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Government orders crackdown on car and van hire rentals after Barcelona terror attack
Evening Standard ^ | August 20, 2017 | Jonathan Mitchell

Posted on 08/20/2017 8:30:46 AM PDT by EdnaMode

British drivers will face extra checks when renting cars and vans to ensure they are not extremists in the wake of a string of deadly terror attacks using vehicles.

Ministers are ordering the crackdown amid growing concern over how easily extremists are renting vehicles and using them to mow down pedestrians in attacks.

It comes after 14 people were killed when terrorists ploughed into passersby in Barcelona and seaside town of Cambrils on Thursday.

This year in the UK, vehicles have been at the centre of deadly attacks on Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park.

The incidents sparked suggestions van rental could be subject to more stringent checks, while officers appealed for vehicle hire and haulage firms with suspicions about rental attempts to come forward.

Ministers are proposing rental companies share drivers' data with the Government so it could be checked against a terror watch list before a vehicle is released for hire.

Toby Poston, director of external relations at the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), told the Sunday Telegraph: "The industry is looking at ways to share data with the authorities in as real time as possible so it can be cross-referenced with counter-terrorism watch lists."

A Government spokeswoman confirmed that the Department for Transport is working with the police and the vehicle rental industry to look at tightening up regulations.

"The threat from terrorism is changing and so must our response," she said.

(Excerpt) Read more at standard.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barcelona; england; europe; greatbritain; islam; terrorism; terrorists; uk; unitedkingdom; vehicle; vehicles
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Vehicles don't kill people. Terrorists kill people. Vehicle control will not stop terrorism.
1 posted on 08/20/2017 8:30:46 AM PDT by EdnaMode
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To: EdnaMode

Sounds like some major profiling...about time.


2 posted on 08/20/2017 8:32:13 AM PDT by usual suspect
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To: EdnaMode

Racist.


3 posted on 08/20/2017 8:32:36 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (CNN IS ISIS.)
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To: EdnaMode

This sounds like extreme vetting. I thought extreme vetting was racist and exclusionary and hateful and ...


4 posted on 08/20/2017 8:36:08 AM PDT by TheZMan (I am a secessionist.)
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To: EdnaMode

I’ve wondered why terrorists didn’t just steal a vehicle to do their dirty deeds. Rather than trying to rent something...just thump a vehicle owner over the head, put him/her in the trunk, use the keys to start the vehicle, target a large crowd...

Renting a vehicle leaves a paper trail.


5 posted on 08/20/2017 8:38:30 AM PDT by moovova
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To: EdnaMode
Government orders crackdown on car and van hire rentals after Barcelona terror attack

Yep, by government edict, all rented vehicles will sport the "Got Muzzies?" bumpersticker.

6 posted on 08/20/2017 8:39:06 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (America returns to the Rule of Law)
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To: moovova
I’ve wondered why terrorists didn’t just steal a vehicle to do their dirty deeds. Rather than trying to rent something...just thump a vehicle owner over the head, put him/her in the trunk, use the keys to start the vehicle, target a large crowd...

That's next.

7 posted on 08/20/2017 8:39:44 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: moovova

They must nor have seen the cousins operate in Breaking Bad.


8 posted on 08/20/2017 8:41:26 AM PDT by bigbob (People say believe half of what you see son and none of what you hear - M. Gaye)
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To: EdnaMode
More cart before the horse crap.

Why don't you STOP letting these filthy savages into your country?

Sheesh, it's not that hard to understand. Stop the problem at the source. All Muslim immigration or refugees should have been banned after 9/11.

9 posted on 08/20/2017 8:42:17 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (We're right, you're wrong - that's the end of the argument.)
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To: EdnaMode

> Ministers are proposing rental companies share drivers’ data with the Government so it could be checked against a terror watch list before a vehicle is released for hire. <

I suppose that’s better than nothing. But it’s not much better. Because moderate Muslims are moderate. Until they are not. So I’m guessing it would be super easy for a jihadist to get a “moderate” Muslim to rent a van for him.


10 posted on 08/20/2017 8:45:21 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: EdnaMode

Sooo, the idiots really are doing “truck control”...

It was just a joke guys


11 posted on 08/20/2017 8:45:31 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: EdnaMode

Rental vehicles ?
Why not get to the root of the problem ?


12 posted on 08/20/2017 8:46:19 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: moovova

With a rental they have ample time to prepare/load vehicles before cops get suspicious. They’re suicidal so a paper trail is no big deal.

Clobbering a driver and stealing the vehicle leaves too many variables and no guaranteed time for prep... you can kill the driver but someone is going to miss the driver, either a spouse or employer, etc. Or the carjacking might be seen and reported.


13 posted on 08/20/2017 8:47:16 AM PDT by piasa
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To: EdnaMode

This will end well. It is the same country that prosecutes people for the slightest bit of “islamophobia” and wrong-speak.


14 posted on 08/20/2017 8:48:22 AM PDT by Personal Responsibility (We need a separation of press and state!)
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To: moovova

“I’ve wondered why terrorists didn’t just steal a vehicle to do their dirty deeds. Rather than trying to rent something...just thump a vehicle owner over the head, put him/her in the trunk, use the keys to start the vehicle, target a large crowd...

Renting a vehicle leaves a paper trail.”

A stolen car has people on the lookout for it shortly after it’s stolen. You can rent a van for a week or two without arousing any suspicion.


15 posted on 08/20/2017 8:49:57 AM PDT by Personal Responsibility (We need a separation of press and state!)
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To: EdnaMode

Actually, the reason that the terrorists in Spain didn’t kill more people is that they were prevented from renting larger trucks because they didn’t have the right documentation. They had over 100 propane tanks at the house south of Barcelona, and planned to load up three big trucks and blow up one in front of the Sagrada Familia, one on the Rambla (after driving down the center mall and getting to La Boqueria), and one in the docks/beach area, a big tourist destination.

As it was, they had to settle for vans instead, and then the house south of Barcelona where the explosives were being prepared had a workplace accident and their explosives were destroyed so they couldn’t even detonate the gas tanks or themselves, which was the original plan. They did what damage they could with the vans, but even that would have been worse with big trucks.

So controls on rental vehicles is not a bad idea. That said, controls on jihadis would be even better. Actually, make that controls on Muslims - one of the would be bombers, who was killed when the house south of Barcelona “blew up,” was the imam of the mosque in Ripoll, where the terrorists came from. And everybody said they were so integrated and normal...


16 posted on 08/20/2017 8:50:30 AM PDT by livius
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To: livius

Those are all excellent points.


17 posted on 08/20/2017 8:52:29 AM PDT by EdnaMode
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To: varyouga

> Sooo, the idiots really are doing “truck control”...
It was just a joke guys <

That was actually my first thought as well. So I guess no ridiculous idea is off the table, as long as that idea is not “Islamophobic”.

Jihadist vehicles plow into innocents on sidewalks. So maybe “sidewalk control” is next. No walking on sidewalks unless you can prove you have a good reason to be there. And just strolling about isn’t a good reason.


18 posted on 08/20/2017 8:57:59 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: ealgeone

“That’s next.”

There’s a mall here in town that was built with s good bit of the mall built over a huge under-mall parking lot. It wasn’t really an “underground” parking lot, as the mall was raised to accommodate it. The parking lot was wide open on two sides, with four large easy drive thru entrances, tall ceilings. Really, there were actual roads going thru it. The height of the parking lot could easily accommodate semis because there was also some unloading going on down there. A mall remodel eventually took a lot of that space for more shops. Any remaining parking is now a convoluted mess that makes it hard for even small cars to get thru.

I stopped shopping there about the same time terrorist activities started happening in malls...more because their prices skyrocketed plus I’d became an online shopper. In the back of my mind though, I realized it would’ve been a perfect target for someone to steal a semi fuel tanker, drive it under the mall at the height of Christmas shipping, and blow the truck up.


19 posted on 08/20/2017 9:06:24 AM PDT by moovova
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To: livius

And everybody said they were so integrated and normal...


They were good Muslim citizens and neighbors.

Until the day they simply weren’t.


20 posted on 08/20/2017 9:11:02 AM PDT by Yaelle (We have a Crisis of Information in this country. Our enemies hold the megaphone.)
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