection until 1990. During this period, he was also responsible for security arrangements at major State and ceremonial events. After attendance at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1990, he became Commander Public Order, Territorial Security and Operational Support. [4]

In 1991 he was appointed Deputy Assistant Commissioner and headed the specialist crime squads at Scotland Yard, which included serious, organised and international crime, the fraud squad, the Flying Squad, criminal intelligence and force firearms. [5] According to Veness the job involved “responsibility within the Metropolitan Police area, effectively Greater London, for serious crimes, murders, kidnapping and other offences of that ilk.” [6] In April 1994 was appointed Assistant Commissioner, a position he held until 2005. [7] He assumed charge of all “specialist operations” including protection, terrorism, security and organised crime. [8] Veness described this position as “slightly more senior level and a broadened responsibility, which mainly encompassed security protection and counter-terrorism.” [9]

In all these roles Veness worked closely with the UK Government and the Security Services. Appearing as a witness in the Diana Inquest, he was asked about his connections with the security services:

Q. You had pretty close connections with the security services, didn't you, during the whole of your career?

A. Particularly in relation to my duties in connection with terrorism, that was an implicit part of my duties.

Q. Yes, but beyond that, whilst you were at the fraud squad?

A. In general terms, my career has included hostage negotiation activities and counter-terrorism, which inevitably involves a range of Government services.

[…]

Q. Even as I have put it to you, in those days [on the fraud squad], you had close connections with the security services, didn't you?

A. Yes. I am not in any way denying that. My specific role at that time…was that I was the director of the hostage negotiation training programme, which involved connection with a range of different Government entities because it included terrorism and like matters. [10]

After September 11th, Veness sent police officers to train in Israel. The BBC reported that, “Following the attacks on the United States, Sir David wasted little time in formulating the UK's response. Officers were dispatched to Israel, where they learned about the threat posed by, and tactics to counter, suicide bombers.” [11]

In February 2005 Veness retired from the Metropolitan Police. [12]

After retirement

In January 2005, the United Nations announced that Veness had been appointed Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan and would assume his functions on 28 February 2005. [13]

On 24 June 2008 Veness resigned his position at the UN. His resignation coincided with the publication of an inquiry into the UN security system which found that that the bombing of the UN office in Algiers on 11 December 2007 came after numerous internal UN warnings about a attack. [14]

Think tanks and policy world

Veness has been closely associated with the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at the University of St. Andrews, which is one of the key research centres in the ‘Terrorism Industry’. Veness is known to have been briefed by CSTPV whilst still Assistant Commissioner, [15] and after retirement he became actively involved in the Centre. He was appointed Honorary Professor of Terrorism Studies at the University of St. Andrews [16] and since at least 2006, he has been a member of the Terrorism Studies Programme Board at the university which overseas the development of CSTPV’s E-Learning courses.

In 1999 Veness wrote a paper ‘Low intensity and high impact conflict’ for a special issue of the CSTPV dominated journal Terrorism and Political Violence. The papers in the journal were based on a conference attended by the authors at University College Cork from 3-5 March 1999, the Future Developments in Terrorism Conference. [17] In September 2001 Veness wrote a paper for the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, which was also based on a conference he had attended. [18] Another notable contributor in that issue was Bruce Hoffman, RAND’s chief terrorism expert and the co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. Veness later wrote a foreword for another issue of Terrorism and Political Violence which was published in 2005. [19] He spoke at the International Terrorism and Intelligence 2004, which was hosted by CSTPV.

Veness is also involved in the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, a copy-cat think-tank set up by CSTPV graduate Rohan Gunaratna. Veness is a board member of Gunaratna’s group along with former MI6 head Richard Dearlove and US ‘experts’ such as Bruce Hoffman and Matthew Levitt.

Veness has also written for the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), contributing to The Unlikely Counter-Terrorists, which was published in 2002. The Unlikely Counter-Terrorists was sponsored by BAe Systems, Control Risks Group and the Risk and Security Management Forum. Other contributors included John Bray of Control Risks Group, corporate security executive Sally Leivesley and the BBC’s Director of News Richard Sambrook. [20] One contributor complemented Veness for having brought together London’s police with its business community:

The Metropolitan Police area and the City of London are exemplary in terms of the good relations which exist and are developing between the business community and the police. It has been David Veness, Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at the Met, who brought the two together. [21]

Affiliations

Notes

  1. ↑ ‘VENESS, Sir David (Christopher)’, Who's Who 2008, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
  2. ↑ United Nations Press Release, SG/A/903, BIO/3632, ‘Secretary-General appoints David Veness of United Kingdom’
  3. ↑ Robert Fisk, ‘Hostage deal gives gunmen safe passage’, The Times, 21 April 1988
  4. ↑ United Nations Press Release, SG/A/903, BIO/3632, ‘Secretary-General appoints David Veness of United Kingdom’
  5. ↑ ‘Sir David Veness: Mr Security’, BBC News Online, 31 December 2004
  6. ↑ Coroner’s Inquests into the Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Mr Dodi Al Fayed, Hearing transcript 15 January 2008 - Morning session
  7. ↑ ‘VENESS, Sir David (Christopher)’, Who's Who 2008, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
  8. ↑ ‘Sir David Veness: Mr Security’, BBC News Online, 31 December 2004
  9. ↑ Coroner’s Inquests into the Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Mr Dodi Al Fayed, Hearing transcript 15 January 2008 - Morning session
  10. ↑ Coroner’s Inquests into the Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Mr Dodi Al Fayed, Hearing transcript 15 January 2008 - Morning session paragraphs 67-68
  11. ↑ ‘Sir David Veness: Mr Security’, BBC News Online, 31 December 2004
  12. ↑ Coroner’s Inquests into the Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Mr Dodi Al Fayed, Hearing transcript 15 January 2008 - Morning session
  13. ↑ United Nations Press Release, SG/A/903, BIO/3632, ‘Secretary-General appoints David Veness of United Kingdom’
  14. ↑ James Bone, ‘Sir David Veness quits as head of UN security over Algiers bombing’, The Times, 25 June 2008
  15. ↑ John Upton, ‘In the Streets of Londonistan’, London Review of Books, 22 January 2004
  16. ↑ Screengrab of CSPTV's website created 19 November 2008, 15:31:02
  17. ↑ Maxwell Taylor, John Horgan, (eds.) The Future of Terrorism (Routledge, 2000) p.1
  18. ↑ Studies in Conflict and Terrorism Volume 24, Number 5, 1 September 2001
  19. ↑ Terrorism and Political Violence, Volume: 17 Issue: 1-2 Pages: 1-2, 2005
  20. ↑ Rachel Briggs (Ed.), The Unlikely Counter-terrorists (PDF) (Foreign Policy Centre, 11 December 2002) p.64
  21. ↑ Rachel Briggs (Ed.), The Unlikely Counter-terrorists (PDF) (Foreign Policy Centre, 11 December 2002) p.64
  22. ↑ Security Studies Institute Staff, accessed 7 February 2011.
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