Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • June 4, 2019 6:00 PM

@ MeToo, All,

Belmarsh is NOT some kind of super-maximum security institution, there IS a max security wing at Belmarsh but Assange is not housed there.

That is where your argument starts to fall appart.

Security is designed like the layers of an onion is the usuall analogy given. But that kind of misses the point, if you slice across an onion the “rings” that you see for the most part are the same thickness. These days security architectur tends not to be layered that way, a closer analogy might be “the cork oak”. Which has a thick soft bark on the outside and close in hard packed rings within as this tends to maximize land utilisation.

Thus the security level a modern UK prison has starts in the surounding streets and is clearly in place as you enter the gate and remains at that level more or less through out, with only certain limited exceptions that get “hard cased” or “celled”. Thus a medical area that requires free movment of staff and patients in it’s operational area would be “hard cased” that is built like a cage or cell with heavily controled minimal access points.

In the UK the highest catagory of prisoner is “Catagory A” HMP Belmarsh is Catagory A throughout. It also has high security courts built in and a number of other “plus” features.

It was built in the 1980’s to fulfill a design requirment from earlier decades, becoming operational in early 1991.

You have to understand what that primary design requirment was all about to understand HMP Belmarsh how it was built, how it is used and it’s place in penal abuse in England.

It is a men’s catagory A prison for the purpose of keeping the “politically inconvenient” out of sight as can be seen by it’s long list of “Newsworthy Prisoners”. Which includes those detained illegaly not just under UK legislation but European and other International treaty legislation the UK has been signitory to in the past. Which amongst other things erned it the title of “British Git-Mo”, and the UK Government to be legaly sanctioned.

The staff at HMP Belmarsh appear to be specially selected or trained to mentally break prisoners judging by the number of serious complaints made and the little action taken on the complaints. I’ve known a prison officer refer to it as “The bad boys Club” when talking not about the prisoners but the prison officers. Because of this it has a “suicide watch” system that was and probably still is unique in the UK (difficult to find out for sure because many things about the prison are “Secret”).

The reason such a prison was required was from “Political Embarrassment”. If you look up escaping prisoners in the UK you will find “Traitors/Spys”, “Terrorists” and a few others have escaped and caused the political wallflower class to suffer the angst of the embarrassment not just from the UK MSM but international MSM and importantly the likes of the “Special Relationship” partners[1].

Part of the design process that gave rise to HMP Belmarsh came from lessons learned in the notorious “H Blocks”[2] holding suspected and convicted Irish mainly Catholic Terrorists from the “Troubles” –as it was so delicately put– for a third of a century.

Belmarsh at one point had approaching 6% “terrorists” as part of it’s inmate population. Which is way way off the curve when you consider not just other UK inmate populations but National Population. It also gives a likely indicator of it’s future use. There are stories going around in certain circles that HMP Belmarsh is to have it’s current inmate population reduced for “upgrades” such that it can be used for the indefinate holding of returning jihadist soldiers. Similar stories come and go about how “Jihadi Brides” and any children they might bring with them are to be dealt with. This became rather more public with the death of such a child and the UK Home Office telling the UK familly illegaly that their daughters citizenship had be revoked.

So when you take a little time to look at it HMP Belmarsh is way way more than just a “Catagory A” prison throughout, and anyone who thinks otherwise has either not looked or has been partaking of that brand of “Cool-Aid” others call “Government Propaganda”, handed out by the somewhat complient UK MSM.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18643024

[2] Originally RAF Long Kesh, it became the Long Kesh Detention Center when the “nissen huts” were repurposed to hold people swept up of the streets by the likes of the Royal Ulsta Constabulary (RUC) from the early 1970’s. Situated near “Maze” it became Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Maze and the nissen huts got replaced with “H-Block” buildings a style prevelent in UK High Security thinking. Thus colloquially it becsme “Maze Prison”, “The Maze”, “Long Kesh”, or more simply the “H Block(s)”,

https://belfastchildis.com/tag/h-blocks/